Topic: Personal Knowledge Management

Blog archives

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• Humanities Crash Course Week 49: Modern Times

  Exploring how theory and art can help us maintain human agency amid dehumanizing systems.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 48: Borges

  What my favorite author can teach us about the nature of language.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 47: Short Fiction

  Empathizing with other lives by experiencing literary “virtual realities.”

• Humanities Crash Course Week 46: Freud

  Sometimes, a mindless popcorn flick is just a mindless popcorn flick.

• How I Write My Books

  A presentation about the visual tools and techniques I’ve used to write my books.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 45: More Modernism

  Exploring works that express ideas and feelings by transcending media conventions.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 44: Modernist Art

  Conveying ideas and feelings by transcending conventional words and images.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 43: Racial Injustice

  Diving into a deeply painful and destructive moral failing: prejudice.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 42: Evil Flowers

  Transcendence as a way to cope with the drabness of everyday life.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 41: What Moves Us

  Learning about memory and motivations from two classic novels.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 40: Good & Evil

  Connecting with meaning by transcending cultural conventions.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 39: Gothic Horror

  Learning about agency and ethics from a 200-year-old novel (and not its more famous film adaptation.)

• Humanities Crash Course Week 38: Emergence

  Perennially relevant lessons about liberty and bottom-up organization from two classic texts.

• Two Kinds of Writing

  Writing can be a means for thinking. AI can help — but make sure you’re driving.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 37: Jane Austen

  How ChatGPT helped me enjoy — and learn from — a classic 19th century novel.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 36: Revolutions

  Three radically different approaches to remaking society.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 35: Romanticism

  Grappling with poetry infused with powerful mythological imagery.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 34: Sturm und Drang

  Exploring the unreasonable pursuit of personal passions via works of fiction and meta-fiction.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 33: Rational Foundations for Morality

  Three texts that ground knowledge, nature, and morality on solid philosophical foundations.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 32: Voltaire

  Thoughts on a classic philosophical novel with an undesirable stance toward undesirable circumstances.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 31: Political Theory

  Delving into two classic books that explore evergreen political tensions.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 30: Self-deception

  Musings on delusion triggered by one of the best novels ever written.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 29: Shakespeare III

  Thoughts on moral responses to prejudice and injustice spurred by Shakespeare and Spike Lee.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 28: Renaissance Geniuses

  Thoughts on patronage spurred by the lives of some of the world's most important artists.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 27: Shakespeare II

  Reflections on self-referential art inspired by the bard's most famous romantic works.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 26: Shakespeare I

  Across centuries, the bard warns us that subverting the ‘natural’ order of things can have dire consequences.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 25: The Divine Comedy

  Following Dante out of hell onto (hopefully) better things.

• Traction Heroes Ep. 12: Levels of Learning & Change

  A framework for telling your story in ways that engage listeners.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 24: Divine Love

  Two poems by Dante Alighieri, and what they tell us about living a good life.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 23: Romantic Love

  Exploring the tension between desire, morals, and social duty through two romantic relationships set centuries apart.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 22: African Epics

  Exploring the line between author and storyteller through African oral traditions.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 21: Middle English

  A visit with early English texts (which I didn’t enjoy very much.)

• Humanities Crash Course Week 20: Confessions

  What Augustine, Bergman, and Derrida teach us about finding meaning in multiple interpretations.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 19: Bhagavad Gita

  Learning about ethical and moral teachings that transcend times and cultures.

• Traction Heroes Ep. 9: Procrastination

  How to overcome the tendency to put hard things off.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 18: 1,001 Nights

  Reflections on how technology affects perceptions of authorship and inspiration.

• Local GraphRAG: A Progress Report

  Good and bad news on my ongoing experiments with locally-hosted GraphRAG.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 17: Curiositas

  Reflections on a second-century tale about messing around and finding out.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 16: The Art of War

  Classic Chinese advice for dealing with conflict and acting in alignment with nature.

