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Productivity

Your First Five Steps to Set-Up a Slipbox in Obsidian

January 26, 2022 by Eva Keiffenheim


Take smart digital notes with the Zettelkasten approach.

Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash

I recently switched to Obsidian because it beats RoamResearch in terms of speed and data privacy.

Similar to Roam, Obsidian is a note-taking software many people use for knowledge management.

While both tools use markdown and share some functionalities, they look and work differently.

Here are the first five steps I took to set up my slip-box (aka Zettelkasten) in Obsidian.


1) The basic commands you want to know

In your left panel, you can create a new folder and a new note.

For formatting your notes, there are a couple of commands you might want to keep in mind.

For writing italics, utilize the *this* or _this_ command. For bolding the text use a double combination like ** this** or __ this__ .

Hashtags set the size of your heading. Make sure to include a space after the hashtag otherwise you create a tag.

Source: Obsidian Help Desk

The last basic command you need is the [[ ]] for linking. Similar to Roam, Obsidian will create a new note out of an existing note, if you bracket a word or sentence. Yet, you need to click on the bracketed word to actually create the note. You can also use files and links and tags and embed notes in others.


2) Create the templates for different notes

To quickly create the three different Zettelkasten note types, you want to use templates. Here’s a quick recap about the different types of notes in a Zettelkasten:

  • Fleeting Notes: Fleeting notes are ideas that pop into your mind as you go through your day. They can be really short, just like one word. You don’t need to organize them.
  • Literature Notes: You capture literature notes from the content you consume. It’s your bullet-point summary from other people’s ideas. I create these notes for all books, podcasts, articles, or videos I find valuable.
  • Permanent Notes: When you create permanent notes, you think for yourself. In contrast to literature notes, you don’t summarize somebody else’s thoughts. You don’t just copy ideas but develop, remix, and contradict them. You create arguments and discussions. By writing your idea down, you put pressure on your thinking and transform vague thoughts into clear points.

In Obsidian, templates work differently from the ;; command in Roam. But once you set it up it’s quite intuitive.

First, you create a new folder and call it “Templates”. Then, head to “Settings” on the bottom left corner, select “core plugins” and enable the Templates.

Lastly, head back to the settings, scroll to the very bottom, select “Templates” and assign the Template folder location to your newly created page “Templates.”

Next, you can create templates for your literature notes and your permanent notes. Depending on your preference and slipbox structures, yours might look different.

Here’s how I set up mine: Similar to my Roam Zettelkasten, I use an orange icon for literature notes and a green book icon for permanent notes. Here’s the exact structure:

The nested tags in the status help me see items I have to finish as a tree instead of a flat list.

Source: obsidian help desk

3) Set up your slipbox structure

Next, you might want to set up three new folders: one for your fleeting notes, another for your literature notes, and one for your permanent notes.

The fleeting notes will serve the same function as my default option for noting down any atomic idea or note.

The literature notes are the highlights imported from Readwise (more on that in the next steps) with additional notes. The permanent notes folder contain my original writing.

I don’t use a content map and I’m not planning to number the notes. I used to do this in RoamResearch but it has been slowing me down and I don’t see many benefits.


4) Connect Readwise to Obsidian

Readwise was the superpower behind my Zettelkasten in Roam and will hopefully remain the superpower in Obsidian as well.

In essence, it is a service that imports all your highlights (e.g. from books, kindle, Twitter, podcasts, medium articles, browser) and exports them in a customized format to your note-taking tool (e.g. Notion, Roam, or Obsidian).

I see it as my personally curated search engine. It contains all highlights from the past 100 books and 1000 articles I read and highlighted within the last two years.

To connect Readwise to Obsidian, you want to launch your obsidian vault, click on settings, select “community plugins” in the left panel, and toggle off Safe mode.

Then, search for “Readwise Official”, click install and enable. In the panel, scroll down to “Readwise Official” and click on connect. Weirdly I had to wait for around two days until the import was fully functioning.


5) Create a workflow that works for You

The most sophisticated tool is useless until you integrate it into your processes.

In the beginning, you might ask yourself whether you’re doing it right. The setup options you have with tools like Obsidian can distract you from actually using them.

With 25 core plugins, 439 community plugins, and 113 themes, plus custom styling, you can adapt Obsidian to work and look exactly to your needs.

One thing that has helped me is not worrying too much about the perfect structure. The researchers who digitized Zettelkasten’s inventor’s notes found inconsistencies in his labelling and interlinking — his Zettelkasten was far from perfect and still made him one of the biggest scientific contributors of his time.

Start using Obsidian and you will soon discover whether you need more functionalities or a better design. There’s still much to discover and I’m excited about the features it offers.


Sign-up free for the weekly Learn Letter and receive tools and resources that accelerate your learning. And if you want to accelerate your online writing, sign-up free here.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, obsidian, Productivity

How I Built a Book Brain with RoamResearch

August 4, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


Here’s how you can do it, too (templates included).

Image credit: Model-la.

Have you ever read a book only to forget the quintessence three weeks later? Human brains don’t work like recording devices. When we read things a single time, we’ll likely forget them. Even the densest non-fiction books become mere entertainment.

I read a book a week for some years now and encounter many interesting ideas. Yet, I often struggled to find the content when I needed it. Researching sources for my articles, my weekly newsletter, podcast interviews, or panel discussions was a long and frustrating process.

Building a book brain in Roam helped me find what I need within seconds. As a result, I no longer spend hours searching for ideas from books. Instead, I have everything at a single digital place ready for usage.

Whether you’re struggling to organize your thinking, want to make more of the books you read, or look for inspiration to organize your reading, this article is for you. Here are the exact steps you can follow to find what you need when you need it by building a book brain with RoamResearch.

The Setup

I built a book brain using my Kindle, Readwise, and RoamResearch.

Disclaimer: I'm not sponsored by Roam or Readwise. I pay $15/month for RoamResearch and $8/month for Readwise. Free alternatives to RoamResearch include TiddlyWiki, Obsidian, RemNote, Amplenote, and Org-roam. The only alternative to Readwise is importing highlights manually.

Kindle

I was an e-reading enemy until I read my first e-book. Before, I’d argue you can’t smell and dog-ear the pages, scribble your questions in the margins, or sketch out the concept you just learned.

And while these arguments still hold, technology-assisted learning makes most of them irrelevant. Now that I discovered how to use my Kindle as a learning device, I wouldn’t trade it for a paper book anymore.

Your Kindle Notes page shows all your book highlights (for books purchased via Amazon). This feature is essential for the process that follows.

The kindle notes page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

Readwise

Readwise is an online service that helps you retain books better. You can resurface your highlights through spaced repetition on their website. In addition, the program also allows you to tag, annotate, search, and organize your highlights.

The only Readwise feature I use is highlight syncing. You can sync your Kindle highlights to Evernote, Notion, and Roamresearch. Once it’s set up, Readwise syncs your highlights with notes automatically every day.

This is how I customized my Readwise to Roam integration:

Readwise configuration page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

Here’s the code I used for the page metadata. Feel free to copy or adjust it to your needs.

{% if category == "tweets" %}
#twitter 🐦
{% elif category == "books" %}
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create literature notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create permanent notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess write a summary for my blog and publish it
{% else %}
podcast or article
{% endif %}
Author:: [[{{author}}]]
Tags:: #readwisesync
Full Title:: {{full_title}}
Type:: #{{category}}
Recommended by::
Import Date:: {{date}}
{% if document_tags %}Document Tags:: {% for tag in document_tags %}#[[{{tag}}]] {% endfor %} {% endif %}
{% if url %}URL:: {{url}}{% endif %}
{% if image_url %}![]({{image_url}}){% endif %}

RoamResearch

RoamResearch is an online workspace for organizing your knowledge. In essence, it’s a note-taking app that works in line with your brain.

To understand why RoamResearch is superior to most note-taking apps, let’s understand how our memory remembers things. Harvard researchers describe a three-step process:

  1. Through encoding, your memory learns new information, either visual (see), acoustic (hear), tactile (feel), or semantic (mean).
  2. Everything you encode is first stored in your short-term memory and then, through spaced repetition, in your long-term memory.
  3. Through retrieval, you can access and recall what you stored in your brain.

Hence, to retrieve and access what you learned, you first need to encode and store it in a way that helps with this process.

The more details and the stronger you connect new knowledge to what you already know, the better. By doing so, you’re generating more cues. Computer-scientist and lifelong learner Helmut Sachs writes in his book, “The more we know, the more information (hooks) we have to connect new information to, the easier we can form long-term memories.”

Networked note-taking encodes information into your long-term memory more effectively. It can be advantageous to relate the material to a personal experience or to something you already know, explaining the idea to someone else, and explaining how it relates to your life.

And this is where Roam comes into play. While traditional note-taking tools, such as Notion or Evernote, operate within a hierarchical structure for linear thinking, Roam was built around networked thinking. Through bi-directional links and the daily notes default, the platform is built for connecting and interrelating your book notes and ideas.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

The Workflow

One of the biggest hurdles in building a book brain is actually taking the time to do it. Unfortunately, it’s more tempting to start a new book than work with the one you just finished.

But whenever I rush to the next book without pausing to think and reflect, I won’t remember nor apply most of what I read. Hence, I block an hour each Monday to go through the book I just finished.

Within this weekly hour, I do three things: write literature notes, permanent notes, and publish a book summary. To make sure not to miss a book, the three steps show op in my Roam [[ToDo]] page. When I’m done, I tick them off. In case you want different ToDos or # to show up in your database, configure the code above.

Roam [[ToDo]] page (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

1) Create Literature Notes

You might have heard of the Literature notes from the Zettelkasten method. But you don’t need to understand the complex system for knowledge management to create them.

Literature notes are brief, contain your own words, and sometimes bibliographic references. When writing literature notes from a book, I answer two questions:

  1. What is so interesting about this?
  2. What is so relevant it’s worth noting down?

First, I try to recall everything from my memory (an exercise that supports my memory in transforming information from the short-term to the long-term memory).

When I’m done with this brainwriting, I’ll go through the highlights from the book. Readwise synced the book’s highlights to my RoamResearch database, so I don’t have to pick up my Kindle. If I find something noteworthy I hadn’t thought of, I’ll add it to the literature note.

Three examples for my Roam literature notes (screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim).

2) Create Permanent Notes

While literature notes are your summary of someone else’s ideas, permanent notes are your own ideas. You combine what you read with your area of interest and focus. Literature notes serve as a stepping stone for your thinking.

While your literature notes are bullets and fragments, your permanent notes should sound like written prose. A reader of your permanent note (e.g., your future self) should understand it without reading the source that led to your idea.

These notes are called permanent notes because they’re supposed to be permanently useful to you.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on “How to take smart notes.”

3) Write a Summary to Learn in Public

Writing is one of the most effective ways to embed information in your mind. Before you write, you have to take several steps: filter relevant information, organize this information and articulate them using your own vocabulary.

In short: When you write, you have to understand and think for yourself.

Scientists call this the ‘Generation effect.’ In 1978, researchers discovered that information is better remembered if generated from one’s own mind rather than read. And while research is still unclear about why it works, it has been shown to accelerate learning and remembering information.

I committed to learning in public. Hence, I publish my book summaries on my website. This is a way to hold me accountable to show up each week and support people who want to become lifelong learners. And that’s it — the process I use to create a book brain in Roam.


In Conclusion

Books are incredible — you can learn about anything, travel in time and place, and become anyone you want.

With a book brain, you can remember and use anything you want from the books you read. If you’re new to Kindle, Readwise, and Roam, it might take a day to set it up. Yet, once in place, it can save you hours. Depending on how much you read, it will take you one to four hours a month to make the most of what you read.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, Reading, roam

The First 5 Steps to Unlock Roam Research’s Potential

July 6, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


And transform your personal knowledge management.

Image created by the author via Canva.

Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge.

Unlike linear cabinet tools, Roam allows you to remix and connect ideas, where each note represents a node in a dynamic network.

Just like Excel, Roam has a low floor but a high ceiling. You can use Excel for simple things like a grocery list, or you can run your entire business from one sheet.

Roam’s strategy is to attract people who are willing to invest time using a power tool. And the effort is worth it.

Once you know your way around Roam, you’ve unlocked the best tool for knowledge management. This article will teach you the first five steps to get started.


Step 1: Learn the most important shortcuts

Don’t waste your precious lifetime by navigating with your mouse.

With shortcuts, you’ll bring a 3-second action down to a 1-second. And because you repeat those actions hundreds of times each week, you’ll save hours. These are the Roam Research shortcuts I use every day:

  • [[ or # → Reference or create a new page
  • ⌘+ opt + 1 → Heading 1
  • ⌘+opt + 2 → Heading 2
  • shift+click → open page in the right sidebar
  • / → Show quick commands
  • tab → Indent block
  • shift + tab → unindent block
  • ⌘+ u → find or create a page
  • three formatting shortcuts:
Screen recording by the author.

How to apply this:

Within your first week, force yourself to use the shortcuts instead of using your mouse. While this will feel slow first, you’ll soon save hours every week.


Step 2: Always start on the daily notes page

Every time you open Roam, you will find yourself on the Daily Notes page.

Think of it as your entryway to work on your personal knowledge management system.

There’s no reason to be afraid of the missing folder structure — networked note-taking accelerates your learning. Here’s why.

Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts. Because you don’t have to decide for parent topics, you’ll stumble upon interrelated ideas.

Image created by the author.

By seeing your daily notes page first thing whenever you open your Roam Research graph, you can focus on your thoughts and ideas instead of wasting brainpower on storage structure. In Roam Research, information is fluid and interconnected.

How to apply this:

Whenever you take a note on your daily page, make sure to add a label. For example, if you capture an idea relevant to one of your projects, add a hashtag with your project label and another one for the topic.

The next time you’re looking for your thoughts on the project, all you need to do is use ⌘+ u to see all your ideas in a single place.


Step 3: Unlock the power of bidirectional linking

You can create new pages with brackets [[]] and hashtags #.

Both commands have the same function, but they look different. You can use either one. All pages are tags, and all tags are pages. Here’s what it looks like:

Screen recording by the author.

Here’s an example of how you can use it on your daily page: I have a page called [[quote]] where I collect my favorite quotes. This morning, I saw a quote I liked and typed it into my daily notes. I added #quote behind it. When I now click on #quote (or [[quote]]), it shows up with all the other quotes I labeled with this tag.

Screen recording by the author.

Plus, what makes pages even more powerful is that Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced. So when I click on the “Unlinked References” on my [[quote]] page, I see potentially related bullets and can add them to my page by clicking “Link.”

Screen recording by the author.

This function is networked thought in action and the reason you don’t need folders. When you create a page Roam automatically adds all related blocks from your database as references to your page.

How to apply this:

Whenever you write a note, add a tag to connect it with existing notes. After a few weeks, you built an index for your personal library. Your Roam Research Graph will work as your second brain.


Step 4: Create templates

Templates save you time and make your structure consistent. To create a template, follow the following structure:

• TemplateName #roam/templates
• [[Template Title]]
• Your template's content

When you want to use your templates, you type ;; and the template name will show up.

Here’s what it looks like in my workflow when creating a permanent note for my Zettelkasten.

Screen recording by the author.

Another template I frequently use is the book summary template. Feel free to steal it.

• Book Summary #roam/templates
• [[**Book Summary Title** 📘 #learntrepreneur]]
• 📚 3-Sentence-Summary
• 💭 What I think about it
• 🤤 Who benefits from reading this book?
• 🧬 How the book changed my life
• ✍️️ Favorite Quotes

How to apply this:

Whenever you want a repeatable structure (e.g., reflection questions, note-taking templates, or metadata), create a template for it.


