Workflow Mastery - Building From the Basics
- Capture the ideas and insights that spark your interest. A sticky note, a voice memo, or an app like Notion—whatever works.
- Organize them so you can find them later. Categories, tags, or even a simple “Projects” list will do.
- Distill your notes into their essential meaning. Ask: What’s the big takeaway here?
- Express your ideas by using them in
Jenn • How to Build a Personal Knowledge System That Fuels Your Creativity
- Capture - Keep what resonates
- Organize - Save for actionability
- Distill - Find the essence
- Express - Show your work
Claudia Dawson • Whole Earth Index/Photosweep/Map of the Best
- Collecting: Gathering interesting ideas
- Connecting: Drawing connections and organizing materials
- Creating: Producing something new
Sari Azout • The End of Productivity
The challenge is to structure one’s workflow in a way that insight and new ideas can become the driving forces that push us forward. We do not want to make ourselves dependent on a plan that is threatened by the unexpected, like a new idea, discovery – or insight.
Sönke Ahrens • How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers
The Toolbox Principle
A toolbox isn’t fancy. It’s not color-coded or AI-tagged.
It’s just one safe place you always return to.
If you always put your hammer in the same box, you never have to remember where it went. When life gets messy or search fails, you still know: open the toolbox.
That’s what Steven Johnson’s spark file is — not the flashiest
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