This approach to note-taking was inspired by the 20th-century German sociologist Niklas Luhmann who was a prolific note-taker, writer, and academic. He developed a simple system based on paper index cards, which he called his “slip-box”, designed to connect any given note to as many different potentially relevant contexts as possible. It enables the note-taker to break down their notes into smaller, manageable chunks and organize them into a cohesive whole. This process allows the note-taker to gain a better understanding of their notes and to utilize them in further research and writing.

8 Steps to taking smart notes

Fleeting notes are quick, informal notes on any thought or idea that pops into your mind meant to be a reminder of what’s in your head.

1.Fleeting Notes.

Literature Notes are meant to be incorporated in one’s own writing.Guidelines in creating literature notes:<ul><li>Be extremely selective in what you decide to keep</li><li>Keep the overall note as short as possible</li><li>Use your own words, instead of copying quotes verbatim</li><li>Write down the bibliographic details on the source</li></ul>

2. Make Literature notes.

These notes are based on reviewing the fleeting notes and literature notes and relates to your current work on or interests. The purpose is not just to collect ideas, but to develop arguments and discussions over time.Questions to ask yourself to create them: <ul><li>How does the new information contradict, correct, support, or add to what I already know?</li><li>How can I combine ideas to generate something new?</li><li>What questions are triggered by these new ideas?</li></ul>Once done, throw away the fleeting notes from step one and file the literature notes from step two into your bibliographic slip-box.

3. Make permanent notes.

Add the permanent notes you’ve created to your slip-box. Do this by filing each note behind a related note (if it doesn’t relate to any existing notes, add it to the very end).

4. Addition your new permanent notes to the slip-box. 

With so many standardized notes organized in a consistent format, you are now free to develop ideas in a “bottom up” way. See what is there, what is missing, and which questions arise. Look for gaps that you can fill through further reading.

5. Develop your topics, questions and research projects bottom up from within the slip-box.

Instead of coming up with a topic upfront, you can just look into your slip-box and look for what is most interesting. Your writing will be based on what you already have, not on an unfounded guess about what the literature you are about to read might contain. Follow the connections between notes and collect all the relevant notes on the topic you’ve found.

6. Decide on a topic to write about from within the slip-box.

Instead of copying your notes into a manuscript, translate them into something coherent and embed them into the context of your argument. As you detect holes in your argument, fill them or change the argument.

7. Turn your notes into a rough draft. 

From this point forward, all you have to do is refine your rough draft until it’s ready to be published.

8. Edit and proofread your manuscript. 

Note-taking is like time travel—you are sending packets of knowledge through time to your future self.

I long ago stopped reading books on note-taking. They were always too vague and boring, full of platitudes that had little to do with the world outside

writing

Reading & Writing

strategy

Strategy

education

Learning & Education

creativity

Creativity

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

How To Take Smart Notes: 8 Steps to taking smart notes.

IntroductionA good content must be relevant, creates a relationship with its readers, builds trust and credibility, and is high-quality which then turns to income. Because of the emergence of digital publications, many corporate leaders found this a popular way to promote, share and present their business. This is where the role of a content writer takes place as they have to make sure to help improve and show the image of the brand.

How to become a content writer with no experience?

<ul><li> A content writer showcases a brand through creating or writing relatable and relevant pieces of information to engage with its audience. </li><li>They are accountable for writing information in one's blog, social media account, newsletter, whitepaper, e-book or even brochure.</li><li>Content writers contribute in marketing teams in which they come up with creative and compelling stories.</li></ul>

Defining a Content Writer.

"Your blog is more than just a place to showcase your work, it is also a way to market yourself as a writer."