• Smarter AI Begins With Your Business’ Knowledge Pipeline

  Making better use of AI starts by understanding how information flows through your business.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 15: Boethius

  Reflections on a classical work of early Medieval philosophy.

• Book Notes: “Masters of Uncertainty”

  A field-tested approach to staying grounded and effective when everything’s in flux.

• Traction Heroes Ep. 7: Better Questions

  How do you act skillfully in times of uncertainty? Start with the questions you ask yourself.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 14: Roman Decadence

  Exploring foundational works of Western culture that deal in myth-making and decadence.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 13: The Qur’an

  Reflections on how we derive meaning from ancient spiritual texts — and how AI can help.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 12: Suetonius

  Distressing examples of how absolute power corrupts, plus sadly relevant insights into how republics can devolve into tyranny.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 11: Stoicism

  Looking to literature for answers to one of the key questions in life: how do we deal with suffering?

• Humanities Crash Course Week 10: Greek Drama

  Reflections on ancient plays that explore timeless human foibles, plus a movie starring a venerable recently departed actor.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 9: The Bible

  Revisiting the central work in Western Culture – and a controversial movie that adds texture and perspective.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 8: Ancient Egypt

  Listening to voices that sing of humanity and godliness across vast deserts of time.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 7: Gilgamesh

  Reflections on the finitude of life inspired by some of our most ancient literature and a modern Iranian film.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 6: Herodotus

  Ancient lessons in love and war, supplemented with more recent insights into the power of imitation.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 5: Eudaemonia

  Learning about the good life from Aristotle and a somewhat boring movie.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 4: Confucius

  Turning to ancient Chinese philosophy for clues on living a good life under tumultuous change.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 3: The Odyssey

  Reflections spurred by an epic poem and a classic road movie.

• LLMs Give You Power User Abilities

  How to use AI to unlock deep capabilities latent in your tech stack.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 2: Greek Poetry

  Thoughts about wealth, power, and impermanence.

• Humanities Crash Course Week 1: Plato

  Exploring Plato, AI-enhanced note-taking, and a sci-fi classic in the first week of a humanities journey.

• A Crash Course in the Humanities

  Embarking on a year-long journey to explore the classics with the help of AI and a curated reading list.

• One Year of “Duly Noted”

  Updates and reflections on my book about note-taking, a year after its publication.

• My Current Note-taking Practices (2024)

  An overview of how my knowledge management system has evolved over the past year.

• The Informed Life Epilogue

  An overview of the final episode of my podcast, which summarizes what I learned by producing the show.

• The Informed Life with Peter Morville

  Second part of my conversation about big changes with an information architecture pioneer.

• Beware the “Early Januaries” Content Pattern

  User-provided content and metadata can be unevenly distributed. Here’s what you can do about it.

• We’re in a Golden Age for Personal Automation

  Large language models are a boon for people who use automation frameworks.

• The Informed Life with Luc Beaudoin

  A conversation with a cognitive scientist and software developer focused on improving personal productivity.

• The Informed Life with Harry Max

  Overview of my conversation with an expert on collaborative prioritization.

• Seminar: Using LLMs to Augment Your Thinking

  A video presentation explaining how to use generative AI to improve your thinking.

• Reconsidering the Role of AI: Valuing Process Over Output

  How to best use AI in both UX and personal knowledge management.

• The Informed Life with Dave Gray

  Overview of a conversation with author and designer Dave Gray about his open-ended approach to life and work.

• Seminar: Getting the Most Out of Hypertext Notes

  A video presentation explaining how to get the most out of hypertext note-taking systems.

• Seminar: Combining Hand-written and Digital Notes

  A video presentation explaining how I integrate my hand-written notes into Obsidan.

• Two Types of Personal Journals

  Journaling helps you be more mindful. And there’s more than one way to do it.

• Content Strategy Insights: Duly Noted, Ep. 175

  A podcast interview on how digital notes can help you think better.

