In Part 17, I argued that unique states of mind are the most powerful resource available to knowledge workers. But these states are difficul
I spend 17 minutes per day on email, or 7.43% of my total work time over the past 12 months.The average information worker, in contrast, spe
In Part 19, I argued that continuously finding new sources of motivation was the most important challenge for knowledge workers, and that th
In Part 18, I introduced the idea that our states of mind come and go in “waves of motivation,” and that we should try to use them to our ad
Once upon a time, we faced the scourge of Information Overload. Too many emails with too many details producing too many open loops to keep
In Part 1, I argued that curating the content of others was an excellent way to start creating content of one’s own, whether your goal is ad
Let’s look at how a single source can proceed through the layers of progressive summarization. These are Layer 1 notes I took on an article
Once you’ve accepted an offer for the publishing rights to your book, it’s time to draw up and sign a binding contract. Many of these contra
In Part 3, I argued that having a personal knowledge base is the linchpin of success in a creative economy. A knowledge base allows you to r
In The Four Pathways of Modern Book Publishing, I described the main routes for a writer to get published today, and in The Case for Traditi
I previously wrote about my thought process for why and how I’ve decided to publish my book Building a Second Brain with a traditional publi
In Part I, I introduced Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you examples a
Over the last year I filmed a short documentary on the life and artistic career of my father Wayne Forte. He has been one of the strongest
I previously described how the weekly review is an operating system, funneling each bit of information you captured during the week to its p
15 Unexpected Uses for Digital Notes
By Kathryn Tongg 1. Establish the preferred method of communication right away. Everyone has a way they prefer to communicate. Whether this
Now it’s time to look at the JIT Project Manager’s toolkit. How do we put these ideas into practice in our day to day work? Through Workflow
This is an interview with my online course marketing coach and creator of the Email Boss program Billy Broas. It is an in-depth discussion i
In Part I, I explained Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you many exampl
In Part 13, we looked at the benefits of Component Thinking, which involves thinking of any product we are working on as made up of subcompo
You should think of the people you’re working with at each stage of the publishing process as your publishing team. Each one contributes som
As part of my year-end review, I always review my favorite reading of the year. These usually tend to be “long-form” online essays diving de
I first came across the idea that great strengths can emerge from great constraints in Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle is the Way. He takes
In Part 15, I advocated for multithreading, or weaving together multiple projects to take advantage of unexpected opportunities and synergie