<ol><li>Dive in Learning</li><li>Identify your Niche</li><li>Maximize Online Presence</li><li>Build a Portfolio </li><li>Start Pitching</li></ol>

5 Steps to become a Content Writer

<ul><li>Start practicing writing daily for at least an hour build a habit.</li><li>Do research, craft a story, proofread it.</li><li>You may enroll in free classes in Hubspot Academy, LinkedIn Learning or Skillshare.</li><li> Use websites such as Grammarly or Thesaurus to help you find the right words. </li></ul>

1. Dive in Learning

<ul><li>Start with a topic you are passionate about.</li><li>You can also focus on case studies, blog posts or whitepapers. </li><li>Joining writing communities.</li><li>Keep your eyes open for opportunities that match your interests.</li></ul>

2. Identify your Niche

<ul><li>You can start publishing your work in platforms such as Medium or LinkedIn.</li><li>Publish your work to allow people to see what you can do, how well you do it and what are your areas of expertise.</li><li>Starting a blog is another way to establish yourself as an expert.</li><li>Write at least one article per week and actively share.</li></ul>

3. Maximize Online Presence

<ul><li>Having a strong portfolio allows you to have more chances to earn a gig.</li><li>May include articles, social media captions and so on.</li></ul>	- Tip: Employers seek content writers who don't just write well, but can also create compelling stories.<ul><li>Within this career progression, you could become an editor, UX (User Experience) Writer, SEO Content writer or even a copywriter.</li></ul>

4. Build a Portfolio

<ul><li>Start with making a list of websites that may be potentially interested in a topic you cover.</li><li>Contact the editor and pitch your idea and explain why the audience would be interested.</li><li>Focus on building connections and receiving positive reviews.</li><li>Guest posting on blogs and websites with an established audience is another way to get exposure and build trust with potential clients.</li><li>For a beginner, this is a chance to show your skills and learn from someone more experience.</li></ul>

5. Start Pitching

<ul><li>To get audiences to take chance on a specific product.</li><li>Create a purpose and value around the product or brand.</li><li>Plays a critical role in turning curious visitors to loyal customers by pushing out first-rate content.</li><li>They create, manage, distribute content </li><li>Ensures that this content is optimized for search engines in order to drive traffic to the site.</li><li>Must know to identify a customer's problem and resolve with a solution.</li></ul>

Goals of a Content Writer

In this generation where knowledge is in our fingerprints, behind every blog, information or brand marketing, is a content writer. Perhaps content writing is a freelancing job for you?

Content writing has become one of the top trends of the digital era. Though straightforward on the surface, it is not a job to be taken lightly.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

How to become an awesome content writer (beginner’s guide)

Mental blocks can be quite frustrating and can prevent us from reaching our full potential. However, there are several ways to overcome them.

It is important to understand what is causing the block. Is it fear of failure, a lack of confidence, or perhaps past negative experiences? Once you have identified the source, you can start to address it and find ways to overcome it.

Identify the source of the block

Setting achievable goals can help you focus on what you want to achieve, and can also help you measure your progress. Make sure the goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Set achievable goals

Our thoughts and beliefs play a crucial role in shaping our experiences. Try to replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations and reminders of your strengths and accomplishments.

Practice positive self-talk

Taking breaks and engaging in activities that you enjoy can help you recharge and reduce stress. Exercise, meditation, and spending time with loved ones are all great ways to take care of you.

Take breaks and engage in self-care

Surrounding yourself with positive and supportive people can help you stay motivated and on track. Seek out mentors, join a support group, or connect with like-minded individuals.

Surround yourself with positive influences:

Don't let failures define you. Instead, use them as opportunities to learn and grow. Reflect on what you could have done differently and use that knowledge to inform your future actions.

Learn from failures

Stepping out of your comfort zone can help you overcome mental blocks. Try new activities, take on new challenges, and embrace uncertainty.

 Challenge yourself

If your mental blocks persist, consider seeking the help of a therapist or counsellor. They can help you work through your issues and develop a plan to overcome your mental blocks.

 Seek professional help

mindfulness

Mindfulness

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

meditation

Meditation

8 ways to get out of Mental Blocks

“One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience… Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want.”

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in… you will interest other people.”

“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”

“Don’t write at first for anyone but yourself.”

Mastering the essential complementarity of compassion and total objectivity.

“The first sign of disintegration — in a writer — is that the writing loses the unique stamp of his/her character, & loses its inner light.”

“In both writing and sleeping, we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of our daytime lives.”

“At its best, the sensation of writing is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it. You search, you break your heart, your back, your brain, and then — and only then — it is handed to you.”

