Obsidian Canvas as a Tool To Create Mini ‘In-Sights’ Posts For LinkedIn

I’m trying out creating 30 days of ‘In-Sights’ posts to understand LinkedIn. Here’s how I use Obsidian Canvas to write them.

I have never made any effort to figure out LinkedIn. However, the exodus of many scientists from Twitter, it made me realize how much I have come to rely on one platform for sharing my research fun.

Therefore, as I love a challenge, I thought I would try out LinkedIn for 30 days. The idea of short mini-blog-style posts came to me as I was struggling to find the time to write longer posts earlier in the month. I have designed ‘In-Sights’ to be a window into the research process and what I’m studying for my PhD.

Obsidian Canvas as a minimal space to work with short-form content

I love Obsidian as a tool for connected writing and use it throughout my PhD. But I haven’t yet explored the full capability of Canvas as a tool for creation. Therefore this ‘In-Sights’ series seemed like the perfect project to give it a go.

Now I could have created a note for each ‘In-Sight’ I wrote, and used ‘Projects’, but the problem with notes is that it’s free space to waffle. In Obsidian Canvas, however, large notes are less wieldy. Enter ‘cards’.

In Obsidian Canvas we have the choice to work with a note from the vault or ‘cards’ which remain only on the canvas board. Personally, I love cards. For working with unfinished ideas, or toying around with new concepts, cards are a great way to work in a minimal space.

My LinkedIn ‘In-sights’ posts all take the same structure

Each card has a single ‘In-Sight’ which all take on a the same format;

• the ‘insight’ with a relevant emoji
• a one-sentence quote, feeling, or important statement — this is the point beyond which LinkedIn concatenates the post
• the theory or research around the concept
• how it applies in my work
• a take home message to finish

Canvas has only basic tools, but visually it does everything I need

Because Obsidian Canvas is visual based, I’m more inclined to make my LinkedIn posts more visual-based. It also visualizes the connection, order and layout of posts in a simple and easy fashion.

As such it is great for working with the notes at a very basic level. I can color co-ordinate weeks. Cards are good for restraining word count and I can easily see how long the content is. In fact I can see that my posts have gotten longer as time has gone on; something I need to fix!

Unlike notes, where I hardly ever use emojis, my cards also use emojis as a visual aid to the post; important when I consider how I will use the posts on social media.

The future of my Canvas and LinkedIn posts

So far, I love the focused space of Canvas to work on my ideas. I love that there are no frills. With time, I can start to link similar ideas and themes to build larger content with.

At the end of my 30 days, after I finish the ‘experiment’ I will reflect on how the posts are working and whether I want to continue using Canvas as a means to write them.

If you want to follow along with my In-Sights, you can do so over on my LinkedIn page. They take just 1 minute to read and you will leave with some food for thought and an insight into the research process.

👉🏻 Read 7 days worth of these post styles