Unlock Tana%2FSyllabus page

0. Course introduction and breakdown

  • Overview of course topics and structure

  • Naming conventions and workflow principles

  • The information management life-cycle

    • The four activities involved in managing information and their non-linear interplay -> Input, Organize, Retrieve, Output

    • The mindset shift towards mental associations for effective input, retrieval, and organization

  • Tana's features for efficient information management

    • Daily node and frictionless information capture

    • Quick thought structuring with outliner functionality

    • Rapid organization with supertags and fields

    • Referencing existing information through search nodes and multi-panel display

    • Embedding or referencing existing nodes

1. Get comfortable in Tana

  • Becoming comfortable with the user interface

    • Where to find information in Tana

    • Formatting of node bullets

    • Defaulting to the daily node

  • Getting used to everything being a node

    • Referencing nodes

    • Node reference numbers

    • Breadcrumbs

  • The basics of selecting and moving nodes

    • Keyboard shortcuts for navigation and quick access

    • Configuring windows

    • Indenting nodes

    • Collapsing and expanding nodes

    • Re-ordering nodes

    • General commands for adding details

    • Other helpful commands

2. Understand the elements that make Tana powerful

  • Outliners

    • Understand how outliners work, including hierarchy, collapsing and expanding, zooming, and sequencing information

    • Learn about relationships between nodes in an outliner, including parent, child, and sibling nodes

  • Supertags

    • Introduction to supertags and their utility in structuring information and adding metadata

    • Learn how to add supertags and configure fields, including adding fields in templates and using fields instead of bullets

    • Understand how to extend supertags and inherit their structure

  • Fields

    • Explore the value of fields and semantic triples in building connections and structure

    • Learn about different types of fields, including user configurable and system fields

    • Understand field options and auto-initializing, including auto-initializing to current date or user

    • Configure options that use fields in the supertag menu, such as checkbox and building title from fields.

3. How to effectively input and organize your information in Tana

  • Developing an effective approach to input and organize your information

  • Defining your own ontology in Tana

  • Building recursively using fields with semantic functions and extended supertags

  • Examples of information to organize

  • Good practices for input and organization

  • Important node operations

  • Using the mobile Tana Capture app for input

4. How to retrieve information in Tana

  • Developing an effective approach for retrieving information in Tana

  • Using Tana's different views: list, table, cards, tabs, and calendar

  • Using search nodes

    • Introduction to search nodes and how to create and configure them

    • Using Boolean logic in search nodes

    • Search node operators: system fields, LT, GT, LINKS_TO, CHILD_OF, OWNED_BY

    • Searching recursively by adding COMPONENTS_REC

    • Additional live search operations and tips: duplicating search nodes, moving nodes with live searches, organizing sidebars

  • Building dashboards

    • Thinking in funnels and workbenches

    • Using high-level nodes, tabs view, and search nodes within supertags

  • Organizing your sidebars

5. Becoming familiar with Tana's Commands and AI functionality

  • Providing an awareness of features and limitations

  • Commands

    • Executing actions in Tana, creating and running commands, with examples

    • Tips and tricks: aggregating commands, using emojis, helpful commands to be aware of

  • Using AI in Tana

    • Introduction to AI functionality and connecting API key

    • Using "Ask AI" command with simple and complex examples

    • Building custom prompts: creating custom prompts, prompt workbench, important configuration possibilities

6. Putting it all together

  • Setting up your personal system in Tana with #tasks, #ideas, #projects, and others

  • Topics touched on:

    • Introduction to working with different workspaces and sharing content

    • Setting up day tags when creating new workspace

    • Adding or removing workspaces from side bar

    • Adding "assigned to" fields for users

    • Using naming conventions for easy tag identification

    • Example of search node for project statuses