Forte Labs

The modern frontier of productivity.

Dec 28, 2017

Progressive Summarization III: Guidelines and Principles

In Part I, I explained Progressive Summarization, a method for easily creating highly discoverable notes. In Part II, I gave you many exampl

May 22, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #6: Evolving Deliverables

In Part 5, I introduced The Iron Triangle of Project Management and the idea that any given deliverable can be reduced or expanded in scope

Dec 10, 2018

The Structure of Information Revolutions

In 1962, philosopher Thomas Kuhn published his landmark work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, forever changing our view of the histo

Oct 17, 2020

Negotiating Your Contract

Once you’ve accepted an offer for the publishing rights to your book, it’s time to draw up and sign a binding contract. Many of these contra

Jun 10, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #20: Speed as a Capability

In Part 19, I argued that continuously finding new sources of motivation was the most important challenge for knowledge workers, and that th

May 30, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #12: Just-In-Case to Just-In-Time

In Part 11, I introduced the concept of a “critical path” of tasks in a project, and the rationale for pushing tasks as late as possible on

Oct 17, 2020

Introducing: How to Land a Book Deal

A Nine-Part Series, from Concept to Launch

May 22, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #7: Interaction Over Consumption

In Part 6, I recommended treating any deliverable (whether it’s a simple email all the way to a full-fledged product) as a series of evoluti

Jun 10, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #19: Explosive Inspiration

In Part 18, I introduced the idea that our states of mind come and go in “waves of motivation,” and that we should try to use them to our ad

Oct 17, 2020

The Complete Guide to Landing a Book Deal

I recently signed a six-figure book deal with Simon & Schuster for my book Building a Second Brain.  As a first-time author, and in the

Oct 17, 2018

The Maker’s Guide to Content Curation, Part 1: Open-Sourcing Your Learning Process

One of the best ways to advance your career, start an extra income stream, or become an entrepreneur is by creating content.  By “content” I

Feb 16, 2019

Behind the Scenes of a Profitable Online Course

I advise everyone I know to create an online course. Everyone has something to say. Everyone has valuable knowledge that others could benefi

Mar 11, 2019

My 10-Step Book Publishing Strategy

In The Four Pathways of Modern Book Publishing, I described the main routes for a writer to get published today, and in The Case for Traditi

May 7, 2018

Just-In-Time Project Management: A Digital-First Framework for Modern Projects

Technology has transformed every aspect of business, from the tools we use to communicate and collaborate, to how products and services are

Apr 12, 2018

Trekonomics: The Economics of Post-Scarcity

I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek (Amazon Affiliate Link), by Manu Saadia. It was pr

Mar 16, 2021

Paranoid Productivity

By Christina LuoProductivity is about managing emotions as much as projects. Yet we often focus on productivity as a toolset more than a min

Oct 9, 2018

A Maker’s Ethos in the Era of Networked Attention

Once upon a time, we faced the scourge of Information Overload. Too many emails with too many details producing too many open loops to keep

Sep 2, 2018

The Personal Narrative Vision

In my previous article on how I perform my Annual Review, I briefly discussed the Personal Narrative Vision (PNV) exercise. I’ve developed t

Dec 28, 2017

Progressive Summarization II: Examples and Metaphors

Let’s look at how a single source can proceed through the layers of progressive summarization. These are Layer 1 notes I took on an article

Oct 17, 2020

Evaluating Your Book Idea

In the beginning, is a message. You have something to say. A message that wants to get out of you. That needs to get out of you or else it w

Dec 4, 2018

10 Things I Learned as a VA with Tiago

By Kathryn Tongg 1. Establish the preferred method of communication right away. Everyone has a way they prefer to communicate. Whether this

Oct 17, 2020

Own Your Writing Platform

Publishing a book is like running for political office. There are a lot of people out there who you want to take a certain action, at a cert

Jun 1, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #14: Personal Productivity Networks

In Part 13, we looked at the benefits of Component Thinking, which involves thinking of any product we are working on as made up of subcompo

May 28, 2018

Just-In-Time PM #11: Late Starts on the Critical Path

In Part 10, I argued that digital knowledge work was fundamentally different than other kinds of work, because its structure, features, and