Step 5: Get clear about your intentions

Why are you using Roam Research? Do you want to build your second brain? Accelerate your writing process? Structure your thinking? Showcase a digital garden?

While the first four steps are necessary for any Roam Research endeavor, the next steps depend on your needs.

How to apply this:

Learn what you need to learn. Here are some suggestions on the next steps:

  • Writing → How to use Roam to outline an article in under 20 minutes.
  • Knowledge management → Building a second brain with Roam.
  • Learning in public → Creating a digital garden with Roam.
  • Personal development → How to use Roam as a self-therapy and journaling tool.

You can do a zillion things with Roam Research, but these five steps will help you get started. Then, if you feel curious, you can type / inside your database and discover more useful functions, such as TODOs, date pickers, sliders, and a Pomodoro Timer.

“Roam is simple but not easy,” founder Conor White Sullivan said in an interview. It’s worth sticking through the steep learning curve. May Roam Research be as useful to you as it is for me.


Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, roam

7 Easy Ways to Tame Your Inbox and Save One Hour Every Week

July 3, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


Make the most of asynchronous conversations.

Created by the author via Canva.

Emails kill productivity. They point your attention towards random tasks and distract you from focused work.

A McKinsey analysis showed we spend around 2.6 hours a day reading and answering emails. Data analysis from RescueTime revealed we check e-mails every 6 minutes.

If you spent the same time playing an instrument, you’d soon be a musician.

But for your inbox, the opposite is true — the more time you spend on e-mails, the less effective you become. That’s why inbox-driven workdays are a source of anxiety and stress.

Luckily, there are quick fixes you can use to tame your inbox and reclaim your attention. Here are seven things that help you become an effective email manager and save you hours every week.


1) Don’t use tags or folders

Managing your mail with folders is 9% slower than searching with keywords and 50% slower than searching for names.

When you archive your emails in different folders, you add an unnecessary step (deciding which and where to stare emails). Instead, use the search bar to find what you’re looking for (e.g., “from:hello@evakeiffenheim.com”).

Don’t create folders to deal with emails later. Instead, answer and archive directly, or reschedule the mail to reoccur in your inbox. Here’s how it works for G-Mail.

Screen recording by the author.

2) Follow the single touch rule

Many professionals keep e-mails in their inboxes (200 on average). But even if you only reread the subject lines from some of them, your brain will restart thinking about the issues.

Re-reading e-mails equal brain waste.

Instead, have a bias towards action. When you read an e-mail, always archive, delete, reply, or reschedule. Don’t let any mail you read linger in your inbox.


3) Anticipate the next move

As a project manager, checking your e-mails once a day for 20 minutes doesn’t work. 90% of a PM’s work is communication.

I currently lead an entrepreneurship education project. On busy days, I receive 60 and send 50 emails (this doesn’t include my personal and work e-mail account or replies to The Learn Letter).

Email statistics from my project management account for June. (Source: E-Mail Meter)

This got me thinking — is there a better way to reduce e-mail volume and stop information overload? There is. Here’s how.

Before you press ‘send,’ ask yourself which questions your recipient might have. Add the answers in your mail. When you anticipate your reader’s questions, you save time for both of you.

“To RECEIVE less email, SEND less email.” — Jeff Weiner


4) Delete the mail app from your phone

I used to check my email when walking up the stairs and while waiting in a line. But unless you’re working for an atomic plant, nothing is so urgent it’d require your immediate attention.

When you want to build muscles, your body needs rest days. Your muscles recover, and your nervous system regenerates. The same goes for your brain.

To get maximum focus during your working hours, you want enough time away from work. Plus, boredom brings benefits.

Deleting the mail app from your phone will prevent you from disrupting your break time.


5) Pause your inbox for most of your day

Compulsive inbox checks don’t go well with focused attention. Some reports suggest it can take people up to 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus after an interruption.

“You can’t get meaningful things done when you’re constantly going start, stop, start, stop.” — Jason Fried

I protect my focus is by using the pause add-on for Gmail. New emails only enter my inbox only during specific times. Alternatively, you can use BlockSite for Chrome to block your email provider during specific time frames.

Don’t be among the workers who check their mail every 6 minutes. Installing inbox zero and scheduling dedicated e-mail response windows can help.


7) Create calendar invites with a single click

Even if you use a scheduling tool like Calendly or Chilipiper, creating calendar invites is sometimes inevitable.

Luckily, you can save a minute each time using this built-in Gmail feature that converts an email into a calendar appointment.

All you need to do is clicking on the three dots and select ‘Create event.’ Then, Gmail will distill the information from your e-mail and add them to the email fields.

Screen recording by the author.

7) Use Parkinson’s Law to get more done in less time

According to Parkinson’s Law, “the work expands as to fill the time available for its completion.” You can use this principle for you.

Set a timer for 25 minutes and aim for inbox zero. Try to beat the clock. Repeat this twice or thrice a day. Making your email inbox a game against time will help you become more productive.


Final Thoughts

Sivanathan said in his TED Talk: “You cannot increase the quality of an argument by simply increasing the quantity of your argument.”

In a perfect world, everybody would follow this rule, and email would be more concise.

But until we’re in our perfect world, you can use the tips from above to become more effective at managing your e-mails. Thereby, you’ll save one hour every week.


Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Filed Under: ✍🏽 Online Creators Tagged With: Productivity, Time management, Work From Home

7 Tools That Make Working From Home More Productive

June 1, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


How you can focus on what matters.

Created by the author via Canva.

Maximizing productivity doesn’t mean minimizing leisure. Working more hours doesn’t equal getting more done. It just means you spend more time working.

Productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less. It’s about blocking distractions so you can focus and get things done.

Here are the tools I use every day to make most of my work time. Every single one can help you overcome procrastination traps, maximize focus and enter flow states.


1) Notion for Weekly Reflection and Planning

If you don’t set your agenda, somebody else will. Without a weekly reflection, it’s easy to be busy without doing what matters.

David Allen, a productivity guru and author of ‘Getting Things Done,’ writes: “The Weekly Review will sharpen your intuitive focus on your important projects as you deal with the flood of new input and potential distractions coming at you the rest of the week.”

I use the free version of Notion for my Sunday review. There are a few things I tick off to make the most out of my work week:

  • Plan my week in Google Calendar (including food and sport).
  • Review last week’s tasks in my Bullet Journal and set goals for the next week.
  • Empty my E-Mail inboxes to zero (reply, delete, or schedule).
  • Clean my Mac desktop and downloads folder to zero.

This end-of-week review takes me around 60 minutes. While a weekly review might feel like an additional burden, it’ll make your workweek more intentional and productive.


2) Your Phone‘s Flight Mode

Ever wondered why you get much work done on long-haul flights? It’s because no call, no message, no notification can distract you.

I tried app-blocking with apps like Freedom or Forest. But what worked best is charging my phone in flight mode outside of my bedroom.

My phone is in flight mode from 8 PM to 12 PM. I’ve been using this schedule for half a year, and it’s the single most effective productivity booster.


3) Noise-Cancelling Headphones for Flow States

Three hours of creative flow might be all you need to improve your career. Flow states helped me make a full-time income from writing by writing 12 hours a week.

And the best thing — flow feels like joyful, easy work.

Yet, flow is fragile. Noises like a knock on the door can break it.

When interruptions are flow state’s enemies, noise-canceling headphones are its alley. Once you put them on, it’s just you and full focus on the task ahead.

Whenever I want to get into flow, I put on my headphone, pick one song from my playlist, and listen to it on repeat.


4) Site Blocker for Distraction-Free Productivity

How often do you check social media? Whenever I faced a difficult thought, I’d check Gmail or LinkedIn.

I felt my behavior was in the way of great work, yet I couldn’t manage to change it. Red notification badges and infinite scrolling made me crave the next dopamine rush.

Compulsive social media checks will make your thoughts bounce around like a ping-pong ball. A study from Irvine University found it takes 20 minutes to refocus after distractions.

Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook executive, says: “We were not evolved to get social approval being dosed upon us every 5 minutes.”

For better productivity, fix your environment. If you don’t want to get distractions, use a site-blocker. I use this free chrome extension to block LinkedIn, Facebook, and Mail from 9 PM to noon.


5) Use FocusTimer to Practice Deep Work

Focused and uninterrupted creation time is your secret weapon to maximum productivity. Cal Newport coined the term Deep Work as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.”

To unlock deep work and get more done in less time, you need practice. Learning to focus feels hard first. That’s why you want to start small.

After learning about deep work four years ago, I started with a single 20-minute block a day. Gradually I increased the duration. Now I’m at 3×50 minutes with 10-minute breaks in between each deep work session.

Once you can focus for more extended periods, your work’s quality and quantity improve.

To schedule these sessions, you can use any timer. I use the free BeFocused Timer for Mac. You can adjust the duration for breaks and deep work sessions.


6) Delete Any Messaging Apps from Your Devices

Instant messaging, including e-mails, can be addictive. I checked my email when walking up the stairs, waiting in a line, or waiting at a red light.

I disabled all phone notifications for more than three years and stuck to my flight mode schedule. Still, I found myself checking work-related apps like Gmail and Slack.

Nothing is so urgent it can’t wait until your back at your desk. When working from home, your computer is always within reach. Don’t take work-related communication with you on the couch or to your bed.

To get maximum focus during your working hours, you want free thinking when you’re not sitting at your desk. Deleting these apps from your home will prevent you from compulsive e-mail checks.


7) Virtual Co-Working with FocusMate

Focusmate is virtual coworking that helps you get things done. You work side-by-side with another worker somewhere across the globe.

You sign up and schedule your desired focus hours. When the time comes, you log into your account and turn on your video camera. You greet each other, communicate your goals for the session, mute your mic, and start working.

The tool can improve your productivity with accountability, commitment, and implementation intentions.

If you ever feel like you procrastinate too much, it’s not because your lazy or unmotivated. Often procrastination is caused by distraction. These tools helped me find focus and get things done. I hope they do the same for you.


Want to join a community of lifelong learners? Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Filed Under: ✍🏽 Online Creators Tagged With: Productivity, Time management, Work From Home

The Complete Guide for Building a Zettelkasten with RoamResearch

May 25, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim



This is how networked thought transformed my writing process and cut my research writing time in half

Conceptual illustration of a person holding a drawing of a brain.
Purchased by the author via Canva.

“Are you sure reading all those books is worth your time?” my fiancé asked me last fall. He found a weak spot. I’d been contemplating my reading habits for quite some time.

While I knew how you could remember what you read, I felt my reading was inefficient.

I read a book, along with 50 articles a week, and encounter many interesting ideas. While I had a method to remember what I read, I felt my reading and creative workflow was inefficient.

But when it comes to writing, it often happened that I knew I read something about the topic somewhere. Despite my summaries, I struggled to recall where the information was, making it difficult to reference. I’d spend half an hour browsing through side notes in a book’s margins, digital notes, and bullet journals without a result. I’d continue without the information, frustrated.

So when my partner asked the question, my answer was unconvinced, “Reading is great. I just haven’t found the right system to work with it yet.”

That’s why something clicked when I first heard the term “Zettelkasten” in one of Ali Abdaal’s videos. Yet, I struggled to summarize the Zettelkasten — even Ali admitted that he hadn’t grasped it fully.

Whenever I’m hooked, I enter a tunnel. I watched and read every tutorial I could find on the internet, read the original German texts, studied Sönke Ahren’s how-to guide, researched coaches, and hired one. Since March, I also help my coaching clients set up their system.

I’m so in love with my Zettelkasten, my fiancé sometimes feels betrayed. These are the ways my digital brain has transformed my thinking, learning, and writing.

  • Increased productivity. I write and create faster. I no longer waste time searching for sources. Instead of using my brain to browse through books and digital bookmark notes, I have everything in one place. A research-based 1,300-word article used to take me three hours to write— with Zettelkasten, it takes me one and a half.
  • Original ideas. Whenever I write or research a topic, I browse through my Roamkasten and find what I’m looking for, plus connections between domains I hadn’t thought about in the first place.
  • Better thinking. New information challenges my thinking and helps me overcome cognitive biases. I gain a deeper understanding of everything I read.
  • Maximum retention. I have a place that stores everything valuable from what I watch, read, or listen to. It helped me develop my worldview by comparing evidence, ideas, and arguments.

What follows is a crisp description of how the Zettelkasten works and the exact system I follow to set it up in Roam. Everything you’ll need to set this up is in this article.

Table of Contents
1 Zettelkasten - What Is It and How Does It Work?
1.1 Luhmann’s Zettelkasten as fuel for his productivity
1.2 Zettelkasten's three types of notes
1.3 Zettelkasten's 4 core principles
2 Roam Research- What Is It and How Does It Work?
2.1 Roam's Value Proposition
2.2 RoamResearch functions you need for building a Zettelkasten
3 Roamkasten - How to Set up Your Zettelkasten in Roam
3.1 How to capture fleeting notes
3.2 How to take great literature notes
3.3 How to create permanent notes
3.4 Tying it all together in the index of the permanent note
4 How I Use the Roamkasten in My Writing Process
4.1 How I seek great content
4.2 How I block out consumption time
4.3 My automated capturing process
4.4 How I use new ideas for networked thought
4.5 How I write to learn

1. Zettelkasten — What Is It and How Does It Work?

What follows is a brief description of its origins, the four types of note hierarchies, and the key principles.

1.1 Luhmann’s Zettelkasten as fuel for his productivity

Niklas Luhmann was a social scientist and philosopher, and researchers consider Luhmann one of the most important social theorists of the 20th century.

During his life, he wrote 73 books and almost 400 research articles on various topics, including politics, art, ecology, media, law, and the economy.

When someone asked him how he published so much, Luhmann replied, “I’m not thinking everything on my own. Much of it happens in my Zettelkasten. My productivity is largely explained by the Zettelkasten method.”

“Zettel” is the German word for paper slip, “Kasten” means cabinet or box. During his lifetime, he wrote and kept 90,000 index cards in his slip box. All notes were digitized by the University of Bielefeld in 2019, and the original German version is available online. But this is what it originally looked like:

What the original Zettelkasten looked like.
Image created by David B. Clear (CC BY-SA 4.0)

1.2 Zettelkasten’s three types of notes

At its core, the Zettelkasten has different levels of note-taking. I wrote an entire article about the notes hierarchy. Here’s the quintessence of the three different note types:

Fleeting Notes: Fleeting notes are ideas that pop into your mind as you go through your day. They can be really short, just like one word. You don’t need to organize them.

Literature Notes: You capture literature notes from the content you consume. It’s your bullet-point summary from other people’s ideas. I create these notes for all books, podcasts, articles, or videos I find valuable.

Permanent Notes: When you create permanent notes, you think for yourself. In contrast to literature notes, you don’t summarize somebody else’s thoughts. You don’t just copy ideas but develop, remix, and contradict them. You create arguments and discussions. By writing your idea down, you put pressure on your thinking and transform vague thoughts into clear points.


1.3 Zettelkasten’s 4 core principles

You want to keep in mind a few core principles to make the most of your Zettelkasten.

1) Context and Connection. A note is only as useful as its context. A note’s true value unfolds in its network of connections and relationships to others. You don’t tag notes in the context you found them. Instead, tag them in the context in which you want to discover them. By connecting new notes with existing notes, you broaden your thinking.

2) The usefulness grows with time. When you store more, the connections and interlinks grow stronger. The Zettelkasten becomes more useful as it grows because you can discover related ideas you hadn’t thought of in the first place. As Sönke Ahrens writes: “The more content it contains, the more connections it can provide, and the easier it becomes to add new entries in a smart way and receive useful suggestions.”

