Just simply…write.

Today, like many days before I have the Habit of being swamped with Ideas. Which is a good thing. But the bad (or other) side of that is being able to turn them into “something”. Record them, write them down so I can come back to them.

One thing I do is…. Once I have a thought, is I fire up my AI on either my phone or PC and brain dump (write out my thoughts). Now I use ChatGPT ( the actual AI isn’t relevant) and have given him/her the name of Alex, which is kind of a gender neutral name… just in case 🙂

QUICK NOTE: When you use your AI on either your Phone or PC, these are hooked into the same account. So what you write on your phone is available on your PC (website account) when you log in…and Vice Versa.

So in effect, I’m a very prolific plonker of words upon a page… Sadly… not so much on here these days… But I’m fixing that 🙂

I also use a number of other tools…and I have content… everywhere. Which is good and bad. Writing lots is good… knowing what and where all your words of wisdom end up… that is the big question. And one that has “bothered” me for ever.

Obviously it’s a question of having a system and also the habit of using it.

A Quick Sketch out of a System for Tracking your Content.

Rule Number 1. Nothing Fancy, but it must be useable.

The very first thing you need is what I call a Diary or a Journal. Something you can record what you want to do and what you did.
I’m 62 and sometimes I don’t even remember what I had for breakfast.. hmmmm did I even have breakfast today… It’s heading for lunch time so all good.

The point is… to have “Something” where you can write and remember where it is…
Now depending on what it is you are doing… I prefer to use my Diary like a master document. As the reference… As the place where I can write down what things I have created and where they are.

And you can use a simple Text Editor… Like Notepad on windows (Notepad++ or Sublime are better). I personally have taken to a program called CherryTree which let’s me get a bit more fancy. The point is to start using “SOMETHING”… You can always move it to another program later.

If I was starting from Scratch Today.

Create the Master Document

For argument sake, let’s assume you are using Windows. So you would go and Run (Start or Launch) Notepad.

This is a NEW File: What do we do with New Files? We give them a Name and a Home. Which is a Filename (name of the file) and a Folder (Where it’s going to live).

Treat your Files like the knives, forks, spoons and other things in your Kitchen Drawer.
Your Computer’s Hard Drive is the Kitchen. Your Documents Folder is Your Kitchen Cutlery Drawer.
(This structure applies to ALL operating systems like Linux, MacOS and Windows).

So with your NotePad Program “open” (running) we need to Go to the menu and select “File -> Save As” and give it a name, select The Documents folder and save it. So you might call it Diary or MyJournal or “My Master Plan” or whatever makes sense to you

NOW you have a Master Document. The trick now is to get into the habit of writing in it.

Anything more Detailed becomes a Project.

Now this where we start creating new Folders. And we include the Paths back in our Journal. We want to keep the Journal pretty bare. Remember it’s a list of what you want to do and what you did… Not the Whole “How You Did it”. That is stuff we would put in a Project folder with an appropriate name.

Naming Rules: The best advice I can give is “Call what it is…”. It’s a thing where you sit there trying to think of a name. Don’t over think it. Be Descriptive. Because if you have a Folder called… Things… or …. Something I did today… when it should have been called…”My Master Project for taking over the world” is much more descriptive… and I think there may be a few Computers out there where that has been used… But we won’t mention names…

So in your Project folder… Create a Document and Simply… Write.
NOTE: Now I am talking about “Documents” like MS Word, or Libre Office Write or Google Docs… to name the main ones.

It doesn’t have to be pretty… It just has to capture your thoughts…
Over the years this has been my method for working out all kinds of things… and it works… BUT I can come back and look over it.. Create more content from it and NOT have to Relearn it from Scratch… I think that’s one of the biggest benefits.

Adding Images

A picture is worth a thousand words… So use them.
When you need to show… yourself in most cases… what happened, if you can take a “Snapshot” of it, you can add it into the document.

MS Windows has Snip (which… works…) And you have a choice of either saving the images in your project folder… I’d create a new folder called images…to save them into) OR you can simply copy and paste them into your document.

You’d be amazed at how helpful this is and it’s a skill worth learning. ( Which might leave you asking… “Well Tim, where are the images in here that you could have added?”) and that’s a fair point. I’m still fleshing this post out, so hang in there 🙂

You don’t have to Remember Everything, You just need to know where to find it.

This is kind of my Mantra and has been forever… When you have that moment when you think…”Oh I have to do this… hang on.. did I do this already?… Then search through your jourmal… find it…Get the location of where and what you did… Re-read it… BINGO…

“But I’ll forget this…”

Habits are formed by doing… The more you use it.. the more natural it will become. It might seem like a struggle but it’s worth it over time you won’t even have to think about it… You will just do it. Another thing it’s called is “Muscle memory” where you “Train” and it becomes something you could not do before.

This is a real life time example based upon… “That one time you don’t write it down… That’s the thing you’re going to be looking for and wish you had…” Or other expression is “What you don’t write down will Bite you on the Bum”.

JUST SIMPLY… WRITE

So I’ve hinted at a few ways on what you can use… You can still use a Pen and Paper. The point is, The Process of Writing is a very helpful thing to do…

And if you are stuck on what to write… Simply Write… “I have no clue what I’m going to write about” Because that starts the conversation.

You could ask yourself… “Well what is bothering you are the moment” or “What are we looking at doing today”… Don’t think it… Just do it and let it flow… messy and all…

And I really hope this gives you some ideas you can start using today. Give it a go and enjoy!