Nat Eliason's AI Productivity Stack

Table of content

Nat Eliason is a writer and entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas. He founded Growth Machine, a content marketing agency that worked with Fortune 500 companies and YC-backed startups (acquired in 2025). He’s published two books including Crypto Confidential with Penguin Random House, and maintains one of the most comprehensive public collections of book notes online with 250+ reviews.

Nat has iterated through four major productivity system versions: Evernote → Notion → Roam Research → Roam + AI. Core principle: if you’re doing something manually more than once, automate it.

System Evolution

Version	Tool	Key Innovation
V1	Evernote	Capture everything
V2	Notion	Goals + databases
V3	Roam	Bidirectional linking
V4	Roam + AI	Synthesis and retrieval

Each version added capabilities. None fully replaced what came before.

Goal Hierarchy in Notion

Eliason’s goal system cascades from annual to daily:

Annual Goals
  └── Quarterly Goals
        └── Monthly Goals
              └── Weekly Goals
                    └── Daily Tasks

Structure in Notion:

## Annual Goal: Launch AI Course
- Q1: Research and outline
- Q2: Record modules
- Q3: Beta launch
- Q4: Public launch

## This Week (linked to Q1)
- A Priority: Finish module 1 outline
- B Priority: Interview 3 course creators
- C Priority: Set up recording studio

Time tracking integration:

Weekly priorities map to Timeular categories:

A Priorities → “Deep Work”
B Priorities → “Collaboration”
C Priorities → “Admin”

Each week, compare time spent (Timeular) against A/B/C priorities to identify misalignment.

Roam as Second Brain

Roam Research handles knowledge capture and connection. Nat wrote extensively about why he switched to Roam and created the Effortless Output course teaching his full system.

Daily Notes as Inbox

# January 21, 2026

- Read article on AI course pricing [[Pricing Strategy]]
  - Key insight: tiered pricing works for technical content
  - #capture #courses

- Meeting with [[John Smith]] about partnership
  - Discussed co-marketing opportunity
  - Follow up next week #waiting

- Idea: What if the course included live coaching? #ideas #courses

Bidirectional Links

Everything connects through [[page references]]:

# [[Pricing Strategy]] page

Automatically shows:
- Linked References (explicit mentions)
- Unlinked References (text matches)

All mentions of "Pricing Strategy" across all notes
appear here without manual filing.

PARA Adaptation

Eliason adapts Tiago Forte’s PARA to Roam:

PARA	Roam Implementation
Projects	`#Projects` tag + status
Areas	`#Areas/Health`, `#Areas/Business`
Resources	Linked pages, no separate folder
Archive	`#Archive` tag

Roam’s fluid structure means Resources don’t need a separate location — everything is findable via links.

AI-Augmented Workflow

AI for Research Synthesis

# Using Claude to process research notes
cat roam-export.json | \
  llm "Summarize the key insights about pricing strategy
       from these notes. Group by theme."

AI for Writing Drafts

# In Claude Code
> I'm writing about why productivity systems fail.
> Here's my thesis: [paste from Roam]
> Here are my notes: [paste references]
> Draft an outline that builds to this conclusion.

AI for Goal Review

Weekly review prompt:

Here are my goals for this week:
[paste from Notion]

Here's what I actually did:
[paste time tracking data]

Analyze:
1. What did I accomplish vs. plan?
2. What got dropped and why?
3. What should change next week?

Building Custom AI Tools

Eliason teaches building personal AI tools in his newsletter and courses. Example: automating daily review.

Recipe: Export Notion goals + task data + Roam journal, feed to Claude with a prompt:

My quarterly goals:
[paste from Notion]

Tasks I completed today:
[paste from task manager]

Recent journal entries:
[paste from Roam]

Based on these, what should I prioritize tomorrow?

Run this weekly to spot goal drift before it becomes a problem.

Practical Patterns

Capture Immediately

# Roam Daily Note pattern

Whenever you learn something:
1. Type in daily note
2. Add [[page reference]] for topic
3. Add #tag for action type
4. Move on

Weekly Planning Template

## Weekly Planning

### Review Last Week
- [ ] Check time tracking against priorities
- [ ] Move incomplete tasks forward
- [ ] Archive completed projects

### This Week's Priorities
**A Priority (Must happen):**
-

**B Priority (Should happen):**
-

**C Priority (Nice to have):**
-

### Key Meetings/Commitments
-

Book Notes Workflow

Highlight in Kindle
Sync via Readwise to Roam
Weekly: review new highlights
Process into permanent notes with own words
Link to related concepts

# [[Atomic Habits]] - Book Notes

## Key Concepts
- [[Habit Stacking]]: Link new habit to existing one
- [[Environment Design]]: Make good habits obvious
- [[Identity-Based Habits]]: Focus on who you want to become

## Personal Takeaways
- Apply habit stacking to morning routine
- Redesign office for focus work

Tool Recommendations

Use Case	Eliason’s Choice
Goal tracking	Notion
Knowledge capture	Roam Research
Time tracking	Timeular
Reading highlights	Readwise
AI assistance	Claude + custom scripts
Course creation	Teachable

Getting Started

Week 1: Goals

Set up the hierarchy in Notion or similar:

Define 1-3 annual goals
Break into quarterly milestones
Create weekly planning template
Review and adjust weekly

Week 2: Capture

Pick a note tool (Roam, Obsidian, Notion)
Use daily notes as inbox
Add links/tags during capture
Don’t organize during capture

Week 3: AI Layer

Export your notes to a queryable format
Create prompts for common synthesis tasks
Use AI for weekly review analysis
Iterate on what’s useful

Next: David Shapiro’s ACE Framework