• Livestream: Information Architecture for Note-takers

  A livestreamed conversation with Nicole van der Hoeven about ‘Duly Noted.’

• Build a Personal Knowledge Garden

  A workshop that teaches a modern approach to note-taking.

• The Four Laws of Behavior Change

  How to adopt new habits by using James Clear’s four laws of behavior change.

• The Informed Life with Steve Portigal, part 2

  The second part of my conversation with Steve Portigal about writing, focused on our processes as authors.

• Five Books for Career Switchers

  Holiday reading for guidance on self-understanding, adaptability, and perspective during times of change.

• Tinderbox Meetup: Information Gardening

  A livestreamed presentation with the Tinderbox community about ‘Duly Noted.’

• Rosenfeld Review: Taking Notes and Nurturing Your Knowledge Garden

  An interview I gave on my publisher's podcast about my book on note-taking.

• The Informed Life with Karl Voit

  Learn how a life hacker uses open source tools to manage his personal information.

• The Informed Life with Karl Fast

  Reading is good for you. This conversation gives you a glimpse of how an avid reader extracts knowledge from books.

• The Informed Life with Sönke Ahrens

  An interview about the zettelkasten note-taking system with the author of ‘How to Take Smart Notes.’

• The Informed Life with Chiara Ogan

  Learn to organize your books from a former librarian and information architect.

• The Informed Life with Aidan Helfant

  Personal knowledge management in service to getting more from your studies.

• The Informed Life with Maggie Appleton

  What’s the right balance between top-down and bottom-up structure in personal publishing?

• The Informed Life with Dan Russell

  Overview of my conversation with a search anthropologist about how you can use web search engines more effectively.

• Thinking With Words

  Writing is more important than ever — and it doesn’t just affect how you communicate, but also how you think.

• The Informed Life with Jerry Michalski

  Summary of a conversation with Jerry Michalski about his long-running open knowledge graph, Jerry’s Brain.

• The Ultimate Meta-skill

  Why you should consider building a personal knowledge management system.

• AI for Reading Notes

  One way LLMs like ChatGPT can help you take better notes about what you read.

• The Informed Life with Nicole van der Hoeven

  Summary of my conversation with a Developer Advocate and YouTuber on how they use Obsidian to learn and play in public.

• Ebooks for Efficient Note-taking

  If you like to take notes while reading, you might prefer ebooks over paper books.

• Principles for Selecting PKM Apps

  Select PKM components that serve your needs as they evolve over time.

• In Praise of Plain Text

  Storing and managing information in plain text format gives you superpowers.

• Tips for Building a Thinking Place

  Once you realize thinking doesn’t just happen in the brain, you can set up better conditions for thinking.

• The Informed Life with Michael Becker

  An overview of my conversation with a prolific knowledge worker, communicator, and Tinderbox master.

• Evergreen Notes

  Some notes are transient; you let them go shortly after writing them. But others should stick around longer.

• Building a Personal Knowledge Garden

  Video of a presentation about personal knowledge management that I delivered in UX Lisbon in May 2022.

• Note-taking and Note-making

  Knowing the difference between these two common note modalities will help you think better.

• Writing a Book? These Tips Will Help

  Five ideas to help you achieve your goal of writing a book.

• My Favorite Books of 2022

  What I most enjoyed reading in a year when I didn’t read as much as usual.

• Seeing Further

  Thinking of connected digital systems as cognitive prosthetics.

• How to Take More Effective Notes

  If you know *why* you’re taking notes, you can take better notes.

• The Informed Life with Mark Bernstein

  A summary of my conversation with the designer of Tinderbox, a deep hypertext tool for thought.

• The Informed Life with Alice Albrecht

  An overview of my conversation with the founder and CEO of re:collect, a new AI-driven tool for thought.

• Three Use Cases for Notes

  We talk about note-taking as if it were a single activity, but that’s not the case.

• Five Types of Links

  You’re likely familiar with web links. But there’s more to links than what you see on the web.