3) Networked instead of hierarchical note-taking. The problem with traditional note-taking approaches (even with apps such as Notion or Evernote) is the linear structure. Ideas get locked in a folder and, with time, are forgotten. With the Zettelkasten, it’s different.

As Luhmann writes: “Given this technique, it is less important where we place a new note. If there are several possibilities, we can solve the problem as we wish and just record the connection by a link or reference.”

Can you see it’s the same number of thoughts but more connections?

Illustration shows linear thinking and networked thinking. Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts.
Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

Networked thinking includes interactions and relationships between thoughts. Connecting notes leads to new ideas and better ways of thinking. As you will see in some minutes, the Roamkasten has an inbuilt feature (tagging and bi-directional linking) that will help you make more connections between individual thoughts. Thereby, you create a larger web of ideas.

Science supports the value proposition of networked note-taking. As researchers state: “Studies suggest that nearly all non-linear note-taking strategies (e.g. with an outline or a matrix framework) benefit learning outcomes more than the linear recording of information, with graphs and concept maps especially fostering the selection and organization of information. As a consequence, the remembering of information is most effective with non-linear strategies.”

4) Idea Serendipity. Because of the interconnection, the increased value with growth, and the networked note-taking, you tumble upon ideas you have never thought of. Day by day, the slip box will transform into an idea generation machine. You’ll be more creative as you find past ideas and new connections.

Luhmann writes: “The slip box provides combinatorial possibilities which were never planned, never preconceived, or conceived in this way.”


2. Roam Research — What Is It and How Does It Work?

2.1 Roam’s Value Proposition

Roam is an online workspace for organizing and evaluating your knowledge. Unlike linear cabinet tools, Roam allows you to remix and connect ideas, where each note represents a node in a dynamic network.

This leads to vast application opportunities. As Anne-Laure Le Cunff writes: “Roam Research is a tool powerful enough to manage an end-to-end writing workflow, from research and note-taking (input) to writing an original article (output).”

To give you a sneak peek of what you can expect, here’s an example of how I wrote this paragraph using Roam.

How the author wrote a paragraph using Roam.
GIF created by Eva Keiffenheim

Disclaimer: I'm not sponsored by Roam or Readwise. I pay for both tools 23$ a month (15$ for Roam and 8$ for Readwise). You can also work with TiddlyWiki (free and open-source), Obsidian, RemNote, Amplenote, and Org-roam. And alternative to Readwise is importing highlights manually. 

2.2 The only five RoamResearch functions you need for building a Zettelkasten

Think of Roam like Excel. It has a low floor but a high ceiling. You can use Excel for simple things like a grocery list and create a table. Yet, some functions allow entire businesses to run off Excel sheets.

“Roam is simple but not easy,” founder Conor White Sullivan said in an interview. Unlike Notion, Roam didn’t dumb down to the lowest common denominator. Roam’s strategy is to attract people who are willing to learn using a power tool.

Once you know your way around Roam, you’ve unlocked a programming language for personal productivity and development. Here are the five key things you need to know about Roam to set up your Zettelkasten.

#1 The Daily Notes

Every time you open Roam, you will find yourself on the Daily Notes page. Think of it as your entry door whenever you want to start working with your Zettelkasten.

If you’re used to hierarchical note-taking apps such as Notion, or Evernote, missing folders might feel weird first. But you’ll soon understand how this structure accelerates your learning.

You don’t need folders to store a specific note because you link them with each other. In Luhmann’s words: “We can choose the route of thematic specialization (such as notes about governmental liability), or we can choose the route of an open organization.”

Why it’s relevant: Whenever you capture something, just type it as a bullet in your daily notes page and use tags or pages to connect it with existing notes.

#2 Formatting text

These are the three ways I use Roam to format text: ^^highlighting^^, **bolding**, and making text _italic_. Here’s how it works with shortcuts:

Formatting text through shortcuts.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: You’ll use these functions when you go through your literature notes or want to highlight specific parts of your text.

#3 Creating pages (and bi-directional links)

See how you can create new pages with brackets [[]] and hashtags #. Both ways have the same function; they just look different. You can use either one. All pages are tags, and all tags are pages.

Note: Pages are case-sensitive. For example, [[Brain]] and [[brain]] will exist as two separate pages, the one called “Brain” and the other “brain.”

Creating pages.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

This function is networked thought in action and the reason you don’t need folders. When you create a page Roam automatically adds all related blocks from your database as references to your page.

For example, I have a page called [[quote]] where I collect my favorite quotes. This morning, I saw a quote I liked and typed it into my daily notes. I added #quote behind it. When I now click on #quote (or [[quote]]), it shows up with all the other quotes I labeled with this tag.

The author shows their page called [[quote]] where they collect their favorite quotes.

Plus, what makes pages even more powerful is that Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced. When I click on the “Unlinked References” on my [[quote]] page, I see potentially related bullets and can add them to my page by clicking “Link.”

Roam suggests links you haven’t referenced.

Why it’s relevant: You will need pages to create your literature and permanent notes. Moreover, you’ll use them to find relevant references whenever you write or research something. Pages are the engine for bi-directional linking.

#4 Opening a sidebar

See how the sidebar opens by shift-clicking on a page. You can open as many pages on the sidebar as you like.

Opening a sidebar.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: This is extremely useful when you research or write. When you’re working on one article, you can open the sidebar and find all the relevant pages. You can simply pull notes from them.

#5 Using Templates

To create a template, you can use the following structure:

• TemplateName #roam/templates
• [[Template Title]]
• Your template's content

When you want to use your templates, you simply type ;; and the template name will show up. Here’s what it looks like in my workflow when creating a permanent note.

Using templates when creating a permanent note.
GIF recorded by Eva Keiffenheim.

Why it’s relevant: You’ll use templates for your literature and your permanent notes. Templates save you time and make your structure consistent. I’ll share my templates with you in a bit.

Extra tweaks

There are way more things you can do with Roam, but these five functions are all you need for building your Zettelkasten in Roam.

Suppose you’re curious what else you can do type/inside your database. You’ll discover some more useful functions, such as TODOs and a Pomodoro Timer.

When you click on the question mark in the top right corner, you’ll discover more shortcuts. For future inspiration, you might want to bookmark RoamBrain’s resources. But as a start, I suggest you go with the above and ignore the rest.


3. Roamkasten — How to Set up Your Zettelkasten in Roam

Now you know how Zettelkasten works (see 1) and the key Roam functions to build your own (see 2). This part will outline how you can build your slip box in Roam.

3.1 How to capture fleeting notes

Fleeting notes collect the ideas from your mind as you go through your day. My fleeting notes are sometimes really short, like a single word. Fleeting notes serve as idea reminders. They don’t require a fancy workflow. You just need a way to capture them.

I use a simple notebook or add notes on the books I read, in my bullet journal, or my Kindle notes. A preinstalled notes app works as well. Alternatively, you can also use Roam on your smartphone.

Don’t stress about fleeting notes — they are simply your stepping stones for turning literature notes into permanent notes.


3.2 How to take great literature notes

Create these notes whenever you find something valuable in the content you consume. You can take literature notes from books, podcasts, articles, online courses, videos, or even conversations.

There are three rules for taking literature notes: make them brief, use your own words, and note bibliographic references.

Whenever I create literature notes, I follow the template’s structure. Feel free to copy and edit it in your own database.

To do so, I suggest you create a page called [[templates]]. You’ll have all templates in one place. Once you have the [[templates]] page, simply copy the following lines into it.

• LN 📙 Template #roam/templates
• [[
LN 📙 <BookTitle>]]
•
Author:: <Firstname Lastname>
•
Tags:: # (In which circumstance do I want to find this
note? What would I google for to find this note (not a
general single term), When and how will I use this
idea?)
•
Type:: #book #article #podcast #video #onlinecourse
•
Status:: #ToCreate #ToProcess #Reviewed
•
Recommended by:: <Firstname Lastname>
• Source::
• **What's interesting about this?**
•
• **
What’s so relevant it’s worth noting down?**
•

The “Tags” are crucial for your Zettelkasten’s quality. As stated in the core principles, a note is only as valuable as its context. I borrowed the questions in “Tags” from Sönke Ahren’s How to Take Smart Notes. They will help you create good cross-references.

Assign tags by thinking about topics you’re working on, not by looking at the note in isolation. By using helpful tags, you unlock the bi-directional linking power. Once you search for answers with a question in mind, the Roamkasten will give you all the answers and related ideas.


3.3 How to create permanent notes

You create permanent notes drawing inspiration from your literature and fleeting notes. Ideally, you create them once a day (I never meet that goal and feel super proud with 4–5 permanent notes a week).

When you write down a permanent note, make sure it contains only a single idea. If you have a train of thought, create multiple permanent notes. By using the principle of atomicity, you can better link your ideas.

When you create permanent notes, you don’t write a full paper. You write ideas. That’s how your permanent notes become reusable.

While your literature notes are bullets and fragments, your permanent notes should sound like written prose. A reader of your permanent note should understand it without reading the source that led to your idea.

If you’re a writer, the number of permanent notes you write in a day might be the single best metric to track your progress.

Again, here’s my template for your reference. I remove the #ToFile once I filed the permanent note with a number to my existing index, as I’ll show in 3.4.

• PN 📗 Template #roam/templates
•
[[PN 📗 X.x.X.X <Insert Note> ]]
•
References:: <Source> by <Firstname Lastname>
•
Keywords::[[permanent notes]] + #Tags (In which
circumstance do I want to find this note? What would I
google for to find this note (not a general single
term), When and how will I use this idea?)
•
Relevant other PNs:: (link PNs that relate to this
note: How does this idea fit your existing knowledge?
Does it correct, challenge, support, upgrade, or
contradict what you already noted?)
• #ToFile

In the beginning, I struggled to write permanent notes. I thought of them as a holy grail. But they aren’t — permanent notes are a work in progress.

Don’t be afraid to write them. You can change and update them whenever you want: what permanent really means is that they’re permanently useful to you.

Differences between literature notes and permanent notes.
Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on “How to take smart notes.”

3.4 Tying it all together in the index of the permanent note

As there are no folders, you need an index or register to keep an overview. In Luhmann’s words: “Considering the absence of a systematic order, we must regulate the process of rediscovery of notes, for we cannot rely on our memory of numbers.”

You can label your permanent notes as you like and build indefinite internal branches. As Luhmann writes: “We do not need to add notes at the end, but we can connect them anywhere — even to a particular word in the middle of a continuous text. A slip with number 57/12 can then be continued with 57/13, etc. At the same time, it can be supplemented at a certain word or thought by 57/12a or 57/12b, etc. Internally, this slip can be complemented by 57/12a1, etc.”

Here’s an example of the branching I use for my permanent notes in my notes index:

An example of the branching the author uses for permanent notes in their notes index.
Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim.

“Every intellectual endeavour starts with a note.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens


4. How I Use the Roamkasten in My Writing Process

There are five steps to my creative workflow: seek, consume, capture, network, and write.

4.1 How I seek great content

My creative process starts with the search for great content. To do so, I rely on my friends’ recommendations and my curiosity. I also use content discovery tools like Feedly, Bookshlf, GoodReads, Refind, Inoreader, Flipboard, or Mailbrew. When you feed your brain with good content, it will develop good ideas.

4.2 How I block out consumption time

I block undistracted consumption time, mostly an hour of no phone book reading time before lunch and bed. That’s how I read around 50–60 books a year.

Yet, I don’t focus on quantity and keep Naval Ravikant’s advice in mind: “Reading a book isn’t a race — the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed.” Slow reading for deep learning helps you read better.

4.3 My automated capturing process

While reading, watching videos, or listening to podcasts, I always take a few notes (unless I’m reading fiction for fun). My inner metacognition dialogue sounds like “This concept relates to…,” “This argument conflicts with…,” “I don’t know how… .”

I take my notes within the source. I use my Kindle for book notes, Readwise for analog notes and web highlights, Textsniper for capturing text from images and slides, Reclipped for videos, and Airr for podcast notes.

I’m generous with my notes. According to evidence, the more notes you take, the more information you can remember. From my Readwise account, all highlights and notes are imported to my Roam database.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

4.4 How I use new ideas for networked thought

The imported highlights and notes within Roam serve as a starting point for creating literature and permanent notes. Whenever I finish a book, I sit down with my laptop and use the roam template for literature notes (see 3.2).

To make sure I don’t forget to work with my highlights, I customized my Readwise to Roam integration like this.

The author customized their Readwise to Roam integration.
Readwise export to Roam setup. (Screenshot by Eva Keiffenheim.)

Here’s the code I used for the Page metadata. Feel free to copy it (and let me know if you have some ideas for improvement):

{% if category == "tweets" %}
#twitter 🐦
{% elif category == "books" %}
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create literature notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess create permanent notes for this book
{{"{{"}}[[TODO]]{{"}}"}} #ToProcess write a summary for my blog and publish it
{% else %}
podcast or article
{% endif %}
Author:: [[{{author}}]]
Tags:: #readwisesync
Full Title:: {{full_title}}
Type:: #{{category}}
Recommended by::
Import Date:: {{date}}
{% if document_tags %}Document Tags:: {% for tag in document_tags %}#[[{{tag}}]] {% endfor %} {% endif %}
{% if url %}URL:: {{url}}{% endif %}
{% if image_url %}![]({{image_url}}){% endif %}

From this import, my Roamkasten process begins. I use the ;; to retrieve the literature note template (see 3.2). While and after creating literature notes, I create permanent notes (see 3.3). Whenever I’m done with this work, I tick off the TODOs from my import template.

4.5 How I write to learn

Writing to me means not only thinking but also learning, creating, evolving. It means getting at the deeper meaning of everything around me. For me, it’s the best way for life-long learning.

My entire writing process happens within Roam. I start by brainstorming ten headline ideas and let my mastermind groups pick their favorite ones.

On my daily notes page in Roam, I create a page for the chosen title and use the article template to get started. Here’s how I start my writing process almost every morning.

How the author starts writing an article using their Roamkasten.
How I start writing an article using my Roamkasten (Recording by Eva Keiffenheim).

I create an outline with subheads and then search for interesting ideas and thoughts to add to my articles by opening the sidebar.

Once I’m done writing (which typically takes two times 50 minutes), I copy the Roam text to this free tool to remove the markup language. Then, I copy the text into a new Medium story and go through two rounds of editing.


“Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work. […] Those who take smart notes will never have the problem of a blank screen again.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens


5. Final Thoughts

You won’t see the benefits within the first weeks. To reap them, your Zettelkasten must mature. But after some months, the power will unlock. Or, as Luhmann writes: “The slip box needs a number of years in order to reach critical mass. Until then, it functions as a mere container from which we can retrieve what we put in.”

In the beginning, you might ask yourself whether you’re doing it right. Even if you mix up some structures, it doesn’t really matter. The researchers who digitized Luhmann’s Zettelkasten found inconsistencies in his labeling and interlinking — his Zettelkasten was far from perfect and still made him one of the biggest scientific contributors of his time.

You’ll never again encounter a blank page and have no idea what to write about. Instead, you receive useful suggestions of previous ideas that you’ll have too much to write about.

If you follow the above steps, you can learn better, think better, publish more, and be more creative. My Roamkasten transformed my creative process. I hope it will do the same for you.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, roam, slipbox, tutorial

5 Proven Ways You Can Use Notion to Organize Life and Work

May 23, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim



Productivity, life-long learning, relationships, and much more.

Image created by the Author via Canva.

I’ve been using Notion almost every day for the last year, and it has supercharged my creativity and organization.

Notion went live in 2016 and has since become a popular note-taking and organization tool with 4 million users in 2020. Here’s how I use it to improve my productivity, health, and organization.

