Sharing Outline

• http://randsinrepose.com/archives/how-to-write-a-book/
  • TextEdit, seeing the paper on the floor
• http://www.alexstrick.com/a-different-place/2014/10/note-taking-jujitsu-or-how-i-make-sense-of-what-i-read awolfson0 Devonthink outline Tinderbox, map
• Also, Scrivener?
  • http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2009/08/scrivener-a-perfect-program-for-dissertation-writing/; outline, drafts, compiling
• digital reading list http://profoundreading.com/discoverability/
  • context, helpfulness, intelligence, simplicity

content outlines, transforming outline, another example

https://twitter.com/awolfson0/status/540626036837208065

https://twitter.com/awolfson0/status/540626036837208065

This outline can be found at http://sach.ac/outline#learning-workflow

• Types of learning/sharing (hmm, move this into separate post, although it's useful to keep goals in mind as you learn)
  • Why keep goals in mind?
    • Choose appropriate techniques
    • Avoid going down the rabbit-hole
  • Request: questions, troubleshooting, feedback
    • Keep track of who requested it
  • Exploration: planning, learning
    • Imagine success and test your goals
    • Figure out steps to take
    • Get feedback on plans
      • Small experiments
      • People
  • Discovery: blog posts, news, new library acquisitions, etc.
    • Old blogs are useful too
• Planning (could use a separate blog post for this one too)
  • What do I want to learn?
  • How can I learn it?
  • Requests
• Input
  • Internet
  • Books
  • Troubleshooting
  • Exploration
  • Feedback
  • Old notes
  • I speed-read, so it's easy for me to filter through Google search results, books, etc.
• Taking notes
  • I structure my notes around how I share (categories, etc.)
  • Notes at my computer
    • Large text file managed with Org Mode in Emacs
      • Easy to add source code snippets or links to additional resources
    • On the web, I use Evernote Web Clipper + tags
      • Mostly as a way of being able to find things again with search, and to save pages even if they go away
    • Big outline - http://sach.ac/outline
      • Categories
      • Sometimes I add notes about my Evernote items (otherwise it's easy to lose stuff)
    • Quick notes for weekly reviews
  • Private notes
    • At clients: text file on the work computers
    • My other organizer files (ex: organizer.org, business.org, cooking.org, and so on)
  • Sketchnotes
    • Stored in Evernote and on my blog
    • See http://sach.ac/sketchnote-handbook and http://sach.ac/category/drawing for more tips
  • Book notes
    • Drawn
    • Written
    • Dictated
    • Scanned
• Outlining and integrating
  • Taking notes lets you learn over time
  • Adding links to previous posts that I remember
  • Looking at the suggested similar posts
  • Updating my index - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3968124/blog.html
    • Easier than Wordpress categories for me
    • Lets me notice when I've written a lot about a single topic
  • Planning ahead
• Sharing
  • Part of the learning process for me
    • I try to share as much as possible of what I learn, because otherwise I'll forget within a year
  • What to use when
    • Blog posts for searchability
    • Sketchnotes for shareability, or to make things friendlier
    • Tweets for short tips (also include in quick notes for weekly review)
  • Transforming my notes (see )
  • Sometimes series of posts
• Next steps for me
  • Get better at re-ordering notes and filling in the gaps
  • Learn more about coaching and delegation as ways of speeding up my learning/sharing
  • Reorganize my index so that it's less chronological; suggest reading order?
  • Spend more time on editing, revising, and integrating so that the posts are even more useful

Requested by @gozes https://twitter.com/sachac/status/380763070382866432

:Effort: 1:00

• Bottleneck is not typing
  • http://sachachua.com/blog/2012/05/quantified-awesome-blogging-wpm-and-the-speed-of-reflection/
• Learning more effectively by exploring various unknowns
• Connecting to previous thoughts and covering more ground
• Making personal blogs useful for other people

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkotler/2013/07/03/learning-to-learn-faster-part-ii/2/