• Notes Are for More than Remembering

  Many people think of note-taking as an extension of memory, but they’re more than that.

• The Informed Life with Rob Ashton

  A summary of my conversation with writer Rob Ashton about the science of reading and writing.

• Use Taxonomies to Organize Your Stuff

  Taxonomies aren’t just useful for large commercial systems; they can also help you organize your personal information.

• How to Avoid Misplacing Things

  If you don't want to lose things, put them where you’ll be likely to find them later.

• How to Use Tags to Manage Your Information

  Tagging can be a powerful tool for organizing your personal information — but it requires mindful use.

• The Informed Life with Howard Rheingold

  A summary of my conversation with the eminent author and educator about the evolution of Tools for Thought.

• 3 Strategies for Organizing Information

  Are you overwhelmed with the amount of information you’re dealing with? Understanding these approaches can help.

• The Informed Life with Lorenzo Bernaschina

  A summary of my conversation with the developer of Gems Notes, an AI-driven smart note-taking tool.

• The Informed Life with Mike Rohde

  A conversation with sketchnoter extraordinaire Mike Rohde on the influence of visual note-taking on his work.

• The Informed Life with Kat King

  Notes on a conversation about the virtues of note-taking as a means for learning.

• Organizing for Future You

  Structuring your PKM system is an act of IA where the user is future you.

• The Informed Life with Sam Ladner

  Overview of my conversation with a sociologist, UX researcher, and author on how she manages her research insights.

• Book Notes: “Figure It Out”

  Notes on Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast's book about how mindful design can increase understanding.

• The Informed Life with Austin Govella

  A summary of our conversation about the information architecture of personal knowledge management systems.

• One Idea, One Note

  On the importance of links and granularity in note-taking systems.

• The Informed Life with Veronica Erb

  Overview of my conversation with an avid reader and newsletter publisher about her note-taking practices.

• A Shortcut to Create a Markdown Link from Safari in macOS

  A quick way to get the name and URL of the frontmost web page on your Mac as a Markdown-format link.

• Three Types of Notes

  A peek into how I organize my notes.

• Book Notes: “Genius”

  An overview of James Gleick’s book about the life of Richard Feynman, with a focus on how the latter worked with notes.

• Writing a Book About Notes

  Announcing my next book, due in 2023.

• How to Swallow a Frog

  We all have to do unpleasant, yet important, tasks. Do them with equanimity and joy.

• The Informed Life with Oliver Caviglioli

  Graphic organizers help us teach and learn better. This conversation explores how and why to use these diagrams.

• Power of Ten Episode 22: “Information Gardens”

  Overview of an interview with Andy Polaine about how computers can extend our minds.

• Book Notes: “How to Take Smart Notes”

  Overview of a book about how to improve your academic or nonfiction writing using Zettelkastens.

• Reclaiming Our Attention with Focus Modes

  New ways for us to manage our attention while using devices.

• Why Do You Take Notes?

  We write down stuff for different reasons. One surprised me.

• How to Pick a Note-taking App

  Looking to switch away from your current notes app? This set of criteria can help.

• Book Notes: “The Organized Mind” (Revisited)

  A 'live' rereading of Daniel Levitin's book about how the mind thinks by categorizing.

• Overcoming the Scarcity of Context

  An argument for developing ‘the ultimate expertise.’

• Automate Mindfully

  A short reflection on the difference between efficiency and automation.

• The Informed Life with Madonnalisa Chan

  An overview of my conversation with taxonomist Lisa Chan on how she manages notes in her personal life.

• Room to Think

  An intriguing commercial offering designed to help you reclaim your attention.

• Balancing Work and Meta-work

  How to improve your effectiveness at work.

• Re-evaluating the Move to Jekyll

  Three months into moving this site from Jekyll to WordPress, I consider the impact on my writing workflows.

• The Informed Life with Boon Yew Chew

  An overview of our conversation about the note-taking tool Roam Research.

