"The Golden Circle Presentation: A Guide to Writing Online and Capturing Ideas"

"The Golden Circle Presentation: A Guide to Writing Online and Capturing Ideas"

For the first time in my life, I made use of the information I consumed. The friends I made shared my obsession with ideas. As I published, I realized that everything I wrote was a magnet to attract opportunities that felt like magic in the moment. Five years later, I can say that writing on the Internet is among the best life decisions I’ve made. The 90 minutes I spend writing every morning is my most important habit and the activation code for just about everything good that happens to me.

Writing in Public is the art of broadcasting your ideas to the Internet so you become a beacon for people, opportunities, and serendipity. The game of online writing rewards people who publish consistently. Though frequency is the price of entry, quality writing is a force multiplier on your success. If your ideas resonate, the number of opportunities available to you will explode. So, write consistently and frequently.

Writing from Abundance is the art of collecting ideas so you can think better and avoid writer’s block. Effective ambient research happens when you capture the best ideas you consume, the epiphanies you have, and the things you’ve already written to friends and colleagues. By saving articles to an app and refusing to instantly read things you come across on the Internet, you raise the bar for what grabs your attention. With a Read-it-Later app, whenever you sit down to read, you have hundreds of articles to choose from. You can allocate your attention to the best one. The clarity of memory decays quickly, so we shouldn’t just save other people’s ideas. We should save our own ideas too. Until we have a central place to capture our best thinking, the joy of epiphany will turn into the anxiety of forgetfulness. Chances are, you’re already generating ideas. You just don’t realize it yet. Note-taking works best when the ideas are saved in a central location that contains the best reading and thinking you’ve ever done. The easier it is to search those notes, the faster you’ll be able to find them. So, have a central note-taking system.

Every great writer obsessively curates their information diet. They rightfully know that high-quality writing begins with good taste for what you consume. It’s easier to have unique ideas when you read things other people don’t. Find people whose recommendations you consistently enjoy and subscribe to their newsletters. It’s not enough just to binge eBooks and list a stat on your website. You should save the best parts of what you read, so you can easily reference them later. Uniqueness comes from ideas that other people don't know.

We’re trapped in a Never-Ending Now — blind to history, engulfed in the present moment, overwhelmed by the slightest breeze of chaos. Here’s the bottom line: You should prioritize the accumulated wisdom of humanity over what’s trending on Twitter. Study the writing practices of history’s top writers and you may be surprised by how many kept a commonplace book. A commonplace book is a central place where you can save ideas, quotes, epiphanies, photos, drawings, and whatever else you want to remember. So long as (1) you can capture ideas quickly, and (2) all those ideas go into the same place, you’re setting yourself up to Write from Abundance. It doesn’t really matter what note-taking app you use.

Being a writer doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice huge swaths of your life. You don’t need to bunker down in a library for days straight in order to find inspiration. You already consume media, have thoughts, and write ideas in group chats. When you practice the habit of capturing what’s already happening, you’ll find that you have all the material you need to start writing.

Incorporating these practices into your writing routine can significantly enhance your productivity and creativity. Here are three actionable pieces of advice to help you get started:

1. Write consistently and frequently. The more you write, the better you become at expressing your ideas and attracting opportunities.

2. Have a central note-taking system. Capture your epiphanies, save the best quotes you read, and jot down ideas that resonate with you. This will ensure that you have a bank of inspiration to draw from when you sit down to write.

3. Prioritize the accumulated wisdom of humanity. Read things that others don't, curate your information diet, and save the best parts of what you consume. This will help you develop unique ideas and stand out in the crowded online writing space.

In conclusion, writing online and capturing ideas go hand in hand. By writing consistently, building a bank of inspiration through note-taking, and prioritizing unique and valuable information, you can become a successful online writer. So, start implementing these practices today and watch your writing career flourish.