I drop every new subscriber a note to ask what their biggest struggle is.
It’s a way I can help you better, one on one or en masse through content.
Over the years I've answered hundreds.
But every now and then I get one that sparks a longer answer...
...and grows into something else.
See the epic series I wrote for Codename Phantom for example on creative side projects.
Well, two days ago I got an email from new Write Way subscriber Irene.
And I wanted to take a full newsletter (just one!) to answer it because it's exactly the problem I've been solving for myself recently...
Here's what Irene called her biggest struggle:
Figuring out the best way to organize all my writings! What do you use?
What do I use?
I felt that one in my bones.
Dear, reader if you've been around here long you know I'm somewhat chaotic and disorganised. I'm no Kieran Drew with a supercomputer sized system to perfectly organise every piece of content.
(I've written before about trying that and failing.)
I am probably the wrong person to ask about notes and organisation, and I called this newsletter "notetaking for numpties" because
I am the numpty taking notes.
One example:
Just this morning in processing my old notes, I stumbled on a note where I'd outlined the workshop that eventually became Voice Box...
...and realised that I had this brilliant structure laid out that I forgot about before I created the course. And yes, what was in the course is fantastic. But there were also some points I'd just completely forgotten about.
Why?
Because my "Finding your voice" note was sitting in Notion...
...and I wrote "Voice Box" in google docs. It wasn't that I couldn't find the note when I looked, it was that I didn't even remember it existed until today (over a year after I created Voice Box).
So I'm not orating from a pedestal of pure note-taking perfection, placed amid shelves of carefully stacked scrolls with every thought I've ever had...
...I'm yelling it from the floor of my cabin, somewhat muffled because I'm buried under a pile of disorganised notes that really need sorted.
But I'm in the process of sorting them, and I thought I'd share what I've been learning.
If you want a brilliant and polished system?
Go ask someone else with a brain that works like that.
But if you want some in-the-trenches advice from a guy who's figuring it out amid the artistic chaos of a life well written?
Read on.
Because every writer needs a some kind of notes and organisation.
After all, if you've applied my Speed Daemon Secrets and started to produce at a more rapid pace...
...plus the upcoming The Art of the Start launching soon, to stop procrastinating and get started, plus you know How to Write Bad and don't second guess yourself with perfectionism...
...you'll find yourself producing a lot of content.
More than that, you're amassing a mountain of notes because you're consuming carefully like I teach in courses like Craftsman Content Class and various other trainings.
(If you're starting to get the sense that everything I sell is part of a carefully orchestrated plan to get you writing better and producing more, you'd be right.)
Plus, if you're anything like me, you're a bit chaotic and tend to scribble down ideas and promptly forget them because you just had another one.
So.
What's to be done?
The first thing I gotta say to Irene, and to you, is this.
Don't stress about it!
Yes, having a great notetaking system will help you process information and produce more writing with less stress. But contra the CAW-CAWs...
your every brain fart does not need written down!
If it's a good idea, you'll remember it. If it's bad, you'll have a better one. The truth is that if you're actually writing, your brain will naturally start to generate more and more ideas.
CAW-CAWs struggle because they've worn a content rut by repurposing endlessly and staring at the metrics to see what's working.
If you're constantly exploring, consuming great content like I teach you in Craftsman Content Class and other places? You'll be just fine.
Ideas are abundant, reject the scarcity mindset.
Yes, write everything down if you can. I do recommend that. In fact it's step one of my rudimentary system:
Rudimentary system step one: Write everything down in a note-taking inbox.
But don't stress about it. You don't need to be a neurotic CAW-CAW with their phone on at all times in case now is the minute that you have that ONE BIG IDEA that WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Chances are it was crap anyway.
Good ideas stick around.
The second principle my note-taking is based on, is the part that few people think of.
Writing notes is worthless...
...without reading them.
And yes, I know, technically it does help you learn, but okay. Roll with it.
The point is to be a
digital dwarf
not a digital dragon.
Use that gold to make beautiful things, don't just sit on it.
Look, I've been there.
I went down the Evernote rabbit hole a decade ago, before it got shit.
(Seriously, never use Evernote. I'll tell you what I use in a moment, but anything but Evernote is okay.)
I used to save everything because that's what the information management second brain guru numpties were teaching then. Which is why, when I imported my old Evernote files from a decade back into my new system…
…I had around 600 politics articles I've never re-read, receipts from grocery shopping, and random notes like this one:
Untitled Note.11
32, 33, 35, 37, 39
Nope, no idea. My best guess is page references?