• Book Notes: “On Bullshit”

  Overview of Harry G. Frankfurt’s book about our relationship to the truth.

• My Favorite Books of 2021

  In case you’re looking for holiday gift ideas, here's a list of books I enjoyed during the year.

• Two Ways of Organizing Notes

  Mindful organization can help you find and use notes more effectively. Many apps offer two basic ways of doing so.

• The Most Logical Date Format for Notes

  When taking notes, it's important to write down their dates — and this format is the way to do it.

• The Informed Life with Annie Murphy Paul

  Highlights from my conversation with the acclaimed science writer about her book ‘The Extended Mind.’

• The Informed Life with Patrick Tanguay

  Notes from my conversation with the ‘generalist, synthesist, and curator’ behind one of my favorite newsletters.

• Develop Mastery by Revisiting the Basics

  When you're learning a complex system, you can miss essential concepts. Revisiting the basics can help.

• Never Forget a Good Idea Again

  Building habits around a simple three-step process will help you harness the power of your mind.

• Work and Meta-work

  Understanding the difference between doing the work and working on the work can boost your effectiveness.

• Book Notes: “Tools for Thought”

  An overview of Howard Rheingold's book about the history of computers as tools for mind augmentation.

• Why I Moved My Site to Jekyll

  The first post in my new website, and details on why I switched from WordPress to Jekyll.

• Book Notes: “The Extended Mind”

  My notes on Annie Murphy Paul's book that explains the research and implications of extended mind theory.

• The Informed Life with Sunni Brown

  A conversation about how design thinking and Zen Buddhism can lead to a more fulfilling and engaged life.

• How to Use Transclusion in Obsidian

  A short YouTube video that explains how I take more effective notes using transclusion in Obsidian.

• The Waning File/Folder Mental Model

  “Traditional” computer file systems challenge people who grew up with smartphones and the cloud.

• The Project Engagement Dilemma

  How to manage the changing balance between value creation and personal growth in projects.

• Book Notes: “Mindset”

  Overview of the book by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. on the difference between fixed and growth mindsets.

• Managing Tags When Integrating Obsidian and DEVONthink

  Details on how I manage the integration between two core apps in my personal information ecosystem.

• How to Find Older Files in Figma (and Other SaaS Apps)

  A hybrid approach for making information more findable when using SaaS apps.

• Two Things to Keep in Mind When Evaluating Note-taking Apps

  Choosing a new personal knowledge management system can be intimidating. Here are two things you should keep in mind.

• How New Note-taking Apps Give You Information Management Superpowers

  Exploring a new type of note-taking that will take your thinking to another level.

• Book Notes: “The Inner Game of Tennis”

  My summary of a book about quieting the inner critic so we can get into flow.

• Working on the iPad

  Why I'm shifting some work from the iPad back to the Mac.

• Two Types of Work

  On the difference between growth and maintenance.

• Book Notes: “Simple Rules”

  Summary of a book about briding the gap between strategic thinking and execution.

• Shipping the Org Chart

  Information architecture can help you avoid producing inwardly-focused structures.

• Book Notes: “Wanting”

  Takeaways from Luke Burkis's book about mimetic desires.

• Becoming Better Users of Online Information

  How we can get better at spotting BS in online reviews.

• Book Notes: “Framers”

  How our ability to reframe situations can unlock progress in a world overwhelmed by change.

• How I Take Notes

  As part of my personal information ecosystem series, I explain how I take notes.

• Book Notes: “All Things Shining”

  Timeless lessons for finding meaning in today’s secular world.

• Book Notes: “The Scout Mindset”

  An overview of Julia Galef's book on practical rationality

• Book Notes: “How to Read a Book”

  How to get more from your reading.

• How I Manage 'Thinking' Time

  Notes on how I make better ‘thinking’ time.

• My Personal Information Ecosystem

  Notes about the tools and practices that allow me to get things done.

• A Year of This

  Ways I've found to manage my attention when meeting over Zoom.

