Accelerate Your Research: PKM for Research Mentorship

A 5-month programme to help you build a low-friction Personal Knowledge Management practice to capture, organise, and grow your ideas (and readings) into research-based content.

Unlike other PKM courses that focus on teaching apps, we concentrate on building your knowledge management skills.

You’ll explore mindset shifts to break bad note-taking habits, apply step-by-step methods to convert your pile of notes into a network of ideas and grow your knowledge into innovative and strong research arguments, investigate how your favourite app can help (or hinder) you, and leave with confidence in your ability to generate research-based knowledge.

How it works

Apps come and go, so unlike other PKM courses that focus on teaching apps, we concentrate on building your knowledge management skills.

• Active Note-Taking. Express your knowledge rather than just passively copy or highlight your sources. The mentorship will help you break free from perfectionism and writer’s block so you can take notes that capture your unique insights.
• Active Reading. Engage with a source from multiple perspectives. The mentorship will demonstrate how you can look at your sources from different angles so you can generate original ideas from sources everyone else is reading.
• Idea Management. Organise your ideas, not your notes. The mentorship will guide you on how to identify your objects of attention and organise your notes around them. Transform your pile of notes into a network of ideas so you can find your ideas and references in 1 click.
• Networked Reading. Analyse and synthesise knowledge from multiple sources (a.k.a. perform a Literature Review). The mentorship will assist you in using idea notes to blend insights from multiple sources into coherent storylines.
• Foundations of Argumentation. Create claims and lines of argument within your network of notes to support your research-based argument. The mentorship will help you identify what should go into your notes (examples, data, observations) and when to write “claim notes” rather than descriptive notes.
• Knowledge Creation. Generate new knowledge from the knowledge you already have. You don’t need to read 10 more sources to get a new idea, instead, with the right sensemaking strategies you can develop tons of ideas with knowledge already described in your notes. The mentorship will explain how you can manipulate objects of attention to generate original work.

With these 6 skills, you will develop a Personal Knowledge practice — including mindsets, methods, and tools — that enables you to remember, understand, apply, analyse, and evaluate information.  This empowers you to use your research effectively in generating new knowledge.

Here’s what is inside

The mentorship is divided into 3 types of activities: learn, explore, and practice.

Learn

Learning activities are usual training activities where you will be introduced to new concepts with examples and tailor-made exercises. These include:

• 2-week live course on the Foundations of Idea Management, including all you need to know about Active Note-Taking, Active Reading, and Idea Management.
• Live course on how to  Build Your Knowledge Portfolio, to help you develop the skills of Networked Reading, Argumentation (at a foundational level), and Knowledge Creation.
• Self-paced curriculum with all the content taught in the mentorship that you can review again later.
  • 8+ hours of material broken down into 2-to-10 minute lessons that you can follow at your own pace.
  • mindset shifts to avoid perfectionism when taking notes.
  • 11 methods for knowledge capture depending on your note-taking goals.
  • 9 mindsets and 3 methods to make the best of your reading.
  • 10 sensemaking strategies to grow original ideas from your notes.
  • A strategy to create strong research arguments within your network of notes.
  • A method to outline a research output from your notes.
  • .. and more.
• State-of-the-art talks and articles, where you will learn about any new developments in the world of PKM for Research. 
• Access to the archive of previous events, including:
  • Academic Writing Strategies, by Lennart Nacke
  • Foundations of Efficient Communication, by Alicia Alba
  • Habit Building in PKM, by Shirley Rivera
  • Building in Public, by Kevon Cheung
  • Mindful Writing, by Wai Ling Fong
  • Emotional Regulation in Knowledge Partnerships, by Anil Erkan
  • Community Roundtable sessions

Explore

Exploratory activities are those where you will be invited to tailor what you have learned to your own use case.

• A 1:1 orientation call where we discuss your specific knowledge management challenges.
• Portfolio project where you can apply the skills you have learned to your own use case.
• Access to an exclusive channel to request support for your practice.
• Hot seat coaching sessions, where you can get guidance on any particular challenge you are experiencing (as part of our monthly mentoring events).

Practice

Practice activities are those where you will be challenged to apply your skills in real use cases and get support for your own continuous practice.

