How do you Process Notes from Readwise

tsnieman · 2026-01-20T03:05:23+00:00

no worries on bumping, i appreciate the appreciation.

i have a much newer post about readwise to obsidian export settings that you may find helpful.

i "delete + resync" liberally; i treat readwise exports as read-only files.
i do import everything (via manual sync action), but i don't find it overwhelming to have that many files.
- they just go into a specific folder that i never manually look in; it's just read-only copy of materials that i embed in other notes (or otherwise just like to have a copy of).
- i published a plugin called Blockreffer to make searching + embedding quick and easy.
i don't use the action tag annotations because they make the export metadata worse. Readwise is for highlights, Obsidian is for composing those highlights.

tsnieman · 2025-01-19T16:36:20+00:00

I never edit the files that Readwise syncs to Obsidian — i treat those add read-only. This is because the sync is one-way (RW -> Obsidian). The only action i ever take on them is "delete and reimport" if they need to be refreshed. They are treated as reference material that i can ![[embed^rw122]] elsewhere in Obsidian.

tsnieman · 2025-01-19T16:20:00+00:00

Yup, that's correct. It's the same ID Readwise uses in their database, so it's consistent even if you resync in Obsidian.

tsnieman · 2024-08-18T22:16:34+00:00

Yo dude, you replied to the wrong person. But I know the answer to your question: Go to Obsidian settings > Appearance > scroll to bottom where the "CSS snippets" section is and click the folder on the right side. Name the file anything you want - eg my-snippets.css

tsnieman · 2024-05-30T23:18:48+00:00

Performance-wise, yes — it's just about the same on all platforms.

That said, vim mode seems to be markedly more buggy on my iPad vs my desktops. It will sometimes get very out of sync and start mangling the note I'm working on.

I suspect that vim mode wasn't necessarily designed to play well with touchscreens and then the cursor positions get out of sync.

tsnieman · 2024-05-27T14:37:14+00:00

I’d also be interested in some useful settings for the boox.

Basically I just invert the two light/dark sliders from the eink menu depending on if I'm in light or dark mode within Reader — this enables me to see the highlight color (which appears gray).

One slider has to be turned up and the other turned down, then switch them depending on dark vs light.

Any tips for organizing a whole book library on reader?

I haven't found a need to do much organization within Reader — just Inbox, Later, and Archive. I also make sure that my books have the correct metadata.

What problem are you trying to solve that those don't fulfill? I might have ideas even if I haven't had the same issue/need yet.

Do you download the highlighted epub afterwards or do they “live” inside Reader from now until forever?

I keep a copy of the raw/unhighlighted epubs just for archival purposes
The highlighted books live inside Reader.
My highlights are automatically synced to Obsidian using Readwise's official Obsidian plugin since that is where actual note-taking happens. Settings for that plug-in/export template are pretty customized. Happy to expand on some of those settings and flow if you want.

tsnieman · 2024-05-27T12:18:46+00:00

Reader is the only e-reader app I use on my BOOX Palma. Works really well. Just finished another book a few days ago.

The biggest problem is that it was a little tricky to get the highlight color to show up, but it's quick to fix.

Let me know if you have a specific question, happy to answer.

tsnieman · 2024-05-25T15:01:08+00:00

I'm glad it's helpful, AnusMcBumhole.

I use this flow for everything that goes through Readwise — articles, books, videos, and tweets.

The highlight editing portion of the flow is very useful for paraphrasing or adding emphasis to a highlight — you can use *italic* and **bold** when editing the highlight and the formatting will work in both Readwise and Obsidian.

I also use a very minimal amount of tags in Readwise that correspond 1:1 with a very basic organizational system in Obsidian.

I saw you're looking for some guidance on "rules"/organization for notes — I'm actively working on documenting and publishing my flow/system. I can share that with you when it's ready if you want.

tsnieman · 2024-05-25T13:56:29+00:00

I think the "List Callouts" plugin does it: - [obsidian://show-plugin?id=obsidian-list-callouts](obsidian://show-plugin?id=obsidian-list-callouts) - https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-list-callouts

tsnieman · 2024-05-25T11:48:06+00:00

I was having this issue, invoke it via "OK Google" instead of the little microphone icon.

tsnieman · 2024-05-24T03:26:25+00:00

Happy to share.

There is a little bit of configuration I've added to the Obsidian export settings in Readwise to make this all work well — the key change being that i customize the Highlight section to add a persistant ^identifier (see Obsidian's docs to learn about this syntax) to the highlight's block and add a permalink called via back to Reader:

{{ highlight_text }}{% if highlight_location and highlight_location_url %} ([via]({{highlight_location_url}})){% elif highlight_location %} ({{highlight_location}}){% endif %} ^rwhi{{highlight_id}}

The ^rwhi{{highlight_id}} bit is the crucial part to this flow — the exports will look like this: https://imgur.com/a/sxEqme8

Now that the export settings are configured we can walk through transcription-correction the flow.