• The Informed Life with Kourosh Dini

  How a psychiatrist and productivity expert uses DEVONthink to create smart notes and connect ideas.

• Ways of Thinking

  Reflections on the role of paper-based sketching (as opposed to the digital kind) in my thinking processes.

• Book Notes: “Mastery”

  How to find fulfillment by pursuing excellence.

• Worth Your Attention

  Links for the week.

• Digital Dependency

  How my tools changed how I remember stuff, and why I’m worried about what I’ll lose if I rely on them for thinking.

• The Informed Life with Caroline Crampton

  How an expert curates podcasts that surprise and delight.

• Worth Your Attention

  Links for the week.

• Documenting the Early Stages of Creative Work

  The first draft of your project might seem worthless. Get over it.

• Beginner’s Mind

  How expertise can stunt your growth and why cultivating a beginner’s mind keeps you sharp.

• The Informed Life With Rob Haisfield

  How a behavioral product strategist uses a new note-taking tool to organize his thoughts and express his ideas.

• Re-thinking Digital Note-taking

  Reflections on decade of digital note-taking and whether there’s better ways to spot patterns and spark insights.

• The Informed Life With Stephen P. Anderson

  A conversation about creating environments for shared understanding.

• Gaining Clarity in Times of Uncertainty

  Coping with uncertainty through research.

• A New Normal

  How the pandemic is accelerating our embrace of remote collaboration.

• Living In Information With the UX Bookclub Los Angeles

  Adjusting to a world where work, life, and even happy hour happen on screens.

• The Quality of Impromptu Online Work

  Moving work online will change how we think and collaborate.

• Book Notes: “The Optimist’s Telescope”

  Overcoming our culture’s fixation on the here and now to make better long-term decisions.

• Worth Your Attention

  Links for the week.

• Real Mastery

  A remembrance of Rush drummer Neil Peart, who died on January 7.

• The Golden Age of Learning Anything

  I learned to reupholster a chair. That's amazing!

• That Syncing Feeling

  How syncing my devices went from frustrating to mostly effortless.

• On Google Reader

  My old RSS workflow was great — and I still miss my feed reader.

• The Informed Life With Eduardo Ortiz

  How Eduardo Ortiz and his team spun up a system to help reunify families at the Southwest border.

• Table Stakes

  How I saw the power of the smartphone in action with my daughter.

• The Informed Life With MJ Broadbent

  Using visual thinking to make complex ideas more fun and accessible.

• The Informed Life With Lis Hubert

  A conversation about living intentionally as a digital nomad.

• What Did I Learn?

  How I use my journal to reflect on what I learned yesterday to become more effective today.

• Striving for Simplicity

  Embracing simplicity in a world of endless upgrades.

• The Informed Life With Ariel Waldman

  How preparation and self-reliance help you succeed when tech fails.

• Mind Your Baobabs

  How maintaining my inbox keeps me from getting overwhelmed.

• Learning From Books

  How a 1980s computer manual imparted programming ""superpowers"" to an eager learner.

• The Informed Life With Kim Lenox

  How a design leader aligned global teams.

• Blogging as Gardening

  How my blogging practice, like gardening, helps me cultivate and strengthen my ideas in public.

• Getting Rid of Ghosting in Notebook Scans

  Getting better scans with a simple hack.

• The Informed Life With Peter Morville

  How Peter Morville and I dove into the challenges of living in an information-saturated culture

• “Build More Roads” is Often the Wrong Answer

  Building more roads or communication channels can create chaos, not solutions.

• Desert Island Apps

  How I find the best apps to focus on the work, not tools.

• Trading Off Freedom for Convenience

  How I'm grappling with Google's ecosystem when my preferred browser won't work with key apps.

• How I Go Offline

  A conversation about how I take back control of my attention from the noise.

• Direction and Action

  How my tool-centric writing gets traction and why direction is key to effective action.

• Work Anywhere

  How blurring the lines between work and life makes me more productive and engaged.

• A Brush With Resilience

  What a WWII ship can teach us about information systems design.