• Currently type ~108wpm on Dvorak
  • Type faster and rely on autocorrect and editing to fix errors?
  • Use speech recognition?
    • Easiest startup, extra benefits for dictating book notes and transcribing my own stuff
    • Highest frustration
  • Learn Colemak for same-hand optimization?
    • Closest to Dvorak in terms of how I use my computer
    • Because it's close, I get the most confusion; sigmoid curve?
    • Colemak FAQ says stick with Dvorak if you're already happy with it
    • Maybe I should play with this incremental approach? http://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=1684
    • Hah, maybe I should see about making my Dvorak home row close to
    • Big selling point of Colemak: similar to QWERTY, common shortcuts stay the same.
      • Emacs has different shortcuts anyway
      • and I've gotten used to where things are
      • and also, normal Ctrl-x, Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v suck because you get tempted to do them on the same hand
    • No
  • Learn Plover (stenography) and much higher WPM?
    • My keyboard doesn't handle some of the chords well
    • Phonetic, so…
  • Draw pictures instead (work on getting even better at communicating concisely?)
  • Bottleneck is not typing speed; improve thinking speed somehow?
• Three cases
  • Outlining
    • Uses a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so Dvorak or Colemak would be better than Plover or speech recognition
    • Pictures - mindmap?
      • Computer
      • Paper
  • Turning an outline into a blog post
    • Current workflow involves a lot of editing and deleting, so speech recognition and Plover are less useful
    • Speech/Plover might be more useful if I'm typing into a separate buffer
  • Capturing notes from books (quotes, outlines)
• Decision
  • Focus on improving speech recognition accuracy by dictating book notes
  • Try more tweaks to current keyboard layout (ex: mapping left control to Backspace)
  • Experiment with using speech recognition to draft e-mails and blog posts
  • Revisit Plover after speech recognition is part of my workflow (or shelved)
  • Revisit Colemak after Plover is part of my workflow (or shelved)

Lower-priority: I can wait until it seems more likely that my balance will change, or I can transform this into a post about blog role models and getting closer

• Good balance
• What kind of balance do I want to have?
• I'm thinking about this because this balance might change
• As an introvert, I don't want to impose on other people
  • I'm somewhat okay with blog reading being completely voluntary
  • This is why I haven't gotten around to e-mail newsletters yet, even though reading is voluntary too.
  • Maybe I don't have to?
• I want most of my posts to be useful.
• I don't want to be generic. What's the point of writing something you could just find on Lifehacker? So I tell stories about what I'm learning.
• What I want to avoid:
  • Article mills
  • Me-me-me-blah-blah-blah
• But there are good examples
  • Lifehacker tends to be impersonal
  • The Simple Dollar is a little closer to the impersonal side of things, but is sprinkled with personal stories
  • Penelope Trunk and Mel Chua write more personally than I do
    • What makes their blogs feel more personal?
      • Penelope Trunk writes about more stresses and difficulties.
    • Mel's writing communicates her excitement and passion
  • Mr. Money Mustache is a great mix of useful + personal.

Also, another note from 2004: My notes were shorter and more plentiful back when I didn't think of it as a blog, just my notebook. That could be handy to bring back. But I like the depth of exploring an idea in a longer post, and I like the way sketches help me build up to more complex ideas too. Perhaps a tidbits category that's not included in the stream, a combination of a web log and features à la BoingBoing (although not as awesome)? One thing I've learned in the past ten years is that if it isn't public, it's hard to remember or keep.

• I want pages to show up in categories too

• Benjamin Franklin
• Witty sayings

• Sales

  from: Timothy Kenny nudge

http://sach.ac/outline#blogging-skills

Here's my evolving break-down of blogging-related skills, including notes for future blog posts. I'm currently working on getting better at outlining (from high-level down to chunks of ~100 words) and synthesizing (especially combining other people's insights with my experiences). I'm using this outline to think of ways to deliberately practise certain aspects of blogging, to plan posts that will help people learn, and to clarify what I would like to delegate to assistants or work with coaches for.

