The real potential of a digital organizational system is to be a tool for capturing and systematically reminding you of past ideas, inspirations, insights, and connections. The heart of creativity and innovation is making spontaneous connections between seemingly unrelated things, and note-taking programs can, when used correctly, serve as a... See more

I like to think of collections as a way of creating meaningful containers for creative work—spaces that allow us to develop our ideas, while maximizing our chances of making unexpected connections.

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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