The Full Curriculum Unit 1: Introduction to the Course What to expect: schedule, roadmap, format, communication, and the 3 pillars of the course Our objective: to learn how to use digital notes as thinking tools — to capture, organize, and retrieve our ideas and insights What is Personal Knowledge Management, and why does it matter? Why organization and collaboration are the missing links in creative knowledge work Evaluate your knowledge management skills across 11 dimensions of performance and confidence (with post-course evaluation to measure your progress) Unit 2: Organizing for Insight Review the 8 requirements for a universal digital organizational system Understand the subtle but important difference between short-term projects and ongoing areas of responsibility Feeling unorganized? Deploy the P.A.R.A. method to organize all your digital information across multiple platforms Discover why almost no one has an effective Project List (a dashboard of current commitments) and how to fix it step by step, with feedback and guidance Banish information overload using Magic Number 4: a helpful constraint to preserve your working memory Hone your ability to scale your attention at different horizons using actionability gradients Update and clarify your Project List, and use it to organize your files across all platforms using the P.A.R.A. method Unit 3: Digital Cognition Use the 4 essential requirements for digital note-taking to help you evaluate and select a digital note-taking program How to amplify the single biggest opportunity for making new connections without expending more time and effort: productive randomness Stigmergy: practical lessons on productivity from the study of emergence How to utilize the under-appreciated power of incubation: heavy lifts vs. slow burns What the Feynman Method can teach us about "punching above our intellectual weight" Find out how the best note-takers build intellectual capital using compounding gains Transform raw material into knowledge ammunition: how to use digital notes to form valuable bodies of knowledge for a side project, career advancement, or new business Identify your personal research and learning priorities using the Feynman Method, as a filter for incoming information Unit 4: Progressive Summarization Understand the pros and cons of tagging-first, notebook-first, and note-first database designs Become skilled at balancing discoverability and understanding to increase the return-on-investment of your note taking Don’t have time for reading and research? Apply Progressive Summarization to surface key points for later review Strategic laziness over rigid rules: note-taking strategies that leverage human nature, instead of fighting it How to design individual notes for “glanceability” and recognition over recall Moving from “black box” knowledge management to a Personal Information Landscape Avoiding the perils of problem definition: balancing compression vs. context Practice Progressive Summarization on one of your notes Unit 5: Maximizing Return-on-Attention Explore the hard science of transient hypofrontality: how to maximize mental states of flow for performance, enjoyment, and learning Understanding the impact of setup and transaction costs (environmental, mental, and emotional) on productivity How to create intermediate packets: exposing your personal value chain for rapid feedback and learning Become interruption-proof: placeholding, chunking, and modular deliverables Understand the relationship between small batch sizes, quality, learning, and experiences of flow for knowledge workers Wresting with knowledge: why interacting with information is so much more effective than consuming it Encoding variability: how to externalize your thinking and accelerate your learning using different types of media Turn one of your notes into a new deliverable designed to generate valuable, targeted feedback Unit 6: Just-In-Time Project Management Learn Just-In-Time Project Management: a pull system for managing reference materials and executing on deliverables Why you should think of workflow as strategy, and apply solutions to specific problems Divergence and convergence: use design thinking to escape any dead-end Choose from among 16 proven workflow strategies, with examples, case studies, and downloadable templates Banish procrastination using the Archipelago of Ideas approach to new projects Mood-based productivity: using fast cycle time, opportunistic tagging, and active sorting to maintain motivation and leverage unique states of mind How to generate novel insights and valuable deliverables using personal design sprints Using universal design principles (affordances, signifiers, constraints, mappings, and feedback) to plan the structure of your work Select and try out 3 of the 16 workflow strategies on one or more of your projects or deliverables Unit 7: PKM Workflow Canvas Step-by-step walkthrough to complete our proprietary PKM Workflow Canvas, an evolving map of your personal knowledge management system Review your notes from all the previous units to select the techniques you will integrate into your workflow Summarize your main learnings from the course, as a checklist and reminder for future projects Visualize the map of your personal knowledge management system, in a physical artifact that can be improved over time Get feedback on further areas for improvement, based on the exercises you completed in the course In-depth case study of using PKM to rapidly plan and execute a Forte Labs client project Complete your PKM Workflow Canvas with the tools, techniques, and strategies you've selected and customized for your needs Unit 8: The Big Picture Container vs. stream thinking: changing paradigms for a world of information abundance Understand why situational awareness and curation are the key skills required to navigate streams of information Learn how to strengthen creative confidence by identifying and overcoming limiting beliefs around your productivity, thinking, and learning Realize the full potential of digital notes: integrating P.A.R.A. + Progressive Summarization + Workflow Strategies into your daily routine The future of productivity and personal knowledge management Q A Do I have to take the bundled courseGet Stuff Done Like a Boss before this one starts? No...but I recommend it. We'll be building on the foundational principles introduced in that course, and having a functional workflow already in place will be a huge level-upper for this bootcamp. At a minimum, I recommend watching the videos, which only takes a couple hours total. How quickly should I complete the course material? Move entirely at your own pace. Some learners may want to rapidly view all the units at once. I recommend finishing two course units per week, which results in a total duration of a month. Don't forget to leave enough time to do the exercises in each unit, since that's where the real learning takes place. Q A Justin Brandt Graduate student in Systems Engineering San Jose State University





Ellen Koenig Senior Data Scientist, Fintech company Germany "I’m also impressed how much more nuance there is to seemingly simple techniques such as progressive summarization that I though I understood already. And I love that in the individual coaching sessions I am being challenged to apply the material in real-life situations that I would never have considered.”

 Chris Mazder Olympic luge athlete New York "I am finding this course extremely beneficial and have actively taken a step back from my current projects to re-evaluate how I pretty much do everything (in a good way!!!). If anything, the course might be moving a little too fast as I am still finding flaws in my own unique approach (based off the teachings) to PKM and trying to address them while we are moving to the next phases of this course. But, I love how all of the information and lectures have remained up so I can always go back if I need helpor want to re-visit a certain topic.”

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Doug von Kohorn Software Engineer, ConsenSys New York, NY "In the two months since starting, I've produced three blog posts, planned three backpacking trips, decluttered my room, created an enterprise workshop, and got admitted into a developer conference. All using the *SAME* system! I'm living the PARA lifestyle now, and I'm never going back. This way lies not just productivity, but happiness and ease of mind...I started with no experience with GTD. I didn't understand constraints. I never used a note-taking tool...Take this course to start to feel agency in the world of infinite information and filter failure!"

Dawn Williams Consulting Group, Robert Half Management Resources San Francisco, CA "High value knowledge work requires high quality knowledge resources: abundant working knowledge capital, a reliable knowledge infrastructure, knowledge liquidity, and a differentiating knowledge value proposition, all coherently leveraged to provide a competitive advantage. Building a Second Brain has transformed my relationship to, and understanding of, personal knowledge capture and retention. The value to my business is significant; the value to me personally -immeasurable."

 Click here for more frequently asked questions

Moritz Bierling Blockchain Reporter, Neufund Berlin, Germany "Everybody knows that having a productivity system can massively boost your success, but barely anyone even recognizes their own need for approaching their own creative process in an equally systematic way. My work, like any other knowledge professional, depends massively on my ability to constantly learn new things and use them in creative ways. BASB has completely killed my FOMO; what's more, I am able to put together a presentation in a matter of minutes instead of days, which has opened up so many opportunities."

 Jimmy Conway Principal, Free Flow Partners Bay of Plenty, New Zealand "Imagine being able to recall all the really interesting things you've ever read, seen and done. How good would that be? Any problem,any piece of creative work boosted with a library of relevant material right there at your fingertips. That's powerful. Well this course helps you do just that. It's fast paced, expertly taught and full of examples, exercises and discussion that help you organise all the really interesting, useful stuff in your life into a system that allows easy access. I wish I had done it years ago."

 Results Graduates report an average 108.4% improvement in their "overall note-taking system and approach"

Listen to Tiago's interview on the official Evernote podcast, Take Note: Click here for more written, video, and audio testimonials Download Quiz Download a free self-assessment to determine your current level of personal knowledge management

Real-world examples and in-depth case studies from Tiago's experience introducing knowledge management systems to world-class performers and organizations

Downloadable, full-resolution PDF slides of all units

Lifetime access to the Media Library (which includes exclusive expert interviews, guest lectures, and future versions of course content)

Bonus: Get Stuff Done Like a Boss, Tiago's self-paced online course on theGetting Things Done* method, with over 15,000 students enrolled and a 97% approval rating



Step-by-step narrated walkthroughs of setting up a PKM system using Evernote, from downloading the program all the way to executing a project

Ryan Fitton Digital Analyst, Jora Melbourne, Australia "There is nothing on the web that will arm you with the perspectives encompassed within Building a Second Brain...With exposure to ideas such as manipulating traditional ‘flow’ states, how to become interruption-proof and getting a grip on your projects — the course is comprehensively transformative… Coupled with an extremely valuable community group, you are free to experiment with ideas, share and implement techniques and get valuable feedback. Whether it’s a complete mindset shift, a new way to use tools, defining and re-organising your projects, seamlessly capturing information, the ability to *use* rather than simply *consume*, or allowing for spontaneous connections — Building a Second Brain creates a space in your digital life which turns chaos into a bespoke system and approach to the digital landscape which optimises for creativity."

 Christian Champ, CFA Director, THL Credit Chicago, IL "In addition to Tiago's moderated sessions, you get to learn from a talented group of individuals that are taking the class with you, participating in breakout sessions and chatting on the message boards. This network effect allows you to experience and see how others are creating their systems, refining and remixing some of the techniques offered in the sessions and sharing additional information, thoughts and discussions relevant to the goals of the course. The amount of content that was created and shared by the participants provided immense value. Hearing how someone working in technology to finance to media to product management was using the methods introduced in the course opened me up to new approaches and avenues to test and refine my system. I can't recommend the course enough to anyone looking to level up their approach to managing the ever-increasing flow of information…"

Zachary Sexton Productivity coach and host of Able Business Radio podcast Austin, TX

 Productivity & self-improvement junkies Do you wonder how to save and make use of all the knowledge and insights you’ve gained when you need them most? Capture and cultivate apersonal collection of insights and knowledge from your experience Document and automate tasks and processes so you never have to do the same work twice Tame information overload and clear your mind by offloading your thinking onto digital tools Move faster and more decisively by reusing & combining existing assets Summarize your notes in ways that areintuitive, retrievable, and usable at a moment's notice Plan, enact, and review your workflow tomaximize your creative output Uncover connectionsbetween ideas and sources to produce higher quality work Create a digital environment that supports peace of mind, serendipity, and creative risk-taking Collect models, strategies, and examples in one place so you always know where to find them Transform how you use your devices, fromtime-wasters to value-creators Cast a wider net in your information consumption, creatinglearning opportunitiesin any situation Make your digital note-taking system a control center for tactical, lightning-fast action

 TRENDING: Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for De...

HOME START HERE FREE POSTS MEMBERSHIP PRAXIS FORTE LABS SIGN IN Progressive Summarization V: The Faster You Forget, The Faster You Learn Posted by Tiago Forte | Mar 5, 2018 | Free, Workflow | Series Navigation: Progressive Summarization << Progressive Summarization IV: Compressing All Types of Media PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 In Part I, I introduced Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you examples and metaphors of the method in action. Part III included my top recommendations for how to perform it effectively. Part IV showed how to apply the technique to non-text media. In Part V, I’ll show you how Progressive Summarization directly contributes to the ultimate outcome we’re seeking with our information consumption: learning. The burden of perfect memory In traditional schooling, the ability to recall something from memory is taken as the clearest evidence that someone has learned something. This is the regurgitation model of learning — the more accurately you are able to reproduce it, without adding any of your own interpretation or creativity, the higher your mark. But in the real world, perfect recall is far from ideal. This New York Times article tells the fascinating story of the 60 or so people known to have a condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). They can remember most of the days of their lives as clearly as the rest of us remember yesterday. Ask one of them what they were doing on the afternoon of March 16, 1996, and within just a few seconds they’ll be able to describe that day in vivid detail. These are people who have achieved the holy grail of recall — perfect memory. And yet, they often describe it as a burden: “Everyone has those forks in the road, ‘If I had just done this and gone here, and nah nah nah,’ everyone has those,” she told me. “Except everyone doesn’t remember every single one of them.” Her memory is a map of regrets, other lives she could have lived. “I do this a lot: what would be, what would have been, or what would be today,” she said….“I’m paralysed, because I’m afraid I’m going to fuck up another whole decade,” she said. She has felt this way since 30 March, 2005, the day her husband, Jim, died at the age of 42. Price bears the weight of remembering their wedding on Saturday, 1 March 2003, in the house she had lived in for most of her life in Los Angeles, just before her parents sold it, as heavily as she remembers seeing Jim’s empty, wide-open eyes after he suffered a major stroke, had fallen into a coma and been put on life support on Friday, 25 March 2005. It seems that perfect memory isn’t quite the blessing you’d expect. The importance of forgetting I propose that forgetting is just as important to the process of learning as recall. As the world changes faster and more unpredictably, attachment to ideas and paradigms of the past becomes more and more of a liability. Contrast this with most books and courses on “accelerated learning,” which tend to offer two kinds of approaches: #1 Increase the flow of information entering the brain This leads to techniques like spritzing, listening to audiobooks on 2x speed, speed reading, focusing on already highly condensed sources, blocking distractions, deep focus, and biaural beats. #2 Improve memory and recall of this information This leads to techniques like spaced repetition, memory palaces, mnemonics, music and rhyming, acronyms, and mindmapping. All these techniques work. And they completely miss the point. They both operate with the same misguided metaphor: the mind as an empty vessel. You fill it with information like filling a jug with water, which you can then retrieve and put to use later. With this framing, your goal is to maximize how much you can get in, and how much you can take out. But there’s a fundamental difference between a mind and a static container like a jug of water or a filing cabinet: a mind can not just store things; it can take action. And taking action is where true learning actually takes place. Here’s the problem: the more we optimize for storage, the more we interfere with action. The more information we try to consume, meticulously catalogue, and obsessively review, the less time and space remain for the actions that matter: application, implementation, experimentation, conversation, immersion, experience, collaboration, making mistakes. Learning is not an activity, process, or outcome that you can dial in and optimize to perfection. It is an emergent phenomenon, like consciousness, attention, or love. These states become harder and harder to achieve by trying to force them, a phenomenon known as hyper-intention. The truth is, we don’t need to “accelerate” or “improve” the way our mind learns — that is what it evolved to do. All day, all night, whether you’re working or resting, talking or listening, focused or mind-wandering — your brain never stops drawing relationships, making connections, and noticing correlations. You couldn’t stop learning if you wanted to. Knowing that our brain is continuously collecting information, our goal switches from remembering as much as possible, to forgetting as much as possible. The information bottleneck Contrast this dim view of perfect memory with this article on new deep learning techniques in artificial intelligence. Specifically, a new theory called the “information bottleneck.” The basic question researchers were trying to answer was, how do you decide which are the most relevant features of a given piece of information? When you hear someone speak a sentence, how do you know to ignore their accent, breathing sounds, background noise, and even words you didn’t quite catch, and still receive the gist of the message? It is a problem fundamental to artificial intelligence research, since computers will tend to give equal weight to all these inputs, and thus end up thoroughly confused. It turns out, our highly constrained bandwidth for absorbing information is not a hindrance, but key to our ability to perform this feat. What our brain does is discard as much of the incoming noisy data as possible, reducing the amount of data it has to track and process. In other words, our brain’s ability to “forget” as much information as quickly as possible is what allows us to focus on the core message. This is also how advanced new deep learning techniques work. Take for example an algorithm being trained to recognize images of dogs. A set of training data (thousands of dog photos) is fed into the algorithm, and a cascade of firing activity sweeps upward through layers of artificial neurons. When the signal reaches the top layer, the final firing pattern is compared to a correct label for the image — “dog” or “no dog.” Any difference between the final pattern and the correct pattern are “back-propagated” down the layers. Like a teacher correcting an exam and handing it back, the algorithm strengthens or weakens the network’s connections to make it better at producing the correct label next time. This process is divided into two parts: in an initial “fitting” phase, the algorithm “memorizes” as much of the training data as possible. It tries to learn as much as possible about how to assign the correct labels. This is followed by a much longer compression phase, during which it gets better at generalizing what it has learned to new images it hasn’t seen before. The key to this compression phase is the rapid shedding of noisy data, holding onto only the strongest correlations. For example, over time the algorithm will weaken connections between photos of dogs and houses, since most photos don’t contain both. It might at the same time strengthen connections between “dogs” and “fur,” since that is a stronger correlation. It is the “forgetting of the specifics,” the researchers argue, that enables the algorithm to learn general concepts, not just memorize millions of photos. Experiments show that deep learning algorithms rapidly improve their performance at generalization only in the compression phase. The key to generalizing the information we consume — to learning — is strictly limiting the incoming flow of information we consume in the first place, AND then forgetting as much of the extraneous detail as soon as we can. Sure, we lose some detail, but detail is not what the brain is best at anyway. It is best at making meaning, at finding order in chaos, at seeing the signal in the noise. This paper on the role of forgetting in learning used problem-solving algorithms to determine exactly how much forgetting was optimal. Using a series of experiments testing different hypotheses, they found that the optimal strategy involved learning a large body of knowledge initially, followed by random forgetting of approximately 90% of the knowledge acquired. In other words, performance improved as knowledge was forgotten, right up until the 90% mark, after which it rapidly deteriorated. Strikingly, they found that this was true even if that 90% included problem-solving routines known to be correct and useful. Trying to “forget” only the least useful knowledge also didn’t help — random forgetting performed far better. The researchers used these results to argue for the existence of “knowledge of negative value” — forgetting it actually adds value. Progressive Summarization is not a method for remembering as much as possible — it is a method for forgetting as much as possible. For offloading as much of your thinking as possible, leaving room for imagination, creativity, and mind-wandering. Preserving the lower layers provides a safety net that gives you the confidence to reduce a text by an order of magnitude with each pass. You are free to strike out boldly on the trail of a hidden core message, knowing that you can walk it back to previous layers if you make a mistake or get lost. Minimizing cognitive load How does Progressive Summarization help you offload as much of your thinking as possible? By minimizing the cognitive burden of interacting with information at all stages — initial consumption, review, and retrieval. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was developed in the late 1980s by John Sweller, while studying problem solving and learning in children. He looked at how different kinds of tasks placed different demands on people’s working memory. The more complex and difficult the task, the higher the “cognitive load” it placed on the learner, and the greater the perceived mental effort required to complete it. He believed the design of educational materials could greatly reduce the cognitive load on learners, contributing to great advances in instructional design. CLT proposes that there are three kinds of cognitive load when it comes to learning: Inherent: the inherent difficulty of the topic (adding 2+2 vs. solving a differential equation, for example) Extraneous cognitive load: the design or presentation of instructional materials (showing a student a picture of a square vs. trying to explain it verbally, for example) Germane cognitive load: effort put into creating a permanent store of knowledge (such as notes, outlines, diagrams, categories, or lists) Instructional design, inspired by CLT, focuses on two goals: Reducing inherent load by breaking information into small parts which can be learned in isolation, and then reassembled into larger wholes Redirecting extraneous load into germane load (i.e. focusing learner’s attention on the construction of permanent stores of knowledge) P.S. accomplishes both objectives. It reduces the inherent difficulty of the topic you’re reading about by eliminating the necessity of understanding it completely upfront. It instead treats each paragraph as a small, self-contained unit. Your only goal is to surface the key point in each “chunk” — each chapter, section, paragraph, and sentence — leaving it to your future self to figure out how to string those insights together. It also helps redirect extraneous load into germane load, by saving all these chunks in a permanent store of knowledge, like a software program. You no longer have to hold in your head all the previous points in a text, and fit each new point into that structure on the fly. You dedicate your effort to constructing small chunks of permanent knowledge, which will be saved for later review. But reducing cognitive load isn’t just about making learning easier. As learning becomes easier, it also becomes faster, better, deeper, and stronger. Recall as inhibition Why is minimizing cognitive load so important to making learning deeper and stronger? Because new learning can be impaired when a reader is trying to remember too many things at once. The more bandwidth being used for remembering and memorizing, the less bandwidth is available for understanding, analyzing, interpreting, contextualizing, questioning, and absorbing in any given period of time. Like a bursting hard drive slows down a computer with even the fastest RAM, a brain crammed full of facts and figures starts to slow down even the smartest person. This blog post describes recent research on what is known as “proactive inhibition of memory formation.” Offloading our thinking to an external tool lowers the brain’s workload as it encounters new information. In the experiments above, telling participants they didn’t have to remember a list of items enhanced their memory for a second list of items. At first, offloading your thinking seems to cause you to remember less. Especially if you do it immediately, as you read, such as with highlighting. The ideas seem to jump directly from the page to your notes, barely touching your brain. But in the long run, you actually end up remembering more. Being able to frictionlessly hand off highlighted passages to an external tool, free of the anxiety that comes with keeping many balls in the air, you’re free to encounter the next idea with an empty mind. If it’s compelling, it will stick, regardless of any fancy memorization techniques you may think you need.

