Note-takers, be aware of the tourist syndrome — There are notes born to be burned. Sometimes, taking notes is only about taking notes, without being worried about capturing the notes and keeping them in a folder, the cloud, or an app. The fact we have the technology — note-taking apps, tools for thought, or PKMs — doesn’t mean…

3 things to learn and do about emotions at work (and at personal productivity also) — There is this new trend in leadership and management that finally talks about emotions at work. You may have heard that a good leader or executive is the one who can overcome stress, anger, and difficult social interactions in the office. The emotional resilient leader can be productive in the…

After the experience, the sharing — You have the right age to be wise. Or you think you know enough on a topic to share your wisdom about it. Perhaps, at the end of a big project, long relationship, school years, long trip, you want to keep your deepest learnings in place. Maybe, you want to…

Can you hear the music? Can you hear the muses? — The sound of paper Writing by hand on paper is the more subtle sound of writing. I love the soft sound of the pen scratching the page in my notebook as well as the sound of the cap of the pen when opening it; or the snap when pushing in, if it’s a click…

Language makes the difference — To-do lists are one of the most common power and popular uses for writing, particularly for not-taking. There are different methods, systems, apps, services… And what about levels of structure? From the simple to-do list on a post-it or a napkin, to very complex systems with hierarchies, folders, tags, colors…

I’m going to tell you something contra intuitive. You might have experienced the need to write a comment or reply to an article that had resonated to you in some way. Here on Medium, in a blog, or a social network. Maybe you liked the content a lot, you might…

How to lock in your most important and valuable time boxes — You may already know and even apply timeblocking to manage time, tasks, and projects. Some call it timeboxing. I like the last because it let me imaging I put time in a box. My most valuable time. Let me share to you an extra ingredient to make it better by…

You need more playspaces and fewer workspaces — If a productivity framework doesn’t tell you enough about unproductivity, take for granted that the framework is not going to work at the end of the day. Let’s be clear about this. You can’t be productive all the time. No way. In fact, you need to manage your unproductive time…

Not all holes are rabbit holes — It was a clear and warm day… I was expecting to have a productive day. I had with me my to-do list, my coffee, my computer, the Wi-Fi was working well, my last-generation-app-to-manage-anything was open on my screen… But it didn’t happen. The day ended and my to-do list was identical to yesterday. Wait. I had an…

An alternative to complex methods for taking notes — Let me ask you something. Which application do you use for note-taking and note-writing? The Notes app on your phone? Google Keep? Bear, Evernote, Notion, Ulysses, Roam Research… Is this the same application you were using one year ago? What about two years ago? Are you finally using one app…

Take your time thinking — Thinking on time and space Thinking is an activity that depends on time. We give that for true not just because we think about time as a real object or a resource, but because we think about thinking as a sequential, time-dependent thing. So if thinking lives on time, we think about its optimization: thinking…

How to shield your writing process to prevent the unpredictable — Your note-taking and writing are constantly at risk of Back Swans. A Black Swan is a very unlikely event but highly catastrophic. Some catastrophic events are not extremely unlikely. …

I don’t write to be in the flow—I do it for the whole experience — You want to make your writing easy, right? You want to write in calm, almost in a state of illumination, like if you were meditating, don’t you? When you think about being in the flow, heaven, nirvana or paradise comes to mind, isn’t it? What about when you imagine having…

Word processors, text editors, outliners… and still exploring — This is part of the collection of articles Antifragile Writing and Tools for Thought (PKMs) by Adolfo Ramírez Corona. If this article was of your interest, you may like to check The Antifragile Writing Workshop on Maven where we explore ways to level up your note-taking systems; develop a personal…

Goals aren’t everything — Let me guess, the first thing that comes to your mind when reading this article headline maybe, “How the heck can you have projects without goals?”. Fair enough. Let me give you the short answer so you can skip all this article. If all the things you do in a…

From taking notes to building a second brain — I can’t stop thinking in this quote about the market for note-taking apps. A market of more than 1 billion for note-taking apps is huge. Why? I mean, they are just note-taking apps, right? “ According to Verified Market Research, the Global Note-Taking Management Software Market was valued at USD…

And one billion dollars reason to care about. — My mom is a highly-organized person. She has been the one who handles payments, banks, agenda, charges… and she has done that very well from what I can remember. …

For designers, developers, project and product managers, working at the office or working from home. — Do designers have to know how to program? Do programmers have to know how to design? Do you need a general vision but without leaving attention to details? The intuition of what the user wants or needs? Discipline? Willingness to learn? Experience? Social skills? These are the 3 most important…

Or to your home during a pandemic lockdown. — Throughout life, you experience a lot of desks and a lot of desk setups. …

Sharing experience in times of crisis. — These are the most relevant topics to take into consideration when starting to do remote work. I have learned them as a remote worker and as a remote manager, for both, operation and project managed business. Let me share my experience in a very relevant topic for the current times…