The Productivityist Podcast: The Staying Power of Sketchnotes with Deborah LeFrank

 A landscape architect, entrepreneur, graphic journalist and memory collector, Deborah LeFrank uses pens and paper to capture stories from daily life by creating sketch-notes or visual stories which help her remember things and memories. I’ve known her for quite some time and I’m a big fan of her work, and she’s my guest for this episode.

She uses bullet journaling and incorporates visuals to it as a key tool for productivity in all aspects of her life. Her company Visual Life Stories helps people to collect their memories through visual stories.

There’s so much that Deborah shared, some of the things discussed are:

How we met at Social Media Camp and the story behind the business cards she handed that really impressed me (1:59; 4:50).


The scope of her work that allows for remarkable presentations and excellent ways to recall and capture the essence of the presentations for the audience (3:27; 7:05).


People’s innate attraction to visual learning and story-telling, and her technique to do the process of note-taking and sketching effectively (8:00).


How she started interest in her craft, honing it through practice as needed in her career (14:20), and finding out about the concept of sketch-notes (16:00).


Integrating analog and digital methods in sketch-noting to create projects and serve clients (18:52).


How bullet journaling allows her to combine artistry and productivity, and how its convenience and flexibility helps her greatly (22:52; 28:06).


Features she’s added into the newest version of her bullet journal like habit tracking template, daily theming and focus words (25:30).

Relevant Links:



Visual Life Stories | Deborah LeFrank


Mike Rohde’s Books on Sketchnoting | Designer Mike Rohde


Eva-Lotta Lamm | User Experience Designer


My 3 Words for 2017 | Chris Brogan


3words | C.C. Chapman


Graphic Recording and Meeting Facilitation with Sunni Brown


Deborah LeFrank (@DeborahLeFrank) | Twitter


Visual Life Stories (@visuallifestory) | Twitter


Visual Life Stories | Facebook




Thanks for listening, until next time remember to stop guessing… and start going.

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