The Forte Labs Blog

Dedicated to Exploring the Frontier of Modern Productivity

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 the PNV by drawing on many other visualization exercises I’ve encountered over the years, synthesizing them into a simple yet profound writing exercise. The PNV is one of the most important but also…

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New Book: Extend Your Mind

I recently published my new ebook, a compilation of 19 Praxis posts from 2017, on the Amazon Kindle store. Click here to view it on Amazon (Affiliate Link) Read the Foreword below Foreword from Extend Your Mind This book is made up of 19 essays (or long-form blog posts) published in 2017 on the blog. 2017…

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The Case for Digital Notes

In our course Building a Second Brain, we teach people how to capture, organize, and share their most valuable knowledge and know-how using technology. We call this practice Personal Knowledge Management, or PKM. One of the most common questions I am asked is “Why digital notes?” This article will explain why, out of all the…

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The 5 Challenges of Becoming a Digital Nomad

In Part 1 of the Going Nomad series, I explained why my partner Lauren and I are moving to Mexico at the end of the year. In Part 2, I’ll tell you what I see as our top five challenges in making the transition to remote work. These challenges seem to be fairly common for…

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You Need a Budget: 13 Parallels Between Money and Productivity

I recently read and took notes on You Need a Budget (YNAB-Affiliate Link), a popular book on personal finance and budgeting (with accompanying software for managing budgets) by Jesse Mecham. My interest in this book is three-fold: I’m terrible at budgeting and need help I want to borrow principles and methods for managing money to help people…

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Why I’m Moving to Mexico

My partner Lauren and I are moving to Mexico City later this year. This post explains why, both to clarify for myself, and to be able to share with others. We’ve been able to identify 5 reasons for why we’re moving. I’ll elaborate on them below, from most to least important. 1. It’s time for…

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The Future of Ebooks

I’ve published a few ebooks over the past year, and have plans for a couple more before the end of the year. In contrast to fears about the “end of reading,” my self-publishing experiences have led me to believe that we’re in the midst of a transformational revolution in reading. But it remains to be…

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Progressive Summarization VI: Core Principles of Knowledge Capture

It might seem absurd that something as simple as a method of highlighting could be so important to a person’s productivity and learning. Even I’m surprised that’s turned out to be the case.

But as testimonials and stories have streamed in from people putting it to use around the world, I’ve become convinced that it is the beginning of a sea change in how we consume information.

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Hostwriting with Michael Fogleman

I recently had a conversation and interview with Michael Fogleman, who offers a service called Hostwriting that takes writers step by step through the process of writing their book. Michael and his team offer coaching services, an online course, and an ebook production service, all centered around the idea that writing can be fun and…

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A Conversation with Ryan McCarthy of the Global Kindness Initiative

For last week’s Praxis Town Hall, I invited Ryan McCarthy of the Global Kindness Initiative to join us for a conversation about the connection between productivity, knowledge management, individual performance and larger issues like organizational change, socio-emotional awareness, and effective communication. Ryan’s recent guest post Impact Cycles: Finding the Why Beyond the How provides a good…

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