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Cognitive Productivity with macOS

7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge

Luc P. Beaudoin

In today's competitive knowledge economy, you always need to keep learning —and fast. But most information and apps get in the way. This book describes 7 principles for selecting, processing and mastering knowledge using potent Mac apps.

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About

About

About the Book

  • Have you ever looked back at a week, month or even year knowing that you spent many hours reading and yet could not recall anything of value?
  • Does it take you more than two seconds to re-access important information on your Mac?
  • Do you often get distracted by Facebook, YouTube, irrelevant emails or even supposedly high-quality information?
  • Do you ever find it difficult to isolate or re-access the key information in a web page, PDF, podcast, book, video or lecture?
  • Do you not have a simple system for evaluating, selecting and reading?
  • Have you spent less then an hour in the last week reviewing and practicing key knowledge?
  • Have you ever made a big mistake that you could’ve avoided _if only you had applied what you thought you had learned?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions and if you value competence, then this book is for you!

In today's competitive knowledge economy, you always need to keep learning —and fast. Unfortunately, most apps for "consuming" information are not adequately designed for learning. If you don't use the right apps and the right strategies, odds are you will 

  • be distracted by irrelevant information; 
  • find it difficult to re-access useful information; 
  • forget more than you should; and 
  • fail to effectively use your new knowledge.

Much has been written about "information overload". There's also plenty of free information explaining how to use various apps. Unfortunately, little literature provides specific guidance on using software to overcome information overload and to select, organize, re-access and master useful knowledge. 

When it comes to learning, not every app is created equal. Popular ways of processing information can interfere with learning. In contrast, using the right apps with the right strategies can enormously boost your ability to learn and think effectively.

This is what Cognitive Productivity books are all about.

This book will help you select and utilize the most cognitively potent macOS apps: the best web browser, task manager, news reader, PDF reader, practice app, etc. This book demonstrates the best strategies for assessing, organizing, selecting, processing and mastering information. You will learn to stay away from distractions, and to acquire and apply new knowledge.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a screencast is worth 10,000. This book is loaded with screencasts. They demonstrate effective strategies to help you use your Mac to become even smarter. Whether you are a professional knowledge worker, a student or a lifelong learner, if you value your time and competence, this book is written for you.

Are you ready to use your Mac to apply 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge? 

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Author

About the Author

Luc P. Beaudoin

Luc specializes in macOS-based cognitive productivity, emotions, sleep onset and insomnolence. He is the author of Cognitive Productivity books. His work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Inc., The New York Times, The Guardian, Lifehacker, The International Business Times of London, O'Magazines, Women's Health, CBC, etc. 

Luc is co-founder and lead designer of CogSci Apps (which invents cognitive productivity software including Hookmark and mySleepButton®), founder of CogZest (cognitive productivity publications and training), and Adjunct Professor of  Education at Simon Fraser University. He has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science (School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham) and and undergrad degree in Psychology. He was a first-round employee of two of Canada's most highly-valued tech startups (Abatis Systems and Tundra Semiconductor). He was previously Assistant Professor of Military Psychology and Leadership at the Royal Military College of Canada. 

This eclectic combination of R&D experience led Luc to a new mission in 2001: to help smart people use knowledge, art and technology to become more effective. To this end, he extends and applies integrative design-oriented cognitive science. 

Luc's latest book, in progress, is Discontinuities: Love, Art, Mind. His next two books will be on sleep and emotions.

Luc is based in Metro-Vancouver, British Columbia. Still not satisfied? You can read more about him here. And check-out the 

Hookmark user forum.

Leanpub Podcast

Episode 124

An Interview with Luc P. Beaudoin

Contents

Table of Contents

FRONT MATTER

About the Screencasts and Extras Available Via This Book

Why Read This Book?

About the Author

About CogZest Books

  1. Part 1: Self-Governance

Introduction

Principle 1: Lead Yourself with Knowledge

  1. Consider Covey’s Three Habits of Independence
  2. You Are an Information Processor
  3. Types of Information you Process
  4. Information-processing Concepts and Vocabulary
  5. You Are a Value Maker
  6. Invaluable Wake Up Calls
  7. A Mission Statement that Reflects the End of Your Life
  8. Let Your Dreams Influence You
  9. Leading Values
  10. Values are Motivators
  11. Free Resources for Exploring your Values
  12. Your Information-Processing Should Serve You Well

Principle 2: Manage Your Cognitive Life Mindfully

  1. Manage Your Projects
  2. Using Project Folder Templates in Finder
  3. Using Outliners to Create: OmniOutliner
  4. Planning in OmniOutliner ( “Plan” documents)
  5. Developing a Resource Specification in OmniOutliner (“Elements” of your Conceptual Artifact)
  6. Outlining in OmniOutliner (“Outlines”)
  7. Managing Projects with OmniFocus
  8. Manage Your Knowledge Sources
  9. Source-Management Problems and Questions
  10. Important Things to Keep in Mind about Archiving
  11. Naming and Tagging Files for Later Use
  12. Managing Web Content: Overview
  13. Archiving Your PDF Files
  14. Using the Finder as a Database with Ironic Software Leap and Yep
  15. EagleFiler
  16. Using Bibliography Managers Designed for macOS
  17. Using Closed Information Managers
  18. Evernote
  19. DEVONthink
  20. Quickly Accessing Local Sources
  21. Accessing Files with Spotlight
  22. Accessing PDFs with Papers
  23. Accessing Resources with Launchers
  24. Accessing Linked Items with Hookmark
  25. Manage your Attention (Your Information-Processing Time)
  26. Timing App
  27. mySelfQuantifier
  28. Reviewing Time Spent in Deep Work
  29. Reviewing Time Spent on Each of Your Projects
  30. Reviewing Time Spent per Activity
  31. Part 2: Productive Information Processing