1) Unlock the Power of a Weekly Review

If you don’t set your agenda, somebody else will. Without a weekly reflection, it’s easy to be busy without moving the needle. Productivity consultant David Allen wrote:

“The Weekly Review will sharpen your intuitive focus on your important projects as you deal with the flood of new input and potential distractions coming at you the rest of the week.”

Here’s how I use Notion to prepare for a productive and healthy week.

This end-of-week review takes me 60 minutes every Sunday evening. While a weekly review might feel like an additional burden, it’ll help you become more aware of how you live and spend your time.


2) Supercharge Your Learning with This List

Continuous learning is one of the most powerful habits you can build. Naval Ravikant once said:

“The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.”

While life-long learning pays great dividends, many people stop learning after school. They don’t know how to learn or where to start.

A great motivator to continue learning is a long list of stuff you’ve always wanted to know more about. Similar to a want-to-read shelf, your want-to-learn list creates urgency. You’ll feel there’s so much you’re curious about and only limited time left to pursue your dreams.

Here’s how my want-to-learn list in Notion looks like.

Notion Want to Learn List (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

Don’t worry if you start with a blank page. Repeatedly ask yourself what you want to learn to find the answers. You’ll go through the world with a beginner’s mind, and the list will grow organically.

You can then specify what you want to learn. When I click on ‘Playing the Guitar’ I’m directed to an overview page with 30 songs I want to learn. The emojis indicate whether I’ve started practicing the song (🌱), can play chords and rhythm (🌿), or even sing along while playing (🌳).

Notion Guitar List (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

3) Get Inspired by Your Favorite Recipes

I used to be a lousy food planner. I always thought about what I wanted to eat when I was already hungry. I checked the fridge but then felt uninspired. Often, I settled for a mediocre random meal.

Thanks to my recipe collection, things changed. I included pictures, and they help me figure out what I’m craving. On Sundays, I drag the necessary ingredients to my shopping list.

Screen Recording by Eva Keiffenheim)

I filter the recipes by duration, seasonality, course, or theme. When friends come over for dinner, I have an easy time finding meals to cook.

Recipe Tags (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

4) Offer Gifts that Improve Your Relationships

People have always exchanged gifts to show appreciation and improve interpersonal bonds.

Even though birthdays, religious traditions, and consumerism have kept this tradition alive, most of us struggle to give decent gifts. We have a lot on our plate, and finding a present can often feel like a burden.

I love delighting other people, yet I’ve been guilty of gifting random souvenirs.

Since I read Scott Stockdale’s idea of using spreadsheets, I became a better gift-giver. Here’s how the idea list looks like in my Notion (I changed the names and ideas because some of my friends will read this):

Notion Birthday Present Ideas (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

Whenever I spend time with friends and have an idea for a gift they might love, I write it down. It helps me take the focus away from what the gift says about me to what it means for my friend.


5) Keeping Track with Your Ideas and Plans

Another way I use Notion is to track my ideas and plans. One strategy I borrowed from Janel is to use an idea hub for my newsletter editions.

Each Wednesday morning, I’ll browse through the following list, where I store everything that might be worth sharing with my subscribers.

Notion Newsletter Idea Hub (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

All you need to do is note down any idea you come across into this table, then move your idea into a newsletter issue.

If you don’t run a newsletter, you can still use Notion to keep track of the projects you’re working on. Here’s how I use a simple kanban board for one of my bigger projects

Notion Kanban Board (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

What I Don’t Use Notion For

There are a few things I don’t use notion for. Either because it lacks functionality or because there are tools that better fit my needs.

  • Idea Management. I stopped using Notion as an idea management tool. Instead, I switched to Milanote. The user interface helps me become more creative.
  • Food shopping. I don’t like the Notion App. Instead, I switched back to Google Keep. It syncs more reliably with my partner’s account, and the mobile version looks cleaner.
  • Personal Knowledge Management. For my creative workflow, I use a Zettelkasten note-taking system within RoamResearch. Through networked thought, it helps me build a second brain.
My outdated Readwise Notion connection. (Source: Eva Keiffenheim)

Final Thoughts

Use these proven ways to organize your life and work. The effort is worth it: you’ll save a lot of time and feel in control.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Create a weekly review process.
  • Elevate your learning with a want-to-learn list.
  • Eat your best meals thanks to your recipe collection.
  • Give better gifts.
  • Tracking your ideas and plans.

Instead of feeling discouraged by all the ideas about what you could do with Notion, enjoy experimenting at your own pace. Keep what works for you, and screw the rest.

Choose one or two new ways until you find a pattern that helps you on your journey to health, wealth, and wisdom.


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Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: Productivity, Time management, Work From Home

Adler’s Four Levels of How to Read a Book Will Improve Your Reading

April 19, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


Get the most out of your books.

Library in Stuttgart, Germany. (Source: Juan Urdaneta on Flickr)

Books give you access to the smartest brains on our planet. And learning from the greatest minds is your fast track to health, wealth, and wisdom.

But reading per se doesn’t improve your life. You can read a book a week without changing at all.

It’s about what and how you read that will improve your life’s quality and enhance your mind. Mortimer Adler, a famous philosopher, and prolific reader, used to say:

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

I read a book a week for more than three years now, and I always look for ways to improve my reading. Recently, I reread Mortimer Adler’s classic ‘How to read a book,’ where he shares great advice. Here are the four levels of reading and how to apply them:


Level 1: Read like a first grader.

This level of reading because it’s what you learned as a kid in elementary school.

How to do it:

If you can read these words, you’ve probably mastered the level of basic reading. Congrats!


Level 2: Become an inspectional pre-reader.

Think of this level as a quick chat you have with the author. Instead of devoting ten hours to a book only to discover it had not much to say to you, you can use inspectional reading to avoid it.

The goal is to determine whether you should read the entire book, a few chapters, or nothing at all.

Before I learned about these levels, I was among the people who’d dive straight into a book. I wouldn’t bother to read the table of contents or the preface. I started to read from front to back, unknowingly wasting a lot of time.

You don’t owe the author anything. Dare to skip pages or even chapters. A non-fiction book’s sole purpose is to help you grow by answering your questions or introducing valuable ideas.

And here’s where becoming an inspectional pre-reader can help you. You do this step before you start reading. The goal here is to decide within around 10 to 30 minutes whether a book is worth your time.

How to do it:

Set yourself a time limit of 10–30 minutes and complete the following four steps for every time-intense non-fiction book you plan to read.

  1. Look at the cover and skim the preface. When doing so, you’ll get a feeling for the book’s category.
  2. Read the table of contents. Which chapter is most relevant to you? Read a few paragraphs from the chapter to grasp whether the book meets your expectations.
  3. Identify the main points. After steps one and two, you have an understanding of the book’s most important points. Look at the pivotal chapter to the argument and check the structure and connection. Does it resonate with you? Read a paragraph or a page, and figure out if you want to read the book.

Level 3: Know how to analyze any non-fiction book.

Yay! You’ve found a book worth reading. Thereby, you moved past the quick chat from the second level and started an intense conversation with the author.

Once you chose your next great book, the effortful part begins, also called active reading.

When I first learned about this level, I sighed. Why would I put even more time into reading? Analyzing a book seemed like slowing me down.

But the opposite is true. Effortless reading is like writing in the sand, here today and gone tomorrow.

While reading, most people think they understand the texts they read. But understanding doesn’t work like this. As scientists write in ‘The science of successful learning’: „Mastering the text is not the same as mastering the ideas behind them. “

“The more effort the better.”

— Mortimer Adler

To really master the ideas behind a text you need to think about what’s being said. You want to deploy your metacognition. What does the author want to say? How does it relate to what you already know? What context can you think of to apply the arguments?

Take notes along the way. Expand on your notes the deeper you dive into the arguments. Make reading a conscious effort because that’s how you will remember most of what you read.

How to do it:

Answer these three questions every time you read a book.

  1. What is the book about as a whole? Look at the cover at the table of contents and write down the answer in your own words.
  2. What is being said in detail, and how? This is where you want to use your metaknowledge and rephrase the critical argument.
  3. Is the book true, in whole or in part? Critical thinking and constructive criticism will help you put the book into perspective. You could answer this question only if you mastered the previous two.

Level 4: Unlock the power of syntopical reading.

This level is pretty hard. I’ve only done it once so far, and it only makes sense if you want to explore a specific topic or research question in depth. Level four is not about a single book but about how the books you read relate to each other.

The aim isn’t to understand one single book but to understand an entire subject. By deploying syntopical reading, you can compare their arguments, explore research questions and draw a knowledge map.

“With the help of the books read, the syntopical reader is able to construct an analysis of the subject that may not be in any of the books. It is obvious, therefore, that syntopical reading is the most active and effortful kind of reading.“

— Mortimer Adler

From a learning perspective, this level is terrific. To learn something, you need the information itself and its relation to what you already know. So-called memory cues help you access information when you need it.

How to do it:

Determine the subject and collect all the books you read related to it. Then, find the relevant passages of the books and rephrase them in your terms.

While summarizing the key ideas, focus on your questions instead of the author’s answers. Only pick the arguments relevant to your questions.

Once you’ve collected the key points from all the different books, order them in relation to one another.

Lastly, analyze the discussion. Even if you’re not a writer, an article can be the best tool to do this.

Research shows the more you create, the more creative you become. The best ideas and connections will arise once you flow into the writing process.


Final Thoughts

Following Mortimer Adler’s levels seems complex. But these principles make reading worthwhile and help you get more from your books.

  1. Read at the elementary level.
  2. Use inspectional pre-reading to pick the best book for you.
  3. Become an effortful reader by answering the three key questions.
  4. Deploy syntopical reading whenever you want to dive deep into a topic.

Instead of feeling discouraged by all the ideas about what you could do to improve your reading, enjoy experimenting at your own pace. Keep the ideas that work for you and screw the rest.

Choose one or two new ideas until you find a pattern that helps you on your journey to health, wealth, and wisdom.

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

— Mortimer Adler


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Filed Under: 🧠 Learning Hacks Tagged With: Books, learning, Productivity, Reading

The Creator’s Guide to Optimizing Your Day for Productivity, Focus, and Health

April 15, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


Make your time work for you.

Photo: Designecologist/Pexels

When I started working for myself a year ago, I felt bombarded with suggestions on structuring my days. I was overwhelmed by conflicting advice and struggled to find a balance between hustle and rest.

This is the article I wish I’d had when starting to work for myself. I skipped the self-help fluff and distilled what made my days such a massive force for achievement and joy.

The following structure helped me earn a consistent +$5K monthly income, generated through writing, podcasting, and consulting.

You may not like all of these suggestions, or you might have great routines for some areas. If so, skip the paragraph. Your life, your rules. This article has only a single purpose: helping you, dear creator or solopreneur, getting smart at building your thing and excelling at whatever you’re doing.

The ten building blocks of creator days. (source by author)

A morning routine to set you up for success

Many people talk themselves down when they don’t check all of their morning routine boxes. I was the same. Unless I did oil-pulling, drank a glass of warm water, took a cold shower, meditated for at least 15 minutes, journaled about my dreams, visualized my goals, and practiced 20 minutes of yoga, I felt like a failure.

When a routine feels like an obligation, it misses the point. There’s not the perfect routine. Your morning routine is less about what you do than why you do it. Design a routine around your goals.

But this doesn’t mean you need to follow the same pattern every day. If you get up and feel like going for a walk, do it. If you don’t feel like journaling, skip it.

The best results often come from a combination of structures and intuition. Adjust your routine to your needs, and wants and don’t judge yourself on checking the boxes.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • What’s the first thing you do in the morning?
  • Which activities help you get excited for the day?
  • Are there any habits you can do to feel fresh and awake before you open your laptop?

A calendar setup that will make you thrive

If you ever feel like you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them, it’s likely because your calendar isn’t set up for success.

As a creator, time is your most valuable resource. To make the most of it, learn to master a respectful no and use time blocking.

Time blocking is a simple productivity trick people like Elon Musk use. While a to-do list shows you what you need to do, time blocking reveals when you’re going to do it.

The technique works because it’s designed for focus. When you work towards one goal at a time, you are more productive than splitting your attention across various projects.

Plus, when you know you have time set aside later for checking messages, you’re less likely to give in to hooking mechanisms and random e-mail checks.

A time-blocked week in my calendar (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

My high-level priorities include writing, reading, eating good food, moving my body, and client work. These time blockers are non-negotiable. Even in a work-intense week, I won’t skip the sports and food blocks because that’s how I keep my balance.

When you see in your calendar the time that’s blocked for existing projects and your thinking time, you’re less likely to say yes to other people. You take ownership of your time. Y

“In this day and age you cannot call something distracting unless you know what it’s distracting you from.”

— Nir Eyal

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • What’s the proportion of calendar events you created vs. events other people invited you to?
  • Which meetings can be replaced by a call, an email, or a shared document?
  • How can you integrate time-blocking to focus on your high-level priorities?

Deep work is your most valuable skill

If you can create three focused hours of uninterrupted creation time, you solve most of your time management issues. Because once you’re in deep work and focus on one thing for an extended period, you produce your best work.

Cal Newport says Deep Work is “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit.”

From an 8-hour workday, how much do you really work? Your best work does not emerge from the total time spent but from the intensity of focus. Here’s the equation:

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

To get into deep work, choose a space free of distractions. Then, determine how much time you’ll devote to the task ahead. For a start, aim for 10–15 minutes. After a few days of deep work, your ability to focus on one task will increase.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • How much time do you do deep work during a day?
  • Do you protect your deep work sessions with time blocks in your calendar?
  • What’s your deep work structure? (Will your phone be off or on? Will you let yourself check the internet? How will you measure a session’s success (pages read, lines coded, words written)?

Cultivating helpful phone habits

If you’re like 80% of smartphone users, you check your device every morning within the first 15 minutes after waking up.

By checking your phone early in the day, you condition your mind for distraction. Notifications and messages will make your thoughts bounce around like a ping-pong ball.

Throughout your day, your morning behavior repeats itself. By checking your phone too early in the day, you won’t produce any deep work. You’ll get distracted and lose focus again and again.

According to this study from Irvine University of California, it takes 20 minutes to refocus after distractions.

As a self-employed creator, you have the ultimate freedom over your days. No boss can schedule an unproductive meeting at 9 AM. Protect your time by cultivating smart phone habits (pun intended).

My phone is in flight mode from 8 PM to 12 PM. I’ve been using this schedule for half a year, and it’s the single most effective productivity and health booster. It helps me focus on my tasks and makes my mind calm down.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • Do you control your phone, or does your phone control you?
  • Do you charge your phone at a place you don’t see it?
  • During which hours do you want to be available for calls and other people’s requests?

Quality breaks you need to take every day

Did you ever finish your workday realizing you haven’t moved away from your chair for the past 4 hours? In our work culture, many people see breaks as a luxury. But to find long-term joy in your workdays, you need them.

Luckily breaks don’t need to be complicated. A study compared break lengths of 1, 5, and 9 minutes, and even the shortest break made workers feel better.

To take regular breaks, I use Be Focused. The timer starts in 50-minute intervals for my writing sessions and reminds me to take a 10-minute break. When it rings, I stop whatever I’m doing and move away from my screen.

This is how what I typically do during my breaks: Drink a cup of water. Make a tea. Practice the guitar for a few minutes. Dance and shake to a song. Take a short walk outside. Puzzle. Prepare lunch or dinner. Sit down to meditate. Clean the bathroom. Stretch. Take a long walk outside and call a friend.