See also

• Manage your time and energy
  • How to find/make time to write - this is well-covered by other posts https://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+find+time++to+write - well-covered
  • Take advantage of small chunks of time - See also http://sach.ac/outline#blog-short
  • Regularly set aside some time in your schedule
    • Do your writing first, before you do e-mail. more
    • Try doing this really early in the morning or late at night, when there are fewer demands on your time. (4 AM? 11 PM?) more
    • Schedule time blocks and make steady progress. more
    • Set a timer and stay in the chair
      • Consider the Pomodoro technique http://www.thedailymuse.com/career/the-secrets-to-staying-productive-when-you-have-a-big-project/
    • Don't break the chain more
  • Don't beat yourself up about it - more
  • Write on the go
    • Smartphone
      • Capture notes more
      • Read and learn more
      • Get feedback from social networks more
    • Audio recordings can help you get a lot down more
    • Notebook or index cards more
  • Take care of yourself
    • Eat well, exercise, and take care of yourself. more
• Plan what to write
  • more: list, more: another list, more: yet another list
  • Brainstorm ideas to explore or questions to answer
  • Outline topic more, more (with fractals!)
  • Choose a subtopic for a blog post more, more
  • Ask for and respond to requests
  • Brainstorm follow-up topics for future posts more
  • Follow up on past entries
  • Review your metrics more
  • Make creative associations more
  • Check out related blogs more
  • Collect questions and ideas from other sources
    • Internet: blogs, forums, Q&A sites more
    • Life more
    • Publications more
  • Research keywords , more more
  • Test ideas on Twitter or other networks in order to get different perspectives and check for resonance
  • Set up editorial calendar so that people know when to come back for content more
• Research
  • Identify good blog posts and articles to refer to
  • Identify good books to read
  • Identify full-text research papers
  • Take notes
    • Summarize a blog post or article
    • Summarize a book
    • Summarize a research paper
    • Organize notes for easy reference
  • Synthesize information
    • http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/09/20/plagiarism/
    • Make an outline or list more
    • Compare viewpoints and line up arguments for alternatives
    • Wrap up with a conclusion or summary
    • Avoid plagiarism
      • Cite sources
      • Indicate quotations
• Write
  • Brainstorm titles more, more (fill in the blanks)
  • Choose a format more
  • Draft blog post based on outline
  • Draft blog post starting with an idea or a question
  • Write a technical post
    • Explain how something works
    • Share trouble-shooting experiences
    • Teach people about a useful feature
  • Write about news and other topical events
  • Write a list post
  • Write a debate post
  • Write a summary post that links to several articles
  • Write a link round-up
  • Ask a question or run a poll more,
  • Plan longer articles more
  • Find and share interesting things
    • Role model: Boingboing
  • Share personal stories
    • Role models: Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk, Mel Chua
  • Set up experiments and share experiences
    • Role models: A.J. Jacobs
  • Share resources that other people might not have access to (ex: summarize a book or presentation)
  • Write a business post
    • Help people identify a need for your services
    • Help people make better use of your services
    • Share complementary services or tips
• Format your post
  • http://www.problogdesign.com/blog-usability/30-ways-to-improve-readability/
  • Break post into paragraphs and lists
  • Emphasize key points
  • Add relevant hyperlinks
  • Package as PDF or other resources
• Make posts more engaging
  • Choose stock photo or illustration, and attribute it properly - post
    • Modify the image and make a title more
  • Add relevant quotes or epigraphs more more
    • Watch out for frequently mis-attributed quotes
  • Draw an illustration
  • Make a short presentation
  • Make a short animation
  • Record a podcast
  • Record video
• Proofread and revise
  • Strengthen first paragraph (you-focus, question or contradiction, promise)
  • Strengthen last paragraph (conclusion, call to action, question)
  • Read post out loud
  • Check if the post answers a question or addresses a need
  • Check if the post makes sense
  • Determine what can be removed from a post
  • Determine what needs to be added to a post
• Revisit old posts to see how they can be improved
  • Update old posts
    • http://www.blogherald.com/2007/08/21/cleaning-up-old-posts-the-gateway-to-your-blog/
  • Link to old posts
    • http://www.blogherald.com/2007/06/26/seo-tips-increase-page-rank-by-revitalizing-your-old-posts/
• Organize
  • Organize and review drafts
  • Organize previously-published resources
• Reach out
  • Identify blog posts with similar topics
  • Write thoughtful, insightful, and not overly self-promotional comment
  • Identify target blogs for guest posts
  • Pitch target blog for guest posts
  • Identify related blogs in niche
  • Share your posts on social media
  • Invite and work with guest bloggers
• Work with your blogging platform
  • Set up or improve your blog
  • Experiment with plugins and add-ons
  • Experiment with blog editors
  • Analyze metrics
  • Back up and restore
• Study
  • Identify the differences between writing styles
  • Imitate other people's writing styles
  • Get feedback and use it appropriately
  • Create and work with checklists/templates more

http://sach.ac/outline#blog-short

see the possibilities

• This is good for your blogging! more
• This makes writing less intimidating. Transitions can be awkward, but you can fix that while editing. more
• Get rid of your rituals and requirements (must do this first, can't have that…). Stop in the middle of a sentence so that you'll find it easier to resume. more
• Don't edit as you write. Save that for another day. more
• … or edit as you go. Whichever way works for you. more
• People write books on commutes, lunch hours, ferry rides, etc. Plan ahead so that you always know what the next task is. That way, when you find yourself with a moment of spare time, you can make the most of it. more
• don't give yourself excuses more
• break it down into tasks more
• Outline all the way down to chunks of 100 words more
• Brainstorm things you can do in 15 minutes more
• Use those little chunks of time to get ahead more
• Write and publish a little at a time more