The more you try to memorize what’s in any given book, the less bandwidth left over for seeing the patterns across them Your attachment to what you already know may actually interfere with your ability to understand new ideas. Clinging to our notecards, diagrams, and memorization schemes, we may be missing out on simply being present. Carefree immersion is, after all, how children learn. And they are the best learners in the world. Training your intuition Technology has given us the ability to “remember everything.” Coming from a legacy of information scarcity, this feels like a huge blessing. But it’s clear the blessing has become a curse. Our brains and our bodies are breaking under the strain of constant, high-volume, 24/7 information flows. We must transition from knowledge hoarders to knowledge curators. We must learn how to frame our options about what to read, watch, and review in a way that restricts what we pay attention to, so we can see clearly instead of being overwhelmed. What is being called into question is the very purpose of learning. What is learning for, now that we can access any knowledge on demand? Learning is no longer about accumulating data points, but training our algorithm. Our algorithm is our intuition — our felt sense about what matters, what is relevant, what is interesting, and what is important, even if we’ve never seen it before and can’t explain why we like it. What’s interesting is that, just like the deep learning experiments mentioned above, we still need massive amounts of data for the initial training phase. In other words, we need diverse, intense, personal experience. But 90% of the data we collect through these experiences can be ignored, discarded, or forgotten. What is left over is wisdom — the distilled nuggets of insight that, when deployed in the real world by someone who knows how to use them, can uncompress into dazzling feats of accomplishment. These nuggets of wisdom apply across a wide range of situations, can be communicated from person to person, and even last for centuries as timeless works of art. Progressive Summarization is about using the information you consume as training data for your intuition. You can consume a lot more, because you’re able to continuously offload it. But more importantly, even if you lost all that data, you would still be left with the greatest prize: who you’ve become and what you’re sensitive to as a result of the diversity and depth of your personal experience. The new purpose of learning is to enable you to adapt, as the pace of change continues to accelerate and the amount of uncertainty in the world continues to spiral upward. This occurs at every level: adapting your lifestyle to fit changing societal conditions; adapting your productivity to fit changing workplace norms; adapting your communication style to fit new kinds of collaboration; adapting your thinking process to fit new ways of solving problems. It applies right down to the most narrow tasks — the hardest part about writing this article were the mental gymnastics I had to perform to not get stuck on my assumptions about what I was trying to say. Making a dent in a universe that keeps changing shape increasingly requires working on projects and problems that are FAR bigger than you can hold in your head. The challenges of our time are vast and cross the disciplinary boundaries that experts limit themselves to. We need people who can hold the context of two or more completely different fields in their heads at once, and then apply their highly trained intuition to finding patterns and hidden connections. A lot of people sense this intuitively, but their attempts to memorize and to recall all this context are futile. There’s simply way too much to know. And in the meantime you get frazzled, overwhelmed, and isolated attempting to do so. This is how we are missing some of our best and brightest minds, lost in their organizational systems as the world falls to pieces. What we need is people who know how to recruit networks to “know” for them. Networks of people, objects, images, computers, communities, relationships, and places. To connect, unite, inspire, and facilitate collaboration between these networks. And what does that take? It takes courage, to let go of the security of knowing everything ourselves. It takes vulnerability, to depend on others for our progress and success. It takes presence, noticing what we notice and being willing to bet on it before we know exactly why. It takes curiosity, being willing to ask questions that don’t yet have answers, or any reasonable path to an answer. It takes pushing through our assumptions about how learning should look to get what we know in the hands of someone who needs it, right now. Subscribe to Praxis, our members-only blog exploring the future of productivity, for just $10/month. Or follow us for free content via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube. PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 Series Navigation: Progressive Summarization << Progressive Summarization IV: Compressing All Types of Media SHARE: RATE:



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Tiago Forte Founder of productivity consultancy/training firm Forte Labs, and editor of Praxis. RELATED POSTS The Top 5 Misconceptions Keeping You From Creating an Online Class October 3, 2014 My interview on the Buddhist Geeks Podcast March 5, 2018 Breaking Paradigms: Khe Hy interviews Tiago Forte May 5, 2017 Testimonials for Building a Second Brain June 27, 2017 Join the discussion at forum.fortelabs.co

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Evernote Skip to main content Sign In Plans MENU Latest News Tips & Stories At Work Twitter Facebook Google LinkedIn TIPS & STORIES Podcast: Tiago Forte’s Approach to Productivity Posted by Forrest Dylan Bryant on 22 May 2017 The Taking Note podcast is back and moving from a monthly to a bi-weekly schedule! For this episode and the next, we were pleased to invite productivity consultant Tiago Forte down to Evernote HQ for a two-part interview. Check out Part 1 now: Taking Note: Episode 5 Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Length: 22 minutes iTunes | SoundCloud | Overcast | MP3 | RSS You may recognize Tiago’s name from his guest posts for the Evernote blog, in which he’s argued for a brain-based approach to creative workflows and changing the productivity curve of our work days. More recently, he’s launched “Building a Second Brain,” a productivity boot camp for personal knowledge management. Highlights of our conversation are transcribed below. To hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note,” head over to iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast. Let’s talk about the modern workforce. We all live in this giant paradox. We’ve got access to endless information and we’ve got more flexible ways to work than every before, but at the same time, we’ve got so many inputs. Our days are fractured. We’re frustrated. We’re burning out. And to add a paradox on top of a paradox, we’ve got this seemingly endless series of solutions which are presented to us, prescriptions and methods for productivity. What’s your solution to this problem? It’s just what you said. I mean, with great freedom comes great responsibility, right? It’s like we’re kids getting out of school, just throwing off our backpacks, “We’re free. We can work anytime, anywhere, on any device.” But then, summer vacation starts and we realize we’re kind of bored or frustrated or stressed because all the structure that is there in the workplace is gone. And I kind of have a theory about this. I call it the rise of the freelance generalist. Freelancing has been around a long time, but almost by definition you had to be a specialist. You had to be a very niche, focused specialist because that was the only way that you had skills that could be monetized easily enough that you could do away with the organization. And that kind of provided its own structure. You’d wake up in the morning and know that you were doing copywriting, you were doing coding, you were doing design. It was pretty straightforward. Now, I think technology is reaching an inflection point where it’s easy to use enough, cheap enough, seamless enough, frictionless enough, that you can be a generalist, which is what I consider myself to be, and make a living as a freelancer using these tools. Are there solutions out there that you find are counterproductive? Yes, there are. In particular, the trend with deep work. I’m opposed. You know, I get it. People are feeling frazzled and just scatterbrained and all these things. But I really think this idea that you’re sort of this monastic knowledge worker, that you’re going to enter your chambers and just think deeply for hours and hours and hours on end, is a holdover from that freelance specialist mindset. And following up on that idea of a generalist as a freelancer, to do that effectively you need a portfolio. You can’t have just one narrow skill that you do. YOU NEED A PORTFOLIO. YOU CAN’T HAVE JUST ONE NARROW SKILL THAT YOU DO. And this is kind of how I think now. I have free products — like my blog I write for free for lead generation — but then I have other things that are not free, like online courses. Then I have consulting and corporate training for companies, but also one-on-one coaching for consumers. So it’s like I’m constantly managing this portfolio of products and services. Some are passive, some are active. What that requires is not this kind of intense mono-focus. It requires being very skilled and fluid with switching between things. Multi-tasking is not going away. That’s not a disease or a plague. It’s just the way the world is going. We can either fight it and treat it like a threat, or we can get better at it. You wrote a guest piece for the Evernote blog not too long ago where you got into some of these topics. You argued that since our days are filled with these interruptions constantly, and those interruptions do make it harder to deliver value from our work, maybe instead of trying to alter the shape of our days, we should try to alter the shape of our value curves and deliver more value in smaller pieces throughout the day. That post came from a lot of research I’d been doing on the history of productivity, specifically manufacturing. And it’s kind of amazing being here in Silicon Valley that we have this breathless fascination with technology and the future, which is great, but a side effect of that is we ignore history. If you look at the history of manufacturing, one of the great, great insights that took decades and decades to discover was small batches, right? That was one of the key breakthroughs to better quality, to speed, to more throughput, to more profitability in manufacturing. And then you go to knowledge work and you have the deep work thing, which is another way of saying big batch sizes. Deep work, spending hours and hours in deep flow, is a big batch size. So it’s like we’ve completely gone against decades of experience in manufacturing. But, like with the example of Toyota developing this entire culture around it, using small batch sizes requires skill, and requires a different way of thinking and doing things. So with the question of changing the value curve, I always kind of come back to this idea that there’s no inherent structure to work. Work has no inherent unit. We make units; we make tasks, and projects, and milestones, and goals. But nothing about those is inherent in the nature of work. So that’s a little scary because it’s all arbitrary, but it’s also an opportunity because it means we can use whatever units we want. THERE’S NO INHERENT STRUCTURE TO WORK. WORK HAS NO INHERENT UNIT. WE MAKE UNITS. BUT NOTHING ABOUT THOSE IS INHERENT IN THE NATURE OF WORK. Say, the word “project.” That word comes with baggage. All these ideas about how big should a project be, how long should it last, how much money should it make, how many people should be on a project? I almost like using different words. I have this one word “intermediate packet.” Instead of “deliverable,” I say an intermediate packet. Try to finish every working session, whether it’s 15 minutes or 8 hours, with an intermediate packet that you expose to the world; that you get some sort of feedback on. I look at my to-do lists and I’m kind of overwhelmed by that. I don’t even necessarily get 25 minutes free because there are meetings and there are requests, and there are emails, and it’s all coming in constantly. Is there any way to get past that sense of overwhelm? There is, and this is starting to get into the particular philosophy I have around using Evernote, actually. This is my main project these days, it’s an online course called “Building a Second Brain,” that’s actually a virtual boot camp because it’s not self-paced, take whenever you want, however you want. It’s five weeks, really intense, two meetings per week, and live video conferences. And essentially, it’s an end-to-end personal knowledge management system. PKM, personal knowledge management, is related to PIM, personal information management. It’s basically making use of the knowledge that you gain on a personal level. Knowledge management, traditionally, has been organizations. When an employee walked out the door, all the knowledge that person had gained would go with them. So for years now, organizations have been trying to capture and catalog and use the knowledge of their employees. Well, now if you look at the research, employee tenure is at, I think, 2.3 years. We spend a couple of years at a company. We do a few projects, a certain number of projects, and we’re gone. We need a better way to take knowledge with us. Not proprietary, confidential stuff, but actually just the insights and the breakthroughs and the learnings that we gained in the course of our work. You mentioned that this plays into how you use Evernote. I know when you do the “Building a Second Brain” course and the other workshops you do, you try to structure them in a way so that they’re not tied to a particular platform or tool, but you are an Evernote user and Evernote is sort of the default example you give. So let’s talk about how you use Evernote. How is it set up? How is your personal Evernote set up? I have this method I’ve developed called PARA, which stands for projects, areas, resources, and archives. And the inspiration from this — a little bit of historical background — is something called the OODA loop, which stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. It was developed by this guy named Colonel John Boyd starting the the ’40s or ’50s. He essentially used it to revolutionize aircraft fighter warfare. And it was basically a way of thinking about how to react dynamically to quickly changing conditions. You observe, you orient yourself, you decide on a course of action, and then you act. It’s been an incredible inspiration for a lot of people in a lot of fields. It’s sort of underappreciated, the impact it’s had. But the thing that really sets is apart is it’s not a static way of thinking. It’s not like a flow chart — do A, do B, do C, do D. It’s loops, and then loops within loops, and then loops within those loops. Because you’re at all times intaking information, turning that into decisions, and then into actions. And it’s the same with PARA. PARA is 4 categories, and that’s kind of the starting point. You divide your work into projects, which I’m using here the GTD definition, a series of tasks linked to an outcome. Areas of responsibility: Some standard or area of your life that’s an ongoing concern; that you want to maintain on an ongoing basis. Resources: Basically, interests or topics. Things like website design. For me, it’s not a particular project — not even really an area because that’s not my work — but it’s something I’m interested in that I’d like to keep track of. And then Archives, which is anything from the previous three categories that’s no longer active, because you want to avoid clogging up your actionable categories. As soon as something is not top of mind, not front and center, you want to move it to the archives, but still keep it in case you want to go and find something there. You have a whole workshop around applying design thinking to workflows, and to doing day-to-day work. What concepts do you draw from design thinking, and how do they apply? Great question. Design thinking is an incredible way of thinking; an incredible movement, really, and taking place across many decades. The thing I take away the most from design thinking, especially when it comes to productivity and personal knowledge management, is just really the idea that you are a designer. Each one of us truly is a designer by nature, even if not by training. And that’s something that’s hard for people to get used to. EACH ONE OF US TRULY IS A DESIGNER BY NATURE, EVEN IF NOT BY TRAINING. AND THAT’S SOMETHING THAT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE TO GET USED TO. I actually had a previous course called “Design Your Habits.” It was on habit formation. And I had to be constantly explaining to people, because they would see “Design Your Habits” and they’d go “Oh, I’m not a designer. I didn’t go to design school.” And I’d have to be like, “No, you design habits. If you’re trying to lose weight and you want to change your diet, you design this whole routine that might be around exercise, or walking, or food. And you do that, in most cases, pretty instantaneously, intuitively, and just naturally on the course of your day.” It’s a spontaneous process, but it does involve, I think, a lot of the same steps; sort of looking around and taking stock of sort of the elements in front of you, thinking of a workflow and a process, having some sort of a feedback loop. Yes, design thinking, getting this process that has become a profession and bringing it back to its origins, which is just the way humans think. We are designers, we make, we create, we modify, we get new information and we change, we tweak. That’s completely natural to what it means to be human. You can hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note” at iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast EVERNOTE PREMIUM Upgrade for features to help you live and work smarter. GO PREMIUMVIEW MORE STORIES IN 'TIPS & STORIES' 2 COMMENTSRSS Aleksandra — Hi Dylan, Thank you so much for these tips – hope some of the people will incorporate them as healthy habits and start having more free time! Happy to inform that this article has been included in our recent Productivity Articles Roundup! Please find the entire list here: https://www.timecamp.com/blog/index.php/2017/05/productivity-articles-2652017/. Best, Aleksandra at TimeCamp Blumm — Magnífico. Muy oportuno. Me gustaría saber y conocer cómo integrar Evernote y GTD en uno. Gracias. Work offline. Anytime, anywhere. GO PREMIUM YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Podcast: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering Knowledge Podcast: Take Control of the New Year with Michael Hyatt Podcast: Jay Acunzo on Unconventional Thinking Blog: English Visit our Tech Blog Subscribe to our RSS feed PRODUCTS PRICING MARKET APP CENTER HELP AND LEARNING BLOG About Careers Legal Terms Privacy Evernote Skip to main content Sign In Plans MENU Latest News Tips & Stories At Work Twitter Facebook Google LinkedIn TIPS & STORIES Podcast: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering Knowledge Posted by Forrest Dylan Bryant on 05 Jun 2017 When it comes to productivity, there are plenty of people who want you to do things their way. Tiago Forte, a productivity consultant based in San Francisco, wants to help you think for yourself. “I try to provoke people,” he says. “I try to find what is becoming the common wisdom that ‘everyone’ knows, and just attack it. Because that gets people thinking.” In Part 1 of our podcast interview with Tiago, we talked about chaos in the modern workplace, the virtues of small-batch productivity vs. deep work, and the system Tiago has devised to organize his thinking in Evernote. For Part 2, we take a deeper look at how he structures his notes and get a peek into “Building a Second Brain,” Tiago’s five-week boot camp for personal knowledge management. Taking Note: Episode 6 Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Length: 20 minutes iTunes | SoundCloud | Overcast | MP3 | RSS Selected highlights of our conversation are transcribed below. Please note that this episode builds on concepts Tiago introduced in Episode 5, such as the “PARA” organizing system (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) and Tiago’s argument for breaking down work projects into “intermediate packets.” You may want to check out that episode before diving into this one. You wrote a guest blog post for us awhile back, a very lengthy one, and one that generated a lot of discussion. In it, you argued pretty forcefully against something that is a key factor in many people’s organization of Evernote, and that is tagging. If I remember correctly, you argued that it was putting a lot of effort where it wasn’t delivering value. Could you expand on that? I try to provoke people. I try to find what is becoming the common wisdom that “everyone” knows, and just attack it because it just gets people thinking. Like the comments on that post and the various messages I received through social media, in many cases people counter-arguing against me and saying, “No, you’re wrong for this reason, this reason, this reason.” That, right there, was some of the best thinking I’ve ever seen on this stuff. They were provoked into defending their viewpoint. I may have kind of been a bit melodramatic on purpose. It’s not that I never use tags or think tags are completely worthless. It’s just a pattern I see with people. Working with people one on one is always so illuminating because they get so caught up in their tagging system. It becomes this game of perfectionism that’s never quite ready. It’s the same thing with like evaluating which program is correct, right? I actually see people like, “Oh, yeah, I have all these book notes on paper. I want to wait until I have my tagging system correct to get these into my database.” Meanwhile, they’re stuck in — in some cases, literally — a cardboard box in your closet. All of that knowledge is going stale, or at least not being used, because you don’t have the “perfect system.” Yeah, I’ve definitely heard cases of that as well. Because they want to get that tagging system just right, and then apply all the tags to everything. And they’ve got hundreds and hundreds of tags. And I wonder, are you spending more time tagging than you’re spending using the information? I have a good antidote to that. Temporary tags. I think where the pressure comes from, that pressure to have everything perfect, is the “long-term” thing. The idea that this is going to be around forever, so it needs to last years and years. So what I do is I have project-specific tags. For a given project, I use tags to track my progress to that deliverable or that intermediate packet. And then once in a while, usually when I do my monthly review for GTD, I delete all my tags. So every single month I have a blank slate, which sounds crazy because you think all that work is going to waste. But I got what I wanted, which was the deliverable, the project outcome. And the interesting thing is it allows me to bring my creativity to it. Some months I’ll do tagging based on emotions. The next month, the slate is clean, I’ll do tagging based on deliverables. Next month, I’ll do tagging based on time slots. And I’ve just discovered so many little things that I wouldn’t have been able to discover just thinking about it abstractly, but actually trying it. And there’s never any pressure because I know, at most, a month from now it’s all going to go away. What about your notes themselves? We all have different ways of taking notes, especially when we have a tool like Evernote to work with. Is there a particular style that your notes tend to have? A very particular one. So, there are the three pillars of the course that I teach: capture, organize, and retrieve. The middle one, organize, is the PARA system. The first one, capture, is something I call “progressive summarization.” This is a method I’ve developed over a number of years that is essentially designing notes; really putting a lot of thought into the design of individual notes. But the way I do this is not maybe what you typically think of design… I’ll take notes on a source, whether it’s a conversation, an article, a book, a podcast, audiobook, whatever. And then I just put it in my system. Just the raw notes. The next time I see that, the next time I serendipitously come across it — or it might be that I’m looking for a project or looking for a resource that I want to use this note for — I summarize it. The first layer, as I call it, is bolding. I go though, and I’m already reading the source anyway, I bold the best parts. The next time I see it, which could be months later, in some cases a year or two later, I do the next layer: I highlight in yellow only the best bolded parts.[…] There’s an 80/20 thing, where a tiny minority of your notes has the great majority of value. So it makes sense to concentrate your design attention on that small minority that’s actually very insightful, rather than spread your attention equally across all your notes, which is what I see with tagging. You may spend a minute tagging a note that has very little value, which doesn’t seem like a lot but that’s one minute too much for me. A TINY MINORITY OF YOUR NOTES HAS THE GREAT MAJORITY OF VALUE. SO IT MAKES SENSE TO CONCENTRATE YOUR DESIGN ATTENTION ON THAT SMALL MINORITY. You’ve talked a bit about the boot camp/workshop called “Building a Second Brain.” I believe you’ve run that twice now. So what are you learning from running that pretty intensive program, and are you going to keep it going? I’m definitely keeping it going. It’s been, honestly, the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on, and for just the reason you said. I learn, without a doubt, more than anyone actually taking the course. In each group, we’ve had between 50 and 55 people. And reading their bios, because I do some Linkedin stalking, their bios are incredible. They’re engineers, they’re Ph.D.s, doctors, professors, startup CEOs. Incredible people that have spent, in many cases, just as long as I have thinking about personal knowledge management. So they come with their own insights, perhaps not quite as structured as the way that I’m presenting it, but I’m on the sessions presenting, and on the side, taking notes from what everyone else is saying. It’s been a great experience. What do you go through in the workshop? Did you say it was five weeks? How do you break that down? It’s really those three pillars. So we start with organization, because people usually have this mass of messy notes they’re not too happy with. And so to kind of give them the initial confidence to really dive in, we start with PARA. So after the first week, they have every single digital file in their life, actually, because PARA is not only Evernote, it goes across cloud storage, your file system, your task manager… everything. So it’s really a universal digital organizing system. That’s the first part of the course. The we go to progressive summarization and cover capture, and really build the skill — and it is a skill — to capture not just the original note, but the insights and the most important ideas within that note. And then we end the course with retrieval, which is a method called “just in time project management,” which is sort of related to the intermediate packet thing. It’s always working towards the next intermediate packet in these short sprints. And building systems and support routines and all this so that you can do that as quickly and with as much acceleration as possible. And you mentioned that you get some really interesting people who are taking these classes, because I presume a class like that is going to appeal to a certain type of person. Have any of the people that you have taught in this course changed the way you think about some of these issues? Oh, absolutely. I mean, one thing was this technique of layering and summarizing, one of the students was a Finnish entrepreneur in the music business. And he got that idea and said, “Okay, I get it, but I’m going to completely change it and apply it to music.” I thought it was a textual analysis method. He showed me that it’s actually about the structure of any sort of information. Layer Zero for him is just all of his notes on random songs and concertos, sources and inspiration, sounds, instruments, all these things. Layer 1 is anything that he’s put into a piece of music. Layer 2 is anything that he’s performed for someone else. Layer 3 is anything that he’s recorded. It’s kind of like a topology of your knowledge that has peaks. The peaks are where your thinking has gone the furthest, whereas the valleys are where the thinking is still kind of raw and unfiltered. So that kind of blew my mind, and I’m still trying to work out the implications of what does it mean to apply this to images, to photographs, to art, to sports and the movement of the body? It’s a pretty fundamental principle that you want to surface the key components of any body of knowledge. And that ties into some of the things you’ve mentioned throughout this interview. You talked about the art of organizing. You talked about how on a core level we’re all designers. And you’ve talked about the importance of creativity. How can we foster creativity within a productivity system? Great question. I love that because there’s this implicit assumption that they’re opposites. I get this all the time, actually. People come up to me, sometimes, and their initial entry will be, “I don’t like productivity because it’s about being efficient, and like a machine, and just sticking to the plan.” And I just go, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s your definition of productivity?” And they tell me something like, “Oh, what machines do, basically.” And then I say, “Can I tell you my definition?” And my definition is creating as much value in the world as efficiently and as effectively as possible. And they go, “Oh, well, I can buy that.” MY DEFINITION OF PRODUCTIVITY IS CREATING AS MUCH VALUE IN THE WORLD AS EFFICIENTLY AND AS EFFECTIVELY AS POSSIBLE. No. And that’s where creativity comes in. It takes immense creativity to use processes in that way. To not be a slave to the process, to not just obey the process, but to think, “This part isn’t working,” or to have the courage to say, “Look, this process we’ve always followed does not serve our purposes. It’s no longer in line with our values. Let’s change it.” That’s one of the insights from the Toyota Production System, is when you give workers the freedom to point things out — to pull the cord, so to speak — they come up with an incredible number of ideas. They think of things that management would never think about in a million years. Small things, big things, human things, software things, hardware things. And it’s almost like having the foundation or the structure — we talked about structure before — already in place, just like a scaffolding gives you these little pockets where creativity can happen. Because the thing with creativity is, creativity cannot happen without constraints. This is a really important point. The same with design. Design cannot happen without constraints. If you tell me “just design something” … Oh, what should I design? What are the user needs? What is the purpose it serves? What are the constraints? And you give me none? I literally cannot design anything useful. Another term that gets used a lot and has an inherent assumption of a dichotomy is “work-life balance.” We all say we want it, at the same time work and life seem to be blending together. And I mean, that’s nothing new … farmers, artisans, soldiers have always had a blended work and life experience, but it’s new to office workers. Is this a trend we should be fighting or embracing? My initial reaction is fighting, going along the “provoking people” thing. And you know, my take on that is just … I just don’t get it. I don’t think about work-life balance. I don’t think about work-life blending or whatever the new term is. I think that whole way of thinking is an artifact of a previous time. Just having those two things that need to be balanced or blended or whatever it is, assumes there’s a division, there’s a dichotomy. And I see the consequences of that are many. One thing I notice is, people not giving much credit to themselves for side projects. Like a programmer works on an open source project, and they think, “Oh, I’m not getting paid, so it doesn’t fall in the ‘work’ category.” Therefore, they’ll be hesitant to put it on their resume. They won’t really use it as evidence that they continue to learn and improve. And I go, “Oh my gosh, that is one of your key assets. The fact that you do this stuff for fun, it’s a part of you and what you care about and what matters to you, not just something you do for money? That should be front and center in your resume or your portfolio.” You can hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note” at iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast EVERNOTE PREMIUM Upgrade for features to help you live and work smarter. GO PREMIUMVIEW MORE STORIES IN 'TIPS & STORIES' 3 COMMENTSRSS Barry — Thanks for the podcast, always good to hear ideas and tips ! (can I give a little critical feedback?? please do not make the “mmhm, uh-hu” sound after every few things the guest says. Hope the feed back helps) Forrest Dylan Bryant — Hi, Barry: I hear you. Will tone it down in future episodes. Greg VanDenBerghe — Thanks for these great tips and inspiring discussion. You mentioned to highlight your notes on the 2nd review. The only problem is there is no highlighter function on the web version. Does Evernote have a solution to this problem? Thanks! Find it fast with powerful search GO PREMIUM YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Podcast: Tiago Forte’s Approach to Productivity Podcast: Take Control of the New Year with Michael Hyatt Take Charge of Your Growth with Michael Hyatt & Marvell Allen Blog: English Visit our Tech Blog Subscribe to our RSS feed PRODUCTS PRICING MARKET APP CENTER HELP AND LEARNING BLOG About Careers Legal Terms Privacy Security API Contact Copyright 2018 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved. From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2017/06/05/podcast-tiago-forte-productivity-part-2/> Security API Contact Copyright 2018 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved.