The list is endless. Your breaks might look completely different. But take them. Scheduling meaningful breaks inside your days will help you enjoy your workdays and prevent you from overworking.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • How often do you take breaks during a working day?
  • Have you scheduled breaks in your calendar?
  • Do you have non-negotiable playtime for undirected exploration?

Focus on learning and knowledge expansion

Knowledge is power. That’s why learning can improve any life. Yet, only very few people make learning an ongoing habit.

No life skill can earn you greater dividends than learning how to learn. We can’t expand our time, but we can expand our minds. Learning is the virtuous circle that can help you create the life of your dreams.

Reading is the easiest way to learn every day. Books are to the mind what exercise is to your body. They make you discover truths about the world and yourself. Page by page, they help you live a happier life.

Reading is liberating. Freedom means choosing from a set of options. The more options you have, the freer you are. But most people don’t know about all their options. And that’s where reading kicks in. It helps you explore options you never knew existed.

So, read outside of your specific field. Say less and ask more and better questions. Let curiosity guide you to learn something new.

I reserve time to read books, newsletters, listen to podcasts, take online courses, join learning communities, attend educational conferences, and take notes after exciting conversations.

“The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn.”

— Naval Ravikant

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • Which three skills do you want to learn this year?
  • What’s the ratio between spending time on social media vs. learning something helpful?
  • Does your calendar reflect your learning goals? Do your learning activities align with your goals? If not, how can you adapt?

Unlock the power of reflection

“Most people are other people,” Oscar Wilde once said. “Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

Whenever I have a spare moment, I try to fill it. I listen to podcasts, read books, have a conversation with my beautiful boyfriend, answer messages, or hop to the next task in my bullet journal.

And while these activities can be enjoyable and add energy to my life, they have a marginal return on thinking utility. After a certain point, every additional minute of doing decreases the ability to think for yourself.

When we’re so busy doing, we don’t spend single second thinking. Entire days go by without a single deep thought. At the end of your life, you realize you’ve lived the life of others.

“We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.”

— John Dewey

Before learning from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates said he had every minute packed and thought that was the only way you could do things. Bill concludes Warren taught him the importance of giving himself time to think and reflect.

Reflection is the active decision to think about your past. Researchers define reflection as the intentional attempt to synthesize, abstract, and articulate the key lessons taught by experience.

I integrate reflection every Sunday. They are the most valuable 60–90 minutes I spend every week. Here’s how my Sunday reflection checklist looks like:

My weekly reflection in Notion (Source: Eva Keiffenheim).

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • Do you have a daily, weekly, and yearly review in place?
  • Do you block time to think about what you achieved instead of moving forward?
  • Do you have a habit of asking yourself after each completed job “what went well” and “even better if”?

Design your environment for desired behavior

I long believed that I need motivation and willpower to adopt new habits. But both resources are limited. When I first read the following section by James Clear, I realized I overlooked one of the most critical factors in building desired behavior:

“Our behavior is not defined by the object in an environment but by our relationship to them. In fact, this is a useful way to think about the influence of the environment on your behavior. Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couches where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice cream after work.”

When you design the right environment for your desired habit, you link the habitat to the desired habit. That’s why it makes sense to design an environment around the person you want to become.

If you want to write every day, your environment’s essential elements are a computer, site blockers, noise cancellation headphones, and a distraction-free place to write. That way, you turn into the architect of your reality.

“If we do not create and control our environment, our environment creates and controls us.”

— Marshall Goldsmith

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • Is your physical workspace supporting you? (screen at eye level, daylight, a healthy seating position).
  • Is your digital workspace setting you up for success? (which apps are installed, do you use site-blockers, tools to manage your knowledge)
  • Do you keep your phone and distractions away during your deep work session?

End-of-day shutdown rituals

If you work in an office or co-working space, you can skip this. Your natural shutdown ritual is leaving the building and heading home.

If you, however, are among the 50% of people in the US who work from home, a shutdown ritual is crucial for your mental health.

After a full day, it’s challenging to calm down and get ready for the evening. In the early days of my self-employment, I found myself working until late. Sometimes I replied to mail or watched online courses when I knew I should be calming down.

This works if you do it once in a while. But after a few days working long evenings, you have to search for the energy and enthusiasm to create great content. A shutdown ritual will improve your remote work productivity.

“A shutdown ritual is a set routine of actions that you perform at the end of each work day to finalize your day and signify that your work day is done.”

— Cal Newport

A great shutdown routine ensures that you review incomplete tasks, goals, or projects and you confirm that you have a plan you trust for its completion, or you wrote it down somewhere you’ll see it at the right time.

Your end-of-work-day ritual can have different elements: updating all to-do lists, review the calendar for tomorrow, writing a plan for the next day, closing every tab on your computer, leaving your working desk.

Before dinner, I take 5–10 minutes to go through my Bullet Journal and review the daily log. I tick off To Do’s, move them to the next day, and add items with a look on my weekly goals and my calendar. I close all computer windows and leave my desk.

Consciously ending your workday gives you a beautiful feeling that everything you needed to do is done or schedule.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • Do you wrap up your day and plan for the next one?
  • How do you know your workday is over?
  • What reminds you to start your shutdown ritual? (time, feeling, alarm)

Evening routine

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 45% of Americans state poor or insufficient sleep affected their days at least once in the past seven days.

But even if you’re among the lucky ones who fall asleep quickly, a proper evening routine can improve your focus, well-being, and health.

As with the morning routine, there’s not the perfect evening routine. Do whatever feels good for you.

My evenings vary, but most include some of the following activities: having a friend over for dinner, foam roll, guitar practice, calling a friend, cooking, talk to my fiancĂŠ, or go for a walk. The only constant thing is that I put my phone into flight mode and go to bed around 9 PM.

Probing questions to ask yourself:

  • What helps you sleep better and relax?
  • Which activities do you enjoy in the evening?
  • What’s the last thing you want to do before sleeping?

Are you a life-long learner? Get your free learner’s letter now.

Filed Under: ✍🏽 Online Creators Tagged With: Digital detox, Productivity, Time management, Work From Home

Zettelkasten’s 3 Note-Taking Levels Help You Harvest Your Thoughts

April 3, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim

Your guide to fleeting literature and permanent notes using Roam

A spiral staircase
Photo by iSAW Company from Pexels

Taking smart notes is the fast-track to improve your productivity and creativity. Yet, most note-taking systems are ineffective.

Niklas Luhmann, a notable sociologist, was living proof for a system that is effective. During his life, he wrote 70 books and 500 scholarly articles. He attributes his success to a note-taking system called the Zettelkasten, which is the German word for slip box (Luhmann’s system was done on index cards or “slips,” stored in boxes, and later digitized).

I read a book and 50 articles a week. But I struggled to manage the input and my ideas for creative output. While writing an article I often remembered I read something related. But whenever I went searching in my Trello idea board, Bullet Journals, or Notion folders I struggled to find what I was looking for.

I’ve been using his method for two months, and I can already see how it’s improving my reading and thinking. By using the three note-taking levels, I not only generate more ideas but also discover new ones I hadn’t thought about. The creative workflow for my articles, podcasts, and clients finally feels efficient.

Thanks to the system I write and create faster; for instance, a research-based 1800-word article used to take me four hours — with Zettelkasten, it takes me two. Whenever I prepared a speech I spent days going through related journal entries and books. Now I open topic-related Roam pages and have all the ideas in one place. I even stumble upon thoughts I didn’t consider in the first place.

To implement the system, I watched and read tutorials, studied Sönke Ahren’s classic, researched coaches, and hired one. And while much of the existing content is great, it fails to distinguish between different note types.

This is the tutorial I wish I’d had when setting up my slip box. I skipped the technical how to get started in Roam advice (because there are great tutorials) and instead focused on what’s made my Zettelkasten such a huge force for changing my knowledge management.

Level 1: Fleeting Notes

Fleeting notes are ideas that pop into your mind as you go through your day. They can be really short, just like one word. You don’t need to organize them. They just serve as reminders of your thinking.

These notes have no value except as stepping stones for turning literature notes into permanent notes. You discard the fleeting notes once you transformed them into permanent notes (more on that in level 3).

The only important thing here is to have an easy way to capture them. I use a simple notebook, but a preinstalled notes app works as well.

Level 2: Literature Notes

You capture literature notes from the content you consume. It’s your bullet-point summary from other people’s ideas. I create these notes for all books, podcasts, articles, or videos I find valuable.

How to take proper literature notes

There are three rules for literature notes: make them brief, use your own words, and note bibliographic references.

Sönke Ahrens adds another rule. He recommends being extremely selective in what you capture. I’m not. For deciding what I convert into literature notes, I ask myself:

  • What is interesting about this?
  • What’s so relevant it’s worth noting down?

By transforming consumed content into literature notes, you’re using one of the most effective learning strategies. When you elaborate, you rephrase new information in your own words and connect it to existing knowledge. You’ll make it more likely to remember what you read.

Researchers from the University of Otago, New Zealand, showed the more you write down, the more you can recall the information later. So don’t try to keep the notes too short — be generous in the way you elaborate and find the length that feels good for you.

How to create meaningful references

In traditional note-taking settings, the idea is to file new information based on the context you found it. I kept a Notion page for notes on productivity, another one for notes on writing, and so on.

But with Zettelkasten, the categorization is more efficient. A note is only as useful as its context. A note’s true value unfolds in its network of connections and relationships to others.

You don’t have to use your brain anymore to find separate ideas from different books related to each other. In a Zettelkasten, you don’t file notes in the context you found them but in the context in which you want to discover them.

“Making good cross-references is a matter of serious thinking and a crucial part of the development of thoughts.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens

Here are two questions to ask yourself when you create references for your literature notes. Answering them will help you make good cross-references:

  1. In which circumstance do I want to find this note?
  2. When and how will I use this idea?

Thereby, you assign keywords by thinking about topics you’re working on, not by looking at the note in isolation. I cross-reference my literature notes by using #tags in my Roam database.

Level 3: Permanent Notes

Permanent notes are the real value-adders. You create them by looking through your fleeting and literature notes. Ideally, you create them once a day.

Both Sönke Ahren and Andy Matuschak say a knowledge worker’s productivity should be measured by the number of permanent (or evergreen) notes they write in a day.

“If you had to set one metric to use as a leading indicator for yourself as a knowledge worker, the best I know might be the number of Evergreen notes written per day.”

— Andy Matuschak

How to create permanent notes

In the beginning, I felt confused about permanent notes: When should you write one? Which ideas are worthy enough? And what length should they have?

As a rule of thumb, I now create permanent notes about every topic I’m curious about or working on. When you’re in doubt, ask yourself whether you’re curious to explore your idea further.

When you create permanent notes, you think for yourself. In contrast to literature notes, you don’t summarize somebody else’s thoughts. You don’t just copy ideas but develop, remix, and contradict them. You create arguments and discussions.

While your literature notes are bullets, your permanent notes are written prose. A reader of your permanent note should understand it without reading the source that led to your idea.

Your future self should understand every permanent note in its own context and directly use them for content creation.

Each permanent note contains only one single idea. When you create them you don’t write a full article. You write ideas. That’s how they become reusable.

“Write exactly one note for each idea and write as if you were writing for someone else. Use full sentences, disclose your sources, make references, and try to be as precise, clear, and brief as possible. “

— SĂśnke Ahrens

Once you write an article or a book about a specific topic, you don’t start with a blank page. Instead, you search for permanent notes relevant to your topic.

Since I used the Zettelkasten, my writing time almost halved. Before, it took me around three and a half hours to write a research-based 1500-word article. With this note-taking system, it takes me two.

The reason for the time reduction is the built-in idea suggestion mechanism. Whenever I write about a topic, I stumble upon related thoughts. All I have to do is connect my permanent notes into coherent texts.

How to connect permanent notes

The Zettelkasten becomes more useful as it grows because you discover related ideas you hadn’t thought of in the first place. But to find the right ideas at the right time, you need to do proper housekeeping.

“Notes are only as vaulable as the note and reference networks they are embedded in.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens

When recording a new permanent note, always think about linking that note to existing ideas and concepts. To do so, ask yourself questions like:

  • How does this idea fit your existing knowledge?
  • Does it correct, challenge, support, upgrade, or contradict what you already noted?
  • How can you use this idea to explain Y, and what does it mean in the context of Z?

The relationship between literature and permanent notes

When I first started, I was confused about whether to create permanent notes for each literature note. And, if that’s the case, what to do if I don’t have any new ideas I can add to the literature note?

I create permanent notes by going through my literature and fleeting notes and searching for ideas, principles, or concepts that I want to explore further. I let curiosity guide me. Sometimes my idea is truly original. Other times it’s just a reference to the original source added with a personal anecdote.

Permanent notes are no holy grail — but a work in progress. Don’t be afraid to write them. You can change and update them whenever you want: what permanent really means is that they’re permanently useful to you.

Created by Eva Keiffenheim based on “How to take smart notes.”

Final Thoughts

Creating a personal knowledge database can feel difficult. First, the many options and tutorials confuse you. Then, building a system slows down your consumption speed.

But if you’re a knowledge worker or content creator and some of this sparked your curiosity, I’d urge you to follow your impulse.

A Zettelkasten can work as an idea-generation machine. You discover related ideas that you hadn’t thought of in the first place. As your notes grow, you likely start seeing puzzle pieces for the bigger picture. This picture can serve as the basis of your original work.

May this article support you in taking your note-writing system to the next level.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, slipbox

3 Principles of Reading Most People Don’t Learn Until Later in Life

March 23, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


As long as you’re reading, you are already on your way to wisdom.

Photo by Adil from Pexels

Do you ever close a non-fiction book and worry whether reading is a time-waster?

If you ever feel like the knowledge in a book can’t help you live a better life, it’s likely because you don’t know about key reading principles.

Reading non-fiction takes anywhere from six to nine hours — a significant time investment. These hours aren’t wasted if you read for entertainment.

But if you carve out the hours from a busy day to read books like Thinking Fast and Slow, you’re likely looking for something more than joyful reading time.

Whether you want to use books to advance your career or apply what you read to your life, this one is for you. Here are fundamental reading principles many people learn too late in life.


1.) Passive Reading Won’t Make Information Stick

It’s Sunday morning, and you’re on a walk with friends. The topic revolves around some serious non-fiction books you just read. First, you feel proud because you read it. But soon after, you feel dumb.

Because when the conversation goes beyond the main book themes, you feel lost. You discover you only remembered a fraction of the content.

This happened to me quite often. I could talk about the basic claims, but when a friend asked a probing question, I couldn’t answer it. I often thought reading didn’t work for me and considered quitting books altogether.

I didn’t have a basic understanding of how our brains work. Twelve books and hours of lectures later, I understand how we learn and remember.

Human brains don’t work like recording devices. The words on the pages don’t magically stick to our memory.

Learning is at least a three-step process: encoding of information in your short-term memory, consolidating knowledge in the long-term memory, and retrieving information when it’s needed.

To make reading effective, you need to factor in the two components of learning and memory: the learned information itself and the so-called retrieval cue that helps you find the material you learned.

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.”

— Mortimer Adler

What to do:

These three evidence-based steps will help you remember anything you want from the books you read.

First, elaborate. Explain what you read in your own words and relate it to what you already know. Stop after reading an interesting sentence and scribble your thoughts on the book’s page or your note-taking app.

Answer these meta-learning questions: “How does this relate to my life? In which situation will I make use of this knowledge? How does it connect to other insights I have on the topic?”

You can’t rephrase anything in your words if you don’t get it. By elaborating, you become an active reader and make new information stick.

Second, retrieve. We learn something not only when we connect it to what we already know (elaboration) but when we try to access it. Retrieval is powerful because when you recall a memory, you reinforce both it and its cue.