• My Digital Memory

  How Gmail became my indispensable information repository.

• The Informed Life With Beck Tench

  How designing for contemplation can enrich our experiences with technology and information.

• Marc Andreessen’s Guide to Personal Productivity

  How Marc Andreessen keeps his priorities straight and why you should consider his advice.

• The Informed Life With Kevin M. Hoffman

  A conversation about how leads become customers.

• Book Notes: “Digital Minimalism”

  How to navigate tech distractions with a purposeful philosophy for more clarity.

• Buffers: A Key to Working at Your Most Effective

  How structuring your tasks with strategic buffers boosts productivity and effectiveness.

• Stephen Wolfram’s Personal Information Ecosystem

  How a genius' personal information ecosystem helps him do so much.

• The iPad As a Travel Computer

  Navigating the iPad's possibilities and constraints as a tool for productive travel.

• The Cognition Crisis

  How our brains struggle to adapt to fast-changing tech.

• Getting More Done With Information

  A conversation about how online tools like Buffer let small teams achieve big results.

• The Informed Life With Fabricio Teixeira

  How Fabricio Teixeira designs his tech setup to maintain control over attention and productivity.

• Book Notes: “Designerly Ways of Knowing”

  How thinking like a designer can broaden problem-solving beyond traditional disciplines.

• The Informed Life With Gretchen Anderson

  Blending digital and analog workflows to enhance collaboration.

• Introducing The Informed Life Podcast

  Discover how experts manage information overload on my new podcast.

• Getting Unstuck By Switching Environments

  How changing physical and digital contexts can boost focus and productivity.

• How to Understand a Complex Subject

  How concept mapping helps make sense of complex subjects and boosts learning.

• The Role of Paper in Learning

  How pen and paper deepen learning by making abstract ideas concrete.

• Discovering the Shortest Route

  Navigating a learning curve reveals the joy of finding your path.

• Designing Your Life

  Considering life as an ongoing prototype to be designed.

• Five Practices for Using Information More Mindfully

  How to start the New Year with mindful information habits for personal growth.

• Uses for YouTube

  Using YouTube for both entertainment and essential life learning, from yoga to song tutorials.

• Book Notes: “Rapid Problem Solving With Post-it® Notes”

  Unleash team creativity with sticky notes as a group thinking tool using Straker’s methods.

• Intentional Computing

  Revisiting an old Mac sparks thoughts on intentional, mindful computing.

• Folder-centric to App-centric Workflows

  Juggling project structures on iOS can be tricky; here's how app-centric workflows shift focus.

• Making Changes at the End of the Year?

  Rethink New Year's resolutions: small, intentional changes beat grand plans.

• A Model for Teaching (and Learning)

  How making information relatable, distinct, and actionable enhances learning.

• Tracking Commitments

  Navigating personal and social commitments: why tracking them matters for growth.

• Seeing Clearly

  Navigating decisions wisely hinges on clear perception; how do you ensure clarity?

• Start With a Structure

  How adding a simple structure to journaling and note-taking transformed my productivity.

• Managing Screen Time

  How Apple's Screen Time can help you control device usage and regain mindfulness.

• So Many Books

  How do you choose what to read?

• Project Focus Mode

  Juggling projects efficiently requires focused organization. What if apps supported this?

• Blogging and Social Media

  Blogging lets me dive deep into ideas beyond social media chatter.

• Mobile Computing at a Different Level

  Unlock your iPhone's potential with iOS 12 Shortcuts, enhancing productivity effortlessly.

• Think Better, Fast

  How designing the right thinking environment can dramatically boost your cognitive abilities.

• OneNote

  How OneNote became my go-to tool for capturing ideas and staying organized.

• How Do You Know What’s True?

  How trusting information is like bumping into walls.

• Tag Your Stuff

  How hashtags streamline personal organization across your digital tools.

• Maintaining Focus

  What we can learn from cameras amidst life's evolving priorities.

