This is what I do for everything I post:

1. Write all of my thoughts on a subject.


2. Argue against those ideas.


3. Explore different angles until I’m sick of it.


4. Leave it for a few days or years, then repeat those steps.


5. Hate how messy these thoughts have become.


6. Reduce them to a tiny outline of the key points.


7. Post the outline. Trash the rest.

I once heard John Maxwell, a prolific bestselling author, describe his system. He reads a lot of magazines, especially while traveling, and when he sees something interesting he’ll tear out the article and file it by topic. He has files upon files upon files by topic. When he gets ready to do a book he simply pulls out all the related files, and in

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