After finishing a book, summarize the content from your memory: “How can you summarize the book in three sentences? Which ideas do you want to keep in mind and apply? How does the book relate to what you already know?”

This is also the technique Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman used to remember what he learned. He mentally recalled all principles and main points he wanted to keep in mind. You can do the same. Unlock the benefits of retrieval by writing your summary after finishing a book.

Third, space out self-testing. The more time has gone since you read a book, the more difficult it is to recall it. That’s why you can’t remember concepts when you talk to friends. But forgetting isn’t a character flaw. It’s essential for learning.

After a week went by, think about the book you read. Recall your summary without looking at the sheet. After, check for your knowledge gaps. In that way, you strengthen your memory and cues for faster retrieval. Repeat the self-testing once in a while, and you’ll be able to recall a book’s content fast.

The entire process can feel slow and intense. But that’s how effective learning works — you have to do the work.


2.) Reading Isn’t About the Number of Books You Read

When I made reading a life habit, I set the intention to read a specific number of books a year. And while reading 52 books a year for three years certainly helped me get started, this mindset is counter-productive.

Focusing on a number of books accelerates the way you read. But speed-reading isn’t helpful. Different studies confirm when reading speed goes up as a result of speed-reading, comprehension goes down.

And as you know from the previous point, comprehension is only the start of proper knowledge acquisition. If you want to remember what you read, you need to use metacognition (meaning the questions you answer while and after reading).

If you want to expand your knowledge and learn deeply, read slower.

The better the book, the slower you should look at the words. Because all new information and concepts you learn need to be connected to your existing knowledge.

Before building my first business, I had read dozens of books for each stage in the business lifecycle. But when it came to starting, the biggest gamechanger was connecting it to my life by applying what I read.

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”

— Mortimer Adler

What to do:

Don’t focus on the number of books you read. Instead, look for ways to include new ideas into your life. Quality matters more than quantity. Pay attention to what’s in front of you. Think about how you can apply it to life, then do it.

As Ratna Kusnur said: “Knowledge trapped in books neatly stacked is meaningless and powerless until applied for the betterment of life.”

When you read High-Performance Habits and learn about the power of morning affirmations, start to act. Record your own affirmations. After learning about the benefits of journaling through Stillness is Key, place a notebook with a pen on your nightstand and start journaling the same evening.

Whenever you stumble upon practical advice, pause and act upon it. Put an item on your To-Do list or place an action item on a specific spot. Reading a book isn’t a race — the more insightful the book, the more often you should pause to apply it.


3.) Mediocre Books Just Don’t Cut It

This is probably the most common disbelief that prevents people from unlocking a book’s power. Our desire to finish what we start is what makes reading feel meaningless.

Bad books are hard to read; good books almost read themselves. There are too many excellent books on this planet. Don’t waste your time reading the bad ones.

I got this wrong for years. I felt if I put down a book, I disrespect the author. Plus, I paid for the book. So why would I harm both of us?

Now first, the author won’t know if you put it aside. There’s nothing to worry about. You don’t do anyone good if you force yourself through a book you don’t like.

Second, there’s a sunk-cost fallacy that is ruining your decision. This psychological trap means you continue consuming something because you’ve invested time or money in it.

But if you carry on with a lousy book only because you paid for it and spend some hours reading, all you’re doing is digging a deeper hole. Better to waste $11.95 than four additional hours of your lifetime.

What to do:

When you like a book, you feel it. You love the writing style and marvel at the ideas. You can’t wait to read the next page. You look forward to reading it all day long.

Life is too short for bad books. Read the genres you love, the content you deeply enjoy, from authors you admire.

Start books quickly but also quit them fast if you don’t like them. Once you know, you can stop reading bad books without feeling guilty, your reading practice changes. Because once you quit a bad book, you open up the opportunity to read a great one.

Even if your best friend, a smart mentor, or Bill Gates said, you should read a book; you can quit it. Because the best person to judge whether you should finish a book is you.

Quit most books. Read-only a few. Re-read the best ones twice, thrice, or a hundred times. Books change as we do. You’ll be amazed at how many new things you can discover that you may have missed before.


Conclusion

Reading can be the fast-track to a happier, healthier, wiser life. But unless you get the key reading principles right, it remains mere entertainment.

Try all of the strategies but don’t force yourself through anything that doesn’t feel right for you. Do your research, add other techniques, skip what doesn’t serve you, and think for yourself.

Keep the steps that work for you and screw the rest. No matter which strategies you use, applying them will pay off. As long as you’re reading, you are already on your way to wisdom. Charlie Munger, self-made billionaire:

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero.”


Are you a life-long learner? Join my e-mail newsletter for insights on reading, learning, and growth.

Filed Under: 🧠 Learning Hacks Tagged With: learning, Productivity, Reading

The Ultimate Personal Knowledge Management System for 23$ a Month

March 6, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


The three-step process to make the most of your mind.

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

What if you could collect relevant knowledge around you, connect it, and access it whenever you want to?

Choosing the right knowledge management tools is crucial to continually improve and learn.

In personal knowledge management, switching costs are high. But with thousands of apps available, it’s hard to figure out which ones are worth your time.

In the past year, I experimented with different tools for capturing, collecting, distilling, creating, and sharing knowledge. I spent hours exploring and comparing tools like Notion, Obsidian, Miro, MindMeister, Simplenote, Milanote, Feedly, Transno, Hypothesis, Quoteback, Coggle, Typora, Ulysses, PowerNotes, Refind, and the like.

Here’s what ultimately helped me the most to store, manage, and share anything I learn or want to remember. All of these tools are free, except for Readwise (8$/month) and RoamResearch (15$/month).


1. How to Collect and Capture Ideas

Instapaper saves everything you want to consume later.

Instapaper is a simple tool for saving articles and online videos to read and watch later. Whenever you stumble upon a useful resource but you don’t have the time to read it at that moment, just save it with a single click to your Instapaper account.

Use your Kindle as the ultimate learning tool.

Most people are e-reading enemies until they truly read their first e-book. I remained an enemy fifteen books in. You can’t dog-ear your favorite pages, scribble your questions in the margins, or sketch out the concept you just learned.

But since I transformed my Kindle into an e-learning device, I wouldn’t trade for a paper book anymore.

When reading, highlight everything you want to remember. Then use the Kindle Notes web app to trim your highlights and to add notes.

Highlight your favorite Podcast episodes with Airr.

With Airr, you can highlight audio. Whenever you listen to a Podcast episode via the App, you can simply press the ‘quotes’ button. Then, the Airr App will save a transcribed version of what you’re listening to.

It’s a game-changer for Podcast lovers who want to save their favorite sound bites. So far, the app is only available for iOS, but there’s an Android waitlist.


2. Organize What You Want to Remember

Readwise unlocks your knowledge management’s true power.

You can do a ton of things with Readwise, but I mainly use it or two things. First, for importing everything from Airr, Kindle highlights, Instapaper, and physical books. Second, for exporting everything to make your favorite note-taking app. I export my Readwise highlights to Notion and RoamResearch.

Apart from this, you can also use it to combine spaced repetition with whatever you consume. It creates flashcards of your podcast, e-book, and article highlights.


3. Creating and Sharing Knowledge

How RoamResearch lets you build a second brain.

Now there is an ongoing debate whether to use Notion or Roam for building your second brain. But the two applications solve different problems.

While Notion is for project management and team collaboration, Roam is more of a single-player option. Notion is a black hole where you have to go looking for things. Roam is the wise grandma who tells you about them.

That’s why Roam is excellent for creating your personal knowledge base and connecting ideas and thoughts.

Plus, Roam is a powerful tool for a creative workflow. You can use it for research and note-taking until you’ve finished writing your article. This tool is great for converting your final markup text into plain text. That’s how I copy articles I created in Roam into Medium.

Roam is quite pricy at $15/month. You can also pick between free alternatives and programs solely built for Zettelkasten, like Zettlr and The Archive, or more functional alternatives like TiddlyWiki (free and open-source), Obsidian, RemNote, Amplenote, and Org-roam.

I still prefer Roam because of its clean design and its Readwise connection.

Use the Zettelkasten method to create your Roamkasten.

Luhmann, the Zettelkasten inventor, found the answers and lived by them. During his life, he wrote 70 books & 500 scholarly articles. He attributes his success to a note-taking system called the Zettelkasten.

The Zettelkasten is an incredible learning tool as it forces us to use all the strategies known for effective learning — elaboration, spacing, and retrieval.

And applying the Zettelkasten to Roam takes this method to an entirely new level. Roamkasten is the ultimate personal knowledge management system.

Different from so many other knowledge management tools, the ‘Roamkasten’ is designed around cognition and learning science. The key benefits include:

  • Full retention of everything you read, watch or listen to.
  • Deep understanding of ideas and thoughts and creation of your own output.
  • Developing connections between separate domains and challenging your cognitive biases.

And the best about it: it’s an incremental process that requires minimal effort but leads to maximum output.


Building your personal knowledge management takes time, but it’s worth the effort. Once you found the stack you trust, creating content and ideas becomes even more enjoyable.


Are you a life-long learner? Join my E-Mail List and check out how the Feynman technique can help you remember everything you read.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: learning, Productivity, slipbox

How to Move from Note-Taking to Note-Making Using a Zettelkasten

February 15, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


You find the most valuable insights at the intersection of ideas.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Do you finish a book or an article and think you’ve found great insights but don’t know what to do with them?

If you ever feel like reading isn’t moving you forward, it’s likely because you don’t collect and connect your knowledge in a good way.

You can read the best writing in the world without changing at all. As Ratna Kusner once said:

“Knowledge trapped in books neatly stacked is meaningless and powerless until applied for betterment of life.”

But what if there was a simple way to build a database for your personal knowledge? How much easier would your life get if you always find what you need when you need it?

Luhmann, the Zettelkasten inventor, found the answers and lived by them. During his life, he wrote 70 books & 500 scholarly articles. He attributes his success to a note-taking system called the Zettelkasten.

Here’s why this note-taking-system works and how you can make this method work for you.


Why Zettelkasten Outperforms Other Systems

For the past years, I experimented with various note-taking systems —outlining, sketchnoting, mind-mapping, Notion workflows, and BulletJournals — before I finally settled on Zettelkasten. Here’s why this note-taking system beats others:

#1 Your Zettelkasten gets better the more you store

Tools like OneNote, Notion, Evernote, or your physical notebook exist in a top-down hierarchy. They are like a filing cabinet.

In the beginning, each note-taking system looks tidy and clean. But once you store more notes and ideas, they become unorganized.

Zettelkasten, on the contrary works like a bottom-up network. A lack of hierarchy helps you build a giant knowledge web of ideas. Your network works better the more information you store because connections and interlinks grow stronger.

Plus, a Zettelkasten can work as an idea-generation machine. You discover related ideas that you hadn’t thought of in the first place. As Sönke Ahrens writes in his book about the Zettelkasten:

“The more content it contains, the more connections it can provide, and the easier it become to add new entries in a smart way and receive useful suggestions. “

#2 You automatically use state-of-the-art learning science.

I used to rely on ineffective learning techniques like highlighting and rereading. I consumed more and more content instead of reading better.

Now the Zettelkasten will stop you from doing that. It’s an amazing learning tool as it forces us to use all the strategies that are known for effective learning — elaboration, spacing, and retrieval.

#3 You find the right idea at the perfect time.

As you’ll see in a minute, cross-references are at the core of the Zettelkasten. Whenever you add a new note, you think about how it relates to the existing notes.

You use networked thinking to link your notes together. And the more notes you add and connect, the bigger the network. You stumble upon useful intersections and move from note-taking to note-making.

In that way, the Zettelkasten not only captures your notes but helps you generate new ones as well. After all, the best ideas are the ones we haven’t anticipated. Or in James Clear’s words:

“The most useful insights are often found at the intersection of ideas.”

The Zettelkasten works in a network. (Source: JJ Ying on Unsplash)

5 Steps to Start Your Own Zettelkasten

The system is simple. Before I set up my system, I read through +20 resources. Here’s the quintessence on how to get started:

1) Decide on a digital tool

When I started, I tried to implement the system in my existing Notion database. But Notion is built for collaboration, not for building your second brain.

While there are some people saying you can also start an analog Zettelkasten, I wouldn’t advise for it. There are so many great digital options that really ease your workflow.

You can pick between programs solely built for Zettelkasten, like Zettlr and The Archive, or more functional alternatives like TiddlyWiki (free and open-source), Obsidian, RemNote, Craft, Amplenote, and Org-roam.

I use Roamresearch ($15/month) because of its clean design and its Readwise connection.

2) Import your highlights or start from scratch

If you pick Roamresearch, you can rely on a tool like Readwise. Alternatively, you can transcribe your former notes manually or simply start from scratch.

Create a page for each of your highlights, and bold or highlight the most important ones.

3) Create literature notes

From your highlights page, create a new page for literature notes. Your literature notes are a bullet-point summary in your own words where you write down what you don’t want to forget from the initial source.

When taking literature notes ask yourself questions like:

  • What is interesting about this?
  • What’s so relevant that it’s worth noting down?

Lastly, create some tags for your literature notes. Your tags serve as a reference and help you find this literature note when you need it. Your tags can be longer than a single word and are the answers to ‘In which circumstance do you want to stumble upon the note? When will you use the idea’?

4) Create permanent notes

These notes will stick with you forever. You find them by looking at your literature notes, your highlights and asking yourself: ‘Which insight do I have based on the material I read?’

The answer requires serious brain work but it is exactly why a Zettelkasten is such a valuable learning tool.

In contrast to the literature notes, your permanent notes are written prose. A reader of your permanent note should understand it without reading the original source that led to your idea.

In Ahren’s words:

Write exactly one note for each idea and write as if you were writing for someone else. Use full sentences, disclose your sources, make references, and try to be as precise, clear and brief as possible.

5) Create cross-references for your permanent Notes.

Now, this is, in truth, the most important step. A note is only as valuable as its context — its network of associations, relationships, and connections to other information.

Use the digital tool’s power of bidirectional linking to connect permanent notes that relate with your idea (of course, in the beginning, you can’t link much). Ask yourself questions like:

  • How does this idea fit with what I already know?
  • How can I use this idea to explain Y?
  • What does X mean for y?

Referring one note to another is the heart of the Zettelkasten method and crucial for idea development.


Final Thoughts

Creating a personal knowledge database can feel hard, especially if it slows down your consumption speed. But becoming a slower reader isn’t a time-waster. The contrary is true:

“Not learning from what we read because we don’t take the time to elaborate on it is the real waste of time.”

— SĂśnke Ahrens

I set up my Zettelkasten only a few weeks ago. Yet, it’s already transforming the way I store and discover knowledge. It makes reading much more meaningful, and I sincerely hope it does the same for you.


Want to join a tribe of life-long learners? Sign up here for applicable insights on reading, learning, and growth.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: knowledge management, learning, Productivity

How Ali Abdaal Makes Over $1m Per Year as an Online Entrepreneur

February 12, 2021 by Eva Keiffenheim


And the habits that helped him achieve success.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

From 2017 to 2020, Ali Abdaal built a 7-figure online business while completing his full-time medical studies at Cambridge.

As a YouTuber, instructor, and podcaster, he explores the principles, strategies, and tools that help people live happier, healthier, more productive lives. His YouTube channel has 1.4 million subscribers, and with a book and a second online cohort around the corner, these numbers likely double in 2021.

Recently, he published a 50-minute video on how much he earned in 2020. Ali’s levels of humbleness, humor, and self-reflection make it one of the most inspiring entrepreneurship videos I’ve seen.

This article gives a quick glance at how he made more than a million dollars in 2020, and more importantly, the key takeaways from his entrepreneurial journey.


