The Forte Labs Blog

Dedicated to Exploring the Frontier of Modern Productivity

Praxis Anti-Book Club version 2.0

A couple months ago we launched the first Anti-Book Club. It was a phenomenal success by my criteria, with 41 books on productivity, creativity, learning, and related topics summarized over the course of just a month. More importantly, the feedback was almost unanimously positive. It ranged from “interesting experiment” to “I’ll never read any other…

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My interview on the Buddhist Geeks Podcast

Listen to my conversation with Vincent Horn on the Buddhist Geeks podcast: We have a great conversation about what meditation and mindfulness have taught me about the future of work, what productivity means in the age of the network, and other topics like limiting paradigms, environment design, multitasking, and reframing threats as opportunities.

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Progressive Summarization V: The Faster You Forget, The Faster You Learn

In Part I, I introduced Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you examples and metaphors of the method in action. Part III included my top recommendations for how to perform it effectively. Part IV showed how to apply the technique to non-text media.

In Part V, I’ll show you how Progressive Summarization directly contributes to the ultimate outcome we’re seeking with our information consumption: learning.

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A Skeptic Goes to the Landmark Forum

Note: The views expressed on this blog are my personal views and are not the views of Landmark. In September of 2016 I completed a weekend seminar called the Landmark Forum in San Francisco. It took three close friends, recommending it to me in three separate conversations, to get me there. I was very skeptical…

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Building a Second Brain in One Tweet

Here’s how participants of Building a Second Brain, our online course on digital note-taking and personal knowledge management, described the course in one tweet (140 characters or less): How to take digital notes, increase their value, store them for easy retrieval, and use them for projects and/or to create new connections. — Greg Scholes BASB…

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Interview on the Super Power U podcast

Check out my new interview with Lisa Betts-Lacroix on the Super Power U podcast below (38m). We talk about “creative productivity,” how I was deeply influenced by my artist father, and how I identify people’s “superpowers.” You can find highlights and resources mentioned on the official podcast page.

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My interview on the Metalearn podcast

I recently had a great conversation with Nasos Papadopoulos on the Metalearn podcast. We talk about the fundamental pillars of a great note-taking system, how design thinking can be used to improve your productivity and life, and actions you can take to prepare yourself for the future of work. Visit the podcast page for the…

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Announcing: The Praxis Anti-Book Club

Update: the book club is now closed Books are the worst. Seriously. Think about it. Most books have one good idea wrapped in layers and layers of fluff. Like one of those giant gift boxes you keep opening with smaller and smaller boxes inside, only to find a keychain. Books are static. By the time…

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The Annual Review is a Rearchitecture

I previously described how the weekly review is an operating system, funneling each bit of information you captured during the week to its proper place. I also described the monthly review as a systems check, periodically making sure your systems are in good working order. Now we’re ready to dive into the annual review, which…

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