So don't make my mistake.
Build your library to be used and not collected.
Rudimentary system step two: Save your writing only, wherever possible. Not other people’s pieces.
In the new system, have a folder of "sources" but outside of it, everything ought to be my own words, notes and thoughts. And even that folder I'm working on decreasing.
Then I try and link ideas together and build connections between ideas so nothing falls between the cracks. I make index files for every project and link the notes to the index, I cross-link ideas together and so on.
Rudimentary system step three: Link every note to at least one other to provide context and create rabbit holes for future you to go down.
But you can only do that if you know where to start, which is our third principle
everything in the SAME place
and
everything in its OWN place
By which I mean that, unlike me, you shouldn't have notes in Evernote, OneNote, Notion, Google Docs, Beehiiv drafts, Berserkermail drafts, google keep and goodness knows what other apps...
...as well as scribbled notes on paper all over the place.
Most of those might have been from leaving notes behind as I moved from app to app, because most apps are a pain in the ass to migrate to and from. But I was actively using Notion (for task management and writing), OneNote (for notetaking on the go, because Notion sucks for that) and Google Docs (for a lot of longer writing because... well, I don't know to be honest).
That kind of chaos is counterproductive because you end up with situations like the Voice Box one I mentioned already.
But everything needs its own place too.
All your notes in one place, but that place needs to be organised in some way. You don't just dump stuff in there and leave it. Personally I recommend having a folder for each project.
Then you can create notes on the fly, throw them in an inbox folder to sort later, and actually sort them later.
Rudimentary system step four: Organise your inbox files at least once a week into project folders.
Never overcomplicate those, you don't want to be digging through seven layers of folders to find something. Three layers max.
But how does all this work in the real writer's world?
We're running long and I'm not doing a deep dive training on the details until I've been using the system for a few more months (then it'll go in Endless Ideas, probably. But that's a ways down the roadmap).
But having tried a billion apps, and failed at several systems, here's the down-to-brass-tactics of what I'm doing now.
I use Obsidian.
It's endlessly flexible.
But more importantly?
My files are stored on my actual computer that I own, in my house.
They're not in a cloud somewhere that I can't even access unless I'm online (Notion, I'm looking at you). They're also not in some proprietary file format designed to lock me into an expensive subscription as they constantly degrade features to make you upgrade (Evernote, I'm looking at you).
In a modern-age miracle, you don't even need an account unless you want to upgrade to their (very cheap) syncing service across devices.
That alone makes Obsidian better than Notion or Evernote for my money.
Obsidian also lets you link notes together, something that is vitally important if you want to actually use them to think. Then you can see them all linked up in a pretty graph that's surprisingly useful for finding things.
Within Obsidian I have a simple three layer folder system that break things down into foundational stuff (who I am) like money, theology and family etc. and vocational stuff (what I do) like writing, business, and productivity.
Every new note has a name that instantly tells me what type of note it is and which note it is.
So the note I'm writing this in is called "Newsletter - WWN70 - Notetaking for Numpties" because I can just search "newsletter" and find all my newsletters (plus any notes that talk about newsletters) and I can see every newsletter I've written.
Yes, I can use tags and other fancy stuff, and I do.
But mostly, I want to be able to do everything without needing any systems or structure because that's the only way this works long term.
Every product, like How to Write Bad, has a note like "Product - How to Write Bad" that links to the emails that I've sent to sell the product, as well as notes like "Sales Emails - How to Write Bad" and "How to Write Bad Fulfilment Sequence".
Beyond that, I use daily notes to capture tasks, fleeting thoughts and whatnot. That acts as a kind of bullet journal where I can just type in new tasks and let the task plugin pick them up, or link to notes I've created that day. In the long term that series of daily notes will act as the backbone of the system.
So to finally get around to Irene's original question...
...every piece of writing I've ever done is going in the Obsidian vault and linked to somewhere. Active projects in one place, past ones in another, everything linked together so I can track down related notes easily.
And that's about it.
It's not overcomplicated, relies on no fancy widgets, and is future-proofed against the app failing because it's all saved in simple markdown files with sensible names so I could use it in any text editor if I had to.
It’s honestly not much more fancy than printing it out and putting it in a filing cabinet.
Any questions?
If not, may your writing and baccy be always to hand when you need it.
Yours,
James Carran, Craftsman Writer
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