How Ali Abdaal made +$1,000,000 as a YouTuber

Ali diversified his online income streams over the years. While he built the last two pillars in his early online career, the first three emerged more recently.

1) Skillshare Courses: $475,700

Teachers on Skillshare earn revenue through royalty payments and premium referrals. Instructors make money for every minute watched by Premium students in their classes and for every student they bring through a referral link.

Ali has seven classes on Skillshare, with more than 100,000 students watching his classes at more than 9,000,000 minutes of watch time.

2) Self-Created Online Course: $371,046

In 2020, Ali launched the part-time YouTuber academy. He teaches students how to grow a YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income-generating machine.

The pricing starts at $1495 for the essential package, up to $4995 for the premium package. His 2021 enrollment for February is already sold out.

3) Sponsorships: $184,843

Brands pay YouTubers to feature their products or services in some way. Sponsorships require an existing audience, and Ali got his first sponsorship deal in 2018 when he already had 50k subscribers.

Sponsored videos might run in-video advertisements or use product placements, like Ali does here with Notion, or here with Apple.

4) Affiliates: $180,047

Affiliate marketers earn a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products and content. The broader creators’ reach, the more people will buy what they talk about.

Ali’s main affiliate income sources include Amazon’s affiliate program, Tiago Forte’s Second Brain Course, a special Keyboard, and a paperlike iPad protector.

5) AdSense: $136,859

Google AdSense is the main income for many YouTubers. The advertisements are the short 5-second clips before videos or the snippets you see while watching a video. To start earning money with AdSense, YouTubers need a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid watch-hours on their channel.

For reaching $136,859 in 2020, Ali published 98 videos with 1.3 million subscribers.


5 Lessons from Ali’s Journey

It’s tempting to use Ali’s success as an example for a get-rich-quick scheme. Nothing could be further from the truth. His entrepreneurial journey is another proof that shortcuts don’t exist. Instead, success is a result of smart habits and strategies.

#1 Focus on the single most important metric.

Value creation is the most important metric to measure. Recently, Ali shared a tweet, stating:

“Achieving creator-market fit feels a lot like cheating because you can suddenly grow incredibly fast.”

But if you look at his history, you see that he didn’t cheat. He found his creator-market fit step by step.

In his first months, he targeted the one group he could provide value for: students wanting to get accepted into Cambridge medical school. He recorded videos on test-taking and interview questions.

A few months in, he expanded for the students among him, sharing learning strategies and university productivity desk set up. Only after more than a year of video creation, he tapped into a broader audience and shared videos on note-taking, a general desk setup, reading, and time-management.

He went from a niche audience to a broader audience by focusing on the group of people he can truly help.

How to apply this lesson:
What do you know that can help other people grow? What have you done with ease that other people are struggling to achieve? Focus on this niche as a start. Whatever you do, focus on the single most important metric: creating value for your audience.


#2 Publish consistently for +2 years.

Ali started in 2017 and didn’t earn a cent from his first 50 videos. He needed to build a solid 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch-hours before he’d qualify for the income program.

Around the same time, Ali posted his first video in 2017, Danika Chilibeck and I started Investella, a personal investment platform for women by women. We put in 20, 40, 100 hours and but didn’t see desired results. We grew impatient because we didn’t make any money. A few months in, we stopped.

That’s the difference between Ali and most people on this planet. He continued to trust in his process and producing great content, while most aspiring entrepreneurs stop along the way.

His YouTube success didn’t come overnight. Before earning +$100k a year, he had published more than 300 videos. He stuck to the process and published consistently without expecting returns.

How to apply this lesson:
Making money from online creation is a long-term game. You won’t see the desired results in the beginning. But if you keep working, you might suddenly hit a glass ceiling. Progress is slow but exponential. Whenever you think about quitting, keep in mind, you’re in for the long term.


#3 Accept there’s no secret sauce.

While preparing this article, I expected to find a secret sauce for growing a content channel into a thriving business. But there’s no secret.

On his website, Ali writes that all it takes to become a successful online entrepreneur are three things:

  • Producing content that your audience finds useful (see #1)
  • Posting this on YouTube once a week (see #2)
  • Repeating this for 2+ years (see #2)

Successful content creators know there’s no magic trick. And that’s why they can calmly focus on creation. Ali followed his own advice. He created one to two high-quality YouTube videos for more than three years and ultimately saw the results.

How to apply this lesson:
Don’t waste time searching for a secret source. Use success stories as inspiration but don’t get lost in them. Creation is all that matters. When looking at your metrics, don’t feel discouraged. Use data to analyze what works and do more of it. But apart from that, don’t agonize over low stats. Instead, spend all of your energy consistently creating user-centric content.


#4 Always invest in learning and growth.

In 2017 Ali invested £ 2000 in buying camera equipment while he didn’t make a single cent from his new YouTube channel. Three years later, he wrote in the advertisement for his part-time academy:

“ I’ve spent over $30,000 in courses and coaching programs.”

Learning fuels growth. The best entrepreneurs are lifelong learners and don’t hesitate to spend money on themselves. A quote from Billionaire investor Warren Buffett sums up why this strategy works:

“The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

How to apply this lesson:
Make self-investments and learning a priority. Seek courses, coaching, and training within your niche. Don’t agonize about whether you should spend money on these things. Save on consumer goods, and invest the spare income into learning and growth. Finally, make reading a habit.


#5 Connect with new people.

Ali said he planned to launch his part-time YouTuber academy as another Skillshare course. Then he talked to Tiago Forte and David Perell (both sell online courses at +$1500 and +$4000).

Probably that’s how Ali learned about the features of learner-centric online courses: highly interactive, community-based, feedback opportunities, accountability.

Because he connected with people who’ve successfully done what he intended to do, he deviated from his original plan. He learned that a top tier offer at a higher price is a better way to go.

How to apply this lesson:
Make it a habit to connect with new people. In a Forge article, Michael Thompson shared great strategies for how to do it. He suggests calling one new person every week and reaching out to people you already have weak ties with.


What’s next?

If there’s one thing we learn from Ali Abdaal’s impressive way towards a YouTube millionaire, it’s that the best way to make large amounts of money on the internet is to provide value at scale. Here’s what to remember:

  • Focus on creating value for the audience.
  • Publish high-quality content for +2 years.
  • Stop searching for the secret sauce.
  • Make it a habit to invest in learning and growth.
  • Regularly connect with new people around you.

Are you a life-long learner? Join my e-mail newsletter for insights on reading, learning, and growth.


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Filed Under: ✍🏽 Online Creators Tagged With: Entrepreneurship, Productivity

How to Make Your Time Work for You

November 13, 2020 by Eva Keiffenheim


6 key principles for making the most of your time on this planet.

Photo by Collin Hardy on Unsplash

Plenty of people spend their time as if they’d never die. They say yes when they should be saying no. They get dopamine shots from social media instead of fostering deep human connections. They chase what they haven’t instead of enjoying what they have.

“I wish I could, but..” is one of the sentences you hear them say often. They waste their time on low-quality activities that don’t add happiness or meaning to their lives. And yet, you hear them complain about lacking time to pursue the things they always wanted to do.

As best-selling author Grant Cardone wrote:

“Most people have no clue what they are doing with their time but still complain that they don’t have enough.”

Many people could live better lives (if they made their time work for them), but instead, continue to repeat the same patterns all over again, which leaves them feeling unhappy, ineffective, and stuck.

But what if you made your time work for you?

How would that change your life, your relationships, your future?

What things and people would you say no to?

What activities would start doing?


1) Schedule Health Blocks in Your Calendar

When asked what surprised him about humanity the most, the Dalai Lama once said:

“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

In our current economy, self-worth seems to be tied to productivity. Sitting curled up in a desk chair and answering emails is worth more than going to a yoga class. Making phone calls during our lunch break looks better than taking the time for a proper self-cooked meal. I used to feel guilty and unproductive when I cared for myself.

But prioritizing work over health is toxic.

We only have one body to live in. When it breaks or stops to function, we downgraded our life. That’s why putting your health first is one of the most important time management principles.

How to do it:

  • Schedule regular walking and stretching breaks.
  • Plan time slots for grocery shopping, cooking, and eating.
  • Block out non-negotiable time for sport sessions a week in advance.

2) Set Achievable To-Do Lists

Many people confuse to-do lists with wish lists. They write down any item that would love to have resolved without factoring in the time it takes. At the end of the day, they feel drained, restless, and anxious. In moments like this, it’s valuable to keep Shery Sanberg words in mind:

“You can only do so much. There are five more projects you want to do, but you pick the three that are really going to matter, and you try to do those really well, and you don’t even try to do the others.”

Don’t even try to do the others. You’ll soon realize life is more fun if you set realistic expectations. Instead of rushing after unachievable to-do’s, start living life at your own pace. Your life, your rules.

How to apply it:

  • Include time estimations after listing the to-do item.
  • Differentiate between must-dos and nice-to-haves.
  • Find fulfillment in knowing what can’t get done today will be done tomorrow.

3) Stop Prioritizing Work Over Relationships

Ryan Holiday, the guy that was hired by Benjamin Hardy and Tim Ferriss to improve their books, wrote recently:

“Many relationships and moments of inner peace were sacrificed on the altar of achievement.”

We fail to acknowledge that work-related achievements won’t make us happier or healthier. We cancel friend meet-ups because of tight work deadlines, skip a family call to complete another task, or skip vacation altogether.

While many of us think fame, fortune, and hard work will bring us happiness, science proves us wrong. Robert Waldinger, psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School analyzed the longest study on human happiness. Having high-quality social connections is the best ingredient for long-term happiness. According to the study, good relationships even elevate our mental and physical health.

How to apply it:

  • Initiative regular meet-ups with the people you care about.
  • Postpone your work instead of social appointments.
  • Keep in mind that relationships, not achievements make us happy.

4) Reflect on Your Day Before Falling Asleep

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to time is only looking forward. By not pausing to reflect, they don’t reap the lessons learned from past experiences. In a book on learning, neurologist Doug Larsen and neurosurgeon Mike Ebersold write:

“Cultivating the habit of reflecting on one’s experiences, making them into a story, strengthens learning.”

And Jack Mezirow, a former professor at Colombia University, adds:

“By far the most significant learning experience in adulthood involves critical self-reflection — reassessing the way we have posed problems and reassessing our own orientation to perceiving, knowing, believing, feeling and acting.”

How to apply it:

Every evening, before falling asleep, ask yourself:

  • What went well today?
  • How could I have spent my time better?
  • What strategies will I use tomorrow to use my time wiser?

5) Stop Saying Yes When You Should Be Saying No

We often forget that every ‘yes’ means a ‘no’ to a million other things. By saying no to 95% of all requests, you’ll make your ‘yeses’ a lot more meaningful.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

— Warren Buffett

How to apply it:

  • Remember that every “yes” means a “no” to a million other things.
  • Browse through respectful ways to say no and choose your favorite ones.
  • Know that saying no will become easier every time you do it.

6) Spend Less than One Hour on Your Phone

For a decade, I was among the 80% of smartphone users who check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. I started every morning with thoughts about the news, my inbox, and other people’s social posts.

Our phones evolved to life-shortening devices that take our time without consent. Engineers did a great job of designing apps that capture our attention for as long as possible. Mechanisms like infinity scrolling, pull-to-refresh triggers, social validation cues, and push notifications to keep us glued to the screen.

Without realizing, many of us spend hours every day in front of your phone screen. Time that’d be better spend on meaningful activities. Since I limited my screen time to one hour a day, I reached my goals. And if I, a former tech-addict, can do it, so can you.

How to apply it:

  • Charge your phone outside of your bedroom.
  • Use flight mode whenever you do deep work.
  • Delete mail and social media apps (you’ll be faster from your desktop).

The Bottom Line

Making your time work for you doesn’t need to feel hard or exhausting. There are no complex techniques you need to master.

All it takes are six simple principles:

  • Schedule non-negotiable health blocks in your calendar.
  • Aim for achievable To-Do lists.
  • Make your relationships matter more than your work.
  • Reflect on your day when lying in bed.
  • Say no to things that dilute your focus.
  • Minimize the time you spend on your smartphone.

Your life your rules. Choose the ideas that resonate with you and screw the rest. Eventually, you’ll find a pattern that helps you maximize your time on any day.

And, remember what Steve Jobs said about his time on earth:

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”


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Filed Under: 🎯 Better Living Tagged With: Productivity, Time management, Work From Home

29 Keyboard Shortcuts That Will Save You One Hour A Day

September 13, 2020 by Eva Keiffenheim


To boost your productivity, stop using your trackpad.

Photo by Yingchih on Unsplash

Most people waste hours of their lives because ⌘+C/V is the only shortcut they use. I was one of those people and made time-wasting gestures like

  • using the trackpad to switch between active windows instead of ⌘-tabbing
  • scrolling the page instead of pressing the space bar
  • using the cursor to open a new browser window instead of using ⌘ + T

You might question whether such tiny actions will make a difference in your life. I promise they will.

You’ll bring a 3-second action down to a 1-second action. And because you repeat those actions hundreds of times each day, you’ll save an hour a day.

This advice primarly applies to Mac Users.

Navigate Through Your Browser In Lightspeed

Much of the work at our laptops takes place within a browser. And while the discussion on Safari vs. Chrome will likely continue forever, these browser commands work for both browsers.

⌘ + L

This one is so simple but so impactful. We’re continually visiting new websites and wasting our time with manual cursor navigation.

With ⌘ + L you select the address bar (the place in your browser where you type in any web address). Then, start typing the website you’re looking for, and select the right suggestion using the up/down arrows.

⌘ + T

This one opens a new tab for you. You can use this one anytime you want to open a new website inside of your existing browser window.

Once you opened a new tab, make sure to use ⌘ + L to type in your web address (instead of using your trackpad).

⌘ + N

This shortcut opens a new tab in a new browser window. I use this one anytime I start working on a new task.

Again, once you opened a new window, make sure to use ⌘ + L to type in your web address (instead of using your trackpad).

⌘ + ⇧ + T

This is a life-saver. It’s the ⌘+Z of your browser. It will open a tab you recently closed.

Whenever you accidentally closed a window, make sure to remember this shortcut.

⌘ + Option + ► or â—€

Navigate to the next and the previous tabs. This one is really powerful if you work with one monitor. It’ll guide you to the different windows in your browser, saving you three seconds each time you use it.

If you’ve never used this one, try it out now. You’ll be astonished about its simplicity and speed.

⌘ + 1…8

This one is also for tab navigation. You’ll navigate to a tab # (count form the left). For example, ⌘ + 1, will take you to the first tab in your browser.

I prefer to use the previous shortcut because I don’t want to use my brainpower to count which window I want to open. The only time I use it is when I am writing in a text document.

There are other ones like Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + Shift + Tab to navigate between the tabs, but I’ll ignore them. It’s enough to know one option and stick to it.

⌘ + ⇧ + N

This opens a new private window for you. Yet, don’t confuse incognito windows with data privacy.

Still, this shortcut is useful when you’re searching for something you don’t want to appear in your browser history.

⌘ + Y

Open and close your browser history. This one is practical if you’re researching a lot. It’s way faster than clicking on settings and navigating manually to your history. ´

Spacebar

When you press the spacebar while reading, you’ll move your window down one screen. This one replaces endless scrolling.

Whenever you’re reading a text but are too lazy to scroll, you can use this one.

⇧ + Spacebar

This is just the opposite shortcut to the previous one. It will move your window up one screen.

⌘ + R

This is how you can reload a page. I only use ⌘ + R if a page isn’t loading, or if I need to sign up somewhere that needs meticulous timing.