From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2017/05/22/podcast-productivity-tiago-forte/>

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Alex HardyFollow Thinker. Reader. Figuring it out. Oct 7, 2017

Tiago Forte’s First Principles of Workflow, Design, and Productivity Episode 17: Tiago Forte and Khe Hy First principles of workflow design (a 2-part episode) ▶️ Play Episode ▶️ Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play | TuneIn| RSS

Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and has been called the “next David Allen.” Today’s productivity writing is mostly focused on “squeezing water out of a stone” but this approach overlooks the core human behaviors and tendencies. In these two episodes, we start with First Principles (aka building blocks), share our toolkits, and where we get stuck. This is a 2-part episode where we take turns interviewing each other (and don’t miss our first episode).

A note from Khe: Tiago’s been a huge influence on my life via his ideas, writing, and his class. I thought I was a productivity Jedi but it’s been a personal game-changer — both output but also joy in having the right systems. Building a Second Braindecreased the time it takes me to produce RadReads AND has unleashed a torrent of productivity. Sign up for the next session, beginning November 6.

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How to read these notes We start with each of our First Principles and then our Workflow “tool kit” and then dive into the specifics. Tiago’s First Principles of Workflow

 • Finishing every work session with a clear deliverable or milestone • Optimize for intensity (via time tracking) • All priorities are local • Go to extremes of sociability or isolation • Document everything • Make pivots to new tasks or working styles as dramatic as possible • Push non-value added tasks as late as possible and pull value-added tasks as early as possible • Satisfice wherever possible • Don’t reinvent the wheel, don’t do things — look for excuses to do things • Getting out of bed in the morning is always the first bottleneck Tiago’s Toolkit • For task management: Things • For knowledge management and general reference material: Evernote • For reading things later: Instapaper • For collaborative documents: Google Docs • For filesharing / backup: DropBox • For digital calendar: BusyCal They’re very stable and rarely change over time. Because for most people, the bottleneck is not which tools you’re using (i.e. Apple Calendar vs. Google Calendar). The bottleneck is: are you using an online calendar? 📅🔑

Khe’s First Principles • Limit cognitive overhead • Beware of asymmetric options • Deep Work • Batch tasks (and single-task) • Manage energy over time Khe’s Toolkit • For task management: Omnifocus • For knowledge management and general reference material: Evernote • For reading things later: Instapaper • For collaborative documents: Quip • For filesharing / backup: DropBox • For digital calendar: Fantastical

Tiago Workflow Deep-Dive Principle 1: Finishing every work session with a clear deliverable or milestone Why? Because high-value work has a huge of the ramp-up period. If you complete 90% of a deliverable, and say you’ll “do the last 10% later”, you have to ramp all the way up again just to finish the last 10%. Khe: “But what if it’s a BIG problem that’s taking you a long time?” “Make packets of work small” If your packets of work are 3 hours, you won’t accomplish anything unless you you have 3 uninterrupted hours — And this is rare. Instead: you make your packets of work smaller (i.e. 30 minutes), you’ll be able to get things done anytime you have 30 minutes. ⏱⏱⏱ Khe: “What if your task NEEDS cognitive momentum and takes longer than 30 minutes?” “What really creates momentum is an accelerating pace of rewards. Break down work into smaller and smaller packets, to create an accelerating pace of rewards Momentum in knowledge work isn’t like momentum in horseback riding 🐎 or running 🏃where you see the trees 🌲🌲 as you pass by. Momentum is completely defined internally by how you feel. Here’s a blog post by Tiago on the topic: Mood as Extrapolation Engine: Using Emotions to Generate Momentum I believe that moods (or less colloquially, states of mind) can be used not just defensively, making the best of…praxis.fortelabs.co Principle 2: Optimize for intensity (via ACTIVE time tracking) “You must actively track your time. The point is deliberate awareness of your time allocation, not data collection.” To actively track your time, you’d say “I am now done with project A, I consciously open my app to clock out of project A, and consciously clock into project B” Tiago prefers an app like Hours Tracker, where you clock in and out, as opposed to RescueTime, that passively tracks your activity. Khe: But Why Active tracking? People tend to have very fuzzy edges. They’re sort of checking their email and slowly transitioning from email to a project, but keep going back to check email. To maximize productivity, You need a clean break. 🙅 You’re not trying to master time, you’re trying to master yourself. Mastering yourself means: making a decision on what to work on, and committing to that decision by taking action. Tiago: After analyzing two years of my time tracking data, I found that I only really work for 25 hours / week. This was shocking because my perception is that I’m always working Live look at Tiago after realizing he only works 25 hours per week. This is seriously throws into question the idea of a 45 hour work week Khe: How does time tracking lead to intesnity? “When you start working in this way, it completely cuts down on multi tasking and switching. Because If you decide to multi-task, you have to constantly go into your app and clock in and out of tasks. My intensity isn’t reinforced by my morals or values (“I should do intense work”) it’s enforced because active time tracking makes multi-tasking a pain.” Khe has his own intensity hack. Has a 15 character (!) iPhone password and no TouchID 😳 😳 😳 Remember: “There’s something human about wanting little bits of distraction & that’s not morally wrong” Time Tracking Pro tip: there are all kind of issues with time tracking. Don’t miss the forest through the trees — it’s not an exact science. The 🔑 is to be aware and consistent in how you track. Principle 3: All Priorities are Local What does it mean? look for “excuses” to do things. Change the order of your priorities based on context. In productivity, priorities are a BIG deal. You’re supposed to make a list of priorities #1 through #10, and then cross out #2 — #10 and do #1. But this ignores an important point. The priority # of something is totally context-dependent. It’s not an inherent property of the thing itself. Let’s take a relatable example, Dry Cleaning Dry-cleaning is never going to be the top of your to-do list. EXCEPT when happen to be driving by the dry cleaners. In this context, you’ve already done 99% of the work required to complete the task by coincidence. So in that moment, the most productive thing you can do is pick up dry cleaning. “The key here is ‘random access‘ — having more than 1 way to access your tasks” Use your tools to surface tasks in different ways. We can all relate to the example below: When I have an hour to read, I don’t want to spend the hour I have looking for things to read, I want to spend it actually reading!!! Tiago documents each task in his task manager with a standardized word. For example, everything he has to read across all projects and domains in his task manager starts with the keywork “read” By typing in the word “read,” I can instantly see everything I need to read across all projects and areas on one list Khe This is MEGA important if you have children 👶 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 . You have to make the kid’s nap time as productive as possible for you! Extra Credit: Here’s a good book on Product Development that Tiago recommends: The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development "...the dominant paradigm for managing product development is wrong. Not just a little wrong, but wrong to its very…www.amazon.com

The Tiago ToolKit Khe Asks: How do you decide which file goes where? Evernote vs. DropBox vs. Google Docs? It‘s based what I’m trying to accomplish. If it can go on Evernote, it should. Here’s the great strength of digital note taking 💪: the actual content is close to the surface. Its container is invisible. When you fire up Evernote, the content of the note is front and center You’re an artist and your digital notetaking app is your studio 👩‍🎨 👨‍🎨 . An artist who works with sculpture, painting, and drawing puts everything in their studio so they can see these forms of media juxtaposesd in interesting ways. You do this digitally with your notetaking app. We need Multiple ways to resurface things. Because the mind is so good at making arbitrary connections. Tiago has an “Idea Tickler” that he uses instead of checking social media. You’re tapping into human idea to want novelty and distraction. Don’t treat this desire like a moral failure, use it to your advantage! Extra Credit: Want to build the script for the Idea Tickler yourself? check it out in Tiago’s blog post (paywalled) Khe Asks: Where does Tiago Get Stuck? How do I evaluate my progress in Areas of Responsbility such as Health? I know there are things I could do better. Should I accept that and be satisfed and equanimous? Or is that signaling that I need a change? The tug of war between equanimity & [driving for change] Text expanders Text expanders have quite valuable to Tiago. A text expander = when you type a keyword (such as: #p) it replaces that text with your phone number. People use them all the time time on mobile, but Tiago believes the most valuable is on desktop. [computer emoji] There are a few different options for text expanders: • TextExpander • aText • Typinator • Dash 3 • TypeIt4me • Keyboard Maestro • Alfred 3 • DIY in “System Preferences

This conversation just scratches the surface of Tiago’s class Building a Second Brain —Go Sign Up for the next session, beginning November 6.

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Want to learn more? Check out the first episode between Tiago & Khe Rad Awakenings with Khe Hy by Khe Hy on Apple Podcasts Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Rad Awakenings with Khe Hy by Khe Hy for free.itunes.apple.com • Productivity • Podcast • Evernote • Gtd • Networking Like what you read? Give Alex Hardy a round of applause. From a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story. 206 • Follow

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RadReads Be Your Best Self More from RadReads I couldn’t find a good Personal CRM — So I created my own and want to share it with you

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From <https://radreads.co/productivity-workflow-and-pkm-design-with-tiago-forte-and-khe-hy-325783bb3ea2> How to remove daily work stress with just 15 minutes each week

By Tiago Forte December 9, 2017 FOUNDER, FORTE LABS Of all the productivity habits I’ve studied and recommended, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest in its importance: the weekly review. First named by David Allen in his best-selling book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, the weekly review has become an institution in its own right. The simple practice of setting aside a dedicated time each week to review your commitments and gain some perspective has become one of the most universally accepted productivity tips. But rarely do you get the chance to peer directly into the inner workings of a weekly review “in the wild.” I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and energy testing and tweaking my weekly review, boiling it down to its essence. In this article I’d like to show you how it works. It’s not the “one right way” or a prescription for everyone to follow. But it does integrate seamlessly with my previous article on Inbox Zero, and more importantly, illustrates the weekly review’s unique ability to free up time and attention far out of proportion to how much it consumes. Here is the checklist, which I keep on a little yellow sticky note on my computer’s desktop:

It’s so humble and unassuming, isn’t it? But this short checklist represents something very meaningful to me: the trained ability to go from total chaos to total clarity in 15-30 minutes. It can handle any type of information, from any source, in any quantity, over any period of time. It doesn’t matter if I’m checking in after a couple calm days of work, or returning from a 3-week vacation. I follow the same steps in the same order every time. It’s the closest thing we have to automating an activity that takes up a huge amount of most people’s workday: processing incoming information and deciding what to work on next. Let’s walk through the checklist step by step: My review is separated into three distinct parts, each with its own purpose: 1. Emergency triage: identifyfind out what’s urgent 2. Preventative maintenance: keep anything from slipping through the cracks and becoming urgent 3. Planning for action: decide what’s important, and what to work on this week This allows me to stay focused on the intention of each part, surfacing emergencies as soon as possible while ensuring I maintain my focus on what’s important long term. Part 1: Emergency triage Triage is what the staff at a hospital emergency room does with incoming patients—deciding what each person needs and where to send them, without actually treating them on the spot. This allows them to prioritize the true emergencies, while maximizing the efficiency of the whole staff. 1. Clear email inbox I start with email, because no other decision I make will be correct without the latest information. There is a risk here — that the sheer volume and urgency of my emails will throw me straight into the vortex, sucking me into reactive mode. That’s why it’s so important to follow the method I laid out in my previous article: start with the oldest email and send each one, one at a time, to one of four productivity apps based on the action you want to take: 1. a digital calendar (for events that need to happen on a certain day or time) 2. a task manager (tasks that need to happen soon, but not at a particular time) 3. a read later app (things you’d like to watch or read later, without any particular deadline) 4. a reference app (information you’d like to reference for a project or for general interest) Most critically: I’m not doing anything, just deciding what needs to be done. This is the key point that allows me to process hundreds of emails in one sitting. 2. Check calendar (-2/+4 weeks) The next item is the calendar, since I want to know what the “hard landscape” of my day and week looks like as early as possible. Nothing too unconventional here: I put down any new events or appointments, and review existing ones to get a sense of the week. My rule of thumb is to look two weeks into the past, to rememberfor anything I need to follow up on, and 4 weeks into the future, to anticipate for anything I need to start preparing for. Part II: Preventative maintenance Preventative maintenance is about getting all your workspaces clean, removing the clutter that stresses you out, making sure nothing is falling through the cracks, and capturing any new commitments you’ve made. It might seem unimportant to give regular attention to your desktop or downloads folder, but I’ve found that left untended they overflow and become full-blown crises at the worst possible times. 3. Clear physical inbox/notebook I start this step by going through any mail or other papers that have accumulated in my physical inbox (a simple tray where I collect postal mail, random brochures and postcards, or even odds and ends I find around the house). Any new commitments I find there (“check out this sale at REI”; “fill out and return insurance forms”) I add to my calendar or task manager, and any new reference material (business cards from an event I attended; receipts from a business trip) to Evernote. And I’m sure to throw away, file, or shred every item as soon as it’s appropriately captured. I also review my paper notebook, capturing any interesting ideas (sketch of an app design; brainstormed list of possible vacation destinations) by taking photos of the page. 4. Clear computer desktop/downloads folder Then I do the equivalent for my digital piles. Somehow, over the course of the week my desktop has invariably become a morass of random files of unknown origin. For each file, I either trash it, put it in my computer’s file system, add it to Evernote, or capture it in my task manager. I do the same for my downloads folder, sorting them into the same locations as above and then emptying the trash with a satisfying “whoosh.” 5. Check Mint transactions This is an optional thing I like to do, to categorize new transactions, make sure I’m not getting charged for anything I didn’t buy, and reviewing my budgets to make sure I’m not overspending. I include it here to illustrate that, once you have a weekly review established, it can serve as a platform for any other habits or routines you’d like to stick to. Some examples might include reviewing your goals, setting an intention for the week, performing a quick stretching routine, or planning your grocery shopping for the week. Part III: Planning for action 6. Process Evernote inbox By this time, there is usually a lot of stuff in my reference app, Evernote (read this article for more info on how I use it). Not only notes I’ve accumulated over the course of the week, but notes I’ve just finished gathering from steps 1-4: from emails, my calendar, my physical piles, and digital piles. I take a few minutes to file these into the appropriate notebooks by project or by topic, so they’re available for future reference. This step also serves as a helpful reminder of ideas and images I captured during the week. 7. Prioritize and file new tasks By this time, my task manager inbox is overflowing with new tasks I’ve captured, typically between 30 and 60 each week. I batch-process these all at once, clarifying for each one what the next required action is, its priority, and which project or area it fits into. By using keyboard shortcuts and doing them all at once, it takes just a few minutes. 8. Review and select follow-up items I’ve found over the years that simply following up with people is one of the easiest ways to get what I want or need. I begin any task that I’m waiting for someone on with “waiting for:” followed by what I’m waiting on them for, so I can quickly call up all my follow-up tasks across all projects with one search, even if I’m on the go. 9. Choose tasks for the week This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Like most people, I start with what’s urgent — sorting my tasks by priority across all projects and moving the ones I absolutely must complete today to the “Today” section of my task manager. But then, before immediately diving in to fight fires, I focus on what’s important — looking at the two or three projects I’m most focused on this week, what is most in line with my goals long term, and what best reflects my values and purpose. What I’m left with by the end of Part III is a concise, clearly formulated, prioritized, sequenced list of tasks for the week, grouped by project and available at a glance on any device. I don’t have to do any more planning or prioritizing after this— my mental horsepower for the rest of the week is dedicated to creating value, not keeping balls in the air. Consider how much thinking informed this process: • My email inbox is completely empty, with all tasks moved to my task manager • My week’s schedule is fresh in my mind, both hard and soft commitments • All my tasks are captured and organized by project and priority • All the piles and accumulated documents are filed away, ready and waiting in their appropriate folders • All my ideas, insights, and random musings are captured and waiting in my Evernote notebooks, leaving my mind clear for focused thinking Selecting your tasks for the week is a simple decision, but a critical one that requires some legwork to do well. Taking the time to make this decision from a place of perspective and balance and full information, you can make sure you’re not just reacting to the demands of the moment. Why it’s hard Maintaining a weekly review of some type may seem like a no-brainer. But in my experience, it is one of the most difficult habits to stay “on the wagon” with. I have a theory as to why: any weekly habit exists on an unstable middle ground. It happens frequently enough that we feel we ought to get better at it, but not often enough to make it a daily habit. This creates an intense cognitive dissonance—we know such a routine could be a lynchpin in our personal productivity, but feel in our bones that it’s not worth the effort required. And in the short term, we’re right. A week, two weeks, three weeks, or longer can go by without any apparent negative consequence. We logically conclude that such maintenance work is an unnecessary luxury we can do without. But underneath the surface, unseen volatility is building. The chaos of constantly accumulating emails, files, photos, and tasks is approaching critical thresholds. Your mind is reaching its carrying capacity of “notes to self.” It is usually an external crisis—a surprise deadline or a misplaced reminder—that triggers the explosion, all your seemingly trustworthy systems breaking down all at once. You have a critical file on your computer, but you can’t find it in the thicket of icons cluttering your desktop. You need to know which gate your flight is departing from now, but your email is crammed with hundreds of unread messages. You’re sure you wrote down a brilliant idea, but you can’t find it anywhere. Even worse than the crises you know about are the missed opportunities you don’t. A file lost in your downloads folder that you promised to send to a client goes unsent. The deadline to buy tickets to a conference, never scheduled on the calendar, passes without notice. A brilliant idea you had late one night with friends goes undiscovered when you most need it. By the time an “emergency” strikes, it’s too late for planning and organizing. You can’t do forest management while fighting a wildfire. Instead of pretending like emergencies are unusual, totally unforeseeable events, what if we planned every week expecting them to show up? We could sweep the decks, plan for contingencies, maintain our tools, and identify our top objectives in advance, just like anyone who has to perform under pressure: athletes, soldiers, police officers, and yes, firefighters. If no disaster strikes, we’re left with spare capacity and sail right through the week. But if one does, we are ready. You plan for and show up for every meeting with people you trust and respect – why not keep a standing weekly meeting for the most important person in your life, yourself?