• Brainstorm ideas and questions: Keep a text file and add to it whenever something inspires you.
• Brainstorm titles: Come up with three or more possible titles. Note: this is a separate step from brainstorming ideas, so you don't have to come up with an idea and an awesome title right from the start
• Make a rough outline: Outline topics (one line per post idea) or outline posts (one line per paragraph) to speed up writing.
• Research your topic and clip the pages: See what else is out there. Don't forget to bookmark or save the pages so that you can refer to it easily. Better yet, add links to your outline right away.
• Write a few sentences:
• Proofread
• Edit
• Look for an image

:Effort: 4:00

• What happens if I spend four or more hours on a blog post? :TODO:
• New superpower - I can take more time to do things than I used to.
  • Cooking. Reading.
  • And it pays off.
• Also why: too much
• Spending more time on each blog post
  • Why? It's not just a blog post, it's the learning
  • No time pressures anyway
    • I've written far enough ahead that I'm not worried about running out of posts any time soon
    • I'm surrounded by ideas
  • I don't want to write a massive, useful, linkbait post that disappears from my brain after I write it. Like cramming for a school exam and then moving on.
• What can I improve?
  • Filter through lots more material
  • Link to more resources; compare
  • Touch a post more often
    • Spread it out over several days
      • http://www.copyblogger.com/weekly-content-plan/
    • Let your subconscious work on it
    • Look at it with fresh(er) eyes
  • Write longer posts?
    • 900~2,000 words works well; doesn't feel too long
    • Write longer, then cut/restructure/spread out over time?
    • Go to 3,000 words? http://blog.osmosio.com/writing-a-blog-post/
  • Wordsmith
  • Add more data
  • Add more images
  • Plan and conduct a mini-experiment, or apply the ideas to real life (deeper!)
  • http://twohourblogger.com/the-first-rule-of-two-hour-blogger/
  • http://www.problogger.net/archives/2013/06/25/what-would-happen-if-we-put-as-much-effort-into-writing-blog-posts-as-public-speaking/
    • Comments - balance with attention span
  • Trim text or split ideas off into other posts
• Now that I've confessed my primary motivation for writing a blog, I should also say that I get warm and fuzzies when people find my notes useful.
• Adjusting the slider; nudge it up a little, play with it
• Now
  • Half an hour to an hour, effective rate 30wpm
  • Some posts come out of technical learning or troubleshooting, so the time doesn't count the time I spent solving the problem.
  • Other posts, I start from scratch, do some research, think about stuff, dig deeper.
  • Outline helps a lot with that.
    • It was hard to do this before outlining because I couldn't see and manage my drafts as well.
  • Easy for me to track, especially if I'm writing it in Emacs.
    • I can track how much time I spend outlining a specific post and which days I worked on it.
    • I can set a target effort (ex: at least two hours4 hours) and compare the total time against that.
• Four hours is around the time I usually take to plan a presentation
  • Who
  • What do I want people to remember or act on
  • What do I need to share to help them get from A to B
  • Illustrations
• Oh, maybe that will be my reason to split off sub-blogs
  • If I wrote like other people
    • I would include less "I" and more "You", giving people advice
    • I would emphasize the categories more
    • More lists and stats?
    • 1% better.

:Effort: 4:00

I've been thinking about my goals for blogging because I want to get better. I write almost every day, fueled by habits of reading and experimenting. I have time to learn things, and I can learn more effectively if I learn deliberately. Here's what I'm learning about being clear about your goals and analyzing how your actions match up with them.

