The Effortless Academic 101 Online Workshop

A step-by-step workshop to energize your academic journey. Learn the bottom line of my 500+ hours of experience with digital note taking and visual thinking tools. January 28th.

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I realised today that I neglected “Gall’s Law” throughout all of my newsletters and tutorials. The workshop on January 28th will fix this issue!

Gall’s Law states that all functioning complex systems evolved from simpler (also functioning) systems. Best underlined by Carl Sagan’s quote: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe".

Throughout a few conversations I gleaned that my posts expected you to know and use complex rather than simple things. Like the habit of taking notes on your computer, or using my beloved Obsidian. Natural for some – novel for others.

The appeal of the videos and demos I made, was rewarded by 1000+ Twitter followers. But how many of you, did actually try and use these methods?

So far I have heard from just 1 person (yes, Noelia, you 🙏) – An improvable statistic.

The Effortless Academic 101 Online Workshop, on the 28th of January remedies that. It is for all academics who want to excel and leverage existing tools, but don’t exactly know where to begin. It can be your take-off moment with these technologies.

• Step-by-Step guidance to set up a home for all your academic knowledge.

• Ask me anything 1-on-1 in a private community.

• Receive an Obsidian starter-kit with all features set up and documented.

• 500+ hrs of my experiments, condensed into 2 hours of what works & sticks.

• Get a recording if you can’t attend or for later reference.

Using these digital technologies is like flying. Lift off is difficult - gliding is effortless.

This course is intended to be your take-off. Understand how everything works so you can go anywhere you want - not just follow my tutorials.

Learn what I know and go beyond

The goal of The Effortless Academic 101 Online Workshop is to master all that I have presented in this newsletter so far. If you liked the ideas, but felt "it’s too complicated”, these 2 hours will change that.

Here’s a list of what you can expect to learn (+links to the original posts). For all new followers, this is a recap.

🔗A System of Notes using Obsidian

My step-by-step guidance of how to go from a bursting reading list, to understanding and writing about the subject matter.

For your domain, you might need a slightly different setup. An extra step (e.g. “Experiments”) or another plugin. So learn exactly how to adapt this workflow to your needs - and even ask me 1-on-1 if you like.

🔗A Visual Reference Manager using Obsidian-Canvas

A powerful use case for the Obsidian’s Canvas feature to arrange your literature.

But Canvas can be used for so much more. From modeling protein networks, to outlining dissertation chapters. Learn the tool and you can build virtually anything with it.

Make it your tool.

🔗A Power Users’s Hotkeys

A core reason why so few people use modern tools is the friction they create. It just feels “cumbersome” to type something up and edit it.

But there are ways to cheat: Shortcuts and Hotkeys.

By just learning 5-10 small hacks, I promise your digital editing will feel so much more natural. An extension of your thought.

These are usually universal by the way and will benefit all your computer work.

Join the Effortless Academic 101 - Jan 28th

As it is my first online workshop, it is mostly to get to know your needs, abilities and personalities. I priced it low at 15$ to be as inclusive as possible. Please reach out, if you can’t afford it – but would really want to attend, as there will be a few “scholarship” slots.

I hope to see you there and connect.