• Access to challenges to improve your practice:
  • 30-Day Active Note-Taking Challenge
  • 7-Week Literature Review Challenge
  • Sensemaking Challenge
• Access to hands-on workshops, including:
  • Workshop: How to choose your topic when you have multiple interests.
  • Workshop: How to build a knowledge gap.
  • Workshop: How to synthesise knowledge from multiple sources (Networked Reading - beginner's version)
• Monthly mentoring events, including:
  • Co-working sessions, where you can practice, get feedback, and discuss your experience with your peers.
  • Question and answer sessions, where you can get answers about any aspect of your PKM for Research.
• Access to community-led events including roundtable discussions and guest workshops. Such as:
  • Contemplative practices workshop.
  • Weekly study room, for accountability.
  • Argument battles, where you can put your arguments to the test and get feedback.

When you join the mentorship programme, you get 2 months of free access to the Scrintal app to try it out, and beta access to upcoming courses and workshops.

Keep 2 years of access to the curriculum and recordings of the Foundations of Idea Management onboarding course*.

Who is the mentor?

Hi,

I am Bianca Pereira and I will be guiding you through this journey.

I have learned firsthand that academia does not equip you with the research skills needed to thrive as a researcher, nor does it cover Personal Knowledge Management, despite knowledge being at the core of research work.

After experiencing burnout and quitting my 1st PhD in 2015, I decided it was time for a change.

I immersed myself in books, courses, workshops, and communities, consuming as much information as possible. However, true knowledge does not come without the nuances of practice, so I tailored everything to fit the research practice.

The effort paid off.

Over the years, I published papers and a patent, assumed a project management role in industry-academia collaborations, mentored early career researchers, secured a grant proposal, and led my own project — a feat uncommon for researchers without a PhD.

In just 5 years, I went from a medical emergency burnout to becoming a successful early career researcher.

But let me ask you: Do you have 5 years to waste?

That's why I built the Prolific Researcher community — to accelerate the journey of research-driven writers, whether they are on an academic journey or prefer to never set foot in academia.

In the course, I share part of a process I developed from 13 years of research experience, 2 years of experience as a Personal Knowledge Management coach, and insights gained from teaching over 250 individuals.

Having struggled myself, I easily recognise where others are facing challenges. And having walked the hard path, I want YOUR path to be easy.

So this is my invitation for you to join the Prolific Researcher Community. I look forward to welcoming you aboard.

— Bianca Pereira, researcher and Knowledge Management coach

You can also find me on the Prolific Researcher Playbook, Twitter, and Youtube.

Here is what previous students have said about the mentorship..

"I was working today on a paper draft I did a few months ago before the cohort and my notes then weren’t helpful, but I have spent an hour or so turning what I had into atomic notes and linking ideas, and it’s been awesome, I had so much done that I did not know! Also I seem to understand everything much better now that I’ve done it this way. "

— Raquel Gonzalez, PhD candidate in plant biodiversity

"I started my PKM journey backwards when my intention was to get to the heart of processing research for output using modern day tools and technologies. But I dove head first into the the tools and technologies that enable PKM. Bianca was paramount in closing the loop for me… finally! She’s packaged academic research skills in a format that’s accessible for amateur researchers to make meaningful contributions and create real impact in any endeavour."

– Anonymous, Chief Marketing Officer and Founder

“I did some research before and studied history at university but it was the first time I encountered a course and someone who explains so clearly basic concepts of research like idea management and how to read a source. In less than five minutes I understood something that in 5 years of study I didn’t. The course is great, for researcher and for all kind of people, because everybody should know how to read a source, how to use critical thinking, it is such an important skill. I will surely use everything I learn in this course in future projects that are not necessarily research related. I know feel more confident to write articles and how to use source and literature to do so.”

— Adeline Barnault, Cultural Mediator

"I have been exploring various approaches to personal knowledge management for several years, to support my research and writing. Bianca is an excellent teacher with the ability to introduce concepts incrementally and clearly--with a lovely, gentle sense of humor. I also enjoyed connecting with the other participants, who were an interesting and diverse bunch of generous, thoughtful folks--some of us will be remaining in contact with each other. I now have a number of new tools that will help manage the overwhelm of working on complex projects."

-- Deborah Robson, Writer and Workshop Instructor

“I kept losing my thoughts and insights on what I had read when I would need it while writing or creating any argument. I had read books and seen several YouTube videos on how to build a PKM but when I was trying to implement them for my own self I ran into problems of scale.

This course helped me to cut the clutter about PKMs in my brain and present the core principles in a very useful and implementable way. Having someone experienced guiding through examples is always helpful. Also Bianca’s style of presentation is very warm, welcoming and informal creating a very comfortable learning environment for everyone.

