Hello, and welcome back to PZTL, the new weekly newsletter I’ve created so that you’re not drowned in new content notifications every week.

There’s one main theme to this week’s issue…

The Minimal Note-Taking book pre-order launch…

This project is now underway!

Over this launch weekend, we posted a couple of pieces of content about the book, which you can watch and read below…

The corresponding Medium article is available here - https://medium.com/obsidian-observer/minimal-note-taking-a-guide-to-simplicity-in-a-distracted-world-e594e03f560c​

If I had to explain and convince you of the project in a couple of sentences…

  • This is going to be a book about the skills and processes (aside from a great system, which PARAZETTEL already provides) that you need to understand to build a sustainable, lifelong note-taking practice
  • It’s coming in Q2 next year, but over the time in between you’ll get progress updates and vlogs showing you through the steps that I’m taking, and the systems that I’m using to make this a success

There are still a few hours to get the pre-order launch discount of half price, so if you head to the page below, you’ll be able to grab your pre-order copy…

Pre-order Minimal Note-Taking

You can also become a closer part of the project, contributing proofreading and edits if you so wish. There are more details about this over at this link PARAZETTEL.com/book/insider.

Failed Kale phone experiment

If you follow my more personal writing over at tstowx.com, you might know that for a while I tried a dual phone setup.

The two devices were (affectionately) called my kale phone and my cocaine phone. I’ll leave you to figure out which one had all the social media and streaming apps and content installed…The idea was that by making use of the simpler one for daily things, I’d stop being as attracted to mobile distraction.

But it didn’t really work out. There are several reasons, many to do with inconvenience - SIM cards, one-phone-only accounts (think WhatsApp, WeChat) and more.

So I’m now using my newer phone for everything.

But it pays to try things out, even if they don’t work out. Maybe I’ll write a longer piece about this a little later, once the book pre-launch blows over.

If you’re not already, you can sign up over on tstowx.com to receive my new writing that focuses more on my life and personal topics.

That’s it for this week’s issue! I’m looking forward sharing progress updates around the book-writing and development.

Talk to you then,

– Theo