Happy Holidays Roamans,

As another year draws to a close, let’s catch up on the latest in the Roam community and reflect a little on 2021.

Around the Roaman Empire

Using Roam to manage your freelance business better

Alistair Webster discusses on RoamBrain how he uses Roam to be more effective as a freelancer.

Tips for making better connections

​Anthony Baker tipped me off to this article by Slava Shestopalov about making links more descriptive on websites and emails. The ideas presented are not only good from the perspective of accessibility, but are also worth internalising and using in your own knowledge management to help you construct denser, more useful networked thoughts.

Academic Note-taking workflows

​Ian Morgan-Smith talks through how he uses Roam Research to take notes for his Open University course. It’s beginner-friendly, and you might pick up a tip or two for your own workflows.

RJ’s masterclass replay

RJ Nestor’s recent free masterclass is well worth watching if you missed it. RJ’s masterful coaching style shows through, and it’s good to see how he thinks through the processes for creating your own workflows.

AP Productivity Cohort 3

Speaking of RJ, he’s just opened up early bird access to the third cohort of his AP Productivity course. If you want to use the new year to take your Roam game to a new level, you cannot go wrong with RJ. His flagship 8-week course will take you through everything you need to define and refine your own workflows to achieve your productivity objectives with Roam.

RJ generously set me up with an affiliate link, so if you sign up via this link, you'll also be helping to support me with the running costs of this newsletter.

Linking Manifesto

Finally, while not directly Roam-related I wanted to draw your attention to Hook. It’s a Mac application which helps to create universal links to files and other resources and lets you link them together, much like Roam enables with its backlinking.

It plays well with Roam already, but it could be even better. Hook, along with other notable Mac developers, have created a Linking Manifesto which is designed to encourage application developers to support ubiquitous linking. Roam can already deeply link to individual blocks, but opening those links directly in the Roam native app isn't simple or unobtrusive. Let's encourage the Roam team to support this initiative and provide more hooks for applications like Hook to integrate with.

Thinking Out Loud

As I often espouse, regular reviews and reflections on your past behaviour and actions help you to make better decisions in the present and for the future.

If you’re not yet in the habit, then the end of the year is a good temporal landmark to trigger making some time for looking back.

At the start of any review, it helps to get into a positive mindset and recall or journal on the positives of your life.

Once again, there’s much for me to be grateful for this year. First, I’m grateful to you, dear reader, for allowing me into your inbox and letting me share my thoughts and ramblings. I hope you have enjoyed my newsletters and found them valuable this year.

I’m also grateful to the Roam community at large, I continue to be amazed by the kindness, humility and generosity of such a diverse, interesting group of people.

Finally, I am also extremely grateful and lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful family, who put up with me squirrelled away for hours at a time to write these missives and talk with and coach fellow Roamans, alongside running my business.

Looking back

As has become my custom, over the next week or so, I shall be reflecting more fully over my year, taking what I’ve learned (and what I haven’t) from my weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews in Roam and distilling them into my annual reflection and the key lessons learned. This time is always well-spent, and sets you up to move positively into the new year with purpose.

If you don’t know where to start, I’m considering putting together a complete tutorial around my own Roam review processes with templates and guidance. If there's enough interest, I'll make some time to do this. Hit reply and let me know if you're interested, and optionally tell me what your biggest challenge or frustrations are.

One thing I have found to be central, and which eases the review process, is to build a solid journaling habit. Regular journaling helps you to become naturally more reflective and attuned to your thoughts, feelings and emotions of the moment.

Want to get started in the best possible way for 2022? Then allow me to point you to the deal of a lifetime; my friend Tracy Winchell is offering 12 lucky people a live group coaching experience beginning 3rd January for a week to guide you in creating your own custom journaling plan.

If this remotely interests you, run—don’t walk— and sign up. She is offering it for a mind-bogglingly cheap $27 so you will need to be quick, I'm sure!

Until next year, I’ll wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2022 brings you much joy and happiness.

Andy

P.S. Many thanks to Pierre and Arnold who both bought me books last time. I really appreciate your support.

I also offer a few private 1-1 Roam coaching sessions if you're looking for some help and guidance to optimise your Roam workflows.

If you enjoy these letters and would like to help contribute to the running costs or book a coaching call, you can do so via Buy Me a Coffee.

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