✍️ Last Updated: October 21, 2025

Hey there! I'm Xiaochang 🌭
It's time for my weekly letter to grow a little together with you!

This post is a bit like a happy puppy's personality, sharing my recent wonderful and interesting daily life with you! Also sharing this~next month's [Gut Talk] will pause once! Because I'm going to Shanghai to give a lecture + digital nomading for half a month!

😂 Taking notes at a physical lecture and getting approached by potential readers!?

Every Saturday in August, I almost always attend communication courses at the Youth Bureau. As usual, I open my laptop and use Heptabase to take class notes. When class ends, classmates sitting next to and behind me turn around and ask: "What software is this?" Hahahaha, I was really happy at that moment!

It just so happened that I'm a Heptabase instructor, so I took the opportunity to promote my seven-day free course to them, haha! I was thinking I should carry business card-sized cards of my seven-day free course to give to these types of potential readers I meet XD

It also reminds me of when I was eating ramen before, the shop was super crowded. I was chatting with my friend on the left about my Knowledge Management social media business, and then the girl on my right also joined in, asking what my brand was and followed my IG. So fun! I really love these kinds of stranger interactions.

📈 12-Week Good HabitFormation (Currently Week 7)

Recently I've been using Notion to help me with my '12-Week Good Habit Formation Plan,' currentlyon week 7. At first I kept failing and couldn't maintain any habit for more than two weeks, but now I'm completing almost every task, and last week I even had a 100% completion rate!

After gamifying my disciplined lifestyle, I really enjoyed it and the results are amazing! For example, I've now built good habits of skincare, brushing my hair, self-care, and keeping my room tidy in the mornings and evenings. I used to be a couch potato who thought as long as I studied knowledge, appearance didn't matter … (and I was relatively not confident about my looks). Now it's different—I'm much more confident about my appearance. Even though I haven't lost weight, after getting my mindset right, everything changed! I even dare to wear sleeveless shirts all day now wow.

I also feel the 'Gratitude Journal' has helped me a lot. I stopped writing it for several months, but in the past 5 weeks I've rebuilt the daily writing habit and discovered how truly fortunate I am. And another thing—I've already lost 3 kg! I'm so looking forward to the results at week 12!

🫶🏻 2 major benefits I secured in Shanghai

If you're a KnowledgeGut fan in the 'Lifelong Growth Line group,' you should know some big news: I'm giving a talk in Shanghai!!!

Originally I wanted to go to Shanghai to pursue my interests (visit the 樊登 headquarters to hear audiobooks live), which would also count toward my annual goal (spend at least two weeks digital nomading overseas). But now I've got two additional big wins:

1. Speaking to college students at a digital nomad startup community in Shanghai
   • The topic is 'Personal Life Management System' and 'Solo Entrepreneurship.' Plus, I get 'seven days free accommodation' from this talk—super cost-effective! I can also meet team members from the startup company and explore Shanghai together~
     
2. Using shared workspace at local 'design companies' and 'education companies'
   • Free and open access for 17 days—a chance the manager of a Shanghai co-working space helped me find!

I'm super excited!!!

How exactly did she manage to secure these opportunities?

• Want to save money ➜ Think to exchange talks for accommodation ➜ Send an email asking ➜ Get the opportunity!

Honestly, at first I just wanted to 'save money,' haha~

There were many details in between—like translating my speaker profile into Simplified Chinese and having DeepSeek polish it into mainland Chinese terminology, then using AI to search for suitable organization emails (I used GPT, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Zhihu AI, and other Chinese AI tools). Of course, there was also manually reaching out one by one on Xiaohongshu. Besides the Notion link, I also attached a PDF for people who can't access Notion.

If I hadn't taken the initiative to send that email, these opportunities would never have appeared, and I'd indirectly fulfill my little dream of 'giving a talk overseas'~ Recently I'm reading 'The Alchemist,' and there's a line that really resonates with me: "When you really want to accomplish something, the whole universe conspires to help you!"」

I think I'm truly fortunate—as long as you're brave, prepared, and willing to take a step forward, you have a chance to seize what's good.

It's true for work, relationships, and life.

Right now, looking at the blue sky and white clouds, even though the sun is making my eyes squint, I know it's from smiling, haha~ I'm really looking forward to every day ahead!

📚 I bought an e-reader

Recently I bought a Kobo Color Libra 7-inch color e-reader and a stylus that help me with:

• Speed reading (using the stylus to glide over text helps me with faster photographic memory)
• When I disagree with a knowledge point, I can freely mark it with a big X (only I see it anyway, and I can erase it haha)
• I can scribble and circle freely on the book like I'm taking an exam, helping me find key words and capture my thoughts

My overall reading volume has increased significantly! I've also developed a semi-automated workflow that imports notes made on 'non-official Kobo books' into Heptabase. I spent four hours researching this automation, and I'll write an article to share with you soon~

📣 This Week's Heart-Warming Share

📌 The 12-week habit formation plan is now at week six~my face is really brighter!

One month! Just one month!!! My face is brighter, my energy is better, my body is lighter. By week two, I deleted most of the tasks after forming the habits.

📌 How to overcome the limiting belief of "Am I really qualified?"

It really is one step at a time......

🎉 Master Heptabase in 7 Days Workshop｜Featured Homework

Judy｜Contact Me

Hi everyone, I'm Judy, currently freelancing as an illustrator~ I love reading and creating stories, so I've always been looking for and trying various tools with potential to help me organize my thoughts more efficiently. Recently, I've been hearing a lot about Heptabase, and when I wanted to try it out, I discovered Xiaochang's 7-Day Workshop. I'm confident that I'll be able to master it after 7 days!

I've already learned about the benefits of gratitude journaling from others, but this is the first time I've seen someone include 'complaints' as an item here with Xiaochang. Because generally people say that gratitude journals shouldn't include negative energy, otherwise it feels like you're 'dragging yourself down.' But emotions like feelings should be seen and cared for even if they're negative. That's really the true purpose of a gratitude journal - to bring healing. So starting now, I'm going to complain too! XD

I hope this newsletter helps you learn something, feel more connected to the world, and grow a little!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, thoughts to share, or recommendations for me, please reply to this email. I'll respond to you thoughtfully.

See you next 《Gut Talk Newsletter" again~ 😘
by KnowledgeGutfounder Xiaochang

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Xiaochang is meticulous about typography; if you spot typos or formatting issues, please reach out to Xiaochang's IG Contact! All articles come from Heptabase Xiaochang's Second Brain🧠 Content is purely human-written, never AI-generated.

If you have any questions about the article content, or if there are any parts you'd like me to elaborate on, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know～
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by Knowledge Management Mentor Xiaochang🌭