Hello!

You're reading Systems Saturday, the weekly email with realistic tactics to be creatively productive.

Today, a behind the scenes of my current writing process, aiming at writing fast, but also producing original insights.

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Recently, I made a couple of changes to my writing process that make me feel more productive, give me more satisfaction, and are hopefully improving the quality of my ideas. I’m also regularly using AI, not to generate content, but to save time in a way I’ll show you in a minute.

I think you can get some productivity-enhancing ideas from my process. Let me share it with you.

Idea generation

This is the obvious first step. I’ve been collected article ideas in my Notion dashboard for years. Now the process is a bit more complicated, but leads to more original insights.

I learned from Eve Chapman to differentiate between content ideas and what she calls "Sparks," ideas that need further exploration.

I've been creating content for 14 years, my mind thinks in terms of blog posts, newsletter issues and YouTube videos. It sees reality from my audience's perspective. I always saved ideas like headlines, such as "12 Ways to Reclaim Time for Writing."

But not all ideas are ready to be turned into an article, a short post, or a video. Sometimes an idea is simply something that clicks, an intriguing insight. In this case, it's wrong to immediately constrain it into a piece of content. We have to give it the space to expand and realize its full potential.

So now, I still have “ready-to-go” article or video ideas that go directly into my Notion content dashboard. But I also save sparks in a separate database.

Then, depending on the kind of idea, the process unfolds in two different ways. Sparks need more work, so let’s start from them.

Spark exploration

I dedicate some time a few days each week to exploring Sparks:

• I take an idea from the Spark database,
• then think freely about it—why it interests me, how it connects to other thoughts I have, the pros and cons, how to view it from other perspectives, etc.

This is where AI is helping me. Instead of writing down my reflections, I talk them out loud. I use AudioPen.ai on my smartphone to transcribe them. What does make it special?

The transcription is flawless, for starters. It also adds punctuation, separates the paragraphs, fixes mistakes. But the fixes don’t lose the meaning of the text.

I always do this while walking. So, I can combine a healthy habit with a productively creative habit.

At this point, I have a thorough exploration of a spark that is usually over 1000 words long. Sometimes it’s almost ready to become an article, other times it needs some revision.

It’s an additional step, slower than just tackling the first interesting headline I see in my idea database, as I did in the past. But the goal is not to churn out an article at all costs. It’s producing something deep and original.

Outlining

Outlines prevent rambling. I spoke to many writers who can never finish a draft because they open too many tangents.

My outlines are indented bullet lists, showing the structure of the article and what goes in every section. I decide what to include in the article at this stage.

When I start from a clear article idea, I can create an outline from the top of my head in about 15 minutes. Sometimes, I write mega guides (15 minutes long), that take about 30 minutes to outline. Like this one: This Simple, Proven Method Enables Me to Create Courses at Warp Speed.

If I start from the transcribed reflection about a spark, I sometimes use Audiopen to extract the outline. Other times, I do it manually. But a human intervention is always necessary, because I need to remove, rearrange or merge parts.

Drafting

AI comes handy again, here. Instead of typing the draft, I dictate it:

• I open the outline in Notion,
• open Audiopen,
• wear one bluetooth earbud,
• go outside,
• dictate while I walk.

This produces a much better result than other speech-to-text tools I've used in the past (even professional ones). I don't have to dictate punctuation, new lines, etc. Paragraphs and bullet lists need to be changed during revision, but it's minor work.

And there’s another major benefit for English as a second language writers like me: I dictate in Italian. AudioPen takes care of the translation. The outcome is faithful to the original, but it’s not a literal translation. Sometimes it’s a bit formal, but it sounds fluent.

The draft takes between 15 minutes and half an hour. I transfer the transcribed text to Notion and then move on to editing.

Editing

This is the longest step. I rarely spend less than 2 hours editing an article. I improve the flow, find stronger words, increase conciseness. Sometimes I add examples, metaphors, or anecdotes that didn't come to mind while writing the article.

During editing, I no longer use AudioPen, but I often turn the AI chatbot Microsoft Copilot. It provides limited but free access to GPT-4. I use it to do to things such as finding examples, better ways to put sentences to achieve specific effects, or metaphors. It also gives me editorial feedback.

AI doesn’t help me save time at this step. Actually, it lengthens the process, because I ask for its additional “opinion”. But if I’m not satisfied or stuck, it often gives me useful hints. And as a non-native writer, it increases my confidence.

What do you think?

I’m not sharing this as “the best” workflow. I’m sharing it to inspire you.

Take any part that made you curious and test it. It could be collecting and reflecting on sparks, or adopting Audiopen.ai.

I hope you try something because increased productivity means more time to spend on what you love.

Let me know how it went!

The links to Audiopen are affiliate links.

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If you like these tips, you'll love my personalized help. For a limited time, I’m offering free 30-minute calls to my email subscribers to discuss their content creation struggles. Book yours here.

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Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Alberto