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[[Writing]] has become my passion over time; I have built a whole company based on technical writing services (even though most say that’s impossible). After doing it for 11 years publicly (much longer privately), I still enjoy it every day. If I could have one dream, I’d probably imagine the book-author lifestyle, where I go to a faraway place or island and just write in my journal, articles from my vast notes system (~3 million words, or 2-3 books.

But also, I wanted to have a medium to express [[My Terminal Workflow with MacOS and Linux|my workflow]], discuss how others write, and learn even more. It’s truly an art form and a craft to write, at least it is to me. It’s not something you just sit down and do for 5 hours (as my upcoming guest liked to say). It’s essentially your life. You observe, you find things to write about, you get angry, you find a cool hack, you create a story. It’s all of it! And you can’t plan it.

Some days you write 2-3 articles/notes in parallel; other weeks you write none at all. And then the imposter syndrome. Everything you write is public. My writing process is usually:

1. Ohh this is so great, this is so interesting, I’m looking forward to sharing
2. Next day: oh what’s that, this is crap, why should I publish this?
3. Then the loss of motivation: the hard part. When you need to make it work, you change, but it’s not right. You change again, you get feedback, you change. And eventually you see the light and can say, OK, yes, this is good!

Writing really is an emotional rollercoaster, and it’s been that way with all the articles I have written. Less so with the notes on my second brain, there I’m less “storytelling”, but more like “curating facts”.

So long story short, yes, this is what my new show is all about: «Show Your Workflow». I hope you like it. Subscribe if you haven’t already to get the next one, if that is something that interests you.

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Above written is the writer flow at a high level, and how I experience it most of the time. Here I share writing process over time as I have documented that over time. Each part is similar in a way, but also holds some different key pieces and determined how I wrote at that time. These are rather raw [[journaling|journals]], but maybe interesting to see.

My writing process as of 2025-10-23

I start thinking, I write, outline, and, very importantly, I stop. I sleep, I go into [[nature]], I just let it sit.

After coming back, I write some more. Then again, I talk to people and anyone about the topic, and I brainstorm with AI. And I write some more.

All happens in markdown ([[Obsidian]] for me), and I’m constantly changing titles, adding new ones, and reorganizing.

The flow does feel off. I start restructuring again. The key point for me is that when I begin merging related topics, sometimes similar, and putting the essential message further up.

Sometimes I write an intro, add some context, and include some relevant info. I’m adding more insights. And the most important one that I wanted to talk about is very far down.

Now that I’m at the point where the main content will be naturally moved up, I’m deleting or removing content. This is when it will start to feel cohesive. The reading flow starts to make sense. And from there, I just keep putting it together, making the reading flow perfectly.

Each chapter already has tons of notes, links, and insights, so finishing a first draft from here is usually easy and exciting.

Once I have a draft, I fix grammar with Claude Code and get feedback now, requesting very high-level feedback. Before I do another major rework, bring a great first draft. Go over 3-5 more times. I will notice how my changes are getting smaller and smaller until I know deep in my [[Gut Feeling|gut]] it’s ready.

A trick I learned—about deleting writing

It was always hard for me to cut out my hard-earned content. So I discovered a trick.

By just adding a # Take Out chapter at the end of each article, it tricks my brain into thinking: “it’s not deleted”, “I can get it back”, and this way it’s much easier to take out writing than to delete hard-earned hours on a paragraph.

My Writing from as of 2025-09-17

My process of writing is in two phases and the [[My Distraction-Free Typewriter (Micro Journal)|distraction-free typewriter]] helps me with the writing phase a lot in the first writing phase:

1. Outlining

• this is just exploring, listing (!! this is key)
• and write anything that comes to mind, no matter how good, or the other it fits in
• then I have my [[Second Brain]] with ExcaliBrain and Graph view with backlinks that give me interesting insight which notes might link or are related. I like Graph Analysis (Today [[Obsidian Smart Connections]]). This will give me many related ideas that the plugin finds via embedding, locally, without AI. Gives me ideas through the connections that I otherwise wouldn’t have.
• All of this usually happens on my laptop with [[Obsidian]].