Principle 3: Assess Analytically

  1. About this Chapter
  2. Helpfulness: A Pragmatic Concept to Drive Assessment
  3. CUPA: Caliber, Utility, Potency and Appeal
  4. The Caliber of the Resource
  5. Basic CRAAP Test
  6. Assessing Arguments
  7. Common problems in argumentation
  8. Alarm Bell Clappers
  9. General Epistemic Criteria
  10. Tips for Expert Critical Reading
  11. Productive Discussions about Knowledge Resources
  12. Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Caliber
  13. The Utility of a Knowledge Resource
  14. Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Utility
  15. The Potency of a Knowledge Resource
  16. Example: The Computer Revolution in Philosophy by Aaron Sloman
  17. The Aims of Science
  18. Conceptual Analysis
  19. Imagination
  20. The Mind as a Structured Control System
  21. Monitors and motive generators
  22. The Potency of Software
  23. Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Potency
  24. The Appeal of a Knowledge Resource
  25. CUP’A: Caliber, Utility, Potency and Appeal: Values

Principle 4: Surf Strategically

  1. Surfing a document
  2. Speed Reading Software
  3. Tips for Browsing the Web with Safari
  4. Accessing Web Pages with a Text Expansion Utility like TextExpander
  5. Surfing with RSS Feeds
  6. Reeder: A Great RSS Feed Reeder
  7. An RSS Feed Reader Is Not a Silver Bullet
  8. Bookmarking Web Services
  9. Pinboard
  10. Using Spillo, a Pinboard Bookmarked Page Reader
  11. A Possible Ironic Benefit of Using Bookmarking Tools
  12. Using Readkit, a Powerful News and Bookmarked Page Reader
  13. Why do I Classify Using RSS and Bookmarking Software as Surfing Rather than Delving?
  14. Creating a PDF from a Web Page
  15. Creating a Navigable Table of Contents in a PDF Document
  16. Converting Images of Documents into PDFs with Selectable Text

Principle 5: Delve Deeply

  1. About Delving
  2. Delving with Preview
  3. Basic Highlighting in Preview
  4. Quickly Highlighting Text
  5. Systematically Using Highlight Colors in Preview
  6. Highlight Inspector in Preview
  7. Limitations of Highlighting in Preview
  8. Tagging Text with Highlights in Preview
  9. Text Notes in Preview
  10. Expandable Notes
  11. Delving PDFs with Skim
  12. Basics of Multi-Color Highlighting with Notes
  13. Basics of Systematically Highlighting with Skim
  14. Tagging in Skim
  15. Delving Books with iBooks
  16. Note-Taking
  17. Note-taking in the app of your choice with Hookmark
  18. Linking your notes (in a nutshell)
  19. Part 3: Mastery

Principle 6: Practice Productively

  1. Mastering-Lists: Lists of Knowledge Gems to Master
  2. What Productive Practice App Do You Use?
  3. Overview of Anki
  4. Smarter Terminology for Practicing with Instillers (“Flashcards”)
  5. Importing the Cognitive Productivity for macOS Sample Anki Deck
  6. Instill Anything: The Q/A Template
  7. Instilling Concepts: Concept Template
  8. Instilling Skills: The Procedure Template
  9. Instilling Names: The Name Template
  10. Rescheduling Challenges (“Cards”)
  11. Suspending Challenges (“Cards”)
  12. Reviewing your Practice: Anki’s Statistics
  13. Practicing on iOS with Anki Mobile
  14. Synchronizing Anki Between Mac and iPhone
  15. Overview of Anki Mobile (Anki for iOS)
  16. How to Export Anki Content (Instillers) from your Mac to your iPhone via iTunes
  17. How to Import Anki Content from Your iPhone to Your Mac via iTunes

Principle 7: Apply Knowledge

  1. On Assessing the Utility of Thinking through a Problem with Knowledge
  2. The Challenges of Applying Knowledge
  3. Transfer of “learning”: The problems of inert knowledge
  4. Preparation for Future Learning and “Transfer In”
  5. Learning from Examples
  6. The Case of Michael Stone
  7. The March of Folly
  8. Sexual Selection and Other Under-Appreciated Beauties
  9. Strategies for Applying Knowledge
  10. Mental Models
  11. Reviews
  12. Stoic Evening Retrospective Meditation Adapted for Applying Knowledge
  13. Stoic Morning Meditation Adapted for Applying Knowledge
  14. Why Does Reviewing Work?
  15. Cognitive Task Lists for Creative Off-line Problem-Solving
  16. Software for Writing and Accessing Cognitive Tasks
  17. Nurture Your Fondness and Admiration of Powerful Structuring Ideas
  18. Powerful Structuring Ideas for the Development and Marketing of Potent Cognitive Productivity Apps
  19. John Gruber’s Advice on Marketing New Apps
  20. Riding the Technology Adoption Life Cycle
  21. Other Strategies
  22. Learning from Stories and Other Forms of Art
  23. End Matter

Acknowledgements

Extras Available on Leanpub’s Website

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