• Why I like Mr. Money Mustache's blog
  • Excellent balance of useful and personal
  • topic is interesting as well, of course
  • frugality - not just pinching pennies or juggling finances, but living well
• What are some of the things that Mr. Money Mustache does differently?
  • Writing
    • The alias is nifty and amusing.
    • He's more frank about finance (naturally).
    • He's great at poking fun at himself. more
    • He uses stronger language, including more intense adjectives and some swearing. He also uses a wider vocabulary and more wordplay. more I should totally give myself permission to use less common words. =)
    • He uses more stats, calculations, and case studies. more
    • He's more confident about giving advice.
  • Formatting
    • He doesn't always emphasize the key points in his paragraphs, but they're readable anyway.
    • His posts tend to be longer.
    • He uses shorter paragraphs.
    • His tables are formatted more prettily. Hey, sometimes it's the small stuff… =)
  • Organization
    • He's focused on financial blogging and the frugal lifestyle, while I blog about whatever I'm interested in.
  • He gets a lot of input from readers
    • People share their situations and give each other advice
  • Layout
    • His front page uses a summary layout with larger visuals.
    • He has large graphical ads in the sidebar.
    • He uses a serif font and a visually divided background
    • His links are underlined in the post body, although not elsewhere.
    • Links open in a new window. (Hmm, I've got mixed feelings about that…)
    • He has a large post footer which has a blog, a new reader welcome, a random link, subscription/social media instructions, a community forum, and a subscription form, previous/next links with titles, and then comments, trackbacks, and the comment form.
    • He has a large page footer with a blog roll, popular posts, stats, selected categories, and tags.
    • He has a "Start Here" and a menu item for various how-tos.
    • He has a recommendations page with links to posts.

:Effort: 1:00

Objectives for this post

• Be more effective at outlining my blog posts
• Help other people improve their writing
• Share a list of things I'd like to write about
• Breaking skills down into their components
  • Writing -> learning
• Why outlining?
  • Pseudocode and prototypes
  • Some moments of discipline to keep fleshing things out
  • More about the freedom to make slow and steady progress, knowing that a plan keeps me roughly on track
  • Freedom to cut and rearrange
• What I'm doing
  • Tracking outlining time separately; butt-in-chair time
  • Sharing my outline
  • Tracking versions
• Tools
  • Org Mode workflow
    • Outline
    • Lists
    • Navigation
      • C-c j (org-goto) to jump around
    • Filtering
      • C-c v (org-show-todo-tree) shows the ones that have been marked with a status (good to see which ones I've outlined)
      • Tags
    • Refiling?
    • Publishing and archiving
  • Github
• Imagining wild success
  • Outline of things I want to share
  • The feel for how things flow together
  • People can easily review the outline - maybe with org-info?
  • People can tell me what they're interested in - maybe with a way for me to note who I should follow up with, but in a way that doesn't require me to keep a private repository? Maybe tied in with e-mail…

Get "Thinking on Paper" first?

• I took a month off from my two-days-a-week consulting gig so that I could experiment with focusing on writing.
• I want to be all-the-way-retired. There's a chance I might be. I'm not sure.
• Most writers don't even have this luxury: to write about whatever they want to write, without worrying about whether the book will be picked up by a publisher or whether the magazine will accept the article.

• The M word: Monetization
  • I thought about what I would use more money to do http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/05/on-blogging-and-platforms-and-experimenting-with-google-hangout/
    • I wouldn't change my lifestyle all that much
    • More money would probably be split between
      • more experiments
      • and buying more time to spend with family and friends
  • Probably won't need to put a lot of effort into marketing and building an audience
    • Reasons to go out there
      • Can save other people time?
      • Can learn from other people?
• So this is what's going to happen for as long as I can do it.
  • I'm going to learn lots of things.
    • Curious
    • What people ask me about
    • From time to time, I may even dust off my outlines for future books
    • but I'd rather publish things bit by bit
    • Eventually I'll get good enough at writing from outlines (or slotting things back into them) that I can put together larger resources, like articles and books

• What do I do differently?
  • Learning, writing, visual notetaking, sharing knowledge, and constant improvement
  • Planning, deciding, and tracking
  • Personal finance, semi-retirement, cooking, frugality, and household life

• Writing works better than interviews or speaking
  • Outlines, links
  • Even though I say a lot more words in an interview
  • Things I like about interviews
    • Other people's questions
    • Back and forth

:Effort: 4:00

• There's so much to learn and so much to write about.
  • Read books, blog posts, and manuals
  • Try something new
  • Learn at least one thing a day.
• One complete thought per post
• Not everyone is interested in everything.
• Arrangement
  • I write posts in advance
  • I move posts around so that a variety of interests are covered each week
    • Emacs, visual thinking, blogging, life, productivity, learning
    • Things I want to write more about
      • Books: I read faster than most people do, and I have an awesome library nearby. Summaries?
      • Learning
  • When I've got several posts lined up in a weekly series, I link them together and add a note to help people anticipate the next one.
• Categories
  • Category feeds
• Syndication, Planet Emacsen
• Making this better
  • Series?
  • Visualizations?
  • Highlight
    • What is a good essay?
      • Montaigne's Essays
      • Start with a question or something I want to learn
      • Both geeky and personal
      • Point to other people's perspectives
        • Books
        • Blog posts
    • How about a series every month or every two months, wrapped up in a PDF?
      • Weekly post

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/04/21/8-reasons-why-you-wont-make-money-from-your-blog/

Once you're there, how can you make it better?

