Cognitive Productivity with macOS (Cognitive Productivity with macOS (includes extras))
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Cognitive Productivity with macOS

7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge

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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About the Author

Luc P. Beaudoin
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 (for macOS) 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 undergrad 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 and technology to become more effective. To this end, he extends and applies integrative design-oriented cognitive science

Luc's book which has long been 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.

Table of Contents

  • FRONT MATTER
    • About the Screencasts and Extras Available Via This Book
    • Why Read This Book?
    • About the Author
    • About CogZest Books
  • Part 1: Self-Governance
    • Introduction
    • Principle 1: Lead Yourself with Knowledge
      • Consider Covey’s Three Habits of Independence
      • You Are an Information Processor
        • Types of Information you Process
        • Information-processing Concepts and Vocabulary
      • You Are a Value Maker
        • Invaluable Wake Up Calls
        • A Mission Statement that Reflects the End of Your Life
        • Let Your Dreams Influence You
        • Leading Values
        • Values are Motivators
        • Free Resources for Exploring your Values
      • Your Information-Processing Should Serve You Well
    • Principle 2: Manage Your Cognitive Life Mindfully
      • Manage Your Projects
        • Using Project Folder Templates in Finder
        • Using Outliners to Create: OmniOutliner
        • Planning in OmniOutliner ( “Plan” documents)
        • Developing a Resource Specification in OmniOutliner (“Elements” of your Conceptual Artifact)
        • Outlining in OmniOutliner (“Outlines”)
        • Managing Projects with OmniFocus
      • Manage Your Knowledge Sources
        • Source-Management Problems and Questions
        • Important Things to Keep in Mind about Archiving
        • Naming and Tagging Files for Later Use
        • Managing Web Content: Overview
        • Archiving Your PDF Files
        • Using the Finder as a Database with Ironic Software Leap and Yep
        • EagleFiler
        • Using Bibliography Managers Designed for macOS
        • Using Closed Information Managers
          • Evernote
          • DEVONthink
        • Quickly Accessing Local Sources
          • Accessing Files with Spotlight
          • Accessing PDFs with Papers
          • Accessing Resources with Launchers
          • Accessing Linked Items with Hook (Productivity)
      • Manage your Attention (Your Information-Processing Time)
        • Timing App
        • mySelfQuantifier
        • Reviewing Time Spent in Deep Work
        • Reviewing Time Spent on Each of Your Projects
        • Reviewing Time Spent per Activity
  • Part 2: Productive Information Processing
    • Principle 3: Assess Analytically
      • About this Chapter
      • Helpfulness: A Pragmatic Concept to Drive Assessment
      • CUPA: Caliber, Utility, Potency and Appeal
      • The Caliber of the Resource
        • Basic CRAAP Test
        • Assessing Arguments
        • Common problems in argumentation
        • Alarm Bell Clappers
        • General Epistemic Criteria
        • Tips for Expert Critical Reading
        • Productive Discussions about Knowledge Resources
        • Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Caliber
      • The Utility of a Knowledge Resource
        • Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Utility
      • The Potency of a Knowledge Resource
        • Example: The Computer Revolution in Philosophy by Aaron Sloman
          • The Aims of Science
          • Conceptual Analysis
          • Imagination
          • The Mind as a Structured Control System
          • Monitors and motive generators
        • The Potency of Software
        • Screencasts about Assessing and Recording Potency
      • The Appeal of a Knowledge Resource
      • CUP’A: Caliber, Utility, Potency and Appeal: Values
    • Principle 4: Surf Strategically
      • Surfing a document
      • Speed Reading Software
      • Tips for Browsing the Web with Safari
      • Accessing Web Pages with a Text Expansion Utility like TextExpander
      • Surfing with RSS Feeds
      • Reeder: A Great RSS Feed Reeder
      • An RSS Feed Reader Is Not a Silver Bullet
      • Bookmarking Web Services
        • Surfing with the Pocket Bookmarking Service
        • Pinboard
      • Using Spillo, a Pinboard Bookmarked Page Reader
      • A Possible Ironic Benefit of Using Bookmarking Tools
      • Using Readkit, a Powerful News and Bookmarked Page Reader
      • Why do I Classify Using RSS and Bookmarking Software as Surfing Rather than Delving?
      • Creating a PDF from a Web Page
      • Creating a Navigable Table of Contents in a PDF Document
      • Converting Images of Documents into PDFs with Selectable Text
    • Principle 5: Delve Deeply
      • About Delving
      • Delving with Preview
        • Basic Highlighting in Preview
        • Quickly Highlighting Text
        • Systematically Using Highlight Colors in Preview
        • Highlight Inspector in Preview
        • Limitations of Highlighting in Preview
        • Tagging Text with Highlights in Preview
        • Text Notes in Preview
        • Expandable Notes
      • Delving PDFs with Skim
        • Basics of Multi-Color Highlighting with Notes
        • Basics of Systematically Highlighting with Skim
        • Tagging in Skim
      • Delving Books with iBooks
      • Note-Taking
        • Note-taking in the app of your choice with Hook
          • Linking your notes (in a nutshell)
  • Part 3: Mastery
    • Principle 6: Practice Productively
      • Mastering-Lists: Lists of Knowledge Gems to Master
      • What Productive Practice App Do You Use?
      • Overview of Anki
      • Smarter Terminology for Practicing with Instillers (“Flashcards”)
      • Importing the Cognitive Productivity for macOS Sample Anki Deck
      • Instill Anything: The Q/A Template
      • Instilling Concepts: Concept Template
      • Instilling Skills: The Procedure Template
      • Instilling Names: The Name Template
      • Rescheduling Challenges (“Cards”)
      • Suspending Challenges (“Cards”)
      • Reviewing your Practice: Anki’s Statistics
      • Practicing on iOS with Anki Mobile
      • Synchronizing Anki Between Mac and iPhone
      • Overview of Anki Mobile (Anki for iOS)
      • How to Export Anki Content (Instillers) from your Mac to your iPhone via iTunes
      • How to Import Anki Content from Your iPhone to Your Mac via iTunes
    • Principle 7: Apply Knowledge
      • On Assessing the Utility of Thinking through a Problem with Knowledge
      • The Challenges of Applying Knowledge
        • Transfer of “learning”: The problems of inert knowledge
        • Preparation for Future Learning and “Transfer In”
      • Learning from Examples
        • The Case of Michael Stone
        • The March of Folly
        • Sexual Selection and Other Under-Appreciated Beauties
      • Strategies for Applying Knowledge
        • Mental Models
        • Reviews
          • Stoic Evening Retrospective Meditation Adapted for Applying Knowledge
          • Stoic Morning Meditation Adapted for Applying Knowledge
          • Why Does Reviewing Work?
        • Cognitive Task Lists for Creative Off-line Problem-Solving
          • Software for Writing and Accessing Cognitive Tasks
        • Nurture Your Fondness and Admiration of Powerful Structuring Ideas
          • Powerful Structuring Ideas for the Development and Marketing of Potent Cognitive Productivity Apps
          • John Gruber’s Advice on Marketing New Apps
          • Riding the Technology Adoption Life Cycle
        • Other Strategies
      • Learning from Stories and Other Forms of Art
  • End Matter
    • Acknowledgements
    • Extras Available on Leanpub’s Website
    • Legal
  • Notes

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