2. Writing phase

• Nowadays, as I have the [[My Distraction-Free Typewriter (Micro Journal)]] device, I will commit that state to the private GitHub repo, and pull it on my micro journal. After that, I’m offline, only with these ideas and my backlinks, and I’m trying to figure it out.
  • The Micro Journal has allowed me to think more, take a break, and focus for hours on writing, instead of constant distraction writing at the computer
• A key here is also the [[Markdown]] format: I can simply move stuff around without losing formatting or anything else.
• sometimes I copy existing paragraphs from my [[Second Brain]] that I have written before.

Finalizing

3. After a while, I sit back and review.
4. Write more…
5. Get a mental breakdown as I think all I have written is so bad.
6. Next day, change the flow, use AI to help me with the reading structure, maybe heading names.
7. Finalize, edit, grammar check.
8. Publish.

That’s my workflow for writing an article. There are other [[Type of Notes]] that can be written and other [[Type of Notetakers]]. Which might help to organize your knowledge.

I think it’s important to have a place where you store your knowledge (notes from books, insights you read online, ideas, etc.) that can help you when you write too.

My Writing Process as of 2022-08-19

Write at least two crappy pages a day. The writing is in fact re-writing. A process of reviewing:

• first-round review for yourself, what you like
• the second one do it for your fans
• third for your critics, what they might come up with (bad) and improve

Then questions / proof-reading:

• look for confusing stuff, that should not be in there (if unsure or in doubt: take it out!)
• What are 10% that you would cut if you had to? Or what are 10% that you will keep for sure

And again, the [[Writing is Thinking]]!

I also like to write about things I don’t know, like Morgan Housel discussed in his interview with David Perell. It’s following my curiosity. First, I will learn something ([[Learn for Life]]), I will get [[Clarity]], and it’s interesting. This kind of flow or fun to write, will translate to the reader too.
according to David: laughter is the sound of comprehension. It’s when you get an idea, when it clicks or you make a connection. Happens to me when I find new insight while writing the second brain, I’ll smile.

My writing process initially documented

I always need to remind myself:

[[Writing is hard]]. It’s easy to start, hard to finish. You get stuck, you have a blockage, your creativity is low, you get interrupted, and you lose confidence in your writing. Reminding myself that the first 10 minutes are the hardest and envisioning the end product keeps me motivated.

Writing Phase

This is what brought me to writing. To release my thoughts ([[Brain Dump]]), make my brain accessible for more, and be creative. I like to brainstorm, change, delete, add, research, and do the thinking while writing. When writing on a computer, I can do it almost at the speed of my thinking; I do not lose thoughts as I would when writing on paper ([[Digital vs Paper]]). I can stop at any given time and come back, as all the thinking is written down. As well, I love the editing part. Making it better, finding correlations, and things I wouldn’t have expected before.

But before getting into the editing phase, during the initial phase, when drafting or coming up with the content itself, I try to get into distraction-free [[Deep Work|Flow]]. Long chunks of uninterrupted time, Cal Newport talks about [[Deep Work]] in his book.

Editing Phase

Usually, editing is when I learn the most, but at the same time, it’s also the most challenging step. I will get into a [[Writers Block]] and want to start a new thing instead. But by switching between [[Creativity vs Productivity]] or just going into nature with my thoughts and nothing else, usually one of them helps. Or if not, I leave it for a couple of days, weeks, or months and come back another time. Keeping the [[Ultradian Rhythm]] in mind also helps overcome the initial hardest ten minutes.

When I let the writing stay for a while, that typically leads to better quality because when I come back, I have new insight and might delete or change existing thoughts. The longer the wait, the more insightful that note will get. Therefore, I prefer to keep it slow. In the end, the reader will not mind if you spend one day or three months on an article; he appreciates it if the reader flow is good and he can learn. At least that is my goal as a writer: to give readers some learning.

Writing doesn’t always need to be about an article. You can just put some thought, [[Journaling]], or something you learned or find interesting, into a note. Save it for later. You mostly don’t need the thing you just knew at that moment. Something you find interesting today is doubtful to be of value right now. But maybe, in two years from now.

[!quote] David Perell

Writing is so painful when you write about something you do not care about and so blissful when you write with your [[Principles]] aligned. Writing from a blank page reveals the true things you deeply care about. YouTube with Paul Millerd

This last initial process was is shared as part of On Writing note.

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