• Why
• How I work
  • Gigantic outline helps me remember what I wanted to write about so that I don't forget while I'm in the middle of research.
  • I use a feed reader to quickly skim updates from hundreds of blogs.

• Ideas
  • Outline
• Editorial calendar
  • Shuffle posts around to cover a variety of interests
• Challenges
  • People are interested in different things
• When you blog every day

It took me around two hours each to create the two images in http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/09/how-to-learn-emacs-keyboard-shortcuts-a-visual-tutorial-for-newbies/

It took me four hours to create http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/05/how-to-learn-emacs-a-hand-drawn-one-pager-for-beginners/

It takes me about two hours to read a business book in depth, creating a visual summary on the go.

Sketching a 1-hour talk generally takes 2-4 hours, including time to get there and a schedule that usually includes networking.

Shorter talks tend to be lighter-weight unless they've been rigorously planned and rehearsed.

http://pushingsocial.com/blog-purpose/7-simple-ways-to-get-your-readers-to-spend-more-time-on-your-blog/

• One post a day, unless I'm sketchnoting an event or I'm super-excited
• Share A Draft and Editorial Calendar
• makes it possible to spread posts out while giving people links to the resource
• Windows Live Writer doesn't pick up the date, so I need to make sure I set the date again

• keyword optimization
• e-mail list
• linkbait
• RSS feed summaries
• summaries on front page

• conversation with Timothy Kenny, who has just started experimenting with daily e-mail newsletters
• I suggested public archive
• http://www.productiveflourishing.com/why-i-was-so-worked-up-about-killing-my-newsletter/#utm_source=feedly
• I've been thinking about e-mail newsletters because Timothy Kenny has just started with his.
• Typical advice for growing and (dare I say it?) monetizing your blog.
  • Offer an incentive for people to sign up for your mailing list.
    • PDF
    • exclusive content
  • Put people on an autoresponder.
  • Mail people regularly to build the relationship
    • Sell them stuff later on
• I don't even send friends or family e-mail normally
  • Hmm, maybe I'm not used to the grammar of it?
• also, it takes me an average of 6 minutes to reply to an e-mail.
  • Oddly,
• RSS is mostly dead. Only geeky people use it.
• Automatic e-mail newsletters
• I want to sell things only if they save you a lot of time
• Forget that. I want to give away so much that you almost feel obliged to help.
  • and since I don't need that much money for my lifestyle (I think)
• I'm very good at planning inexpensive experiments. Besides, that makes it easier for other people to replicate.

Why: because there are people who send e-mail, but don't blog

• why don't they blog?
  • self-conscious: only the "best content" out there

\

This is something I hear a lot from people. "I don't want to blog because I might be embarrassed."

• Sometimes I wonder if I should do more of the "Right Things" when it comes to building a blog.
  • Focus on one or two topics so that people will subscribe because you're consistent and reliable.
  • Research keywords so that you can optimize for search engines queries and write content that will bring people in.
  • Reach out to new audiences with guest posts.
  • Send e-mail newsletters so that you can build relationships and so that you can sell to people later on.
• Why
  • Can save other people time
  • Can learn from more people
  • Scale up - create more value for each unit of time I invest
• Sometimes I'm envious of blogs with hundreds of comments. On sites like that, people learn a lot from each other, not just me. But I remember that reading and responding to comments takes time, and I'd want to filter through them for spam, and that other people glaze over when they see pages and pages of comments and end up not reading them. It's okay. I like the in-depth conversations we have in comments. I'm not entirely sure if I'm sour-graping, but it seems to make sense.
• Sometimes I wonder if this should be more like other blogs. But then that's a well-travelled path, with lots of other people exploring it. I have this amazing opportunity to try something different. I should.
• Actually, I already know what I should do–what works for me, what I should do more.
  • The enduring posts on my blog are either tech notes (Emacs, Drupal) or sketches.
• The clearer my "no", the less I'm distracted from the things that I can do.
• Like the way I hack around my introversion
  • Write about whatever I'm learning about - variety of interests, and let more focused people use search results and category links
  • Look at other people's questions and failed search results to nudge me to write about certain topics if I'm curious about them too
  • Read good blogs and write about what inspires me, linking. Invite people who don't have blogs to share their tips and lessons learned on mine.
  • Build relationships through comments. Give away as much as I can of what I know. Let people show their appreciation if they want to. Money is nice, but there are other ways too.
• Risks in getting too big
  • Internet has a seamy underside
• Introvert
• The time I would spend in pitching guest posts, etc.
  • versus making things
• Drawing
  • Nearly 39,000 people visited in May, when I published
  • Plenty of blogs
  • Lots of infographics
  • Not that many useful, non-marketing drawings
• It's okay
• Are there low-effort, high-benefit things I can do to make this better?
  • Might get to the point where people are learning from each other
    • You can do this elsewhere on the Internet
    • So it would have to be a particularly interesting combination of people