From <https://work.qz.com/1151367/how-to-set-up-a-weekly-review/>

Getting Started with GTD (Getting Things Done) Templates

Posted by Tiago Forte on 01 Jan 2018 It’s 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and you have one question on your mind: what should I be doing right now? You’re busy getting things done, but the notification count on your email inbox is climbing by the minute. You really should get back to Tom on…what was it again? Now the phone is ringing—it’s your kid’s teacher, informing you that your daughter’s grades are low and she needs some extra attention. You have an emergency meeting at 5:00, which kills your plan to finalize the agenda for tomorrow’s offsite. You’re starting to get texts from the attendees because you’re late sending out the logistics. You have a strategic plan that’s been almost finished for weeks, but you’ve been waiting for a board member’s input. And through it all, there’s a tickle at the back of your mind that there may be an even more important priority lurking somewhere, but you can’t remember what it is. Welcome to the era of information abundance, which has created in many of us a scarcity of attention. David Allen’s best-selling book Getting Things Done* (known affectionately by fans as GTD) proposes a simple 5-step approach to managing the complexity of modern work. It has sold millions of copies in dozens of countries around the world and stands on its own as a practical guide to the art of stress-free productivity. It also just so happens that the GTD approach can be implemented easily within Evernote. If this article inspires you, grab these custom-made Evernote templatesfrom Barbara Fuller at Simplify Days to start the new year right with GTD: • GTD Project List Template • GTD Individual Project Template • GTD Areas of Responsibility Template • GTD Weekly Review Template Here are the steps to stress-free productivity that GTD recommends: 1. CAPTURE every commitment in your life in a trusted place outside your head (like a software program or a piece of paper) 2. CLARIFY exactly what each commitment is, the desired outcome of fulfilling it, and only the very next action required 3. ORGANIZE reminders of these actions in a Project List 4. REFLECT on your list on a weekly basis to make sure it’s clear, current, and complete 5. EXECUTE on your actions by making intuitive decisions about what to do next, trusting your system to not let anything fall through the cracks The best introduction to what these five steps look like in practice is the Project List Mindsweep. It is a guided, step-by-step exercise to reveal just how many projects you’ve committed to in your work and life. This exercise is the first step in gaining a sense of relaxed control over your workload. It all starts with determining, clearly and visibly, the current state of your commitments. The energy unleashed by this capture exercise gives you the motivation to think through the four subsequent steps of clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and executing on your new workflow. I’d like to guide you through the Project List Mindsweep in this article. Add these four templates to your Evernote account so you can follow along with your own projects: • GTD Project List Template • GTD Individual Project Template • GTD Areas of Responsibility Template • GTD Weekly Review Template How to use Evernote templates » The Project List Mindsweep The Project List Mindsweep is extremely valuable for anyone, whether you’ve never heard of GTD or have been a dedicated practitioner for years. Most people couldn’t give you a full inventory of their projects if their life depended on it. Yet they also tell you they have too much on their plate, and “don’t have the bandwidth.” Without a comprehensive Project List, you can never know how much capacity you really have. Understand the GTD definition of a “Project” We use the word “project” to refer to a lot of different things, from a multi-billion dollar construction project to a bathroom remodel. But GTD asks us to adopt a much smaller definition for what qualifies as a Project: “any outcome you’re committed to completing that requires more than one action step.” This definition forces us to acknowledge that even the seemingly simplest outcomes—like “buy headphones” or “prepare a presentation”—require numerous steps. Instead of tracking these steps in our heads, we want to track them in an external tool. That way, we’re forcing ourselves to put a “stake in the ground” to remember to review our progress regularly. Your Project List contains all these “stakes in the ground,” so you can focus on onlythe next action. Most people find that sticking to this definition produces a list of around 30–100 projects. This is why we want to use an external tool—not our brains. Step 1: Capture Do a Brain Dump Don’t judge. Don’t filter. Don’t try to clarify, process, organize, or categorize them as you capture them. That happens later. Use the Project List template for this step. We’ll organize and clarify the list of projects you come up with in later steps. Here are some common places to look: Your mind What’s worrying you? Identify that as a Project. Name it so you can tame it. What’s taking more mental bandwidth than it deserves? What activities aren’t you making consistent progress on that could benefit from a bit of structure? Example: “My back hurts” → Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain Calendar Look a few weeks into the past on your calendar: what do you need to follow up on? What do you need to finish? What Projects do you want to create to follow up on events that already happened? Peer into the future: what will you need to plan or prepare? What goals do you need to set? Who do you need to catch up with? Example: “I need to figure out what we’ll do at that team off-site” → Plan team offsite agenda Next Actions (To Do) list What things are you already doing that are actually part of a bigger project you haven’t identified yet? Example: “I need to follow up with that house cleaner” → Contact house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time Agendas What about communication? Are there any actions that you’ve already scheduled with people that are part of a bigger project? Example: “I need to call Linda back” → Develop sales campaign with Linda Briefcase/bag/wallet/purse What things have you saved because they remind you to take an action? What have you kept because you need it for a project? Example: Business card in purse → Follow up with potential contractor from conference Your physical environment Look around your office, home, car, or desk. What physical objects represent projects you haven’t identified yet? Example: Document on desk → Package up and mail document to business partner Digital environment Look at your computer desktop, downloads folder, documents folder, bookmarks, emails, and open browser tabs. What are you keeping around because it is part of a project that you can name and organize? Example: PDF article on desktop → Read draft article and give feedback to co-author Processes or procedures Which processes in your work or life could be more efficient, streamlined, or purposeful? What do you do regularly that takes too long, is too difficult, or you haven’t thought through? Example: Grocery shopping → Collect list of staple food supplies and set up recurring deliveries on Amazon Fresh Creative opportunities What would you like to learn, develop, build, pursue, start, explore, or play with as a project? Example: Flyer for improv class → Look up and schedule improv class Competence building Are there skills you’d like to learn? Which hobbies would you like to start? What kind of project could advance your career, or make your life more fun or interesting? Example: Email confirmation for online course purchase → Complete online course on Python Don’t worry about the exact outcome of each Project you identify at this stage, or whether you’re actually committed to it. Don’t let anything keep you from writing down something that might possibly be a Project. Also, don’t fret over how you name them. You might finish this step with a Brain Dump that looks something like this. Yours will probably be quite a bit longer. 1. Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain 2. Plan team offsite agenda 3. Find house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time 4. Develop sales campaign with Linda 5. Follow up with potential contractor from conference 6. Package up and mail document to business partner 7. Read draft article and give feedback to co-author 8. Collect list of staple food supplies and set up recurring deliveries 9. Look up and schedule improv class 10. Complete online course on Python In the next step, we’ll decide what to do with these Projects. Step 2: Clarify Refine your list In the previous step, you got every potential project off your mind and onto a list, where you can view it objectively. Now it’s time to do another pass and clean up your list to make it more clear and actionable. Continue using the Project List template for this step, moving items from the Brain Dump section to the Project List section as you clean them up. Some options to consider: Delete anything that is obviously not a Project Sometimes you need to write a thing down to realize it’s not something you’re committed to or truly interested in. Delete and let it go. Move “someday/maybe” projects to the bottom of the list Move anything you might be interested in doing eventually, or you’re not sure you want to do, to the bottom of the list. Merge projects that are tied to the same outcome If you have related items such as “Research computer options,” “Back up and reformat current computer,” and “Set aside budget for computer purchase,” you can probably merge them under an overarching Project called “Buy new computer.” If a Project is really a one-time task, add it to your calendar instead For example, “Pick up sister from airport” doesn’t really need to be actively tracked over time. Place it on the appropriate day on your calendar, and that will trigger all the necessary actions. Delegate any appropriate Project Even if you delegate a Project to someone else, if you are accountable for the outcome, you still need a Project entry to track or follow up on that assignment. Step 3: Organize Identify the outcome or intention for each Project You aren’t finished calling something a Project until you identify the desired outcome. In this step, you’ll identify what you want to happen with each item. Then you can move it to your Individual Project template. Continue using the Individual Project template for this step, moving items from the Initial Project template to the Individual Project template section as you identify your desired outcomes. Some projects have a precise objective, like “Acquire 100 new leads and 25 new sales.” Other projects are more open-ended or intentional, such as “Have a peaceful vacation spending quality time and connecting with my family.” A classic and effective guide to formulating clear outcomes (or goals) is the S.M.A.R.T. framework. The acronym stands for “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.” This framework helps you to make the outcomes as tangible and specific as possible, without getting distracted by grand, inspiring “life goals.” Simply ask, “What do I want to happen as a result of this Project?” Using our list as an example: 1. Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain [Outcome: Back pain is resolved and I can sleep through the night without discomfort, by March 1, 2018] 2. Plan team offsite agenda [Outcome: Team is clear about what needs to be accomplished, and we identify next actions for every item on the agenda, by Monday, Feb. 19, 2018] 3. Find house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time [Outcome: We have a weekly cleaning time on the calendar, and the house is consistently clean, by April 1, 2018] 4. Develop sales campaign with Linda [Outcome: Sales campaign is approved by senior leadership, budget is allocated, and the team is briefed on it, by Dec. 15, 2018] Keep in mind that the ‘T’ in S.M.A.R.T. stands for ‘Time-bound.’ That means that every outcome should have a deadline or timeframe, whether that is a hard deadline or just a preferred one. Write the outcomes/intentions you’ve identified for each Project in the second column, and the time frame or deadline in the third column. Rewrite your Project titles to make clear how each Project leads to its desired outcome Time to do a little editing. Make sure you know what “done” looks like for every Project. There’s little chance you’ll ever get there if you don’t know where “there” is. Begin every Project with a verb that describes DONE: finalize, submit, deliver, complete, send, clarify, organize, update, implement, resolve, submit, reorganize, design, roll out, install, set up, publish, complete. If you find yourself using verbs like manage, oversee, ensure, or maximize, it’s probably an ongoing Area of Responsibility, not a Project. An Area of Responsibility is an ongoing part of your life in which you’ve committed to a certain standard, like Health, Finances, Apartment, or Productivity. These are also important to keep track of, but don’t belong on your Project List. You can move these items to our Areas of Responsibility template, to be managed separately from your Project List. Step 4: Reflect Review your GTD lists weekly Look over your entire list from a bird’s eye view, and ask some fundamental questions: • Does this list fully represent my priorities, interests, values, and long-term goals? • In which Areas of Responsibility do I have too many Projects? Not enough? • Are there important outcomes or goals that don’t have any Projects targeted at them? • Am I spending time or attention on something that has no clear outcome or goal? • If anything is unclear, ask yourself, “What am I really trying to accomplish here?” or “What‘s the point of doing this?” • With this whole inventory in front of you, are there any Projects you want to kill, postpone, renegotiate, or clarify? Reflect on your week with this Evernote template for creating a Weekly Review. Bonus step: Prioritize your list on the Project level Prioritizing individual tasks or pieces of information as they arrive can be exhausting because we’re trying to decide several things at once: • Is this important? • Is it urgent? • Does it belong to a Project that’s important? • Does it belong to a Project that’s urgent? • Is this an insignificant detail, or a crucial one? You can eliminate a lot of this decision-making by pre-prioritizing your work on the Project level, instead of at the task level. Sort the list from highest to lowest priority, according to how much of your mental bandwidth each Project should be taking up in any given week. Doing this weekly will help make the granular decisions during the week much easier. Because your Projects are constantly changing and evolving, the Weekly Review is an exercise you want to do regularly. Senior GTD Coach Meg Edwards says that the Weekly Review is the “master key” to GTD. It is a standing appointment with yourself to reflect on the week and update your Project List. If you do this review from a more calm and balanced perspective, away from the chaos of the workday, you’ll find it easier to maintain perspective throughout the week. You’ll start thinking less like an individual project manager, and more like a project portfoliomanager, balancing all the risks and rewards of your project portfolio as a whole. Step 5: Execute Regain control and be more productive With a clear Project List in hand, you are ready to execute on your tasks without having to remember which balls you have in the air. The goal of GTD is for stress, tensions, and obstacles to trigger new projects, instead of emotions. Learn more about GTD by reading the book (updated in a new 2015 edition), by joining the membership site GTD Connect (which includes webinars, interviews, and instructional guides on all aspects of the method), or my video-based online course, Get Stuff Done Like a Boss. *GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of The David Allen Company, and this course is not endorsed by or affiliated with them in any way.

From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2018/01/01/getting-started-gtd-templates/>



IMPLEMENT A NEW HABIT IN 30 DAYS 2 NOV 2014 | PRODUCTIVITY

Make it so easy that you can’t say no. – Leo Babauta Oh, I love day zeros. They show so much promise, they involve so much planning. I mentioned all the successful habits I’ve made yesterday. This is the first time I’ll be doing this with accountability. Because this one is a bit tougher, I think I need that accountability. I am excited.

MY 30 DAY HABIT PLAN (This is based on the Tiago Forte course.) My habit for November is to write daily. My Tiny Habits for the first week are: 1. AFTER I open my laptop to work, I will look at my to do list 2. AFTER I look at my phone for the first time in the morning, I will read one Bible verse. 3. AFTER I lay down at night, I will think of one thing for which I’m grateful • concentrate on Duhigg’s Habit Loop (Trigger > Reward > Behaviour) Duhigg is the grandfather of habit research. This is the very foundation, that all of my favourite habit heroes (Tiago Forte, Leo Babauta…) can agree on. • use Tiago Forte’s Habit Loop 2.0 to plan This guy is seriously a rockstar in my eyes. My third favourite productivity/self-improvement person after Sean McCabe / Tim Ferriss. The Habit Loop 2.0 comes from that Skillshare course that I told you about (that I’m taking for free). • make note of my Habit Personality Type (Upholder and Rebel) I am an Upholder and a Rebel, which means that I respond readily to new habits, but also resist expectations. I guess it just reiterates the fact that I always need to do it for myself. As soon as someone else checks up on me I get annoyed and would rather not do it. Maybe to prove how little I care about their opinion? I don’t know. It’s a weird thing that I do. • make my habit short, specific, repeatable, daily Write for 30 minutes every day. • have a consistent, precise, frequent, logical trigger After I have my first coffee, I will write for 30 minutes every day. • have a reward that is delivered quickly, emotional, physical and social I’m not that comfortable with this one, so I’ll keep the reward small and silly. I’m going to play an applause track after my 60 minutes (find one yourself). I’m also going to cross off a day on my tracker. • have a reminder I’m going to keep my Habit planner out. I’m got Todoist reminders. • have a reason After I have my first coffee, I will write for 30 minutes every day because I am the type of person who values words, and I believe that everything starts with writing. • have small wins I am not trying to write a book. I am trying to practise my writing skills, and come out of November with 30 x 30 minutes of words. My small wins will include: 1. Writing for 30 minutes in the morning. 2. Writing for 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes in the evening. 3. Writing for 20 minutes in the morning. 4. Writing for 10 minutes any time. 5. Brainstorm a subject to write on. 6. Write an interesting heading. 7. Write a list. • identify possible loopholes so that I can avoid them with closers “I don’t have anything to write about” – well then write about not having anything to write about. “I don’t have time” – write in the morning, when there is nothing else to do. “This is stupid” – you made a promise to yourself for a reason. Trust that you knew what you were doing when you made it. • choose an inviting environment I’ll be starting this out in Cape Town, which is pretty much the best environment. I’ll sit outside with my laptop and Table Mountain in the background. Once I get back home I’ll keep my desk uncluttered, with a fresh vase of flowers on it. • track my habit I’ll be using my Habit planner to track each day, my feelings, and anything I want to note. • choose an accountability system I’ll be sharing on the Facebook page once per week, and occasionally on Instagram. • evaluate my 30 days There will be a habit debrief on the Facebook group on the 1 December.

30 DAY TIMELINE • Pre-Habit Month: create Habit planner, print it out, use an A5 Flip File to store notes • Day Zero: all this planning, complete Tiago Forte course • Day One: first day of the habit • Day One to Seven: practise habit, complete Tiny Habits • Day Eight: Week One Check In • Day Eight to 14: practise habit • Day 15: Week Two Check In • Day 15 to 21: practise habit • Day 22: Week Three Check In • Day 22 to 30: practise habit • Day 31: Overall Check In and Evaluation

FREEBIE If you didn’t grab the freebie from the other post, here it is again for you.

I’ve started a private Facebook group for anyone who wants to make a habit this November. Let me know if you’d like to join. I invited those who commented on yesterday’s post, feel free to decline. No pressure. SHARE THIS: • Share 23 COMMENTS

Connie Tacazon on 2 Nov 2014 at 15:19 Yes! Can you please add me to the facebook group? Thank you!!!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:30 Done!

Celia on 2 Nov 2014 at 23:34 Could I be added to the facebook group please? Thank you :)

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:31 Of course. YAY.

Donna G. on 3 Nov 2014 at 04:48 This is brilliant, Caylee! I would really like to incorporate something like this into my life, because there are several new habits I need to have. Problem for me: bad timing. For one week in November I’ll have all my kids here from around the US. It’s the first time we’ve all been together in two years. I’m in major clean-up, fix-up mode to get everything ready for them. I would like to be in your Facebook, if you’re okay with it. I need to think how I can work this out. PS. I can’t wait to read all of your writing that comes out of this!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:31 I’m so happy to have you with us ♥

Stephanie on 3 Nov 2014 at 11:34 Wow, girl. You are THOROUGH!!! This is what they call In it to win it :) Thanks for all the reading material on habits, ealier. I figured I’d start with a bit of a ‘light’ habit this month, after that Whole30 thingie I just did, but I’m excited for more later on. I’m definitely inspired by your enthousiasm! Xo

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:32 I’ve gotta be thorough to get it done!

Alizée on 3 Nov 2014 at 15:14 Hi ! I discovered your blog not so long ago and really love reading about your goal setting process and the way you implement new habits into your lifestyle. Your last two posts have really inspired me to create new habits too – for the next thirty days I’m going to be working on getting away from the internet (I tend to procrastinate so much because of it) + on being more intentional with the way I spend my (hopefully shorter) time on it. I hope your first days are going well !

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:38 That’s a fabulous habit! Have you read Andrea’s posts about that? There is so much value in them.

andrea on 3 Nov 2014 at 21:30 I’m cheering you on!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:40 YAY! I knew you would approve.

cheyenne on 4 Nov 2014 at 07:57 this sounds amazing. writing is one of the habits i want to get back into as well – i’d love to join the facebook group! xo, cheyenne

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:43 Send me an email if you haven’t been added.

Sara, cloverdew.com on 5 Nov 2014 at 17:16 This sounds like such a great challenge. I love it. I am doing NaNoWriMo for the 10th year. I’m excited, but also need motivation. And I would love to be part of the facebook group if you can find me to add. How’s it going so far?

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:43 I added you via email, but if it didn’t work, send me an email. x

Sara, cloverdew.com on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:54 I don’t think it worked, but I just followed Pretty Organised as Sara Kate – maybe you can add me that way? Thanks! <3

Tiago Forte on 11 Nov 2014 at 01:05 Great job Caylee! I love the intention you’ve put into this, and sharing it here with your community is a great accountability tool. If you don’t make it to the end you’ll never live it down haha. I would encourage you to also post your progress in a Skillshare project workspace, so I can see and comment on updates to your progress, and others can learn from you. Mind if I link to this blog post in the Community Forum: Writing? (http://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Design-Your-Habits-A-Hands-On-Introduction-to-Behavior-Design/978368389/classroom/discussions/20420?type=Question)

Caylee on 26 Nov 2014 at 07:20 Whoops, this comment totally skipped my email. Thanks for your remarks. No problem sharing the link in the forum. I think I will certainly share my stuff on Skillshare for my second habit month.

kay on 25 Nov 2014 at 17:41 I’d love to join as well!

Caylee on 26 Nov 2014 at 07:18 Invited you by email. If you don’t get it, send me an email. xx

Flo on 30 Nov 2014 at 15:23 I found your blog a few months ago and have since become a regular reader :) Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much for sharing this and detailing your process ! This is pretty much exactly what I had been looking for. I headed straight to Skillshare (and agree with you, Tiago Forte’s class is amazing) and am now planning a writing habit starting December 1st based on this class. Seeing your own plan was really helpful and motivating too :) Are you planning to do something else in December ?

Katie on 1 Dec 2014 at 17:28 Wow, great planning! I am trying to establish a similar habit (also taking Tiago’s course!). I’d love to hear about your challenges and triumphs establishing this habit for a full month. Also, if your FB group is still open I’d love to join! TRACKBACKS/PINGBACKS 1. 30 Day Habit Challenge | amelia writes. - […] by Caylee, I worked through Tiago Forte’s Design Your Habit course on Skillshare and came up with my […] These pixels are loved and © by Caylee Greyvenstein. By looking at their gorgeousness, you are consenting to our terms and privacy policy.

From <http://cayleegrey.com/30-days-to-a-new-habit-day-zero/>



My GRE reading method: 1. First read for comprehension while noting important ideas/arguments/passages (highlighting) 2. Quick skim from the start jumping from section to section, picking up key words and phrases (bolding) 3. Make quick mental summary (summary/notes) After doing this mental highlighting, bolding, and summarizing you have a accurate map of the passage. This makes it easy to answer most questions, as you can quickly find any relevant passages in the text with you map. And after summarizing the passage right after two passes (reading + skimming) the main idea/purpose of the passage becomes clear. I tried applying my GRE method to general reading, but it is too tiring to apply to long, dense readings that you are unsure are valuable or not. Prog summarization allowed me to recognize I could spread out the steps over time and come back to items and improve comprehensibility when something I read 2 months ago was suddenly relevant. I didn't need to do all the heavy upfront mental work at once that my GRE method req.. Another valuable insight of PS was using highlighting and bolding to mark the mental steps I was taking in my GRE method. Basically a way to *save* all the mental work I was doing when reading. Another similarity between the steps in my GRE method and PS was the focus on resonance. Why trying to develop a method for tackling the GRE, many articles tell you to track arguments, evidence, counter-evidence etc which is taxing. Plus, you never knew which things you were formally tracking would actually help you answer q's. Eventually I just ignored what I was should have been formally tracking and focused on sentences that screamed 'Wow! This seems important!'. This a painless, natural way to put a few trail markers on the passage, which aids in searching for text relevant to a question. Another thing I learned from my GRE is that the first pass is expensive and unavoidable. But all the work afterwards is cheap. A 20 minute passage will take 20 minutes the first time. No way of getting around this. And you usually end up with meh comprehension. But the second, third time w/ skimming take 90%+ less time to get new insights + improved comprehension. During skimming on the GRE I often ran into missed key words or phrase turns when skimming. This often saved my butt when answering ?s. Progressive summarization even gets you further. A 20 min passage takes a min or two to re-upload after highlighting. A min after bolding. 30 secs after summarizing. Each step improves comprehension. And since the steps are spread temporally, versus a tight time period like on the GRE. the text can simmer in your subconscious. which often leads to deeper insights I'm still amazed how similar my method for the GRE and progressive summarization are. And how powerful both are for comprehending text. My (pseudo) PS GRE reading method helped land me a 170/170 on the GRE V section and PS in general has improved my 'second brain'. I mainly wanted to offer proof of PS being viable for rapid comprehension/deep compression in a short time frame. I'm not sure if there are many use cases for this outside of standardized testing environments, but if there are, PS is an option. I can see it being useful for comprehending a lot of articles relevant to a paper in a short time frame. But don't grind through a stack applying PS steps in rapid succession. You'll burn out quick. Interleave instead. Read and highlight a few articles first. Once you are The bold them. And then highlight new batch. Then summarize the first batch. Next bold the second batch. Interleave!