“There is a great deal that either has to be given up or be taken away from you if you are going to succeed in writing a body of work.”

“To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being… what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.”

“Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.”

“Never write more than two pages on any subject.”

“Sheer egoism… Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity.”

“A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk.”

“Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”

“The test of a writer is whether you want to read him again years after he should by the rules be dated.”

“You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”

“As a writer you should not judge. You should understand.”

“You have to tell your own story simultaneously as you hear and respond to the stories of others.”

“It’s by writing… by stepping back a bit from the real thing to look at it, that we are most present.”

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

entertainment

Entertainment

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Timeless Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers

A common misconception about large language models like ChatGPT and its older brethren GPT3 and GPT2 is that they are some kind of “super Googles,” or digital versions of a reference librarian, looking up answers to questions from some infinitely large library of facts, or smooshing together pastiches of stories and characters. They don’t do any of that – at least, they were not explicitly designed to.

Omniscient & Omnipotent? Yeah, No. 

A language model like ChatGPT, which is more formally known as a “generative pretrained transformer” (that’s what the G, P and T stand for), takes in the current conversation, forms a probability for all of the words in its vocabulary given that conversation, and then chooses one of them as the likely next word. Then it does that again, and again, and again, until it stops.

The Likely Next Word

So ChatGPT doesn’t have facts, per se. It just knows what word should come next. Put another way, ChatGPT doesn’t try to write sentences that are true. But it does try to write sentences that are plausible. And for a machine that is designed to produce strings of words that sound as good as possible in response to the words you give it – and not to provide you with information – that seems like the right use for the tool.

Words, Not Facts

We should first understand what something does and then judge if it does it well. 

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots seem remarkably good at conversations. But you can’t believe anything they say. Sometimes, though, reality isn’t the point.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

computerscience

Computer Science

artificialintelligence

Artificial Intelligence

ChatGPT Is Great – We’re Just Using It Wrong

The Second brain is basically a personal knowledge management system which can help unlock the next level of productivity. It is a digital note taking system that keeps a track of all that you read, listen and see. It can then be used to organise your ideas, thoughts which can then be converted into a creative output.There are 10 basics principles of building a second brain.

Building a Second Brain

Creativity is all about remixing stuff. Collect all that resonate with you in one place and combine them in interesting ways and develop the ability to see connections in them which is difficult to see if it’s all in your head."Pablo Picasso: "Good artists copy, great artists steal"

1. Borrowed creativity.

"Our brain is for meant having ideas, not for storing them"Capture any idea wherever you are because your brain is not going to hold it for much time. You can record the voice message if you are busy doing other things.

2.Capture the habit.

Ideas are not single-use. In fact, we can recycle and reuse them over time. So keeping note of all your ideas is important.

3. Idea recycling. 

Don't just categorise the information you've got, but try to link it to the project you are currently working on, so to take the most advantage of it immediately.

4. Projects over categories.

Don't do and even plan to do hard work all at once, since your brain will likely resist doing anything. Instead, do spread your focus and efforts onto several projects, do work in small portions.

5. Slow burns.

It can be really hard to start doing something from a total scratch (e.g. blank piece of paper). But if you've been taking notes and saving all the bits of useful information, it means, you already have a good deal of progress in your work. The only thing left to do is to go through all of your past notes, and maybe just copy & paste. This will make your new project, or task, seem more doable.

6. Start with abundance.

Every work, or e.g. essay, can be divided into smaller sections (blocks) and stored for future use.

7. Intermediate packets.

If you want to internalise useful information fully and keep it in your memory for a long time, you should make it the product of your efforts, you can write a short summary of a book you just read or tweet the insights you got from listening to the podcast. Whatever you do, you should get involved directly in it. If we engage in the material ourselves, we end up becoming much more familiar with it and then we can do creative things with it.

8. You only know what you make.

Take time to flesh out some really complex terms or information (like transactional analysis), that you will not understand in the future. Go the extra mile when describing something in your notes so that your future self will understand what you meant by that term.

9. Make it easier for your future self.

Focus on the actual value of the information, and always try to apply, share, or turn that recently acquired material into something new. There is no point in having tons of useful stuff stored on your computer unless you're taking advantage of it.

