avatarClayton Miller

Summary

The article discusses the versatility and productivity benefits of using Heptabase, a tool that aids in organizing content, managing PDFs, weekly planning, creating mindmaps, atomic notes, content and course creation, and more.

Abstract

Heptabase is presented as a multifaceted application that enhances productivity and creativity. The author showcases its use in creating maps of content, managing PDFs with highlight and snapshot features, and utilizing its journal section for daily logging and weekly planning. The tool's ability to facilitate mindmaps, atomic notes, and content creation is highlighted, emphasizing its role in streamlining complex tasks. The article also touches on the personal experience of adapting to new uses of the application beyond the visual aspect, and how it has become indispensable for the author's workflow, including course development for clients.

Opinions

  • The author initially used Heptabase in a habitual way, focusing on the visual aspects, but found new nuances by stepping back and using it from a fresh perspective.
  • There is an emphasis on the flexibility of Heptabase, noting that while applications have intended use cases, they can be adapted for a variety of purposes.
  • The author appreciates the manual process of maintaining a weekly planner board within Heptabase, which acts as a central hub for notes and tasks.
  • Mindmaps are described as a "secret weapon" for dissecting complex ideas and are particularly useful for article outlining, language learning, SOP creation, and course structuring.
  • Atomic notes within Heptabase are seen as a fun and pressure-free way to jot down ideas that can later evolve into more substantial pieces of content.
  • The author values the ability to create a content creation ecosystem within Heptabase, transforming scattered information into organized and accessible formats.
  • Heptabase's role in course creation is significant, as it allows for the organization of content into modules and lessons, facilitating the creation of a structured educational product.
  • The article concludes with a reflection on the balance between feature-rich complexity and the practicality of keeping applications simple, advocating for the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
  • The author recommends an AI service, ZAI.chat, as a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus (GPT-4), indicating a preference for performance and value.

From Chaos to Clarity Using Heptabase

“Maximizing Productivity and Creativity with Heptabase: From Content to Course Creation"

The Showcase Board

It is interesting to think about how the tool might define the canvas you’re creating from. I was going through the recent Linking Your Thinking cohort. I gave a showcase on using Heptabase and an overview of the features. A big thing for using Obsidian within the LYT Framework is something I naturally did to a degree, which is making Maps of Content. When I started to think about what it would be like to use Heptabase without the visual aspect, it started me using the application in a different way and discovering different nuances.

It is amazing how we start to relate to something in one way, and then it is hard to do anything besides the default when that is how we are used to interacting. The muscle memory has taken root, so it has become more habitual. At least for me, this has so many applications because I can tend to box myself into a corner at times. Applications have an intended use case. However, when you step back and look at it from a fresh perspective, it can take a whole new shape.

I will walk you through some of the ways I have been using Heptabase. Also I made a video that will walk you through the use cases at bottom.

The Map of Content for the Showcase

PDF Highlights

Navigating a sea of PDFs can be overwhelming. How to capture, store, and process these documents effectively? Heptabase can act as a repository for them all while also offering great ways to process them with a powerful reader. You can easily highlight sections and take snapshots of tables, images, and anything else on the page. Then, you can drag that highlight onto a whiteboard that links back to that page on the document. You can also highlight text and drag them onto your whiteboard. It is quickly becoming a very capable PDF Reader, solving the problem of where to store all your pdf for quick retrieval and how to make them actionable.

PDF Highlights

Weekly Planner Board

Heptabase has a journal section that makes it easy to daily log for any given day, which creates backlinks to any content you create within the page. One of the easiest ways to plan out your tasks, meeting notes, daily jots, and other work is to make a Weekly Planner board that will act as your central hub or inbox for your notes. It is a manual process to keep it updated, though you can easily create sections for the current week or whatever time span you decide on by bringing in those daily cards.

To the left of the daily cards, I added references to my favorite boards that I use the most so that if I collapse the sidebar, I can still easily navigate around Heptabase.

I have a section for the current projects I am working on. Then, above that, I have a resources section where I put random things that might help me with my current projects, topics I want to look up, links I find interesting, and anything else I might want to put there.

Weekly Planner Board

Mindmaps

Mindmaps are your secret weapon for untangling complex ideas. They help expound central ideas and branch off to intricate aspects. Examples include outlining articles, learning a new language, creating SOPs, and outlining courses.

Some German Mindmaps

Atomic notes

You can click anywhere on a free part of a board to create a new note. Start writing down an idea and let it in influence the other cards around it. These little sticky notes of ideas are fun to have floating around your canvases. There is no pressure to sort, file, or tag it. These ideas, in no time, can draw upon themselves to create a much bigger piece. You are never starting from scratch when you have your pkm; you’re merely exploring a goldmine of ideas waiting to be unearthed.

Some Notes Commingling

Content Creation

I referenced atomic notes above. This is how I create most of my articles from these outlines, thoughts, notes on a podcast and little fragments of whatever was inspiring me at the time. I often will start writing these little bullet-pointed thoughts, and then when I have time to write for a longer period, I look at these prompts and start expanding, or it could take me in an entirely different direction. Sometimes, I can write for a while, and some ideas are best encapsulated in those short little bubbles.

Some Complete Articles

Course Creation.

I am currently developing a course for a client. They have most of the content a little scattered, though, so none of it is easily accessible in one place. I first started out by outlining it with the different modules and lessons. I created cards for everything and created MOCs out of them, which then helped me create the scaffolding I needed to make the skeleton on Circle easily.

Then, when I had everything created there, instead of everything being arranged mostly vertically, I changed the lessons horizontally to add content to cards easily. Everything is arranged sequentially, and it is easy to see the bird’s eye view, along with all the details. This makes it so much easier when I am building it on the platform to have the lesson information that has the copy, links, pdfs, and anything else like custom code.

The Course Board

Here is the video that gives an overview of the different aspects I have been using

Heptabase is growing fast in what it can do, and I only touched the surface of how I use it. It is one of the most flexible yet approachable apps in terms of usability. For some apps, I tend to get lost in all the details since the options are almost endless, though that means endless time spent tweaking. Complexity is a double-edged sword since I love to think through how something might work, but then it becomes almost impractical to use since it’s overkill for its intended application. I have to remind myself about KISS at times so that I, Keep it Simple Stupid.

Heptabase
Visual Thinking
Productivity
Pkm
Building A Second Brain
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