From <https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/967947650359275520.html>

The Full Curriculum Unit 1: Introduction to the Course What to expect: schedule, roadmap, format, communication, and the 3 pillars of the course Our objective: to learn how to use digital notes as thinking tools — to capture, organize, and retrieve our ideas and insights What is Personal Knowledge Management, and why does it matter? Why organization and collaboration are the missing links in creative knowledge work Evaluate your knowledge management skills across 11 dimensions of performance and confidence (with post-course evaluation to measure your progress) Unit 2: Organizing for Insight Review the 8 requirements for a universal digital organizational system Understand the subtle but important difference between short-term projects and ongoing areas of responsibility Feeling unorganized? Deploy the P.A.R.A. method to organize all your digital information across multiple platforms Discover why almost no one has an effective Project List (a dashboard of current commitments) and how to fix it step by step, with feedback and guidance Banish information overload using Magic Number 4: a helpful constraint to preserve your working memory Hone your ability to scale your attention at different horizons using actionability gradients Update and clarify your Project List, and use it to organize your files across all platforms using the P.A.R.A. method Unit 3: Digital Cognition Use the 4 essential requirements for digital note-taking to help you evaluate and select a digital note-taking program How to amplify the single biggest opportunity for making new connections without expending more time and effort: productive randomness Stigmergy: practical lessons on productivity from the study of emergence How to utilize the under-appreciated power of incubation: heavy lifts vs. slow burns What the Feynman Method can teach us about "punching above our intellectual weight" Find out how the best note-takers build intellectual capital using compounding gains Transform raw material into knowledge ammunition: how to use digital notes to form valuable bodies of knowledge for a side project, career advancement, or new business Identify your personal research and learning priorities using the Feynman Method, as a filter for incoming information Unit 4: Progressive Summarization Understand the pros and cons of tagging-first, notebook-first, and note-first database designs Become skilled at balancing discoverability and understanding to increase the return-on-investment of your note taking Don’t have time for reading and research? Apply Progressive Summarization to surface key points for later review Strategic laziness over rigid rules: note-taking strategies that leverage human nature, instead of fighting it How to design individual notes for “glanceability” and recognition over recall Moving from “black box” knowledge management to a Personal Information Landscape Avoiding the perils of problem definition: balancing compression vs. context Practice Progressive Summarization on one of your notes Unit 5: Maximizing Return-on-Attention Explore the hard science of transient hypofrontality: how to maximize mental states of flow for performance, enjoyment, and learning Understanding the impact of setup and transaction costs (environmental, mental, and emotional) on productivity How to create intermediate packets: exposing your personal value chain for rapid feedback and learning Become interruption-proof: placeholding, chunking, and modular deliverables Understand the relationship between small batch sizes, quality, learning, and experiences of flow for knowledge workers Wresting with knowledge: why interacting with information is so much more effective than consuming it Encoding variability: how to externalize your thinking and accelerate your learning using different types of media Turn one of your notes into a new deliverable designed to generate valuable, targeted feedback Unit 6: Just-In-Time Project Management Learn Just-In-Time Project Management: a pull system for managing reference materials and executing on deliverables Why you should think of workflow as strategy, and apply solutions to specific problems Divergence and convergence: use design thinking to escape any dead-end Choose from among 16 proven workflow strategies, with examples, case studies, and downloadable templates Banish procrastination using the Archipelago of Ideas approach to new projects Mood-based productivity: using fast cycle time, opportunistic tagging, and active sorting to maintain motivation and leverage unique states of mind How to generate novel insights and valuable deliverables using personal design sprints Using universal design principles (affordances, signifiers, constraints, mappings, and feedback) to plan the structure of your work Select and try out 3 of the 16 workflow strategies on one or more of your projects or deliverables Unit 7: PKM Workflow Canvas Step-by-step walkthrough to complete our proprietary PKM Workflow Canvas, an evolving map of your personal knowledge management system Review your notes from all the previous units to select the techniques you will integrate into your workflow Summarize your main learnings from the course, as a checklist and reminder for future projects Visualize the map of your personal knowledge management system, in a physical artifact that can be improved over time Get feedback on further areas for improvement, based on the exercises you completed in the course In-depth case study of using PKM to rapidly plan and execute a Forte Labs client project Complete your PKM Workflow Canvas with the tools, techniques, and strategies you've selected and customized for your needs Unit 8: The Big Picture Container vs. stream thinking: changing paradigms for a world of information abundance Understand why situational awareness and curation are the key skills required to navigate streams of information Learn how to strengthen creative confidence by identifying and overcoming limiting beliefs around your productivity, thinking, and learning Realize the full potential of digital notes: integrating P.A.R.A. + Progressive Summarization + Workflow Strategies into your daily routine The future of productivity and personal knowledge management Q A Do I have to take the bundled courseGet Stuff Done Like a Boss before this one starts? No...but I recommend it. We'll be building on the foundational principles introduced in that course, and having a functional workflow already in place will be a huge level-upper for this bootcamp. At a minimum, I recommend watching the videos, which only takes a couple hours total. How quickly should I complete the course material? Move entirely at your own pace. Some learners may want to rapidly view all the units at once. I recommend finishing two course units per week, which results in a total duration of a month. Don't forget to leave enough time to do the exercises in each unit, since that's where the real learning takes place. Q A Justin Brandt Graduate student in Systems Engineering San Jose State University





Ellen Koenig Senior Data Scientist, Fintech company Germany "I’m also impressed how much more nuance there is to seemingly simple techniques such as progressive summarization that I though I understood already. And I love that in the individual coaching sessions I am being challenged to apply the material in real-life situations that I would never have considered.”

 Chris Mazder Olympic luge athlete New York "I am finding this course extremely beneficial and have actively taken a step back from my current projects to re-evaluate how I pretty much do everything (in a good way!!!). If anything, the course might be moving a little too fast as I am still finding flaws in my own unique approach (based off the teachings) to PKM and trying to address them while we are moving to the next phases of this course. But, I love how all of the information and lectures have remained up so I can always go back if I need helpor want to re-visit a certain topic.”

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Doug von Kohorn Software Engineer, ConsenSys New York, NY "In the two months since starting, I've produced three blog posts, planned three backpacking trips, decluttered my room, created an enterprise workshop, and got admitted into a developer conference. All using the *SAME* system! I'm living the PARA lifestyle now, and I'm never going back. This way lies not just productivity, but happiness and ease of mind...I started with no experience with GTD. I didn't understand constraints. I never used a note-taking tool...Take this course to start to feel agency in the world of infinite information and filter failure!"

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Moritz Bierling Blockchain Reporter, Neufund Berlin, Germany "Everybody knows that having a productivity system can massively boost your success, but barely anyone even recognizes their own need for approaching their own creative process in an equally systematic way. My work, like any other knowledge professional, depends massively on my ability to constantly learn new things and use them in creative ways. BASB has completely killed my FOMO; what's more, I am able to put together a presentation in a matter of minutes instead of days, which has opened up so many opportunities."

 Jimmy Conway Principal, Free Flow Partners Bay of Plenty, New Zealand "Imagine being able to recall all the really interesting things you've ever read, seen and done. How good would that be? Any problem,any piece of creative work boosted with a library of relevant material right there at your fingertips. That's powerful. Well this course helps you do just that. It's fast paced, expertly taught and full of examples, exercises and discussion that help you organise all the really interesting, useful stuff in your life into a system that allows easy access. I wish I had done it years ago."

 Results Graduates report an average 108.4% improvement in their "overall note-taking system and approach"

Listen to Tiago's interview on the official Evernote podcast, Take Note: Click here for more written, video, and audio testimonials Download Quiz Download a free self-assessment to determine your current level of personal knowledge management

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Step-by-step narrated walkthroughs of setting up a PKM system using Evernote, from downloading the program all the way to executing a project

Ryan Fitton Digital Analyst, Jora Melbourne, Australia "There is nothing on the web that will arm you with the perspectives encompassed within Building a Second Brain...With exposure to ideas such as manipulating traditional ‘flow’ states, how to become interruption-proof and getting a grip on your projects — the course is comprehensively transformative… Coupled with an extremely valuable community group, you are free to experiment with ideas, share and implement techniques and get valuable feedback. Whether it’s a complete mindset shift, a new way to use tools, defining and re-organising your projects, seamlessly capturing information, the ability to *use* rather than simply *consume*, or allowing for spontaneous connections — Building a Second Brain creates a space in your digital life which turns chaos into a bespoke system and approach to the digital landscape which optimises for creativity."

 Christian Champ, CFA Director, THL Credit Chicago, IL "In addition to Tiago's moderated sessions, you get to learn from a talented group of individuals that are taking the class with you, participating in breakout sessions and chatting on the message boards. This network effect allows you to experience and see how others are creating their systems, refining and remixing some of the techniques offered in the sessions and sharing additional information, thoughts and discussions relevant to the goals of the course. The amount of content that was created and shared by the participants provided immense value. Hearing how someone working in technology to finance to media to product management was using the methods introduced in the course opened me up to new approaches and avenues to test and refine my system. I can't recommend the course enough to anyone looking to level up their approach to managing the ever-increasing flow of information…"

Zachary Sexton Productivity coach and host of Able Business Radio podcast Austin, TX

 Productivity & self-improvement junkies Do you wonder how to save and make use of all the knowledge and insights you’ve gained when you need them most? Capture and cultivate apersonal collection of insights and knowledge from your experience Document and automate tasks and processes so you never have to do the same work twice Tame information overload and clear your mind by offloading your thinking onto digital tools Move faster and more decisively by reusing & combining existing assets Summarize your notes in ways that areintuitive, retrievable, and usable at a moment's notice Plan, enact, and review your workflow tomaximize your creative output Uncover connectionsbetween ideas and sources to produce higher quality work Create a digital environment that supports peace of mind, serendipity, and creative risk-taking Collect models, strategies, and examples in one place so you always know where to find them Transform how you use your devices, fromtime-wasters to value-creators Cast a wider net in your information consumption, creatinglearning opportunitiesin any situation Make your digital note-taking system a control center for tactical, lightning-fast action

 TRENDING: Progressive Summarization: A Practical Technique for De...

HOME START HERE FREE POSTS MEMBERSHIP PRAXIS FORTE LABS SIGN IN Progressive Summarization V: The Faster You Forget, The Faster You Learn Posted by Tiago Forte | Mar 5, 2018 | Free, Workflow | Series Navigation: Progressive Summarization << Progressive Summarization IV: Compressing All Types of Media PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 In Part I, I introduced Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you examples and metaphors of the method in action. Part III included my top recommendations for how to perform it effectively. Part IV showed how to apply the technique to non-text media. In Part V, I’ll show you how Progressive Summarization directly contributes to the ultimate outcome we’re seeking with our information consumption: learning. The burden of perfect memory In traditional schooling, the ability to recall something from memory is taken as the clearest evidence that someone has learned something. This is the regurgitation model of learning — the more accurately you are able to reproduce it, without adding any of your own interpretation or creativity, the higher your mark. But in the real world, perfect recall is far from ideal. This New York Times article tells the fascinating story of the 60 or so people known to have a condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). They can remember most of the days of their lives as clearly as the rest of us remember yesterday. Ask one of them what they were doing on the afternoon of March 16, 1996, and within just a few seconds they’ll be able to describe that day in vivid detail. These are people who have achieved the holy grail of recall — perfect memory. And yet, they often describe it as a burden: “Everyone has those forks in the road, ‘If I had just done this and gone here, and nah nah nah,’ everyone has those,” she told me. “Except everyone doesn’t remember every single one of them.” Her memory is a map of regrets, other lives she could have lived. “I do this a lot: what would be, what would have been, or what would be today,” she said….“I’m paralysed, because I’m afraid I’m going to fuck up another whole decade,” she said. She has felt this way since 30 March, 2005, the day her husband, Jim, died at the age of 42. Price bears the weight of remembering their wedding on Saturday, 1 March 2003, in the house she had lived in for most of her life in Los Angeles, just before her parents sold it, as heavily as she remembers seeing Jim’s empty, wide-open eyes after he suffered a major stroke, had fallen into a coma and been put on life support on Friday, 25 March 2005. It seems that perfect memory isn’t quite the blessing you’d expect. The importance of forgetting I propose that forgetting is just as important to the process of learning as recall. As the world changes faster and more unpredictably, attachment to ideas and paradigms of the past becomes more and more of a liability. Contrast this with most books and courses on “accelerated learning,” which tend to offer two kinds of approaches: #1 Increase the flow of information entering the brain This leads to techniques like spritzing, listening to audiobooks on 2x speed, speed reading, focusing on already highly condensed sources, blocking distractions, deep focus, and biaural beats. #2 Improve memory and recall of this information This leads to techniques like spaced repetition, memory palaces, mnemonics, music and rhyming, acronyms, and mindmapping. All these techniques work. And they completely miss the point. They both operate with the same misguided metaphor: the mind as an empty vessel. You fill it with information like filling a jug with water, which you can then retrieve and put to use later. With this framing, your goal is to maximize how much you can get in, and how much you can take out. But there’s a fundamental difference between a mind and a static container like a jug of water or a filing cabinet: a mind can not just store things; it can take action. And taking action is where true learning actually takes place. Here’s the problem: the more we optimize for storage, the more we interfere with action. The more information we try to consume, meticulously catalogue, and obsessively review, the less time and space remain for the actions that matter: application, implementation, experimentation, conversation, immersion, experience, collaboration, making mistakes. Learning is not an activity, process, or outcome that you can dial in and optimize to perfection. It is an emergent phenomenon, like consciousness, attention, or love. These states become harder and harder to achieve by trying to force them, a phenomenon known as hyper-intention. The truth is, we don’t need to “accelerate” or “improve” the way our mind learns — that is what it evolved to do. All day, all night, whether you’re working or resting, talking or listening, focused or mind-wandering — your brain never stops drawing relationships, making connections, and noticing correlations. You couldn’t stop learning if you wanted to. Knowing that our brain is continuously collecting information, our goal switches from remembering as much as possible, to forgetting as much as possible. The information bottleneck Contrast this dim view of perfect memory with this article on new deep learning techniques in artificial intelligence. Specifically, a new theory called the “information bottleneck.” The basic question researchers were trying to answer was, how do you decide which are the most relevant features of a given piece of information? When you hear someone speak a sentence, how do you know to ignore their accent, breathing sounds, background noise, and even words you didn’t quite catch, and still receive the gist of the message? It is a problem fundamental to artificial intelligence research, since computers will tend to give equal weight to all these inputs, and thus end up thoroughly confused. It turns out, our highly constrained bandwidth for absorbing information is not a hindrance, but key to our ability to perform this feat. What our brain does is discard as much of the incoming noisy data as possible, reducing the amount of data it has to track and process. In other words, our brain’s ability to “forget” as much information as quickly as possible is what allows us to focus on the core message. This is also how advanced new deep learning techniques work. Take for example an algorithm being trained to recognize images of dogs. A set of training data (thousands of dog photos) is fed into the algorithm, and a cascade of firing activity sweeps upward through layers of artificial neurons. When the signal reaches the top layer, the final firing pattern is compared to a correct label for the image — “dog” or “no dog.” Any difference between the final pattern and the correct pattern are “back-propagated” down the layers. Like a teacher correcting an exam and handing it back, the algorithm strengthens or weakens the network’s connections to make it better at producing the correct label next time. This process is divided into two parts: in an initial “fitting” phase, the algorithm “memorizes” as much of the training data as possible. It tries to learn as much as possible about how to assign the correct labels. This is followed by a much longer compression phase, during which it gets better at generalizing what it has learned to new images it hasn’t seen before. The key to this compression phase is the rapid shedding of noisy data, holding onto only the strongest correlations. For example, over time the algorithm will weaken connections between photos of dogs and houses, since most photos don’t contain both. It might at the same time strengthen connections between “dogs” and “fur,” since that is a stronger correlation. It is the “forgetting of the specifics,” the researchers argue, that enables the algorithm to learn general concepts, not just memorize millions of photos. Experiments show that deep learning algorithms rapidly improve their performance at generalization only in the compression phase. The key to generalizing the information we consume — to learning — is strictly limiting the incoming flow of information we consume in the first place, AND then forgetting as much of the extraneous detail as soon as we can. Sure, we lose some detail, but detail is not what the brain is best at anyway. It is best at making meaning, at finding order in chaos, at seeing the signal in the noise. This paper on the role of forgetting in learning used problem-solving algorithms to determine exactly how much forgetting was optimal. Using a series of experiments testing different hypotheses, they found that the optimal strategy involved learning a large body of knowledge initially, followed by random forgetting of approximately 90% of the knowledge acquired. In other words, performance improved as knowledge was forgotten, right up until the 90% mark, after which it rapidly deteriorated. Strikingly, they found that this was true even if that 90% included problem-solving routines known to be correct and useful. Trying to “forget” only the least useful knowledge also didn’t help — random forgetting performed far better. The researchers used these results to argue for the existence of “knowledge of negative value” — forgetting it actually adds value. Progressive Summarization is not a method for remembering as much as possible — it is a method for forgetting as much as possible. For offloading as much of your thinking as possible, leaving room for imagination, creativity, and mind-wandering. Preserving the lower layers provides a safety net that gives you the confidence to reduce a text by an order of magnitude with each pass. You are free to strike out boldly on the trail of a hidden core message, knowing that you can walk it back to previous layers if you make a mistake or get lost. Minimizing cognitive load How does Progressive Summarization help you offload as much of your thinking as possible? By minimizing the cognitive burden of interacting with information at all stages — initial consumption, review, and retrieval. Cognitive load theory (CLT) was developed in the late 1980s by John Sweller, while studying problem solving and learning in children. He looked at how different kinds of tasks placed different demands on people’s working memory. The more complex and difficult the task, the higher the “cognitive load” it placed on the learner, and the greater the perceived mental effort required to complete it. He believed the design of educational materials could greatly reduce the cognitive load on learners, contributing to great advances in instructional design. CLT proposes that there are three kinds of cognitive load when it comes to learning: Inherent: the inherent difficulty of the topic (adding 2+2 vs. solving a differential equation, for example) Extraneous cognitive load: the design or presentation of instructional materials (showing a student a picture of a square vs. trying to explain it verbally, for example) Germane cognitive load: effort put into creating a permanent store of knowledge (such as notes, outlines, diagrams, categories, or lists) Instructional design, inspired by CLT, focuses on two goals: Reducing inherent load by breaking information into small parts which can be learned in isolation, and then reassembled into larger wholes Redirecting extraneous load into germane load (i.e. focusing learner’s attention on the construction of permanent stores of knowledge) P.S. accomplishes both objectives. It reduces the inherent difficulty of the topic you’re reading about by eliminating the necessity of understanding it completely upfront. It instead treats each paragraph as a small, self-contained unit. Your only goal is to surface the key point in each “chunk” — each chapter, section, paragraph, and sentence — leaving it to your future self to figure out how to string those insights together. It also helps redirect extraneous load into germane load, by saving all these chunks in a permanent store of knowledge, like a software program. You no longer have to hold in your head all the previous points in a text, and fit each new point into that structure on the fly. You dedicate your effort to constructing small chunks of permanent knowledge, which will be saved for later review. But reducing cognitive load isn’t just about making learning easier. As learning becomes easier, it also becomes faster, better, deeper, and stronger. Recall as inhibition Why is minimizing cognitive load so important to making learning deeper and stronger? Because new learning can be impaired when a reader is trying to remember too many things at once. The more bandwidth being used for remembering and memorizing, the less bandwidth is available for understanding, analyzing, interpreting, contextualizing, questioning, and absorbing in any given period of time. Like a bursting hard drive slows down a computer with even the fastest RAM, a brain crammed full of facts and figures starts to slow down even the smartest person. This blog post describes recent research on what is known as “proactive inhibition of memory formation.” Offloading our thinking to an external tool lowers the brain’s workload as it encounters new information. In the experiments above, telling participants they didn’t have to remember a list of items enhanced their memory for a second list of items. At first, offloading your thinking seems to cause you to remember less. Especially if you do it immediately, as you read, such as with highlighting. The ideas seem to jump directly from the page to your notes, barely touching your brain. But in the long run, you actually end up remembering more. Being able to frictionlessly hand off highlighted passages to an external tool, free of the anxiety that comes with keeping many balls in the air, you’re free to encounter the next idea with an empty mind. If it’s compelling, it will stick, regardless of any fancy memorization techniques you may think you need.