10. Keep your ideas moving.

Hey friends, in this video I'll be going over the 10 principles of Building a Second Brain, a productivity system which changed my life completely. FREE RESOURCES Second Brain Week (Free Workshops) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_lzltvlhw/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y Tiago's Blog (where the bulk of the Second Brain material is available for free) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_cdjvlxv4/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y 00:00 Intro 01:20 Borrowed Creativity 02:12 The Capture Habit 03:18 Idea Recycling 04:22 Projects Over Categories 05:04 Slow Burns 06:50 Start With Abundance 07:59 Intermediate Packets 10:04 You Only Know What You Make 11:52 Make it Easier for Your Future Self 13:19 Keep Your Ideas Moving 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 🎬 YouTube for Beginners - Everything You Need To Know To Start - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/YouTube-for-Beginners MY CREATOR COURSES 🎬 Check out my free 7 day email course on how to become a part-time YouTuber: https://aliabdaal.com/part-time-youtuber-crash-course/ 🏆 Creatorpreneur - My flagship course for scaling up your creative side-hustle → https://creatorpreneur.academy/course 🗣 Camera Confidence - My self-paced course on how to improve your creativity, career, or communication skills → https://cameraconfidence.aliabdaal.com/ MY FAVOURITE GEAR 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) -https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 🎙 Check out my weekly podcast, Deep Dive - https://www.youtube.com/c/DeepDivewithAliAbdaal/ - It's also available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc. MY FAVOURITE TOOLS 🚀 VidIQ - How I optimise my YouTube videos - https://go.aliabdaal.com/vidiq ✍️ Shortform - The BEST summaries of books - https://go.aliabdaal.com/shortform 📚 Readwise - How I remember what I read - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Epidemic Sound - Where I get my music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound MY KEY LINKS 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com/ 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I’m Ali, a YouTuber, podcaster, soon-to-be author and ex-Doctor working in London, UK. I make videos that explore the strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. I also have a weekly podcast called Deep Dive (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfo46ZNOV-vtehDc25A1Ug), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets). PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

productivity

Productivity

podcasts

Podcasts

videos

Videos

Hey friends, in this video I'll be going over the 10 principles of Building a Second Brain, a productivity system which changed my life completely. 

FREE RESOURCES
Second Brain Week (Free Workshops) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_lzltvlhw/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y
Tiago's Blog (where the bulk of the Second Brain material is available for free) - https://learn.fortelabs.co/a/aff_cdjvlxv4/external?affcode=58608_oppk6o7y

00:00 Intro
01:20 Borrowed Creativity
02:12 The Capture Habit
03:18 Idea Recycling
04:22 Projects Over Categories
05:04 Slow Burns
06:50 Start With Abundance
07:59 Intermediate Packets
10:04 You Only Know What You Make
11:52 Make it Easier for Your Future Self
13:19 Keep Your Ideas Moving

💌  Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets

MY FREE ONLINE COURSES:
🚀  Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - 
 https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity
🎓  How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying
🎬 YouTube for Beginners - Everything You Need To Know To Start  - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/YouTube-for-Beginners

MY CREATOR COURSES
🎬 Check out my free 7 day email course on how to become a part-time YouTuber: https://aliabdaal.com/part-time-youtuber-crash-course/
🏆 Creatorpreneur - My flagship course for scaling up your creative side-hustle → https://creatorpreneur.academy/course
🗣 Camera Confidence - My self-paced course on how to improve your creativity, career, or communication skills → https://cameraconfidence.aliabdaal.com/

MY FAVOURITE GEAR
🎥  My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal
⌨️  My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) -https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard
📝  My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike
🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk

🎙 Check out my weekly podcast, Deep Dive - https://www.youtube.com/c/DeepDivewithAliAbdaal/ - It's also available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc.

