A Manifesto of Human-Centered Work

Links lead to articles on the topic. Some of them require an active membership to view, which you can learn more about here. I believe in work. As a means of income generation, sure. But also as a means to continuous learning, to reaching one’s potential, and to a peaceful and just society. The capacity to…

Evernote Podcast Interview Part II: Tiago Forte on Productivity, Provocation, and Layering…

Here’s Part II of my interview on the official Evernote podcast, Take Note. We discuss my thinking on the power of provocation, what it means to “layer” knowledge, and dive deeper into the techniques I teach in my online bootcamp on personal knowledge management, Building a Second Brain (which starts July 17th). You can find…

Evernote Podcast Interview: Tiago Forte’s Approach to Productivity

I was honored to be interviewed on the official Evernote podcast, Take Note, a couple weeks ago. We discuss my approach to “small batch” productivity, follow up on my previous post about changing the value curve of our work, and of course, the latest round of my online bootcamp on personal knowledge management, Building a…

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 whatever mood you’re in (as I described in Productivity for Precious Snowflakes). They can also be used offensively, to proactively create the conditions for rapid acceleration and value creation. Let’s begin with a simple question:…

Breaking Paradigms: Khe Hy interviews Tiago Forte

I recently recorded an hour-long interview with Khe Hy of RadReads, on a wide range of topics related to productivity, my background, GTD, Personal Knowledge Management, creativity, email overload, and trends in the future of work. Listen to the recording below, or check out the full description over at RadReads.

Theory of Constraints 111: Elevating the Constraint

A SERIES OF 5-MINUTE POSTS ON APPLYING PRINCIPLES OF FLOW TO KNOWLEDGE WORK
If I asked you to tell me how many minutes it takes you to get to work, what would you say?

The number you thought of is probably an average. Sometimes it takes less, sometimes more, but most days it’s clustered around the middle. Let’s say it’s 30 minutes:

Theory of Constraints 110: Subordinating Non-Constraints

A SERIES OF 5-MINUTE POSTS ON APPLYING PRINCIPLES OF FLOW TO KNOWLEDGE WORK
Previously, I described how to go about subordinating the non-constraints of an organization in order to maximize its throughput. The next step, #4 in the Five Focusing Steps, is to elevate (or relieve) the constraint itself:

Identify the constraint
Optimize the constraint

A Theory of Unlearning: Ecstasis, Anamnesis, Kenosis

A year ago in Productivity for Precious Snowflakes, I introduced the idea of Mood-First Productivity — that our moods, or unique states of mind, are fundamental drivers of creative knowledge work. But something was missing: how does one advance in the practice of Mood-First Productivity, besides noticing what mood you’re in at any given time, and trying…

Getting Things Done + Personal Knowledge Management

An Integrated Total Life Management System By Tiago Forte of Forte Labs To learn more, check out our online bootcamp on Personal Knowledge Management, Building a Second Brain. One of the key insights of Getting Things Done, the book on personal productivity by David Allen that spawned the worldwide movement known as GTD, was that…