The more you try to memorize what’s in any given book, the less bandwidth left over for seeing the patterns across them Your attachment to what you already know may actually interfere with your ability to understand new ideas. Clinging to our notecards, diagrams, and memorization schemes, we may be missing out on simply being present. Carefree immersion is, after all, how children learn. And they are the best learners in the world. Training your intuition Technology has given us the ability to “remember everything.” Coming from a legacy of information scarcity, this feels like a huge blessing. But it’s clear the blessing has become a curse. Our brains and our bodies are breaking under the strain of constant, high-volume, 24/7 information flows. We must transition from knowledge hoarders to knowledge curators. We must learn how to frame our options about what to read, watch, and review in a way that restricts what we pay attention to, so we can see clearly instead of being overwhelmed. What is being called into question is the very purpose of learning. What is learning for, now that we can access any knowledge on demand? Learning is no longer about accumulating data points, but training our algorithm. Our algorithm is our intuition — our felt sense about what matters, what is relevant, what is interesting, and what is important, even if we’ve never seen it before and can’t explain why we like it. What’s interesting is that, just like the deep learning experiments mentioned above, we still need massive amounts of data for the initial training phase. In other words, we need diverse, intense, personal experience. But 90% of the data we collect through these experiences can be ignored, discarded, or forgotten. What is left over is wisdom — the distilled nuggets of insight that, when deployed in the real world by someone who knows how to use them, can uncompress into dazzling feats of accomplishment. These nuggets of wisdom apply across a wide range of situations, can be communicated from person to person, and even last for centuries as timeless works of art. Progressive Summarization is about using the information you consume as training data for your intuition. You can consume a lot more, because you’re able to continuously offload it. But more importantly, even if you lost all that data, you would still be left with the greatest prize: who you’ve become and what you’re sensitive to as a result of the diversity and depth of your personal experience. The new purpose of learning is to enable you to adapt, as the pace of change continues to accelerate and the amount of uncertainty in the world continues to spiral upward. This occurs at every level: adapting your lifestyle to fit changing societal conditions; adapting your productivity to fit changing workplace norms; adapting your communication style to fit new kinds of collaboration; adapting your thinking process to fit new ways of solving problems. It applies right down to the most narrow tasks — the hardest part about writing this article were the mental gymnastics I had to perform to not get stuck on my assumptions about what I was trying to say. Making a dent in a universe that keeps changing shape increasingly requires working on projects and problems that are FAR bigger than you can hold in your head. The challenges of our time are vast and cross the disciplinary boundaries that experts limit themselves to. We need people who can hold the context of two or more completely different fields in their heads at once, and then apply their highly trained intuition to finding patterns and hidden connections. A lot of people sense this intuitively, but their attempts to memorize and to recall all this context are futile. There’s simply way too much to know. And in the meantime you get frazzled, overwhelmed, and isolated attempting to do so. This is how we are missing some of our best and brightest minds, lost in their organizational systems as the world falls to pieces. What we need is people who know how to recruit networks to “know” for them. Networks of people, objects, images, computers, communities, relationships, and places. To connect, unite, inspire, and facilitate collaboration between these networks. And what does that take? It takes courage, to let go of the security of knowing everything ourselves. It takes vulnerability, to depend on others for our progress and success. It takes presence, noticing what we notice and being willing to bet on it before we know exactly why. It takes curiosity, being willing to ask questions that don’t yet have answers, or any reasonable path to an answer. It takes pushing through our assumptions about how learning should look to get what we know in the hands of someone who needs it, right now. Subscribe to Praxis, our members-only blog exploring the future of productivity, for just $10/month. Or follow us for free content via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or YouTube. PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 Series Navigation: Progressive Summarization << Progressive Summarization IV: Compressing All Types of Media SHARE: RATE:



PREVIOUSBeyond the Orange Curtain — Adventures of an Orange County Kid in South America NEXTMy interview on the Buddhist Geeks Podcast ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tiago Forte Founder of productivity consultancy/training firm Forte Labs, and editor of Praxis. RELATED POSTS The Top 5 Misconceptions Keeping You From Creating an Online Class October 3, 2014 My interview on the Buddhist Geeks Podcast March 5, 2018 Breaking Paradigms: Khe Hy interviews Tiago Forte May 5, 2017 Testimonials for Building a Second Brain June 27, 2017 Join the discussion at forum.fortelabs.co

From <https://praxis.fortelabs.co/progressive-summarization-v-the-faster-you-forget-the-faster-you-learn-916b59a4e00f/>



Evernote Skip to main content Sign In Plans MENU Latest News Tips & Stories At Work Twitter Facebook Google LinkedIn TIPS & STORIES Podcast: Tiago Forte’s Approach to Productivity Posted by Forrest Dylan Bryant on 22 May 2017 The Taking Note podcast is back and moving from a monthly to a bi-weekly schedule! For this episode and the next, we were pleased to invite productivity consultant Tiago Forte down to Evernote HQ for a two-part interview. Check out Part 1 now: Taking Note: Episode 5 Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Length: 22 minutes iTunes | SoundCloud | Overcast | MP3 | RSS You may recognize Tiago’s name from his guest posts for the Evernote blog, in which he’s argued for a brain-based approach to creative workflows and changing the productivity curve of our work days. More recently, he’s launched “Building a Second Brain,” a productivity boot camp for personal knowledge management. Highlights of our conversation are transcribed below. To hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note,” head over to iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast. Let’s talk about the modern workforce. We all live in this giant paradox. We’ve got access to endless information and we’ve got more flexible ways to work than every before, but at the same time, we’ve got so many inputs. Our days are fractured. We’re frustrated. We’re burning out. And to add a paradox on top of a paradox, we’ve got this seemingly endless series of solutions which are presented to us, prescriptions and methods for productivity. What’s your solution to this problem? It’s just what you said. I mean, with great freedom comes great responsibility, right? It’s like we’re kids getting out of school, just throwing off our backpacks, “We’re free. We can work anytime, anywhere, on any device.” But then, summer vacation starts and we realize we’re kind of bored or frustrated or stressed because all the structure that is there in the workplace is gone. And I kind of have a theory about this. I call it the rise of the freelance generalist. Freelancing has been around a long time, but almost by definition you had to be a specialist. You had to be a very niche, focused specialist because that was the only way that you had skills that could be monetized easily enough that you could do away with the organization. And that kind of provided its own structure. You’d wake up in the morning and know that you were doing copywriting, you were doing coding, you were doing design. It was pretty straightforward. Now, I think technology is reaching an inflection point where it’s easy to use enough, cheap enough, seamless enough, frictionless enough, that you can be a generalist, which is what I consider myself to be, and make a living as a freelancer using these tools. Are there solutions out there that you find are counterproductive? Yes, there are. In particular, the trend with deep work. I’m opposed. You know, I get it. People are feeling frazzled and just scatterbrained and all these things. But I really think this idea that you’re sort of this monastic knowledge worker, that you’re going to enter your chambers and just think deeply for hours and hours and hours on end, is a holdover from that freelance specialist mindset. And following up on that idea of a generalist as a freelancer, to do that effectively you need a portfolio. You can’t have just one narrow skill that you do. YOU NEED A PORTFOLIO. YOU CAN’T HAVE JUST ONE NARROW SKILL THAT YOU DO. And this is kind of how I think now. I have free products — like my blog I write for free for lead generation — but then I have other things that are not free, like online courses. Then I have consulting and corporate training for companies, but also one-on-one coaching for consumers. So it’s like I’m constantly managing this portfolio of products and services. Some are passive, some are active. What that requires is not this kind of intense mono-focus. It requires being very skilled and fluid with switching between things. Multi-tasking is not going away. That’s not a disease or a plague. It’s just the way the world is going. We can either fight it and treat it like a threat, or we can get better at it. You wrote a guest piece for the Evernote blog not too long ago where you got into some of these topics. You argued that since our days are filled with these interruptions constantly, and those interruptions do make it harder to deliver value from our work, maybe instead of trying to alter the shape of our days, we should try to alter the shape of our value curves and deliver more value in smaller pieces throughout the day. That post came from a lot of research I’d been doing on the history of productivity, specifically manufacturing. And it’s kind of amazing being here in Silicon Valley that we have this breathless fascination with technology and the future, which is great, but a side effect of that is we ignore history. If you look at the history of manufacturing, one of the great, great insights that took decades and decades to discover was small batches, right? That was one of the key breakthroughs to better quality, to speed, to more throughput, to more profitability in manufacturing. And then you go to knowledge work and you have the deep work thing, which is another way of saying big batch sizes. Deep work, spending hours and hours in deep flow, is a big batch size. So it’s like we’ve completely gone against decades of experience in manufacturing. But, like with the example of Toyota developing this entire culture around it, using small batch sizes requires skill, and requires a different way of thinking and doing things. So with the question of changing the value curve, I always kind of come back to this idea that there’s no inherent structure to work. Work has no inherent unit. We make units; we make tasks, and projects, and milestones, and goals. But nothing about those is inherent in the nature of work. So that’s a little scary because it’s all arbitrary, but it’s also an opportunity because it means we can use whatever units we want. THERE’S NO INHERENT STRUCTURE TO WORK. WORK HAS NO INHERENT UNIT. WE MAKE UNITS. BUT NOTHING ABOUT THOSE IS INHERENT IN THE NATURE OF WORK. Say, the word “project.” That word comes with baggage. All these ideas about how big should a project be, how long should it last, how much money should it make, how many people should be on a project? I almost like using different words. I have this one word “intermediate packet.” Instead of “deliverable,” I say an intermediate packet. Try to finish every working session, whether it’s 15 minutes or 8 hours, with an intermediate packet that you expose to the world; that you get some sort of feedback on. I look at my to-do lists and I’m kind of overwhelmed by that. I don’t even necessarily get 25 minutes free because there are meetings and there are requests, and there are emails, and it’s all coming in constantly. Is there any way to get past that sense of overwhelm? There is, and this is starting to get into the particular philosophy I have around using Evernote, actually. This is my main project these days, it’s an online course called “Building a Second Brain,” that’s actually a virtual boot camp because it’s not self-paced, take whenever you want, however you want. It’s five weeks, really intense, two meetings per week, and live video conferences. And essentially, it’s an end-to-end personal knowledge management system. PKM, personal knowledge management, is related to PIM, personal information management. It’s basically making use of the knowledge that you gain on a personal level. Knowledge management, traditionally, has been organizations. When an employee walked out the door, all the knowledge that person had gained would go with them. So for years now, organizations have been trying to capture and catalog and use the knowledge of their employees. Well, now if you look at the research, employee tenure is at, I think, 2.3 years. We spend a couple of years at a company. We do a few projects, a certain number of projects, and we’re gone. We need a better way to take knowledge with us. Not proprietary, confidential stuff, but actually just the insights and the breakthroughs and the learnings that we gained in the course of our work. You mentioned that this plays into how you use Evernote. I know when you do the “Building a Second Brain” course and the other workshops you do, you try to structure them in a way so that they’re not tied to a particular platform or tool, but you are an Evernote user and Evernote is sort of the default example you give. So let’s talk about how you use Evernote. How is it set up? How is your personal Evernote set up? I have this method I’ve developed called PARA, which stands for projects, areas, resources, and archives. And the inspiration from this — a little bit of historical background — is something called the OODA loop, which stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. It was developed by this guy named Colonel John Boyd starting the the ’40s or ’50s. He essentially used it to revolutionize aircraft fighter warfare. And it was basically a way of thinking about how to react dynamically to quickly changing conditions. You observe, you orient yourself, you decide on a course of action, and then you act. It’s been an incredible inspiration for a lot of people in a lot of fields. It’s sort of underappreciated, the impact it’s had. But the thing that really sets is apart is it’s not a static way of thinking. It’s not like a flow chart — do A, do B, do C, do D. It’s loops, and then loops within loops, and then loops within those loops. Because you’re at all times intaking information, turning that into decisions, and then into actions. And it’s the same with PARA. PARA is 4 categories, and that’s kind of the starting point. You divide your work into projects, which I’m using here the GTD definition, a series of tasks linked to an outcome. Areas of responsibility: Some standard or area of your life that’s an ongoing concern; that you want to maintain on an ongoing basis. Resources: Basically, interests or topics. Things like website design. For me, it’s not a particular project — not even really an area because that’s not my work — but it’s something I’m interested in that I’d like to keep track of. And then Archives, which is anything from the previous three categories that’s no longer active, because you want to avoid clogging up your actionable categories. As soon as something is not top of mind, not front and center, you want to move it to the archives, but still keep it in case you want to go and find something there. You have a whole workshop around applying design thinking to workflows, and to doing day-to-day work. What concepts do you draw from design thinking, and how do they apply? Great question. Design thinking is an incredible way of thinking; an incredible movement, really, and taking place across many decades. The thing I take away the most from design thinking, especially when it comes to productivity and personal knowledge management, is just really the idea that you are a designer. Each one of us truly is a designer by nature, even if not by training. And that’s something that’s hard for people to get used to. EACH ONE OF US TRULY IS A DESIGNER BY NATURE, EVEN IF NOT BY TRAINING. AND THAT’S SOMETHING THAT’S HARD FOR PEOPLE TO GET USED TO. I actually had a previous course called “Design Your Habits.” It was on habit formation. And I had to be constantly explaining to people, because they would see “Design Your Habits” and they’d go “Oh, I’m not a designer. I didn’t go to design school.” And I’d have to be like, “No, you design habits. If you’re trying to lose weight and you want to change your diet, you design this whole routine that might be around exercise, or walking, or food. And you do that, in most cases, pretty instantaneously, intuitively, and just naturally on the course of your day.” It’s a spontaneous process, but it does involve, I think, a lot of the same steps; sort of looking around and taking stock of sort of the elements in front of you, thinking of a workflow and a process, having some sort of a feedback loop. Yes, design thinking, getting this process that has become a profession and bringing it back to its origins, which is just the way humans think. We are designers, we make, we create, we modify, we get new information and we change, we tweak. That’s completely natural to what it means to be human. You can hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note” at iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast EVERNOTE PREMIUM Upgrade for features to help you live and work smarter. GO PREMIUMVIEW MORE STORIES IN 'TIPS & STORIES' 2 COMMENTSRSS Aleksandra — Hi Dylan, Thank you so much for these tips – hope some of the people will incorporate them as healthy habits and start having more free time! Happy to inform that this article has been included in our recent Productivity Articles Roundup! Please find the entire list here: https://www.timecamp.com/blog/index.php/2017/05/productivity-articles-2652017/. Best, Aleksandra at TimeCamp Blumm — Magnífico. Muy oportuno. Me gustaría saber y conocer cómo integrar Evernote y GTD en uno. Gracias. Work offline. Anytime, anywhere. GO PREMIUM YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Podcast: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering Knowledge Podcast: Take Control of the New Year with Michael Hyatt Podcast: Jay Acunzo on Unconventional Thinking Blog: English Visit our Tech Blog Subscribe to our RSS feed PRODUCTS PRICING MARKET APP CENTER HELP AND LEARNING BLOG About Careers Legal Terms Privacy Evernote Skip to main content Sign In Plans MENU Latest News Tips & Stories At Work Twitter Facebook Google LinkedIn TIPS & STORIES Podcast: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering Knowledge Posted by Forrest Dylan Bryant on 05 Jun 2017 When it comes to productivity, there are plenty of people who want you to do things their way. Tiago Forte, a productivity consultant based in San Francisco, wants to help you think for yourself. “I try to provoke people,” he says. “I try to find what is becoming the common wisdom that ‘everyone’ knows, and just attack it. Because that gets people thinking.” In Part 1 of our podcast interview with Tiago, we talked about chaos in the modern workplace, the virtues of small-batch productivity vs. deep work, and the system Tiago has devised to organize his thinking in Evernote. For Part 2, we take a deeper look at how he structures his notes and get a peek into “Building a Second Brain,” Tiago’s five-week boot camp for personal knowledge management. Taking Note: Episode 6 Audio Player 00:00 00:00 Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume. Length: 20 minutes iTunes | SoundCloud | Overcast | MP3 | RSS Selected highlights of our conversation are transcribed below. Please note that this episode builds on concepts Tiago introduced in Episode 5, such as the “PARA” organizing system (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) and Tiago’s argument for breaking down work projects into “intermediate packets.” You may want to check out that episode before diving into this one. You wrote a guest blog post for us awhile back, a very lengthy one, and one that generated a lot of discussion. In it, you argued pretty forcefully against something that is a key factor in many people’s organization of Evernote, and that is tagging. If I remember correctly, you argued that it was putting a lot of effort where it wasn’t delivering value. Could you expand on that? I try to provoke people. I try to find what is becoming the common wisdom that “everyone” knows, and just attack it because it just gets people thinking. Like the comments on that post and the various messages I received through social media, in many cases people counter-arguing against me and saying, “No, you’re wrong for this reason, this reason, this reason.” That, right there, was some of the best thinking I’ve ever seen on this stuff. They were provoked into defending their viewpoint. I may have kind of been a bit melodramatic on purpose. It’s not that I never use tags or think tags are completely worthless. It’s just a pattern I see with people. Working with people one on one is always so illuminating because they get so caught up in their tagging system. It becomes this game of perfectionism that’s never quite ready. It’s the same thing with like evaluating which program is correct, right? I actually see people like, “Oh, yeah, I have all these book notes on paper. I want to wait until I have my tagging system correct to get these into my database.” Meanwhile, they’re stuck in — in some cases, literally — a cardboard box in your closet. All of that knowledge is going stale, or at least not being used, because you don’t have the “perfect system.” Yeah, I’ve definitely heard cases of that as well. Because they want to get that tagging system just right, and then apply all the tags to everything. And they’ve got hundreds and hundreds of tags. And I wonder, are you spending more time tagging than you’re spending using the information? I have a good antidote to that. Temporary tags. I think where the pressure comes from, that pressure to have everything perfect, is the “long-term” thing. The idea that this is going to be around forever, so it needs to last years and years. So what I do is I have project-specific tags. For a given project, I use tags to track my progress to that deliverable or that intermediate packet. And then once in a while, usually when I do my monthly review for GTD, I delete all my tags. So every single month I have a blank slate, which sounds crazy because you think all that work is going to waste. But I got what I wanted, which was the deliverable, the project outcome. And the interesting thing is it allows me to bring my creativity to it. Some months I’ll do tagging based on emotions. The next month, the slate is clean, I’ll do tagging based on deliverables. Next month, I’ll do tagging based on time slots. And I’ve just discovered so many little things that I wouldn’t have been able to discover just thinking about it abstractly, but actually trying it. And there’s never any pressure because I know, at most, a month from now it’s all going to go away. What about your notes themselves? We all have different ways of taking notes, especially when we have a tool like Evernote to work with. Is there a particular style that your notes tend to have? A very particular one. So, there are the three pillars of the course that I teach: capture, organize, and retrieve. The middle one, organize, is the PARA system. The first one, capture, is something I call “progressive summarization.” This is a method I’ve developed over a number of years that is essentially designing notes; really putting a lot of thought into the design of individual notes. But the way I do this is not maybe what you typically think of design… I’ll take notes on a source, whether it’s a conversation, an article, a book, a podcast, audiobook, whatever. And then I just put it in my system. Just the raw notes. The next time I see that, the next time I serendipitously come across it — or it might be that I’m looking for a project or looking for a resource that I want to use this note for — I summarize it. The first layer, as I call it, is bolding. I go though, and I’m already reading the source anyway, I bold the best parts. The next time I see it, which could be months later, in some cases a year or two later, I do the next layer: I highlight in yellow only the best bolded parts.[…] There’s an 80/20 thing, where a tiny minority of your notes has the great majority of value. So it makes sense to concentrate your design attention on that small minority that’s actually very insightful, rather than spread your attention equally across all your notes, which is what I see with tagging. You may spend a minute tagging a note that has very little value, which doesn’t seem like a lot but that’s one minute too much for me. A TINY MINORITY OF YOUR NOTES HAS THE GREAT MAJORITY OF VALUE. SO IT MAKES SENSE TO CONCENTRATE YOUR DESIGN ATTENTION ON THAT SMALL MINORITY. You’ve talked a bit about the boot camp/workshop called “Building a Second Brain.” I believe you’ve run that twice now. So what are you learning from running that pretty intensive program, and are you going to keep it going? I’m definitely keeping it going. It’s been, honestly, the most rewarding project I’ve ever worked on, and for just the reason you said. I learn, without a doubt, more than anyone actually taking the course. In each group, we’ve had between 50 and 55 people. And reading their bios, because I do some Linkedin stalking, their bios are incredible. They’re engineers, they’re Ph.D.s, doctors, professors, startup CEOs. Incredible people that have spent, in many cases, just as long as I have thinking about personal knowledge management. So they come with their own insights, perhaps not quite as structured as the way that I’m presenting it, but I’m on the sessions presenting, and on the side, taking notes from what everyone else is saying. It’s been a great experience. What do you go through in the workshop? Did you say it was five weeks? How do you break that down? It’s really those three pillars. So we start with organization, because people usually have this mass of messy notes they’re not too happy with. And so to kind of give them the initial confidence to really dive in, we start with PARA. So after the first week, they have every single digital file in their life, actually, because PARA is not only Evernote, it goes across cloud storage, your file system, your task manager… everything. So it’s really a universal digital organizing system. That’s the first part of the course. The we go to progressive summarization and cover capture, and really build the skill — and it is a skill — to capture not just the original note, but the insights and the most important ideas within that note. And then we end the course with retrieval, which is a method called “just in time project management,” which is sort of related to the intermediate packet thing. It’s always working towards the next intermediate packet in these short sprints. And building systems and support routines and all this so that you can do that as quickly and with as much acceleration as possible. And you mentioned that you get some really interesting people who are taking these classes, because I presume a class like that is going to appeal to a certain type of person. Have any of the people that you have taught in this course changed the way you think about some of these issues? Oh, absolutely. I mean, one thing was this technique of layering and summarizing, one of the students was a Finnish entrepreneur in the music business. And he got that idea and said, “Okay, I get it, but I’m going to completely change it and apply it to music.” I thought it was a textual analysis method. He showed me that it’s actually about the structure of any sort of information. Layer Zero for him is just all of his notes on random songs and concertos, sources and inspiration, sounds, instruments, all these things. Layer 1 is anything that he’s put into a piece of music. Layer 2 is anything that he’s performed for someone else. Layer 3 is anything that he’s recorded. It’s kind of like a topology of your knowledge that has peaks. The peaks are where your thinking has gone the furthest, whereas the valleys are where the thinking is still kind of raw and unfiltered. So that kind of blew my mind, and I’m still trying to work out the implications of what does it mean to apply this to images, to photographs, to art, to sports and the movement of the body? It’s a pretty fundamental principle that you want to surface the key components of any body of knowledge. And that ties into some of the things you’ve mentioned throughout this interview. You talked about the art of organizing. You talked about how on a core level we’re all designers. And you’ve talked about the importance of creativity. How can we foster creativity within a productivity system? Great question. I love that because there’s this implicit assumption that they’re opposites. I get this all the time, actually. People come up to me, sometimes, and their initial entry will be, “I don’t like productivity because it’s about being efficient, and like a machine, and just sticking to the plan.” And I just go, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What’s your definition of productivity?” And they tell me something like, “Oh, what machines do, basically.” And then I say, “Can I tell you my definition?” And my definition is creating as much value in the world as efficiently and as effectively as possible. And they go, “Oh, well, I can buy that.” MY DEFINITION OF PRODUCTIVITY IS CREATING AS MUCH VALUE IN THE WORLD AS EFFICIENTLY AND AS EFFECTIVELY AS POSSIBLE. No. And that’s where creativity comes in. It takes immense creativity to use processes in that way. To not be a slave to the process, to not just obey the process, but to think, “This part isn’t working,” or to have the courage to say, “Look, this process we’ve always followed does not serve our purposes. It’s no longer in line with our values. Let’s change it.” That’s one of the insights from the Toyota Production System, is when you give workers the freedom to point things out — to pull the cord, so to speak — they come up with an incredible number of ideas. They think of things that management would never think about in a million years. Small things, big things, human things, software things, hardware things. And it’s almost like having the foundation or the structure — we talked about structure before — already in place, just like a scaffolding gives you these little pockets where creativity can happen. Because the thing with creativity is, creativity cannot happen without constraints. This is a really important point. The same with design. Design cannot happen without constraints. If you tell me “just design something” … Oh, what should I design? What are the user needs? What is the purpose it serves? What are the constraints? And you give me none? I literally cannot design anything useful. Another term that gets used a lot and has an inherent assumption of a dichotomy is “work-life balance.” We all say we want it, at the same time work and life seem to be blending together. And I mean, that’s nothing new … farmers, artisans, soldiers have always had a blended work and life experience, but it’s new to office workers. Is this a trend we should be fighting or embracing? My initial reaction is fighting, going along the “provoking people” thing. And you know, my take on that is just … I just don’t get it. I don’t think about work-life balance. I don’t think about work-life blending or whatever the new term is. I think that whole way of thinking is an artifact of a previous time. Just having those two things that need to be balanced or blended or whatever it is, assumes there’s a division, there’s a dichotomy. And I see the consequences of that are many. One thing I notice is, people not giving much credit to themselves for side projects. Like a programmer works on an open source project, and they think, “Oh, I’m not getting paid, so it doesn’t fall in the ‘work’ category.” Therefore, they’ll be hesitant to put it on their resume. They won’t really use it as evidence that they continue to learn and improve. And I go, “Oh my gosh, that is one of your key assets. The fact that you do this stuff for fun, it’s a part of you and what you care about and what matters to you, not just something you do for money? That should be front and center in your resume or your portfolio.” You can hear the complete interview and subscribe to future episodes of “Taking Note” at iTunes, SoundCloud, or Overcast EVERNOTE PREMIUM Upgrade for features to help you live and work smarter. GO PREMIUMVIEW MORE STORIES IN 'TIPS & STORIES' 3 COMMENTSRSS Barry — Thanks for the podcast, always good to hear ideas and tips ! (can I give a little critical feedback?? please do not make the “mmhm, uh-hu” sound after every few things the guest says. Hope the feed back helps) Forrest Dylan Bryant — Hi, Barry: I hear you. Will tone it down in future episodes. Greg VanDenBerghe — Thanks for these great tips and inspiring discussion. You mentioned to highlight your notes on the 2nd review. The only problem is there is no highlighter function on the web version. Does Evernote have a solution to this problem? Thanks! Find it fast with powerful search GO PREMIUM YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Podcast: Tiago Forte’s Approach to Productivity Podcast: Take Control of the New Year with Michael Hyatt Take Charge of Your Growth with Michael Hyatt & Marvell Allen Blog: English Visit our Tech Blog Subscribe to our RSS feed PRODUCTS PRICING MARKET APP CENTER HELP AND LEARNING BLOG About Careers Legal Terms Privacy Security API Contact Copyright 2018 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved. From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2017/06/05/podcast-tiago-forte-productivity-part-2/> Security API Contact Copyright 2018 Evernote Corporation. All rights reserved.