MY FAVOURITE TOOLS
🚀 VidIQ - How I optimise my YouTube videos - https://go.aliabdaal.com/vidiq
✍️ Shortform - The BEST summaries of books - https://go.aliabdaal.com/shortform
📚  Readwise - How I remember what I read - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise
🎵  Epidemic Sound - Where I get my music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound

MY KEY LINKS
🌍  My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com/
🐦  Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
📸  Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal

WHO AM I:
I’m Ali, a YouTuber, podcaster, soon-to-be author and ex-Doctor working in London, UK. I make videos that explore the strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. I also have a weekly podcast called Deep Dive (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfo46ZNOV-vtehDc25A1Ug), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets).

PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

📚 Check out my first book Feel-Good Productivity here: https://www.feelgoodproductivity.com/

Hey, I'm Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity expert 😜 

On this channel, we explore evidence-based strategies and tools that can help us be more productive, and build a life that we love. 

If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing! See you in the next video x

Ali Abdaal

The Second Brain - A Life-Changing Productivity System

Creativity can be broken down into a process:<ol><li>Consume lots of sources</li><li>But no faster than you can reflect on them and take notes. It's pointless to consume a lot without reflecting because you don't learn anything.</li><li>Collect your notes in one place and organize them in collections around topics/questions/etc.</li><li>As your collections grow larger you'll see patterns in them and notice missing pieces. Identify a theme in one of your collections and write about it in an essay, blog post, note for yourself, or another creative output.</li></ol>

Reflect on what you consume to increase your creativity

There is no best way to reflect. Do whatever works for you depending on the content you consume, your mood, and how much time you have available:<ul><li>Write your opinion</li><li>Save a quote</li><li>Extract an important idea</li><li>Associate it with something you already know</li><li>Or a combination of all of the above</li></ul>Beware of wasting time trying to write the perfect notes or to synthesize everything that was said. Focus on writing good enough notes that you can come back to later.

Tips to reflect on what you consume

The trick to turning potential into productivity, @mhashemi says, is to distill it down into four stages: consume, critique, curate, create. Here's how:


Intentional creation

<ul><li>Improve information diet. You can add intentionality to your information consumption by asking yourself, "Can this be included in my newsletter?"</li><li>Build a habit of creating. Committing to a regular publishing schedule forces you to create on a consistent basis.</li><li>Collect your ideas in one place. Your newsletter becomes home to your ideas.</li><li>Repurpose content for social media. E.g. You can turn the main points in your newsletter into Twitter threads.</li><li>Find like-minded people. Sharing your thoughts online generates conversation and connections with people who resonate with your ideas.</li></ul>

Why write a newsletter?

<ul><li>Lower the stakes. If an email newsletter is scary, write a thread on Twitter every week. Prove to yourself that you can produce a collection of ideas and notes in under an hour.</li><li>Start writing to become more creative. Our best ideas come to us when writing. </li><li>Realize that playing small doesn't benefit anyone. Your readers benefit the most if they can learn from your ideas.</li><li>Connect with your "why". Why did you start writing in the first place?</li></ul>

How to overcome limiting beliefs

<ul><li>Increase consistency. Life circumstances and motivation vary every week. A system helps you be consistent despite these variations.</li><li>Increase efficiency. With practice, your system will help you create your newsletter in less than a few hours.</li><li>Avoid creator panic. You'll always know where your next idea is coming from.</li></ul>

Why you need a content creation system

Like a restaurant, the system has 4 components:<ul><li>Menus (topics)</li><li>Ingredients (ideas)</li><li>Staff (distribution system)</li><li>Reviews (audience feedback)</li></ul>

John Nicholas' Content Creation System

This is where you set up your menu:<ul><li>What topics resonate with you?</li><li>What do you want to serve your readers?</li></ul> You can pick several topics and organize them into "modules" or sections of your newsletter. With modules, you:<ul><li>Create awareness for capturing information. If you don’t know what meal you are cooking, you won't know which ingredients to collect.</li><li>Create consistency. Your readers know what to expect from you each week. There is room for experimentation, but stick to your broad niche. Nobody likes a mixed kitchen (burgers, pasta, fish).</li></ul>

1. What do you want to write about?

For example, James Clear's 3-2-1 Thursdays has 3 modules:<ul><li>3 ideas from him</li><li>2 thoughts from others</li><li>1 question for the reader</li></ul> Tip: Limit yourself to 3 - 5 modules.<ul><li>Save yourself time each week</li><li>Prevents audience overwhelm</li></ul>

Ideas & Tips for Deciding on Newsletter Modules

As you consume information, look out for ideas that <ol><li>resonate with you, or</li><li>can go into your newsletter</li></ol> When capturing ideas, write a brief description of:<ul><li>why this idea resonated with you, or </li><li>why it could help someone</li></ul>This helps you pull yourself back into the frame of mind you had during the idea capture. The note can also slot straight into your newsletter when you share the idea.