• Working Towards Focus

  Keeping focus can unlock extraordinary potential.

• Making the Place Your Own

  How personalizing our living and digital spaces reveals the interplay between design and adaptation.

• Book Notes: "Seeing What Others Don't"

  How ""Seeing What Others Don't"" reframes insights to drive innovation beyond error-reduction.

• Unfriending the Baby With the Bathwater

  Navigating social media's benefits amidst its pitfalls demands mindful engagement.

• Thinking With Bookshelves

  How physical bookshelves and digital libraries shape our cognitive processes differently.

• Your Personal Information Ecosystem

  How intentional are you in shaping your personal information ecosystem to serve you?

• Book Notes: “The Organized Mind”

  Understanding our brain's organization can declutter your life and spaces.

• Book Notes: “Factfulness”

  Why we're often wrong about global trends and how to think more factually.

• Switching Modalities

  How switching perspectives boosts creativity and problem-solving in all endeavors.

• Changing Your Personal Information Environment

  Tweaking your digital toolkit can supercharge productivity but risks hidden costs.

• The Purpose of Computers

  Approaching computers as powerful tools rather than distractions.

• "Living in Information" Now Shipping

  Celebrating the launch of my book.

• Living in Information Now Available to Pre-order!

  Pre-order my new book!

• Places Are Making You Stupid

  How our physical spaces affect our focus and cognitive abilities.

• Exploring the Possible

  Discover your purpose and engage others through a new initiative.

• Give Priority to Old Sources

  Turn to ideas that have stood the test of time.

• How to Clear a Logjam

  Learn how to manage overcommitment.

• Measuring Progress From the Trenches

  How short-cycle feedback loops can enhance execution and long-term strategy balance.

• The Right Time for Feedback

  How timing shapes feedback's impact on writing and creativity.

• Book Notes: “Leonardo da Vinci”

  How curiosity across fields sparks creativity.

• Taking Notes

  Balancing paper's speed with digital's flexibility enriches my note-taking process.

• The Dream of a Single Inbox

  Navigating the dream and reality of a single inbox amid life's multiple contexts.

• Book Notes: “Textos Cautivos”

  A window into the literary pulse and geopolitical tensions of the 1930s through the pen of my favorite author.

• Honoring Intuition

  My journey with intuition versus rationality highlights the challenge of trusting gut feelings.

• Reestablishing Routines After a Break

  How simple actions can help us regain our rhythms.

• What's My iPhone For?

  A walk without digital distractions unleashes musings on life.

• Book Notes: "Finite and Infinite Games"

  Life's possibilities widen when we play for the sake of play itself.

• Making Time for Noodling

  How daily walks with my dog spark creativity and why noodling is key for growth.

• The Measures of a Man

  How losing my Apple Watch data helped me focus on real health, not just metrics.

• The Instrument

  Using consciousness as our primary design instrument.

• A New Notebook

  A fresh start with new notebooks sparks excitement that transitions into productive routines.

• Drawing to Think

  How drawing can enhance your thinking and creativity, inspired by Christina Wodtke’s book.

• What Are You Reading?

  How diverse reading layers affect depth and understanding.

• Focus

  Why saying ""no"" is key to achieving goals.

• Book Notes: "The Knowledge Illusion"

  Understanding shared knowledge gaps can inspire better design decisions.

• The Map, the Territory, and the Fitness Tracker

  Exploring how digital tools shape our habits and the essence of mindful presence.

• Move Fast and Brake

  Navigating the ethical crossroads of rapid tech innovation without losing our humanity.

• The Smart Sketchbook Revisited

  A shift to iOS tools refines my sketching setup, blending digital and analog seamlessly.

• The Smart Sketchbook

  How a digital smart sketchbook bridges the analog-digital divide in my workflow.

• Being Selective

  How selective storytelling can enhance creativity and improve project outcomes.

• Book notes: "The Art of Computer Game Design"

  Overview of a classic book that influenced my approach to design.