From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2017/05/22/podcast-productivity-tiago-forte/>

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 Applause from Tiago Forte and 19 others

Alex HardyFollow Thinker. Reader. Figuring it out. Oct 7, 2017

Tiago Forte’s First Principles of Workflow, Design, and Productivity Episode 17: Tiago Forte and Khe Hy First principles of workflow design (a 2-part episode) ▶️ Play Episode ▶️ Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play | TuneIn| RSS

Tiago Forte is the founder of Forte Labs and has been called the “next David Allen.” Today’s productivity writing is mostly focused on “squeezing water out of a stone” but this approach overlooks the core human behaviors and tendencies. In these two episodes, we start with First Principles (aka building blocks), share our toolkits, and where we get stuck. This is a 2-part episode where we take turns interviewing each other (and don’t miss our first episode).

A note from Khe: Tiago’s been a huge influence on my life via his ideas, writing, and his class. I thought I was a productivity Jedi but it’s been a personal game-changer — both output but also joy in having the right systems. Building a Second Braindecreased the time it takes me to produce RadReads AND has unleashed a torrent of productivity. Sign up for the next session, beginning November 6.

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How to read these notes We start with each of our First Principles and then our Workflow “tool kit” and then dive into the specifics. Tiago’s First Principles of Workflow

 • Finishing every work session with a clear deliverable or milestone • Optimize for intensity (via time tracking) • All priorities are local • Go to extremes of sociability or isolation • Document everything • Make pivots to new tasks or working styles as dramatic as possible • Push non-value added tasks as late as possible and pull value-added tasks as early as possible • Satisfice wherever possible • Don’t reinvent the wheel, don’t do things — look for excuses to do things • Getting out of bed in the morning is always the first bottleneck Tiago’s Toolkit • For task management: Things • For knowledge management and general reference material: Evernote • For reading things later: Instapaper • For collaborative documents: Google Docs • For filesharing / backup: DropBox • For digital calendar: BusyCal They’re very stable and rarely change over time. Because for most people, the bottleneck is not which tools you’re using (i.e. Apple Calendar vs. Google Calendar). The bottleneck is: are you using an online calendar? 📅🔑

Khe’s First Principles • Limit cognitive overhead • Beware of asymmetric options • Deep Work • Batch tasks (and single-task) • Manage energy over time Khe’s Toolkit • For task management: Omnifocus • For knowledge management and general reference material: Evernote • For reading things later: Instapaper • For collaborative documents: Quip • For filesharing / backup: DropBox • For digital calendar: Fantastical

Tiago Workflow Deep-Dive Principle 1: Finishing every work session with a clear deliverable or milestone Why? Because high-value work has a huge of the ramp-up period. If you complete 90% of a deliverable, and say you’ll “do the last 10% later”, you have to ramp all the way up again just to finish the last 10%. Khe: “But what if it’s a BIG problem that’s taking you a long time?” “Make packets of work small” If your packets of work are 3 hours, you won’t accomplish anything unless you you have 3 uninterrupted hours — And this is rare. Instead: you make your packets of work smaller (i.e. 30 minutes), you’ll be able to get things done anytime you have 30 minutes. ⏱⏱⏱ Khe: “What if your task NEEDS cognitive momentum and takes longer than 30 minutes?” “What really creates momentum is an accelerating pace of rewards. Break down work into smaller and smaller packets, to create an accelerating pace of rewards Momentum in knowledge work isn’t like momentum in horseback riding 🐎 or running 🏃where you see the trees 🌲🌲 as you pass by. Momentum is completely defined internally by how you feel. Here’s a blog post by Tiago on the topic: Mood as Extrapolation Engine: Using Emotions to Generate Momentum I believe that moods (or less colloquially, states of mind) can be used not just defensively, making the best of…praxis.fortelabs.co Principle 2: Optimize for intensity (via ACTIVE time tracking) “You must actively track your time. The point is deliberate awareness of your time allocation, not data collection.” To actively track your time, you’d say “I am now done with project A, I consciously open my app to clock out of project A, and consciously clock into project B” Tiago prefers an app like Hours Tracker, where you clock in and out, as opposed to RescueTime, that passively tracks your activity. Khe: But Why Active tracking? People tend to have very fuzzy edges. They’re sort of checking their email and slowly transitioning from email to a project, but keep going back to check email. To maximize productivity, You need a clean break. 🙅 You’re not trying to master time, you’re trying to master yourself. Mastering yourself means: making a decision on what to work on, and committing to that decision by taking action. Tiago: After analyzing two years of my time tracking data, I found that I only really work for 25 hours / week. This was shocking because my perception is that I’m always working Live look at Tiago after realizing he only works 25 hours per week. This is seriously throws into question the idea of a 45 hour work week Khe: How does time tracking lead to intesnity? “When you start working in this way, it completely cuts down on multi tasking and switching. Because If you decide to multi-task, you have to constantly go into your app and clock in and out of tasks. My intensity isn’t reinforced by my morals or values (“I should do intense work”) it’s enforced because active time tracking makes multi-tasking a pain.” Khe has his own intensity hack. Has a 15 character (!) iPhone password and no TouchID 😳 😳 😳 Remember: “There’s something human about wanting little bits of distraction & that’s not morally wrong” Time Tracking Pro tip: there are all kind of issues with time tracking. Don’t miss the forest through the trees — it’s not an exact science. The 🔑 is to be aware and consistent in how you track. Principle 3: All Priorities are Local What does it mean? look for “excuses” to do things. Change the order of your priorities based on context. In productivity, priorities are a BIG deal. You’re supposed to make a list of priorities #1 through #10, and then cross out #2 — #10 and do #1. But this ignores an important point. The priority # of something is totally context-dependent. It’s not an inherent property of the thing itself. Let’s take a relatable example, Dry Cleaning Dry-cleaning is never going to be the top of your to-do list. EXCEPT when happen to be driving by the dry cleaners. In this context, you’ve already done 99% of the work required to complete the task by coincidence. So in that moment, the most productive thing you can do is pick up dry cleaning. “The key here is ‘random access‘ — having more than 1 way to access your tasks” Use your tools to surface tasks in different ways. We can all relate to the example below: When I have an hour to read, I don’t want to spend the hour I have looking for things to read, I want to spend it actually reading!!! Tiago documents each task in his task manager with a standardized word. For example, everything he has to read across all projects and domains in his task manager starts with the keywork “read” By typing in the word “read,” I can instantly see everything I need to read across all projects and areas on one list Khe This is MEGA important if you have children 👶 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 . You have to make the kid’s nap time as productive as possible for you! Extra Credit: Here’s a good book on Product Development that Tiago recommends: The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development "...the dominant paradigm for managing product development is wrong. Not just a little wrong, but wrong to its very…www.amazon.com

The Tiago ToolKit Khe Asks: How do you decide which file goes where? Evernote vs. DropBox vs. Google Docs? It‘s based what I’m trying to accomplish. If it can go on Evernote, it should. Here’s the great strength of digital note taking 💪: the actual content is close to the surface. Its container is invisible. When you fire up Evernote, the content of the note is front and center You’re an artist and your digital notetaking app is your studio 👩‍🎨 👨‍🎨 . An artist who works with sculpture, painting, and drawing puts everything in their studio so they can see these forms of media juxtaposesd in interesting ways. You do this digitally with your notetaking app. We need Multiple ways to resurface things. Because the mind is so good at making arbitrary connections. Tiago has an “Idea Tickler” that he uses instead of checking social media. You’re tapping into human idea to want novelty and distraction. Don’t treat this desire like a moral failure, use it to your advantage! Extra Credit: Want to build the script for the Idea Tickler yourself? check it out in Tiago’s blog post (paywalled) Khe Asks: Where does Tiago Get Stuck? How do I evaluate my progress in Areas of Responsbility such as Health? I know there are things I could do better. Should I accept that and be satisfed and equanimous? Or is that signaling that I need a change? The tug of war between equanimity & [driving for change] Text expanders Text expanders have quite valuable to Tiago. A text expander = when you type a keyword (such as: #p) it replaces that text with your phone number. People use them all the time time on mobile, but Tiago believes the most valuable is on desktop. [computer emoji] There are a few different options for text expanders: • TextExpander • aText • Typinator • Dash 3 • TypeIt4me • Keyboard Maestro • Alfred 3 • DIY in “System Preferences

This conversation just scratches the surface of Tiago’s class Building a Second Brain —Go Sign Up for the next session, beginning November 6.

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Want to learn more? Check out the first episode between Tiago & Khe Rad Awakenings with Khe Hy by Khe Hy on Apple Podcasts Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Rad Awakenings with Khe Hy by Khe Hy for free.itunes.apple.com • Productivity • Podcast • Evernote • Gtd • Networking Like what you read? Give Alex Hardy a round of applause. From a quick cheer to a standing ovation, clap to show how much you enjoyed this story. 206 • Follow

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RadReads Be Your Best Self More from RadReads I couldn’t find a good Personal CRM — So I created my own and want to share it with you

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From <https://radreads.co/productivity-workflow-and-pkm-design-with-tiago-forte-and-khe-hy-325783bb3ea2> How to remove daily work stress with just 15 minutes each week

By Tiago Forte December 9, 2017 FOUNDER, FORTE LABS Of all the productivity habits I’ve studied and recommended, there is one that stands head and shoulders above the rest in its importance: the weekly review. First named by David Allen in his best-selling book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, the weekly review has become an institution in its own right. The simple practice of setting aside a dedicated time each week to review your commitments and gain some perspective has become one of the most universally accepted productivity tips. But rarely do you get the chance to peer directly into the inner workings of a weekly review “in the wild.” I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and energy testing and tweaking my weekly review, boiling it down to its essence. In this article I’d like to show you how it works. It’s not the “one right way” or a prescription for everyone to follow. But it does integrate seamlessly with my previous article on Inbox Zero, and more importantly, illustrates the weekly review’s unique ability to free up time and attention far out of proportion to how much it consumes. Here is the checklist, which I keep on a little yellow sticky note on my computer’s desktop:

It’s so humble and unassuming, isn’t it? But this short checklist represents something very meaningful to me: the trained ability to go from total chaos to total clarity in 15-30 minutes. It can handle any type of information, from any source, in any quantity, over any period of time. It doesn’t matter if I’m checking in after a couple calm days of work, or returning from a 3-week vacation. I follow the same steps in the same order every time. It’s the closest thing we have to automating an activity that takes up a huge amount of most people’s workday: processing incoming information and deciding what to work on next. Let’s walk through the checklist step by step: My review is separated into three distinct parts, each with its own purpose: 1. Emergency triage: identifyfind out what’s urgent 2. Preventative maintenance: keep anything from slipping through the cracks and becoming urgent 3. Planning for action: decide what’s important, and what to work on this week This allows me to stay focused on the intention of each part, surfacing emergencies as soon as possible while ensuring I maintain my focus on what’s important long term. Part 1: Emergency triage Triage is what the staff at a hospital emergency room does with incoming patients—deciding what each person needs and where to send them, without actually treating them on the spot. This allows them to prioritize the true emergencies, while maximizing the efficiency of the whole staff. 1. Clear email inbox I start with email, because no other decision I make will be correct without the latest information. There is a risk here — that the sheer volume and urgency of my emails will throw me straight into the vortex, sucking me into reactive mode. That’s why it’s so important to follow the method I laid out in my previous article: start with the oldest email and send each one, one at a time, to one of four productivity apps based on the action you want to take: 1. a digital calendar (for events that need to happen on a certain day or time) 2. a task manager (tasks that need to happen soon, but not at a particular time) 3. a read later app (things you’d like to watch or read later, without any particular deadline) 4. a reference app (information you’d like to reference for a project or for general interest) Most critically: I’m not doing anything, just deciding what needs to be done. This is the key point that allows me to process hundreds of emails in one sitting. 2. Check calendar (-2/+4 weeks) The next item is the calendar, since I want to know what the “hard landscape” of my day and week looks like as early as possible. Nothing too unconventional here: I put down any new events or appointments, and review existing ones to get a sense of the week. My rule of thumb is to look two weeks into the past, to rememberfor anything I need to follow up on, and 4 weeks into the future, to anticipate for anything I need to start preparing for. Part II: Preventative maintenance Preventative maintenance is about getting all your workspaces clean, removing the clutter that stresses you out, making sure nothing is falling through the cracks, and capturing any new commitments you’ve made. It might seem unimportant to give regular attention to your desktop or downloads folder, but I’ve found that left untended they overflow and become full-blown crises at the worst possible times. 3. Clear physical inbox/notebook I start this step by going through any mail or other papers that have accumulated in my physical inbox (a simple tray where I collect postal mail, random brochures and postcards, or even odds and ends I find around the house). Any new commitments I find there (“check out this sale at REI”; “fill out and return insurance forms”) I add to my calendar or task manager, and any new reference material (business cards from an event I attended; receipts from a business trip) to Evernote. And I’m sure to throw away, file, or shred every item as soon as it’s appropriately captured. I also review my paper notebook, capturing any interesting ideas (sketch of an app design; brainstormed list of possible vacation destinations) by taking photos of the page. 4. Clear computer desktop/downloads folder Then I do the equivalent for my digital piles. Somehow, over the course of the week my desktop has invariably become a morass of random files of unknown origin. For each file, I either trash it, put it in my computer’s file system, add it to Evernote, or capture it in my task manager. I do the same for my downloads folder, sorting them into the same locations as above and then emptying the trash with a satisfying “whoosh.” 5. Check Mint transactions This is an optional thing I like to do, to categorize new transactions, make sure I’m not getting charged for anything I didn’t buy, and reviewing my budgets to make sure I’m not overspending. I include it here to illustrate that, once you have a weekly review established, it can serve as a platform for any other habits or routines you’d like to stick to. Some examples might include reviewing your goals, setting an intention for the week, performing a quick stretching routine, or planning your grocery shopping for the week. Part III: Planning for action 6. Process Evernote inbox By this time, there is usually a lot of stuff in my reference app, Evernote (read this article for more info on how I use it). Not only notes I’ve accumulated over the course of the week, but notes I’ve just finished gathering from steps 1-4: from emails, my calendar, my physical piles, and digital piles. I take a few minutes to file these into the appropriate notebooks by project or by topic, so they’re available for future reference. This step also serves as a helpful reminder of ideas and images I captured during the week. 7. Prioritize and file new tasks By this time, my task manager inbox is overflowing with new tasks I’ve captured, typically between 30 and 60 each week. I batch-process these all at once, clarifying for each one what the next required action is, its priority, and which project or area it fits into. By using keyboard shortcuts and doing them all at once, it takes just a few minutes. 8. Review and select follow-up items I’ve found over the years that simply following up with people is one of the easiest ways to get what I want or need. I begin any task that I’m waiting for someone on with “waiting for:” followed by what I’m waiting on them for, so I can quickly call up all my follow-up tasks across all projects with one search, even if I’m on the go. 9. Choose tasks for the week This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Like most people, I start with what’s urgent — sorting my tasks by priority across all projects and moving the ones I absolutely must complete today to the “Today” section of my task manager. But then, before immediately diving in to fight fires, I focus on what’s important — looking at the two or three projects I’m most focused on this week, what is most in line with my goals long term, and what best reflects my values and purpose. What I’m left with by the end of Part III is a concise, clearly formulated, prioritized, sequenced list of tasks for the week, grouped by project and available at a glance on any device. I don’t have to do any more planning or prioritizing after this— my mental horsepower for the rest of the week is dedicated to creating value, not keeping balls in the air. Consider how much thinking informed this process: • My email inbox is completely empty, with all tasks moved to my task manager • My week’s schedule is fresh in my mind, both hard and soft commitments • All my tasks are captured and organized by project and priority • All the piles and accumulated documents are filed away, ready and waiting in their appropriate folders • All my ideas, insights, and random musings are captured and waiting in my Evernote notebooks, leaving my mind clear for focused thinking Selecting your tasks for the week is a simple decision, but a critical one that requires some legwork to do well. Taking the time to make this decision from a place of perspective and balance and full information, you can make sure you’re not just reacting to the demands of the moment. Why it’s hard Maintaining a weekly review of some type may seem like a no-brainer. But in my experience, it is one of the most difficult habits to stay “on the wagon” with. I have a theory as to why: any weekly habit exists on an unstable middle ground. It happens frequently enough that we feel we ought to get better at it, but not often enough to make it a daily habit. This creates an intense cognitive dissonance—we know such a routine could be a lynchpin in our personal productivity, but feel in our bones that it’s not worth the effort required. And in the short term, we’re right. A week, two weeks, three weeks, or longer can go by without any apparent negative consequence. We logically conclude that such maintenance work is an unnecessary luxury we can do without. But underneath the surface, unseen volatility is building. The chaos of constantly accumulating emails, files, photos, and tasks is approaching critical thresholds. Your mind is reaching its carrying capacity of “notes to self.” It is usually an external crisis—a surprise deadline or a misplaced reminder—that triggers the explosion, all your seemingly trustworthy systems breaking down all at once. You have a critical file on your computer, but you can’t find it in the thicket of icons cluttering your desktop. You need to know which gate your flight is departing from now, but your email is crammed with hundreds of unread messages. You’re sure you wrote down a brilliant idea, but you can’t find it anywhere. Even worse than the crises you know about are the missed opportunities you don’t. A file lost in your downloads folder that you promised to send to a client goes unsent. The deadline to buy tickets to a conference, never scheduled on the calendar, passes without notice. A brilliant idea you had late one night with friends goes undiscovered when you most need it. By the time an “emergency” strikes, it’s too late for planning and organizing. You can’t do forest management while fighting a wildfire. Instead of pretending like emergencies are unusual, totally unforeseeable events, what if we planned every week expecting them to show up? We could sweep the decks, plan for contingencies, maintain our tools, and identify our top objectives in advance, just like anyone who has to perform under pressure: athletes, soldiers, police officers, and yes, firefighters. If no disaster strikes, we’re left with spare capacity and sail right through the week. But if one does, we are ready. You plan for and show up for every meeting with people you trust and respect – why not keep a standing weekly meeting for the most important person in your life, yourself?

