✍️🧠 How to use your notes for writing

Our notes are the best place to do serious writing.

When we write, we are simply putting our thinking onto a page. If our note-taking systems and workflows can improve the way we think, they can also improve the way we write.

This quick guide will show you how to make writing in your notes easier, faster and much more fun.

We’ll cover:

• How to build a simple content management system (CMS) in your notes.

• A frictionless process for turning your thoughts and ideas into articles.

• How to use AI to take the admin load off of the writing process.

#️⃣ Part 1: Turning your notes into a CMS using tags

Tags are a handy tool for tracking different note types. We can use this directly to track the writing pieces we are working on at each stage, from idea to completion.

Step 1: Add an #articleidea tag.

When you have an idea for a new article, add an #articleidea tag to your daily note with the concept and project it relates to.

For example, I might say #articleidea for [[samclaassen.com]]. You’ll notice my personal website is backlinked. That way, I know which project the article idea pertains to.

If you already have some ideas around what details to include in the piece, jot those down as well. Otherwise, just capture the concept so you don’t forget it.

When you are ready to write something, pull up that tag to see the list of writing ideas you’ve collected, but haven’t yet started on.

Step 2: Change #articleidea to #articledraft when you start writing.

When you start writing an article, change the #articleidea tag to an #articledraft tag. This marks the draft as a work in progress.

Similar to step one, you can then pull up a list of the articles you are actively working on, but aren't yet finished with. Remember to keep the backlink so you know what project the draft is for.

Step 3: Change #articledraft to #finishedarticle when done.

As soon as you feel happy with your article, do one final tag change to #finishedarticle. That way you know it’s complete and ready to publish.

Depending on what you do with your articles after they are finished, you might choose to add one additional tag, like #published.

✍️ Part 2: A writing workflow you’ll be excited to use

A lot of people fail to write and publish as much as they want to. It's hard to start with a blank page, and steps like editing and spell checking can be cumbersome.

Here is a process you can use that is fast, fun and still has you doing 100% of the actual writing.

Step 1: Transcribe your thoughts via an audio note.

Once you know what you want to write about, transcribe an audio note with all of the information, insights, and points you want to make.

They don't have to be organized or in order. Just start rambling and regurgitate everything your brain is holding on that topic.

It's usually best to do this while walking around outside or even taking a shower. Choose wherever you do your best thinking, but try to record as soon as inspiration strikes.

Step 2: Organize the transcription into key takeaways.

Once you're confident you have transcribed most of your thoughts around the topic, run an AI prompt on the transcription that organizes it into key takeaways. This prompt is built into Reflect’s AI assistant.

Next you can either order them manually yourself, or ask AI to order them for you so that the article has a nice flow. Likely, you'll want to use a combination of these two techniques.

You could of course have AI generate a full article outline for you, although this tends to come with more errors and you'll have to do more editing. A simple key takeaway list often works much better.

Step 3: Write your article around the talking points.

You now have a very basic outline to write off of. You might choose to “write” by typing manually, or you can try speaking your writing out-loud with the transcriber.

Transcribing is often faster and sounds more natural. Just note that if you transcribe your writing it might end up more verbose than your typed writing otherwise would.

Step 4: Use AI to improve your writing.

Once you have finished writing your draft, you'll need to do some copy editing, as well as fix things like grammar, spelling and typos. Reflect has these prompts built in directly as well.

You can also get fancy with some custom prompts that improve the authority of your writing.

Some examples:

• Find any logical holes and counter-arguments.

• Fact check your writing.

• Add research that backs up your arguments.

• Re-write sections you don’t like in a different tone of voice.

• Translate your writing into other languages.

You can copy custom prompts for all of the above from this spreadsheet.