Every morning I sit down at my desk to write.
Not an essay or a thread or a tweet. But just for myself. Writing helps me think, formulate ideas, & understand the world. And my writing inbox is the first place I start each day.
I collect notes all day every day. From things I've consumed to things I'm thinking about. All these get dumped into my writing inbox to go through later. Don't overthink this, tag them, put them in a list or a database. Just make it easy to find them again.
Every morning I open my writing inbox first thing, take the first note at the top of the list and start writing. I think, expand on the idea and formulate it into a 'permanent note' that then lives in my slip box somewhere. I don't think headlines or structures. It's pure idea formulation.
Once the first note is done I'll scan through the list for others that catch my interest and repeat the process. I like to start with the top note because it gets me in the flow without thinking and then as I follow my interests the momentum keeps flowing.
I'll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour just writing these idea notes. And It's usually very likely that an idea for an essay or a tweet or a thread will pop up in which I'll put that into my shipping inbox to explore later.
Having these notes makes it infinitely easier to write performative pieces because the idea is already formed, and I can focus on things like headlines, the structure of writing and all those things that make a good essay or thread or article.
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