I can see that in the future my PKM potentially can finally be a help rather than a hinderance.”

– Shashwat Tiwari, Podcaster

When is the next group getting started?

Monday, April 29th

Dates for the Foundations of Idea Management course:

• Curriculum live sessions: Fridays, May 3rd and 10th.
• Co-working sessions: Mondays, May 6th and 13th.
• Hot seat coaching sessions: Friday, May 24th and Monday, May 27th.
  

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the mentorship different from other Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) courses?

Everything is tailored to research-based writing. Also, we don't focus on how to use specific note-making tools. Instead, we go all the way from the mindsets useful for research, to the methods and, only then, investigating how to use your preferred tool for that.

Here is what previous students have to say:

“The material is impressive and original. It is not repetitive to what other PKM courses are doing. So far, I don’t even think I could see an overlap of concepts in the materials of week one. (I have attended two of the main PKM courses in the market).”

– Jonathan Israel Tan, Senior Commercial Manager (Med Tech)

“I already participated in other courses about knowledge management and was looking for a course for people with an academic background. (…) Tasks and challenges during these different learning settings helped me to not just absorb the well-explained concepts but to put it into action inside my own knowledge portfolio. Bianca’s course changed my approach to knowledge management.”

– Silvia Retzlaff, PhD Student

Is the mentorship only for academic researchers?

The mentorship is for:

• Journalists who collect evidence to publish research-backed long form pieces.
• Content marketers who create authoritative content for the brands they represent.
• Academics and professional researchers who want to produce original knowledge.
• Lifelong learners who want to move from consuming knowledge to creating knowledge.
• Writers who use research as the backbone of their work.

Do I need to have experience with Knowledge/Idea Management to join?

Not at all. The programme covers everything from the ground up. But don't listen to me. Here are the words from a previous student:

“I started the course with little to no knowledge about PKM [Personal Knowledge Management], and about to embark on a MA research program after many years of being in the work world.

The course was very enlightening, packed with useful skills and techniques to help me lay down a good PKM foundation for my MA program. This is now helping me immensely to digest and reflect on all the new knowledge I am gaining and, more importantly, to generate my own for the purpose of creating a knowledge portfolio.”

– Samar Nahas, MA candidate

What is the minimum time commitment?

The minimum time commitment for the first month is 6 hours/week.

This already includes attending the live sessions, doing the basic exercises and working (a bit) on your own idea management system.

What is the time of the live sessions?

All curriculum sessions will happen on Fridays at 4 pm UTC.

The co-working sessions and hot seat coaching as part of the live courses will happen on Mondays at 6 am UTC and 4 pm UTC. Both sessions will have the same structure, so you can choose to attend just one of them or both.

Guest workshops and other monthly events happen at varied times.

All events are recorded so you can watch them on your own time.

Do you offer payment plans?

We have a 3-month payment option. Please reach out to contact@biancapereira.me to learn more.

Do you offer scholarships?

I offer a limited number of engagement-based scholarships. That means your participation in the mentorship will depend on your engagement with the programme.

Scholarship applications are now closed.

Results will be given on Tuesday, April 23rd.

What is the Refund Policy?

I want this experience to be the most useful to you.

If that is not what you expected, you can cancel your participation up to our first live session for any reason and you will receive a full refund (all your money back).

After that date (and until the end of the Foundations of Idea Management live course), we will retain €450 as a cancellation fee and return the rest of your payment.

No refund given after the live course has finished.

Do you teach Scrintal?

In the mentorship, I only teach the basics of Scrintal so you can join the co-working sessions.

If you want to learn everything about Scrintal, consider purchasing The Scrintal Course.

*Do you provide lifetime access?

Is it my lifetime? Your lifetime? The course platform’s lifetime?

I don't like to promise "lifetime" access to anything because it is hard for me to envision when a product will be discontinued and vague for you at the time of purchase.

Instead, you get 2 years of access to the curriculum and recordings of your onboarding course (the Foundations of Idea Management course).

All other areas are open for as long as your membership is active (you can extend your membership beyond 5 months at a much cheaper price).

I am not sure I am ready to commit yet...

Enrolling in the mentorship requires a commitment of time, money, and energy to developing your PKM skills.

If you don't feel ready yet, you may want to start with the Active Note-Taking self-paced course or the Foundations of Idea Management live course.

Any other questions?

If you have any questions about the course, please feel free to contact me at contact@biancapereira.me. I will be more than happy to chat!