Written by Tomas Beaujean, September 17, 2024
The Dream: Kobo Highlights in Notion
As an active reader, my Kobo e-reader is always filled with highlights and notes from the books I’m immersed in. These notes capture key ideas I want to revisit and act on, making them essential to both my learning and creative process.
I’ve also been a strong proponent of Notion and Tiago Forte’s PARA method, which I use to manage my projects, daily responsibilities, and track ideas, notes, and interests. This system has helped me stay focused and structured in capturing and executing ideas. I wanted to integrate my Kobo highlights and notes into Notion and use them in my PARA system.
The Problem: Manually Transferring Highlights
After finishing a book, I would spend time manually transferring my highlights and notes from Kobo into Notion. This process was tedious and time-consuming, and frankly, it felt like a waste of time. The more I read, the larger my backlog grew. I had all these insights, but they were trapped in my Kobo, waiting to be transferred.
This bottleneck was frustrating, especially since I try to stay on top of my second brain (Tiago Forte’s term for organizing your ideas and information). I knew there had to be a better way to bridge the gap between my reading on Kobo and my organization in Notion.
The Solution: Building My Own Software
I explored ways to pull my Kobo highlights and notes directly into Notion, bypassing manual work entirely. After finding no existing options that fit, I created a free and open-source tool: kobo2notion. This software, compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux, automatically pulls your Kobo highlights and notes and creates a new Notion page for each entry, saving you from manual entry.
How It Works
Simply connect your Kobo e-reader to your computer, the software will automatically detect any new highlights or notes you’ve made. For each new entry, a Notion page is created and placed within a section of your Notion space. I recommend placing these pages in your Inbox folder for easy sorting using the PARA method. This seamless workflow allows you to quickly organize and revisit your notes as they flow directly into Notion.
Why This Matters
For me, this wasn’t just about saving time; it was about creating a frictionless workflow for capturing and acting on ideas. By eliminating the tedious manual work, I can focus more on absorbing and applying the knowledge I gain from reading.
The tool has been a game-changer in my own life, and I hope it helps others who, like me, want to make the most of their reading without getting bogged down by logistics. If you’re interested, it’s open-source and available for anyone to use or contribute to.
How to Install
Download kobo2notion and follow the instructions in the README file.
About the Author
Tomas Beaujean, also known as mebibite or MiB, is an accomplished cybersecurity professional. His current work focuses on automating attack surface and vulnerability management, application security, penetration testing, and security leadership. For additional details, visit the whoami section of this website.