2. Find ideas for your newsletter

Set constraints to make your newsletter enjoyable for your readers and yourself. For example:<ul><li>Length: Your readers are busy, so keep your newsletter under a certain word count. This also means you don't have to write too much.</li><li>Cadence: Stick to a publishing schedule that's sustainable and non-spammy. From this schedule, backsolve when you want a first draft done.</li><li>"Table of Contents" section: Allows readers to choose which modules they want to engage with each week. Also acts as an outline that you can easily fill in.</li></ul>

3. Write the newsletter

<ul><li>Email your subscribers. They've already opted into receiving your content.</li><li>Post on social media. Repurpose your newsletter content for easy consumption on other platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)</li></ul>

4. Distribute the newsletter

<ul><li>Always encourage your subscribers to reply to you</li><li>Your subscribers and followers will point out what resonated with them and what didn’t (silence is also a form of feedback)</li><li>Use replies and comments to generate new ideas</li></ul> For example, when people ask you questions about your process e.g. how you script a YouTube video, the answer you give them can become another newsletter issue.

5. Get and act on feedback

A nice analogy for creating your content flywheel.

Run Your Newsletter Like a Restaurant

Whatever it is you are pursuing, whatever it is you are seeking, whatever it is you are creating, be careful not to quit too soon. As my friend Pastor Rob Bell warns: “Don’t rush through the experiences and circumstances that have the most capacity to transform you.”

Life is a labyrinth where an end could be a beginning or there could be multiple paths to reach a particular point. The universe has hidden deep jewels within us and the hunt that we must embark on to uncover those hidden jewels is called creative living. The result of that hunt is what is called ‘Big Magic’

'Big Magic'

<ol><li>Courage</li><li>Enchantment</li><li>Permission</li><li>Persistence</li><li>Trust.</li></ol>

Elements of Creativity 

Fear is boring in the sense that it manifests in the same way every day. There is no variety to it. It never changes or isn’t able to spark any interest or delight. Once we understand the true nature of fear we don’t need to be afraid anymore. We must cultivate the courage to embark on creative journey by making space for fear. Courage is not fearlessness i.e the absence of fear but rather living alongside fear by making space for it to exist but never let it take the driving seat.

Courage.

As per Gilbert, the universe is inhabited not just by humans ,animals but also ideas. These ideas are conscious and have a will be manifested by collaborating with a human. These ideas come in the form of an inspiration and if they are not tapped into they fade away and look for another human for manifestation.

How Ideas Work?

<ul><li>You don’t need anyone’s permission to live creatively. Why do you seek permission? You are entitled to live a life the way you want. You have the right to assert yourself just because you are born and alive.</li><li>The creative endeavour should not be to help others but to help one’s own self. It’s also okay to not have any motive whatsoever.</li><li>The paradox of creativity is that we need to make art as the most important thing that we do but at the same time it shouldn’t matter to us way too much. Make space in your life for this paradox to happily exist.</li></ul>

Permission

<ul><li>There is no age limit when you can make a start at something. As long as you stick around the different phases (frustration and disappointment) of the creative process you are fine. You are learning.</li><li>There is never going to be enough time and resources to make art possible but one needs to take that time out and work on their creative pursuits.</li><li>Fall in love with your creativity and you will find/make time for it.</li><li>Make your self look presentable to attract and invite creativity.</li><li>Perfection is the enemy of the good. Don’t hold yourself back because one is not perfect. Embrace imperfections.</li></ul>

Persistence.

Gives me an insight into the creative process and what it takes to make art 🎨

The instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller "A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life... I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar From the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of. Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Big Magic

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