Use These Shortcuts To Boost Your Writing Speed

Working at a screen makes you a daily writer. Whether it’s e-mails, text files, or presentations — you write all the time. Here are ten powerful shortcuts for text navigation and text selection.

Text Navigation

When using these shortcuts, you’ll navigate through your text like a writing ninja. Here are my five personal favorite time-savers when it comes to maneuvering within your text:

⌘ + Left Arrow â—€

Jump to the beginning of a line.

⌘ + Right Arrow â–ş

Jump to the end of a line.

Option + Right Arrow â–ş

Jump to the beginning of the current word

⌘ + Up Arrow â–˛

Jump to the beginning of the entire text.

⌘ + Down Arrow â–ź

Jump to end of all text.


Text Selection

Apart from navigating within a text, you’ll also need to highlight specific passages. This is powerful, while proofreading, researching, or editing.

The great news is you don’t need to remember new combinations. It’s the same logic as for text navigation. You just add a shift key to the above shortcuts.

Here are five shortcuts that will allow you to select words, lines, or entire documents quickly.

⇧ + ⌘ + Left Arrow â—€

Select text to the beginning of a line.

⇧ + ⌘ + Right Arrow â–ş

Select text to the end of a line.

⇧ + Option + Right Arrow â–ş

Select text to the end of the current word.

⇧ + ⌘ + Up Arrow â–˛

Select text from the current cursor location to the beginning of all text.

⇧ + ⌘ + Down Arrow â–ź

Select text from the current cursor location until the end of all text.


Basic Commands for Your Mac

Lastly, here are some basic commands you can use on your mac and multiple other programs.

⌘ + Z

Undo. This is the command we’d love to have in real life as well. By pressing ⌘ + Z you can undo what you just did. This shortcut will save your ass.

It works for many programs: Whether you’ve accidentally deleted a file, applied a video filter you don’t like, or erased pages of carefully crafted writing.

⌘ + W

Close. This is a universal keyboard shortcut for closing whatever window or file you currently have open.

⌘ + Q

Quit apps. When you click the red “x” in the top-left corner of an application window, it does not only take way too much of your precious time.

In fact, macOS won’t actually close the program altogether. Instead, it will minimize the app to the dock. By using ⌘ + Q you’ll quit your programs.

⌘ + â‡Ľ

Switch between programs. Using ⌘ + ⇥ allows you to save time every time you switch between different programs.

Spotify → Browser → InDesign. Instead of searching for windows with your trackpad, this keyboard shortcut allows you to flip between apps without your hands leaving the keyboard.

⌘ + M

Minimize the front window. While ⌘ +Q was the shortcut for your red button, this one is for the yellow one. It won’t close but minimize your front window.

⌘ + P

Print. Simple and straightforward. Whether you’re in your browser or in a text document, this keyboard shortcut will open the print settings.

⌘ + A

Select all content. This one makes you select everything that’s one specific page. It’ll save you scrolling and highlighting.

⌘ + F

Find a word within the opened file. This shortcut allows you to quickly jump down to a specific part of a website or long document when you know what you are searching for.


Practice & Use What You Need

The best articles only improve your life if you apply what you read. Here’s how you can integrate the new shortcuts into your life:

  • write down your five favorite new commands on a piece of paper
  • place that physical paper next to your keyboard
  • keep it there for five days until you feel like you internalized the shortcuts

You don’t need a productivity coach to use your time effectively. Instead, you can save an hour a day by being smart about your keyboard.


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Filed Under: 🎯 Better Living Tagged With: Productivity, Time management

9 Reasons That Will Make You Want to Stop Checking Your Phone After Waking

August 7, 2020 by Eva Keiffenheim


You use your phone too early. Here’s how to stop it.

Photo by Marjan Grabowski on Unsplash

If you’re like 80% of smartphone users, you check your device every morning within the first 15 minutes after waking up. This is dramatic as the early hours of your day will make or break your life.

By checking your phone first thing in the morning, you condition your mind for distraction. Notifications and messages will make your thoughts bounce around like a ping-pong ball. You won’t be able to focus on your day ahead.

Throughout your day, your morning behavior repeats itself. By checking your phone too early in the day, you won’t be able to produce any deep work. You’ll get distracted and lose focus again and again.

Yet, you can reprogram your phone habits and thereby, free your mind. It’s in your power to take back control. Here are nine reasons that will make you want to stop checking your phone after waking up, including instructions on how you can make that change.


1. Start Your Day With A Clear Mind

You decide how to spend your time. You can start and end your day without glancing at your phone and, instead, focus on what matters to you.

“What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore, play in defining the quality of our life.”

— Cal Newport

Do you really want to wake up contemplating the latest post on your newsfeed?

By leaving your phone shut, you won’t be tempted to scroll through social media. Instead, you can start your day with a clear mind. By protecting your morning, you’ll start on your right foot.

I checked my phone first thing in the morning for a decade. It wasn’t until I read studies (like this one, this one, or this one) on the downsides of smartphone use that I abandoned my device from my morning hours. Since then, I make faster progress towards my life goals than I have ever imagined.


2. Finish Your Morning Routine Distraction Free

Your morning routine sets the tone for the day. You should do anything to protect these hours for yourself. By completing your routine without distraction every day, you’ll live your happiest life.

Yet, I can’t count the times I sat on my meditation pillow only to open my e-mail account instead of the headspace app.

Do you control your phone, or does your phone control you?

The problem is you can’t undo information input. What slipped through my phone into my morning routine found an entryway to my brain. You get in life what you’re willing to tolerate. Here’s how Benjamin Hardy, PhD, puts it:

“Most people tolerate spending huge amounts of their time on things that don’t inspire them because they aren’t clear on what they want. They aren’t clear on what they want because they haven’t begun acting right. Clarity and inspiration follow positive action.”

By not checking your phone after waking up, you create a distraction-free environment. There won’t be any “bing” during your morning routine, and you’ll quickly find yourself on the path to your happiest life.


3. You Can’t-Wait To Start Your Day

Reading messages from your co-workers after waking up can feel like a weight that ties you down. You might want to stay in bed rather than tackle the tasks ahead. Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi, a psychiatrist, says

“Immediately turning to your phone when you wake up can start your day off in a way that is more likely to increase stress and leave you feeling overwhelmed.”

In the hour after waking, your head needs time to get in the rational state of your consciousness.

By checking your phone, your overwhelming your clear mind with external information. By starting your phone with messages from your colleagues, it’s no wonder you might want to stay in bed rather than getting up.

Yet, your phone doesn’t have to feel like a weight that holds you back. To start your days full of energy, you can make the decision right here and now to change your phone habits.

With phone-free mornings you’ll have focused, dedicated and creative time for yourself. Your morning will bring you intense energy of doing and creating.


4. Connect With The People Around You

With your eyes glued to a screen, it’s tempting to forget your surroundings. And by burying your face in your phone’s screen, you won’t be able to connect with the people in your home.

By disconnecting your phone, you connect with the people around you. You’ll experience the power of human bonds, and spending time with people in your early hours will help you live a happier life.

“Deep human connection is the purpose and the result of a meaningful life, and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity, and humanity.”

— Melinda Gates


5. You Have Time To Eat The Frog

By checking your messages first thing in the morning, it’s easy to focus on the tasks of others. Yet, giving your morning attention to reaction events will limit your productivity.

The messages and news of others distract you from your most important task of the day, leaving your “frogs” victim to procrastination.

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it First Thing in the Morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the BIGGEST one first.”

— Mark Twain

When you stop reacting to others, you can start to act on your agenda, eat your frogs first. When you get into the habit of doing your most demanding job before you check your phone, you become a person of action and discipline.

Spend your most precious time on your most valuable activities, and you’ll change the trajectory of your life.


6. Breakfast Will Become A Sensory Experience

With eyes glued to our screens, it’s impossible to enjoy eating. Eating with distractions will leave you unsatisfied.

When you eat, eat. The key to achieving satiety and satisfaction when eating is mindful eating. The more attentive you eat, the more you‘ll feel what your body needs.

Without your cell phone on your table, it’ll be easier for you to stop eating when you are full. Instead of focusing on your device, focus on your breakfast qualities:

  • Taste and smell: sweet, sour, salty, bitter
  • Temperature: warm, cold
  • Texture: hard, soft, creamy, liquid, tough, dry

By not reacting to messages early in your day, you’ll have time to enjoy your breakfast with all your senses.


7. You Read More Books

Charlie Munger, self-made billionaire, and Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, once said:

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero.”

Bill Gates read one book a week during his career and took a yearly two-week reading vacation throughout his entire career. Barack Obama read an hour a day while in office.

The less time you spend on your phone, the more you’ll read. You’ll notice that you have plenty of time during your mornings. You can start a new habit, like reading 15 minutes every morning before you react to other people’s agenda.

Changing my phone habits was the hardest part but also the most effective one. I didn’t need to skip any activities to read 52 books a year.

Decreasing my screen time enabled me to read more. Since I stopped checking my phone in the morning in March 2018, I read 116 books. And if I can do it, you can do it, too.


8. You Take Self-Responsibility

By regularly checking your phone, you condition your mind for self-interruption. Social media, e-mail or messaging will deliver other people’s opinions, requests, and advertising into your head.

By not checking your phone, you take back self-responsibility. You’ll be the one determining what to do with your day. Nothing can distract you from your agenda.

Leaving your phone switched off will feel hard at first because it’s easier to follow other people’s agenda. You can’t look at social to escape from boredom or discomfort.

Your ego will fight back, whispering you should check these urgent messages. But by turning your phone on later in the day, you’ll take back more self-responsibility.


9. You Connect With Yourself

In the years I woke up to my smartphone’s screen, I was unable to notice my feelings. At that time, there were deep and intense feelings in me. Yet, I paid more attention to my screen than to my emotions.

If I’d read my body signals instead of the words on my smartphone screen, I would have been better at making effective decisions.

Stop looking at your screen and start looking inside yourself. Connect with how you’re feeling and read your signs for change. Paying attention to your feelings instead of your phone will upgrade the course of your life. Promise.

Not letting your phone distracting you opens your mind up to fantastic possibilities. You’ll set yourself up for success. By connecting with yourself in the morning, you’ll get more insights and ideas than you know what to do with.

“Disconnecting from our technology to reconnect with ourselves is absolutely essential.”

— Arianna Huffington


Now, Set Up Your Environment For Change

By reading this far, you understood why you shouldn’t check your smartphone in the morning. But change doesn’t come from understanding. Change comes from taking action. It’s in your hands to live the life you want to live.

  • Set up everything in such a way that you won’t miss your phone in the morning.
  • Dig up your old alarm clock, or buy a new one.
  • Turn your phone off before going to sleep and charge your phone outside of your bedroom.
  • Pick the book you‘ll read tomorrow morning and place it in sight.
  • Put an empty notebook and a pen to the place where you’d put your phone.

Promise yourself you will switch on your phone only 3 hours after waking up, for the next seven days. The change you’ll experience will make you want to continue with your new habit.

Unplug yourself from the matrix of social media and information.

Instead, plug into your life.


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Filed Under: 🎯 Better Living Tagged With: Digital detox, mindfulness, Productivity

How PARA on Google Drive Can Make Your Life Easier

June 18, 2020 by Eva Keiffenheim


This 4-folder system helps you tapping your knowledge in private and business

Photo by Gabriel Beaudry on Unsplash

When was the last time you couldn’t find the files you were searching for?

It’s a frustrating feeling, knowing that you have information on a specific topic, but you don’t know where to find the material.

“If you don’t have a good system for storing bad ideas, you probably don’t have one for filing good ones, either.”

— David Allen

Last week, a friend asked for scientific resources for the effects of excessive smartphone usage. Do phones cause sleep deprivation? This question rang a bell as I read and saved some papers.

Before PARA, I would have spent 30 minutes searching for the documents. I would probably have found only some parts of all resources. But thanks to the PARA Method, it took me one minute to find the correct sheets in my Google Drive.

Knowledge documentation is critical as it can save you a lot of time in the long run and help you advance your professional career. Here’s how to organize your files with the PARA method so you will find everything you need within seconds.


How the PARA Method works

The PARA system is universal, flexible, actionable, outcome-orientated simple, and quick to implement. It works both with cloud services and local storage. In this article, I’ll use Google Drive as an example.

The efficiency lies in the method’s simplicity.

On the highest level in your cloud storage, you have nothing but four main folders: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archive (=PARA).

The highest level of your Google Drive (Source: Author).

By going through each folder step-by-step, you’ll understand where your files belong. Let’s start with the first one — projects.


1) Structure Your Projects

In this folder are your ongoing projects. What all of your folders in “Projects” have in common is their definite start and end date.

For each folder in the project folder, there is a clear definition of “done.” To keep a chronological overview, you label each folder with start and end dates.

Let me give you an example of how this date labeling looks like.

Folders inside “Projects” (Source: Author).

The numbers, like 1805 for May 2018, label start and end dates. My role as a fellow at Teach for Austria began in 1805 (May 2018) and lasts until 2007 (July 2020). Label projects with a start but no end date with an -X.

Once you finish a project, you move the folder from Projects to the last PARA folder, Archive, while extracting all helpful resources to Resources. More on that later. Before you’ll learn the magic of the Resources folder, let’s take a look at the second high-level folder, Areas.


2) Determine Your Areas

Folders in the “Area” are kind of the opposite of projects. Area folders label ongoing work without predefined end dates. You never finish “area folders” because of the work’s repetitive nature.

In your private storage, folders in your Area would be house, car, travel, hobbies, friends, product development. As a business owner, you would have a folder for employees or office management here.

In contrast to Projects, you don’t set time labels for folders within Areas.


3) Bundle Your Resources

The resources folder is your treasure. This folder is where your bundled knowledge comes together. Remember you move a done project, to the Archive?

Before you move any folder to the Archive, you go through the documents, images, and templates inside your project.

Is there any helpful resource you want to reuse in the future? These evergreen documents move to Resources instead of the Archive.

A folder within Resource is a topic of ongoing interest.

For example, typical resource folders could be project management, online marketing, SEO, productivity, or architecture.

Here is a part of my private Resources folder to give you an idea.

The Resources Folder in the Para Method

In contrast to the projects folder, the folders within resources don’t have a start or end date. It’s your area of interest that label your folder’s name. Hence, the folders are organized by knowledge area.

For example, SEO contains all knowledge regarding search engine optimization. When an acquaintance now asks about SEO resources, I can share this folder with her.

Once you create the Resources folder, you’ll quickly realize the impact of tidy knowledge organization. This folder is a clear track record of what you learned thus far.

You can fill Resources also with documents outside of your projects. For example, if you finish an online course, move your key learnings, and templates to the resource folder.

Before you take off organizing your storage, let’s consider the last folder of the PARA method — the Archive.


4) Archive What You No Longer Need

The Archive’s concept is pretty neat. When a specific project is done, and you filtered all relevant knowledge to the resources folder, you move the Projects folder to the Archive. That’s it.

The Archive contains inactive folders from the other three categories.

Similar to the project folders, archive Folders don’t have a date description in their title. The date stamp will help you locate the knowledge you are looking for.


Reorganizing with PARA is Time Well Spent

The PARA — Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive — Method is a powerful tool to organize your knowledge.

Depending on the present quality of your file organization, the PARA implementation can take you several hours. It’s time well spent. While organizing your cloud, you will stumble upon helpful documents you weren’t aware of.

By structuring your files, you tap into your knowledge and reflect on your past learnings. In the long run, a clear knowledge organization will save you time and energy.


This article is for informational purposes only, and it should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.

Filed Under: 📚 Knowledge Management Tagged With: Productivity

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