Forte Labs

The modern frontier of productivity.

Dec 7, 2018

A Productivity Expert’s Guide to Working with a Virtual Assistant

Over the past five months I’ve worked closely with a virtual assistant (VA). This article summarizes what I’ve learned about the best ways t

Dec 10, 2018

The Structure of Information Revolutions

In 1962, philosopher Thomas Kuhn published his landmark work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, forever changing our view of the histo

May 22, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #7: Interaction Over Consumption

In Part 6, I recommended treating any deliverable (whether it’s a simple email all the way to a full-fledged product) as a series of evoluti

Dec 31, 2019

My 26 Favorite Essays of 2019

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

Jun 3, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #16: Effective ROA

In Part 15, I advocated for multithreading, or weaving together multiple projects to take advantage of unexpected opportunities and synergie

Oct 17, 2018

The Maker’s Guide to Content Curation, Part 1: Open-Sourcing Your Learning Process

One of the best ways to advance your career, start an extra income stream, or become an entrepreneur is by creating content.  By “content” I

May 22, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #6: Evolving Deliverables

In Part 5, I introduced The Iron Triangle of Project Management and the idea that any given deliverable can be reduced or expanded in scope

Mar 16, 2021

Introducing: Praxis Fellows Essays

Hello Praxsters!I have something special to share with you today: the first contributions of our Praxis Writing Fellows!I recruited a few of

Oct 17, 2020

Negotiating Your Contract

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

May 30, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #12: Just-In-Case to Just-In-Time

In Part 11, I introduced the concept of a “critical path” of tasks in a project, and the rationale for pushing tasks as late as possible on

Oct 17, 2020

Introducing: How to Land a Book Deal

A Nine-Part Series, from Concept to Launch

Jun 10, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #20: Speed as a Capability

In Part 19, I argued that continuously finding new sources of motivation was the most important challenge for knowledge workers, and that th

May 28, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #11: Late Starts on the Critical Path

In Part 10, I argued that digital knowledge work was fundamentally different than other kinds of work, because its structure, features, and

Dec 28, 2017

Progressive Summarization III: Guidelines and Principles

In Part I, I explained Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you many exampl

Feb 16, 2019

Behind the Scenes of a Profitable Online Course

I advise everyone I know to create an online course. Everyone has something to say. Everyone has valuable knowledge that others could benefi

Sep 2, 2018

The Personal Narrative Vision

In my previous article on how I perform my Annual Review, I briefly discussed the Personal Narrative Vision (PNV) exercise. I’ve developed t

Aug 17, 2017

Strategically Constrained: How to Turn Limitations Into Opportunities

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

Jun 10, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #19: Explosive Inspiration

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

Jan 22, 2021

The Modern Swipe File

15 Unexpected Uses for Digital Notes

Dec 4, 2018

10 Things I Learned as a VA with Tiago

By Kathryn Tongg 1. Establish the preferred method of communication right away. Everyone has a way they prefer to communicate. Whether this

Oct 17, 2020

Own Your Writing Platform

Publishing a book is like running for political office. There are a lot of people out there who you want to take a certain action, at a cert

Mar 16, 2021

Paranoid Productivity

By Christina LuoProductivity is about managing emotions as much as projects. Yet we often focus on productivity as a toolset more than a min

Apr 12, 2018

Trekonomics: The Economics of Post-Scarcity

I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek (Amazon Affiliate Link), by Manu Saadia. It was pr

Oct 9, 2018

A Maker’s Ethos in the Era of Networked Attention

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