From <https://work.qz.com/1151367/how-to-set-up-a-weekly-review/>

Getting Started with GTD (Getting Things Done) Templates

Posted by Tiago Forte on 01 Jan 2018 It’s 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and you have one question on your mind: what should I be doing right now? You’re busy getting things done, but the notification count on your email inbox is climbing by the minute. You really should get back to Tom on…what was it again? Now the phone is ringing—it’s your kid’s teacher, informing you that your daughter’s grades are low and she needs some extra attention. You have an emergency meeting at 5:00, which kills your plan to finalize the agenda for tomorrow’s offsite. You’re starting to get texts from the attendees because you’re late sending out the logistics. You have a strategic plan that’s been almost finished for weeks, but you’ve been waiting for a board member’s input. And through it all, there’s a tickle at the back of your mind that there may be an even more important priority lurking somewhere, but you can’t remember what it is. Welcome to the era of information abundance, which has created in many of us a scarcity of attention. David Allen’s best-selling book Getting Things Done* (known affectionately by fans as GTD) proposes a simple 5-step approach to managing the complexity of modern work. It has sold millions of copies in dozens of countries around the world and stands on its own as a practical guide to the art of stress-free productivity. It also just so happens that the GTD approach can be implemented easily within Evernote. If this article inspires you, grab these custom-made Evernote templatesfrom Barbara Fuller at Simplify Days to start the new year right with GTD: • GTD Project List Template • GTD Individual Project Template • GTD Areas of Responsibility Template • GTD Weekly Review Template Here are the steps to stress-free productivity that GTD recommends: 1. CAPTURE every commitment in your life in a trusted place outside your head (like a software program or a piece of paper) 2. CLARIFY exactly what each commitment is, the desired outcome of fulfilling it, and only the very next action required 3. ORGANIZE reminders of these actions in a Project List 4. REFLECT on your list on a weekly basis to make sure it’s clear, current, and complete 5. EXECUTE on your actions by making intuitive decisions about what to do next, trusting your system to not let anything fall through the cracks The best introduction to what these five steps look like in practice is the Project List Mindsweep. It is a guided, step-by-step exercise to reveal just how many projects you’ve committed to in your work and life. This exercise is the first step in gaining a sense of relaxed control over your workload. It all starts with determining, clearly and visibly, the current state of your commitments. The energy unleashed by this capture exercise gives you the motivation to think through the four subsequent steps of clarifying, organizing, reflecting, and executing on your new workflow. I’d like to guide you through the Project List Mindsweep in this article. Add these four templates to your Evernote account so you can follow along with your own projects: • GTD Project List Template • GTD Individual Project Template • GTD Areas of Responsibility Template • GTD Weekly Review Template How to use Evernote templates » The Project List Mindsweep The Project List Mindsweep is extremely valuable for anyone, whether you’ve never heard of GTD or have been a dedicated practitioner for years. Most people couldn’t give you a full inventory of their projects if their life depended on it. Yet they also tell you they have too much on their plate, and “don’t have the bandwidth.” Without a comprehensive Project List, you can never know how much capacity you really have. Understand the GTD definition of a “Project” We use the word “project” to refer to a lot of different things, from a multi-billion dollar construction project to a bathroom remodel. But GTD asks us to adopt a much smaller definition for what qualifies as a Project: “any outcome you’re committed to completing that requires more than one action step.” This definition forces us to acknowledge that even the seemingly simplest outcomes—like “buy headphones” or “prepare a presentation”—require numerous steps. Instead of tracking these steps in our heads, we want to track them in an external tool. That way, we’re forcing ourselves to put a “stake in the ground” to remember to review our progress regularly. Your Project List contains all these “stakes in the ground,” so you can focus on onlythe next action. Most people find that sticking to this definition produces a list of around 30–100 projects. This is why we want to use an external tool—not our brains. Step 1: Capture Do a Brain Dump Don’t judge. Don’t filter. Don’t try to clarify, process, organize, or categorize them as you capture them. That happens later. Use the Project List template for this step. We’ll organize and clarify the list of projects you come up with in later steps. Here are some common places to look: Your mind What’s worrying you? Identify that as a Project. Name it so you can tame it. What’s taking more mental bandwidth than it deserves? What activities aren’t you making consistent progress on that could benefit from a bit of structure? Example: “My back hurts” → Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain Calendar Look a few weeks into the past on your calendar: what do you need to follow up on? What do you need to finish? What Projects do you want to create to follow up on events that already happened? Peer into the future: what will you need to plan or prepare? What goals do you need to set? Who do you need to catch up with? Example: “I need to figure out what we’ll do at that team off-site” → Plan team offsite agenda Next Actions (To Do) list What things are you already doing that are actually part of a bigger project you haven’t identified yet? Example: “I need to follow up with that house cleaner” → Contact house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time Agendas What about communication? Are there any actions that you’ve already scheduled with people that are part of a bigger project? Example: “I need to call Linda back” → Develop sales campaign with Linda Briefcase/bag/wallet/purse What things have you saved because they remind you to take an action? What have you kept because you need it for a project? Example: Business card in purse → Follow up with potential contractor from conference Your physical environment Look around your office, home, car, or desk. What physical objects represent projects you haven’t identified yet? Example: Document on desk → Package up and mail document to business partner Digital environment Look at your computer desktop, downloads folder, documents folder, bookmarks, emails, and open browser tabs. What are you keeping around because it is part of a project that you can name and organize? Example: PDF article on desktop → Read draft article and give feedback to co-author Processes or procedures Which processes in your work or life could be more efficient, streamlined, or purposeful? What do you do regularly that takes too long, is too difficult, or you haven’t thought through? Example: Grocery shopping → Collect list of staple food supplies and set up recurring deliveries on Amazon Fresh Creative opportunities What would you like to learn, develop, build, pursue, start, explore, or play with as a project? Example: Flyer for improv class → Look up and schedule improv class Competence building Are there skills you’d like to learn? Which hobbies would you like to start? What kind of project could advance your career, or make your life more fun or interesting? Example: Email confirmation for online course purchase → Complete online course on Python Don’t worry about the exact outcome of each Project you identify at this stage, or whether you’re actually committed to it. Don’t let anything keep you from writing down something that might possibly be a Project. Also, don’t fret over how you name them. You might finish this step with a Brain Dump that looks something like this. Yours will probably be quite a bit longer. 1. Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain 2. Plan team offsite agenda 3. Find house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time 4. Develop sales campaign with Linda 5. Follow up with potential contractor from conference 6. Package up and mail document to business partner 7. Read draft article and give feedback to co-author 8. Collect list of staple food supplies and set up recurring deliveries 9. Look up and schedule improv class 10. Complete online course on Python In the next step, we’ll decide what to do with these Projects. Step 2: Clarify Refine your list In the previous step, you got every potential project off your mind and onto a list, where you can view it objectively. Now it’s time to do another pass and clean up your list to make it more clear and actionable. Continue using the Project List template for this step, moving items from the Brain Dump section to the Project List section as you clean them up. Some options to consider: Delete anything that is obviously not a Project Sometimes you need to write a thing down to realize it’s not something you’re committed to or truly interested in. Delete and let it go. Move “someday/maybe” projects to the bottom of the list Move anything you might be interested in doing eventually, or you’re not sure you want to do, to the bottom of the list. Merge projects that are tied to the same outcome If you have related items such as “Research computer options,” “Back up and reformat current computer,” and “Set aside budget for computer purchase,” you can probably merge them under an overarching Project called “Buy new computer.” If a Project is really a one-time task, add it to your calendar instead For example, “Pick up sister from airport” doesn’t really need to be actively tracked over time. Place it on the appropriate day on your calendar, and that will trigger all the necessary actions. Delegate any appropriate Project Even if you delegate a Project to someone else, if you are accountable for the outcome, you still need a Project entry to track or follow up on that assignment. Step 3: Organize Identify the outcome or intention for each Project You aren’t finished calling something a Project until you identify the desired outcome. In this step, you’ll identify what you want to happen with each item. Then you can move it to your Individual Project template. Continue using the Individual Project template for this step, moving items from the Initial Project template to the Individual Project template section as you identify your desired outcomes. Some projects have a precise objective, like “Acquire 100 new leads and 25 new sales.” Other projects are more open-ended or intentional, such as “Have a peaceful vacation spending quality time and connecting with my family.” A classic and effective guide to formulating clear outcomes (or goals) is the S.M.A.R.T. framework. The acronym stands for “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.” This framework helps you to make the outcomes as tangible and specific as possible, without getting distracted by grand, inspiring “life goals.” Simply ask, “What do I want to happen as a result of this Project?” Using our list as an example: 1. Schedule doctor’s appointment to diagnose back pain [Outcome: Back pain is resolved and I can sleep through the night without discomfort, by March 1, 2018] 2. Plan team offsite agenda [Outcome: Team is clear about what needs to be accomplished, and we identify next actions for every item on the agenda, by Monday, Feb. 19, 2018] 3. Find house cleaner and schedule weekly cleaning time [Outcome: We have a weekly cleaning time on the calendar, and the house is consistently clean, by April 1, 2018] 4. Develop sales campaign with Linda [Outcome: Sales campaign is approved by senior leadership, budget is allocated, and the team is briefed on it, by Dec. 15, 2018] Keep in mind that the ‘T’ in S.M.A.R.T. stands for ‘Time-bound.’ That means that every outcome should have a deadline or timeframe, whether that is a hard deadline or just a preferred one. Write the outcomes/intentions you’ve identified for each Project in the second column, and the time frame or deadline in the third column. Rewrite your Project titles to make clear how each Project leads to its desired outcome Time to do a little editing. Make sure you know what “done” looks like for every Project. There’s little chance you’ll ever get there if you don’t know where “there” is. Begin every Project with a verb that describes DONE: finalize, submit, deliver, complete, send, clarify, organize, update, implement, resolve, submit, reorganize, design, roll out, install, set up, publish, complete. If you find yourself using verbs like manage, oversee, ensure, or maximize, it’s probably an ongoing Area of Responsibility, not a Project. An Area of Responsibility is an ongoing part of your life in which you’ve committed to a certain standard, like Health, Finances, Apartment, or Productivity. These are also important to keep track of, but don’t belong on your Project List. You can move these items to our Areas of Responsibility template, to be managed separately from your Project List. Step 4: Reflect Review your GTD lists weekly Look over your entire list from a bird’s eye view, and ask some fundamental questions: • Does this list fully represent my priorities, interests, values, and long-term goals? • In which Areas of Responsibility do I have too many Projects? Not enough? • Are there important outcomes or goals that don’t have any Projects targeted at them? • Am I spending time or attention on something that has no clear outcome or goal? • If anything is unclear, ask yourself, “What am I really trying to accomplish here?” or “What‘s the point of doing this?” • With this whole inventory in front of you, are there any Projects you want to kill, postpone, renegotiate, or clarify? Reflect on your week with this Evernote template for creating a Weekly Review. Bonus step: Prioritize your list on the Project level Prioritizing individual tasks or pieces of information as they arrive can be exhausting because we’re trying to decide several things at once: • Is this important? • Is it urgent? • Does it belong to a Project that’s important? • Does it belong to a Project that’s urgent? • Is this an insignificant detail, or a crucial one? You can eliminate a lot of this decision-making by pre-prioritizing your work on the Project level, instead of at the task level. Sort the list from highest to lowest priority, according to how much of your mental bandwidth each Project should be taking up in any given week. Doing this weekly will help make the granular decisions during the week much easier. Because your Projects are constantly changing and evolving, the Weekly Review is an exercise you want to do regularly. Senior GTD Coach Meg Edwards says that the Weekly Review is the “master key” to GTD. It is a standing appointment with yourself to reflect on the week and update your Project List. If you do this review from a more calm and balanced perspective, away from the chaos of the workday, you’ll find it easier to maintain perspective throughout the week. You’ll start thinking less like an individual project manager, and more like a project portfoliomanager, balancing all the risks and rewards of your project portfolio as a whole. Step 5: Execute Regain control and be more productive With a clear Project List in hand, you are ready to execute on your tasks without having to remember which balls you have in the air. The goal of GTD is for stress, tensions, and obstacles to trigger new projects, instead of emotions. Learn more about GTD by reading the book (updated in a new 2015 edition), by joining the membership site GTD Connect (which includes webinars, interviews, and instructional guides on all aspects of the method), or my video-based online course, Get Stuff Done Like a Boss. *GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of The David Allen Company, and this course is not endorsed by or affiliated with them in any way.

From <https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2018/01/01/getting-started-gtd-templates/>



IMPLEMENT A NEW HABIT IN 30 DAYS 2 NOV 2014 | PRODUCTIVITY

Make it so easy that you can’t say no. – Leo Babauta Oh, I love day zeros. They show so much promise, they involve so much planning. I mentioned all the successful habits I’ve made yesterday. This is the first time I’ll be doing this with accountability. Because this one is a bit tougher, I think I need that accountability. I am excited.

MY 30 DAY HABIT PLAN (This is based on the Tiago Forte course.) My habit for November is to write daily. My Tiny Habits for the first week are: 1. AFTER I open my laptop to work, I will look at my to do list 2. AFTER I look at my phone for the first time in the morning, I will read one Bible verse. 3. AFTER I lay down at night, I will think of one thing for which I’m grateful • concentrate on Duhigg’s Habit Loop (Trigger > Reward > Behaviour) Duhigg is the grandfather of habit research. This is the very foundation, that all of my favourite habit heroes (Tiago Forte, Leo Babauta…) can agree on. • use Tiago Forte’s Habit Loop 2.0 to plan This guy is seriously a rockstar in my eyes. My third favourite productivity/self-improvement person after Sean McCabe / Tim Ferriss. The Habit Loop 2.0 comes from that Skillshare course that I told you about (that I’m taking for free). • make note of my Habit Personality Type (Upholder and Rebel) I am an Upholder and a Rebel, which means that I respond readily to new habits, but also resist expectations. I guess it just reiterates the fact that I always need to do it for myself. As soon as someone else checks up on me I get annoyed and would rather not do it. Maybe to prove how little I care about their opinion? I don’t know. It’s a weird thing that I do. • make my habit short, specific, repeatable, daily Write for 30 minutes every day. • have a consistent, precise, frequent, logical trigger After I have my first coffee, I will write for 30 minutes every day. • have a reward that is delivered quickly, emotional, physical and social I’m not that comfortable with this one, so I’ll keep the reward small and silly. I’m going to play an applause track after my 60 minutes (find one yourself). I’m also going to cross off a day on my tracker. • have a reminder I’m going to keep my Habit planner out. I’m got Todoist reminders. • have a reason After I have my first coffee, I will write for 30 minutes every day because I am the type of person who values words, and I believe that everything starts with writing. • have small wins I am not trying to write a book. I am trying to practise my writing skills, and come out of November with 30 x 30 minutes of words. My small wins will include: 1. Writing for 30 minutes in the morning. 2. Writing for 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes in the evening. 3. Writing for 20 minutes in the morning. 4. Writing for 10 minutes any time. 5. Brainstorm a subject to write on. 6. Write an interesting heading. 7. Write a list. • identify possible loopholes so that I can avoid them with closers “I don’t have anything to write about” – well then write about not having anything to write about. “I don’t have time” – write in the morning, when there is nothing else to do. “This is stupid” – you made a promise to yourself for a reason. Trust that you knew what you were doing when you made it. • choose an inviting environment I’ll be starting this out in Cape Town, which is pretty much the best environment. I’ll sit outside with my laptop and Table Mountain in the background. Once I get back home I’ll keep my desk uncluttered, with a fresh vase of flowers on it. • track my habit I’ll be using my Habit planner to track each day, my feelings, and anything I want to note. • choose an accountability system I’ll be sharing on the Facebook page once per week, and occasionally on Instagram. • evaluate my 30 days There will be a habit debrief on the Facebook group on the 1 December.

30 DAY TIMELINE • Pre-Habit Month: create Habit planner, print it out, use an A5 Flip File to store notes • Day Zero: all this planning, complete Tiago Forte course • Day One: first day of the habit • Day One to Seven: practise habit, complete Tiny Habits • Day Eight: Week One Check In • Day Eight to 14: practise habit • Day 15: Week Two Check In • Day 15 to 21: practise habit • Day 22: Week Three Check In • Day 22 to 30: practise habit • Day 31: Overall Check In and Evaluation

FREEBIE If you didn’t grab the freebie from the other post, here it is again for you.

I’ve started a private Facebook group for anyone who wants to make a habit this November. Let me know if you’d like to join. I invited those who commented on yesterday’s post, feel free to decline. No pressure. SHARE THIS: • Share 23 COMMENTS

Connie Tacazon on 2 Nov 2014 at 15:19 Yes! Can you please add me to the facebook group? Thank you!!!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:30 Done!

Celia on 2 Nov 2014 at 23:34 Could I be added to the facebook group please? Thank you :)

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:31 Of course. YAY.

Donna G. on 3 Nov 2014 at 04:48 This is brilliant, Caylee! I would really like to incorporate something like this into my life, because there are several new habits I need to have. Problem for me: bad timing. For one week in November I’ll have all my kids here from around the US. It’s the first time we’ve all been together in two years. I’m in major clean-up, fix-up mode to get everything ready for them. I would like to be in your Facebook, if you’re okay with it. I need to think how I can work this out. PS. I can’t wait to read all of your writing that comes out of this!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:31 I’m so happy to have you with us ♥

Stephanie on 3 Nov 2014 at 11:34 Wow, girl. You are THOROUGH!!! This is what they call In it to win it :) Thanks for all the reading material on habits, ealier. I figured I’d start with a bit of a ‘light’ habit this month, after that Whole30 thingie I just did, but I’m excited for more later on. I’m definitely inspired by your enthousiasm! Xo

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:32 I’ve gotta be thorough to get it done!

Alizée on 3 Nov 2014 at 15:14 Hi ! I discovered your blog not so long ago and really love reading about your goal setting process and the way you implement new habits into your lifestyle. Your last two posts have really inspired me to create new habits too – for the next thirty days I’m going to be working on getting away from the internet (I tend to procrastinate so much because of it) + on being more intentional with the way I spend my (hopefully shorter) time on it. I hope your first days are going well !

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:38 That’s a fabulous habit! Have you read Andrea’s posts about that? There is so much value in them.

andrea on 3 Nov 2014 at 21:30 I’m cheering you on!

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:40 YAY! I knew you would approve.

cheyenne on 4 Nov 2014 at 07:57 this sounds amazing. writing is one of the habits i want to get back into as well – i’d love to join the facebook group! xo, cheyenne

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:43 Send me an email if you haven’t been added.

Sara, cloverdew.com on 5 Nov 2014 at 17:16 This sounds like such a great challenge. I love it. I am doing NaNoWriMo for the 10th year. I’m excited, but also need motivation. And I would love to be part of the facebook group if you can find me to add. How’s it going so far?

Caylee on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:43 I added you via email, but if it didn’t work, send me an email. x

Sara, cloverdew.com on 10 Nov 2014 at 17:54 I don’t think it worked, but I just followed Pretty Organised as Sara Kate – maybe you can add me that way? Thanks! <3

Tiago Forte on 11 Nov 2014 at 01:05 Great job Caylee! I love the intention you’ve put into this, and sharing it here with your community is a great accountability tool. If you don’t make it to the end you’ll never live it down haha. I would encourage you to also post your progress in a Skillshare project workspace, so I can see and comment on updates to your progress, and others can learn from you. Mind if I link to this blog post in the Community Forum: Writing? (http://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Design-Your-Habits-A-Hands-On-Introduction-to-Behavior-Design/978368389/classroom/discussions/20420?type=Question)

Caylee on 26 Nov 2014 at 07:20 Whoops, this comment totally skipped my email. Thanks for your remarks. No problem sharing the link in the forum. I think I will certainly share my stuff on Skillshare for my second habit month.

kay on 25 Nov 2014 at 17:41 I’d love to join as well!

Caylee on 26 Nov 2014 at 07:18 Invited you by email. If you don’t get it, send me an email. xx

Flo on 30 Nov 2014 at 15:23 I found your blog a few months ago and have since become a regular reader :) Thank you, thank you, thank you SO much for sharing this and detailing your process ! This is pretty much exactly what I had been looking for. I headed straight to Skillshare (and agree with you, Tiago Forte’s class is amazing) and am now planning a writing habit starting December 1st based on this class. Seeing your own plan was really helpful and motivating too :) Are you planning to do something else in December ?

Katie on 1 Dec 2014 at 17:28 Wow, great planning! I am trying to establish a similar habit (also taking Tiago’s course!). I’d love to hear about your challenges and triumphs establishing this habit for a full month. Also, if your FB group is still open I’d love to join! TRACKBACKS/PINGBACKS 1. 30 Day Habit Challenge | amelia writes. - […] by Caylee, I worked through Tiago Forte’s Design Your Habit course on Skillshare and came up with my […] These pixels are loved and © by Caylee Greyvenstein. By looking at their gorgeousness, you are consenting to our terms and privacy policy.

From <http://cayleegrey.com/30-days-to-a-new-habit-day-zero/>



My GRE reading method: 1. First read for comprehension while noting important ideas/arguments/passages (highlighting) 2. Quick skim from the start jumping from section to section, picking up key words and phrases (bolding) 3. Make quick mental summary (summary/notes) After doing this mental highlighting, bolding, and summarizing you have a accurate map of the passage. This makes it easy to answer most questions, as you can quickly find any relevant passages in the text with you map. And after summarizing the passage right after two passes (reading + skimming) the main idea/purpose of the passage becomes clear. I tried applying my GRE method to general reading, but it is too tiring to apply to long, dense readings that you are unsure are valuable or not. Prog summarization allowed me to recognize I could spread out the steps over time and come back to items and improve comprehensibility when something I read 2 months ago was suddenly relevant. I didn't need to do all the heavy upfront mental work at once that my GRE method req.. Another valuable insight of PS was using highlighting and bolding to mark the mental steps I was taking in my GRE method. Basically a way to *save* all the mental work I was doing when reading. Another similarity between the steps in my GRE method and PS was the focus on resonance. Why trying to develop a method for tackling the GRE, many articles tell you to track arguments, evidence, counter-evidence etc which is taxing. Plus, you never knew which things you were formally tracking would actually help you answer q's. Eventually I just ignored what I was should have been formally tracking and focused on sentences that screamed 'Wow! This seems important!'. This a painless, natural way to put a few trail markers on the passage, which aids in searching for text relevant to a question. Another thing I learned from my GRE is that the first pass is expensive and unavoidable. But all the work afterwards is cheap. A 20 minute passage will take 20 minutes the first time. No way of getting around this. And you usually end up with meh comprehension. But the second, third time w/ skimming take 90%+ less time to get new insights + improved comprehension. During skimming on the GRE I often ran into missed key words or phrase turns when skimming. This often saved my butt when answering ?s. Progressive summarization even gets you further. A 20 min passage takes a min or two to re-upload after highlighting. A min after bolding. 30 secs after summarizing. Each step improves comprehension. And since the steps are spread temporally, versus a tight time period like on the GRE. the text can simmer in your subconscious. which often leads to deeper insights I'm still amazed how similar my method for the GRE and progressive summarization are. And how powerful both are for comprehending text. My (pseudo) PS GRE reading method helped land me a 170/170 on the GRE V section and PS in general has improved my 'second brain'. I mainly wanted to offer proof of PS being viable for rapid comprehension/deep compression in a short time frame. I'm not sure if there are many use cases for this outside of standardized testing environments, but if there are, PS is an option. I can see it being useful for comprehending a lot of articles relevant to a paper in a short time frame. But don't grind through a stack applying PS steps in rapid succession. You'll burn out quick. Interleave instead. Read and highlight a few articles first. Once you are The bold them. And then highlight new batch. Then summarize the first batch. Next bold the second batch. Interleave!

From <https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/967947650359275520.html>