Frontiers Friday #88. Tech Tools for Therapists (Part I) ⭕
Frontiers Friday #88. Tech Tools for Therapists (Part I)
This week, we take a side-track from our usual installment and geek out on some tech tools that are likely to be especially useful to you and your professional development efforts.
Annotation: Readdle PDF Expert
I consume alot of pdfs. Especially journal articles, as I like to highlight and annotate in them. However, when I read them on-the-go with my iphone, my annotations can't seem to be synced with my files on my desktop, as I don't like having multiple versions of the same file, or doing things like emailing myself.
Enter Readdle PDF Expert app.
All I do is open my pdfs linked from my dropbox within the Readdle app, and the files get synced with notes that I make.
The reading and editing features are way better than alot of other pdf apps that I've used for iOS. (available for iOS and Mac).
Reference Management: Zotero
If you want a solution to store all of your bibliography, Zotero is a brilliant (and free) solution.
I've used Endnote since my post-grad days, but got so fustrated with its the limitations. Zotero, on the other hand, has a seamless way to import your references (e.g., simply copy the URL or DOI of an article and add it to their magic wand button. and... viola). It's also smart enough to search the web for a copy of the pdf after you've entered the reference.
You might be thinking "I'm not an academic or a writer, so I don't need this." If you are a helping professional, the onus is on you to take care of your inputs, because this has potential direct impact of the people you are helping. Thus, managing your inputs give you a way to go back and re-learn stuff that you might have forgotten.
One important tip: Wanna save you highlighted text from PDFs? Zotero has a function to called "Add Notes to Annotations," Simply put, it extracts your highlights from the PDF, and you can then save that highlights to wherever you want! (That's magic to me.)
Personalised Learning System (PLS): Obsidian
If you have been following our missives, you might be tired of me talking about Obsidian.
There is a reason why Obsidian has become my main Personalised Learning System (PLS) (besides being free).
Here's the 4-Part video series (plus a podcast episode with video) I did on how you can use Obsidian to develop a PLS:
I. How the Heck Do I Use Obsidian? (Part I)
II. How to Organise Your Notes to Improve the Learning Process (Part II)
III. 9 Highly Recommended Plugins for Obsidian (Part III)
IV. What Use Is the Graph View in Obsidian? (Part IV)
V. Podcast #9. A Hidden Discipline That Will Extend Your Mind: Develop a Personalised Learning System (PLS)Developing a PLS is a highly integrate piece to your deliberate practice efforts.
Tip: Once I extract notes from my PDFs using Zotero, I copy them into Obsidian. Reduce context switching between apps as much as possible in order to promote deeper focus.
Reading the Web: Instapaper
I avoid reading articles on mobile device web browser. Blogs and webpages are loaded with ads and clickbaits. Very annoying. Plus, Rabbit-holes abound.
What I do is I "push" any relevant web-reads into a small app called Instapaper. I can highlight and centralise all my notes from that article by "pushing" it into my Obsidian app.
I talked about this idea of "extending your mind" by centralising your notes in the course Deep Learner.There are other similar apps, but Instapaper has stood the test of time for my use.
Note: I first recommended Instapaper in .Note: If you are interested in shortcuts* to improving the way you learn, Deep Learner is now open for you to sign up.
* More on why I think "shortcuts" should not be treated as a pejorative word in future posts.
Words Worth Contemplating:
"Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it."
~ Bruce Lee, Martial Artist (1940-1973).
p/s: Happy Mother's Day
Reflection: What do you consume? The measure of what you output is based on the measure of your input.
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