Michael Ashcroft: Alexander Technique, Coaching and Roam Culture

In this episode, we talk with Michael Ashcroft, a consultant, co-founder and Non-Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Centre, a UK-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to advance sustainable carbon removal.

He is also a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, an awareness-based educational process that helps people live with greater ease and freedom, and a Co-Active coach, working with clients in his spare time.

We talked about: 

• How he stumbled into Roam Research from Building A Second Brain
• His workflow when building his second brain
• The Alexander Technique, and using Roam to expand his understanding of it, and applying it to coaching
• How he uses Roam as a self-coaching tool
• #roamcult as a culture, not a cult: The filter for meeting interesting people

Enjoy!

Timestamps

• 02:08 Michael's origin story and meta-realization: Building A Second Brain
• 04:29 Michael's workflow and version of smart notes
• 07:09 Deconstructing how to take book notes
• 8:58 Determine if ideas have their own pages
• 11:14 Letting go of note-taking structure in advance Re: Evernote
• 12:41 If Einstein had a Roam...
• 14:13 Subconsciously building a digital garden
• 16:29 Multi-graph connections, and unique blocks across Roam
• 18:09 Synchronising public and Private Roams
• 19:58 "The onboarding is the #roamcult"
• 20:44 The Aha! Moment and the many possibilities
• 21:53 Exploring emotions in Roam and self-introspection
• 23:53 Co-Active coaching and the Saboteur
• 25:20 How Michael Ashcroft uses Roam to do self-coaching
• 27:33 Projects, Areas, Roam, Archives
• 30:24 Alexander Technique: Undoing habits
• 34:05 Roam to enhance understanding of Alexander Technique
• 35:33 Using the right words that resonate better
• 37:23 Alexander Technique teachers tend to impose jargon on people
• 38:46 Michael Ashcroft's future plans for Alexander Technique
• 40:11 A course as a universal resource
• 41:59 The world is hooked on doing or caring
• 44:02 How can we help?
• 46:00 Caring is interference
• 47:43 Non-doing, and to frame something as a battle is interference
• 49:42 How would you describe Roam to someone who hasn't started using it yet?
• 51:06 What does Roam mean to you? Roam Culture
• 52:28 The secret handshake is #roamcult
• 54:19 PKM meetups are a filter for interesting people

Links

• Michael Ashcroft's Website
• Michael's Twitter
• Thinking Out Loud Newsletter
• How to be Superman (Alexander Technique)
• Building A Second Brain
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

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