Courses by Elizabeth Butler, MD, PhD
I help creative, idealistic professionals build streamlined note-taking and productivity systems to fit their busy lives.
Looking for a better way to organize your notes and ideas? Want to explore a more intentional, mindful approach to productivity?
Hi! I’m Elizabeth Butler, MD, PhD. I help creative, idealistic professionals build streamlined note-taking and productivity systems to fit their busy lives.
You’re a busy person, with lots of meaningful, interesting things to be spending your time on. Let’s build reliable, efficient frameworks and systems to support your next right thing.
Craft an intentional, reliable system to organize your
thoughts, notes, ideas, research, tasks, dreams, goals…
finally feel effortlessly organized.
OPEN FOR REGISTRATION
Current Courses
Available for enrolment.
Calmer Notes: Personal Knowledge Management for Busy People
note taking & digital file organization
The Calmer Notes method gives you a trusted framework to build your own tailored personal knowledge management (PKM) system to organize your digital notes and files. Feel effortlessly organized. Never lose another idea.
Coming Soon
Future Courses
Join the waitlist to get notified once they launch.
The Art of Note Taking: Taking Effective Notes for Learning, Studying, and Creativity
A step-by-step guide to better note taking
You want to build a note taking habit to help you get things done at work, stay organized with your coursework, write your novel, or plan your thesis. But you’re not sure which format of note taking is right for you. This course will provide a step-by-step, complete guide to every note taking method and structure, so you can find the one that’s the best fit for your project (and the way your mind works).
Obsidian for Busy People: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized with Obsidian Notes
a down-to-earth introduction to obsidian
You’re a busy professional juggling competing projects and meetings (to say nothing of your overscheduled personal life). You’ve heard good things about people using Obsidian to be more productive, but you’re not sure where to start. The YouTube tutorials and other courses you’ve browsed are a bit too esoteric for your needs. You don’t have unlimited time to devote to learning Obsidian. You’re looking for a no-fluff, no-nonsense, actionable approach to building a practical, minimalist note taking system in Obsidian to help you organize your busy life.
Finding Margin:
A Mindful Framework for Sustainable Productivity
an intentional approach to task management
You have lots to do– and little time to do it. You’re a master at GTD and Todoist already, and you know that tweaking your keyboard shortcuts isn’t going to make the difference to getting back hours in your day. You’re tired, over-committed, and feel like you’re always running at 110% capacity. You need more margin in your productivity system.
Beyond Social Media:
Living an Online Life Without Social Media
Building a more intentional, calmer digital life
You miss the idea of the early days of the web. Surfing aimlessly, finding fascinating corners of knowledge and creativity that weren’t fed to you by an algorithm. You want to recapture some of that wonder. You’re thinking about taking a social media sabbatical, a social media break, or quitting social media altogether, but you still want to discover engaging content online. You’re not sure where to start.
Meet Your Guide
About Elizabeth Butler, MD, PhD

Hi! I’m Elizabeth.
I help creative, idealistic professionals build streamlined note-taking and productivity systems to fit their busy lives.
I’m a physician, a former humanities professor, working parent, and fellow over-scheduled human being.