• since not everyone knows about this
• why
  • i read a lot of blogs
  • i skim a lot of blog headlines and excerpts, and I read maybe 3-5 posts a day
  • i mostly read on my phone
• how
  • my favourite: feedly
  • there are a number of alternatives, so it mostly depends on what you like

Role model: boingboing.net http://whatever.scalzi.com/

http://sach.ac/outline#research-keywords

• recent changes with

• stats

• More research, because I'm not worried about losing my thought!
• Longer time, book research
• Sub-outlines

• Limitations of outlining
• skillpedia.herokuapp.com
  • which I came across while browsing examples of D3.js visualizations
• Reminds me of the Civilization skill tree
• Pieces, but if I define prerequisites and recommended next steps

• Tidbits go in my weekly review

• Taking notes for myself

Other titles:

• Titles make blog posts easier to write
• Braindump titles to break through blogging bottlenecks

I miss teaching. I had tons of fun teaching computer science when I was in the Philippines, coming up with different analogies and exercises.

Stephanie Diamond suggested making a sketchnotes course on Udemy. People have asked me about teaching Emacs, or blogging, or Quantified Self tracking and analysis.

• What would you want to learn for free?
• What would you value at $49?
• What would you value at $99?

Help me figure out a good curriculum that could help you!

At an applied rationality meetup in Toronto, the guest speaker confessed to being afraid of blogging because she didn't want to be pinned down to words.

People think of writing as final. The fuzziness of conversation in memory might let you argue, "That's not what I said," but writing leaves you no wiggle room.

It's okay to be wrong.

• What people are afraid of
  • Not being able to adjust
  • Misunderstandings
  • Unexpected audience
• Being wrong
  • Inevitable
  • Story about class
  • Story about blog
  • Story about comics
  • Keeps me honest
• Going forward
  • Not an expert
  • Conversation
  • Modeling it

The resistance is a symptom that you're on the right track. /The resistance is not something to be avoided; it's something to seek out./ … The artist sees out the feeling of the resistance and then tries to maximize it. The cog, the day laborer, the compliant student–they seek to eliminate the feeling instead.

• Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception

http://liveyourlegend.net/how-i-plan-my-week-my-5-step-process-free-worksheet/ - schedule everything, think of people, analyze what didn't happen

http://chrisguillebeau.com/how-to-conduct-your-own-annual-review/

• goal spreadsheet

Audience: Entrepreneurial visual thinkers who would like to learn more effectively

Outcome: People have taken their first few sketchnotes and are ready to use it for learning

• Black and white
• Color change
• Highlighter
• Shading
• Eyedropper tool
• Quick color schemes
  • 10%, 90%

• Kevin Dulle organizing tweetchats
• It would be great to go over different techniques
• Finding speakers is always a challenge
• But it's a great learning experience, so even if I sketch out a "curriculum" and prepare many of the talks, that's fine.
• Also, people can always step forward and volunteer.
• Next steps:
  • Experiment with Google Hangout

Draw this

1. Take notes
2. Why
3. Take hand-written notes
4. Slow down and write legibly You don't have to write everything Leave yourself space, then come back and fill things in later A good ink helps: find one that's readable and doesn't smear Tip: stash pens everywhere so that you're never without one!
5. Emphasize important concepts Boxes, highlighter, color pencils, etc (Test the highlighter - sometimes ink can get messed up!)