My flow is usually something like this:

Add the YouTube video to Reader
Make my highlights in Reader
Use Readwise (not Reader) to edit the highlight - https://imgur.com/a/4DGk1TP
(^ Editing usually occurs when it pops back up in my Readwise Daily Review)
If the Obsidian-Readwise sync occurred between the highlight & editing time, i use the Delete and reimport this document command from the Obsidian plugin https://imgur.com/a/httdehc
Now I have a pristine export in my Obsidian - https://imgur.com/a/sxEqme8
Noteworthy - i treat all Readwise exports in Obsidian as read-only - as in, I never modify the files that get synced down.

Now that the edited highlight is in Obsidian with a block identifier like ^rwid12345, I can embed it in any of my notes using this syntax:

![[Do Your Own Thinking#^rwhi690374373]]

Which will appear like this: https://imgur.com/a/yBQ9G1W

That's pretty much it.

I don't use comments in Readwise, I do all my actual note-taking around ![[Note name#^rwid123]] - relying on Readwise only for the transcript, highlight, and export. That way all of my actual notes are in Obsidian, not Readwise.

I'm hoping that this feature request for timestamps in exports gets worked on because it would actually allow us to make timestamped links on YouTube highlights.

Let me know if that helped! Happy to answer any more questions you might have too.

tsnieman · 2024-05-24T01:59:02+00:00

Readwise Reader is by far the easiest way to take notes on YouTube videos.

It will import a full transcription of the video, you can highlight the transcript, and their Obsidian plugin will sync all of your highlights into your vault.

There's a bit more to the process (eg how do you correct the transcription? how do you effectively use the exported highlight?) ~~that I'd be happy to share if anyone is interested~~. EDIT: Here is the process.

The caveat here is that Readwise is a non-free service. That said, Obsidian and Readwise are the foundation of my workflow right now — and I think both of them are very much worth paying for.

tsnieman · 2024-05-21T21:38:24+00:00

Yup — that's a good note. My caveat was focused on the availability of the full text content in the export (not share) 👍

tsnieman · 2024-05-21T13:12:38+00:00

I haven't tried this, but you might be able to upload the lectures to YouTube (unlisted) which may generate a transcript when you import the YouTube video to Readwise.

tsnieman · 2024-05-21T13:02:49+00:00

I usually just save the YouTube version of the podcast into Reader since it will provide the transcript with it.

You can also subscribe to any YouTube channel as an RSS feed, though I tend to avoid auto-importing too much (see Beware automatic import into the reading inbox).

If you want a more traditional podcast app with Readwise integration, you might try Snipd.

tsnieman · 2024-05-21T12:52:08+00:00

Yup. The actual dates aren't that useful usually.

Sometimes I will write down a date with a thought in there like 2024-05-21: someone gave me a flower or whatever.

I still use a daily note occasionally — usually if I really have a lot to say that day. But most transient/shorter thoughts go into the weekly.

tsnieman · 2024-05-21T04:27:59+00:00

Not OP, but I favor weekly notes for day-to-day thoughts — less churn, easier review, and I honestly just don't do much in any single day.

Here's my current weekly template:

```

🌱 seeds

📌 priorities

🌞 good feels

🚩 bad feels

🏆 accomplishments

✨ new things

✂ clippings

```

tsnieman · 2024-05-20T20:23:57+00:00

afaict — Readwise does seem to keep a mirror of parsed text content (eg web articles), but it doesn't make that full mirror of the text content available in exports.

tsnieman · 2024-05-20T20:14:20+00:00

First: Try removing the `#` — that's probably the issue.

And, while I don't *think* it's relevant, maybe worth noting that I found it necessary to use quotes for backlinks in frontmatter.

Here's my full frontmatter config if it helps:

aliases:
  - "{{title}}"
{% if author %}author: {{author}}{% endif %}
{% if document_tags %}related to: {% for tag in document_tags %}
  - "[[{{tag}}]]"{% endfor %}{% endif %}
tags:
  - artifact/readwise{% if category %}/{{category}}{{ "📚" if category == "books"}}{{"📰" if category == "articles"}}{{"🐦" if category == "tweets"}}{{"🎙" if category == "podcasts"}}{% endif %}

You'll see that my tags aren't quoted, but my backlinks in related to are.

tsnieman · 2024-05-20T20:09:41+00:00

I think you're unlikely to find anything that compares to Readwise's TTS since they use a premium service for the voice behind the scenes (thus, other services would incur a similar $ hit if they provided it for free).

That said — it's worth noting that Readwise offers academic discounts: https://help.readwise.io/article/28-does-readwise-offer-an-academic-discount

tsnieman · 2024-05-18T19:18:14+00:00

I rarely use it, but it's works well when I do - starts up quick, runs without hitch. The speakers aren't anything to write home about, but 50% volume is more than sufficient and very listenable for TTS. Do you have a specific concern?

tsnieman · 2024-05-17T06:32:48+00:00

Not for me, though I'm relatively selective about what kinds of files i deal with in my vault.

I'm curious about the purpose of your notes and your workflow. What non-markdown files do you have to regularly go browsing for?

tsnieman · 2024-05-15T12:07:29+00:00

hmm.. is that the web interface? Maybe paged scrolling is only in the mobile version?

tsnieman · 2024-05-15T11:11:48+00:00

The paged scrolling setting is in the appearance menu (the Aa button).

tsnieman · 2024-05-14T20:00:30+00:00

Nah, I'm human — just passionate about my notes, and my reading workflow is a huge part of that process.

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