6. Use simple shapes. Star - important point Box, check - TODO Arrow - next step Speech bubble - quote Thought cloud - what you were thinking Lightbulb - idea

   Make rough copies of diagrams

7. Have fun by drawing faces. This is a surprisingly good way to remember an event, and it's also a good way to settle in if you're early. (Being early is great for grabbing good seats.)

   Write down the topic title and the speaker name, then spend a few minutes sketching the person's face. You can start with a simple rectangle with roughly the right proportions. Hair style? Glasses or eyes? Nose? Facial hair? Smile? Doesn't have to be perfect.

8. Draw other icons. People often repeat themselves or say things you don't have to write down, so you can doodle during those parts. Draw simple images related to what people are talking about. (Or draw things that are completely unrelated - up to you!) Listen for visual metaphors and try to draw them. Leave yourself space, and then come back and doodle when you have time.

Related: http://learni.st/users/boonyew.chew/boards/28983-10-first-steps-towards-sketchnotes sachachua.com/blog/sketchnote-handbook

stick figure styles, colour, word forms, depth, hierarchy…

• Flickr
• Blog
  • Wordpress, NextGen Gallery etc.
• Pinterest

• Analog
  • Taking a good picture
• Move things around
• Fix errors
• Remove anything unnecessary

• Draw a little, then come back later
• Cover up mistakes
• Fill in space
• Reorganize
• Use layers

• Templates
• Mural.ly

Not better drawing

better use of what I draw

better inspiration for others

I printed many of my sketchnotes and put them in a binder. That way, I can easily flip through them, and I can also spread them out. It was a good thing I did, because I found myself frequently referring to them in conversation. It was much more natural to flip through pages than to jump through images on a tablet, even with a tablet's enhanced search capabilities. If I find a binder that can double as a landscape presentation stand, I think that will be solid.

Colour would make this much better. Highlights jump out more with colour. Different events are easier to distinguish with colour schemes. We have more of a visceral reaction to colour. The ING Orange coworking space has an a

I should always keep black and white printing in mind, though, because that's what many people will have. Observations: foreground colour isn't enough of a distinguisher. Bright red becomes a dark gray, which recedes compared to black (or the darkest tone I use). A plain white background works best, then a dot grid, then a line grid.

Landscape is harder to work with in compilations, but it's better for viewing on-screen - how do other people handle this well? Must prototype with binder…

Creating

Why

• digital workflow: grids and templates,can adapt in real-time, can colour-match logos

Tools

• Autodesk Sketchbook Pro; Artrage Studio Pro
• paper for personal brainstorming, when I want to see the big picture
• large pieces of paper, blackboards, or whiteboards for group facilitation

How

• add credits
• add a light blue dotted grid for lines and proportions
• write the event header (name, hashtag, date)
• write the title and speaker name
• draw the speakers' faces
• the talk itself

Keywords Capture more detail, can always edit later Duplicate and erase as needed

Naming

Publishing

Publicizing

Searching

Showing

Improving

How to listen and draw at the same time

When people see the sketchnotes I post right after presentations , they often ask me: “How do you listen and do all that at the same time?” Let me let you in on a little secret: I don’t. Not all at the same time. Mostly because during live presentations, I have no idea where the presenter might go. Depending on how quickly the speaker talks and how much interesting content they pack into their sentences, I might be scrambling to quickly jot down some keywords. When they pause for breath or transition to a new topic, I’ll go back and add stick figures and diagrams. As I figure out which points are important, I move parts of my drawing around or erase and refine what I’ve written. To help you see the process, here’s a recording of my screen as I sketchnote an hour-long presentation. I don’t draw that fast in real life - I’ve condensed the video to three minutes for your convenience. Enjoy!

Audience: Teachers, homeschoolers/unschoolers/parents who want to teach more engagingly and help their students develop notetaking skills Outcome: Ready to practise on their own, and possibly teaching others how to sketchnote in their classes

• Why sketchnote?
  • Understand things better?
  • Share more effectively
  • Engage students
  • Model note-taking skills by example
• Examples
• Common challenges
• Getting started
• Sketchnote basics
  • Annotating printed text
  • Starting with hand-written notes
  • Adding emphasis
  • Starting with stick figures
  • Drawing symbols
  • Drawing abstract concepts
  • Organizing the page
• Sketching your preparatory notes
• Sketching your lesson
• Sketching worksheets
• Teaching others how to sketchnote
  • A one-page guide
• Drawing practice
  • Stick figures
  • Emotions
  • Symbols
    • Science
    • Technology
    • Math
    • History
    • Art
    • Language
    • Music
    • …