A year ago I didn’t know what the heck a Zettelkasten was. Permanent Notes? Literature Notes? Now I’ve made hundreds of notes that have turned into published content. It’s how I stay so prolific. But there is still so much confusion around the Zettelkasten system, and even when you understand it in principle, it’s often hard to grasp practically how it works. Often the best way to learn is by watching someone else do something, so here’s a real-life note I’ve taken from consuming all the way through to permanent note.

Hello! Welcome to The Weekly 3x3 By Ev | Edition 14 🎉It's been a busy week of being featured in things 😄. I got to speak To Asim from The Mighty Creators Podcast about how you can transform yourself from a consumer into a creator. And then just yesterday was featured in Coffee & Pens Prolific Writers Special alongside some other very special writers. I'm always honoured to be asked on podcasts or interviews. Hope you can get value from both.

You don't actually need a fancy note-taking system to get your notes and ideas organised. There are so many tools for thought and note-taking tools out there these days that it's can be easy to think it's about the tool rather than the system. When we are not clear on our system it's easy to go chasing new shiny apps.

Kindle, Real Books or Audio Books? Everyone seems to have an opinion on what is the best reading medium these days. But what if we didn't have to choose? Here's how I use all three mediums.

Everyone is obsessed with Zettelkasten lately, but is it really as good as they say? What makes Zettelkasten such a different note-taking system? Is it the structure of the notes? The interconnectedness of the notes? Perhaps. But maybe it's something more. Maybe it's the practices that accompany the system.

I've been obsessed with the daily for as long as I can remember. A few years ago I started a company called The Daily Page where I designed daily pages templates for the iPad. There is something really simple about focusing on a single day.

Starting from scratch is overrated. Every day we do things that we've done a hundred times before. We write emails, plan our weeks, write these essays, research, write newsletters. And most of the time we stare at a blank screen and start from scratch.

I consider myself a bit of a rebel when it comes to consuming content. A conversation with a creator friend the other night highlighted to me that I have come to view content consumption fundamentally different from most people.

Do you ever have days where you feel like Alice? Chasing rabbit holes & talking to Cheshire cats? When I was young I would read books of faraway lands, secret doors to new worlds, rabbit holes that you could slip down and end up being in a completely different world.

I'm a rebel when it comes to consuming content. A conversation with Harshit last night highlighted that I've come to view content consumption fundamentally different to most people. Here are three of my rebel views (any more and you might take me out and shoot me as a heretic 🤪)

I have a secret weapon when it comes to writing. It's a treasure trove of ideas that I can draw on. New ideas are constantly being added and connected to existing ideas. It's a playground for my mind to play in.

We are not living in our parents world. Today you have to deal with more information coming at us than any other person in history. Every day, as humans collectively we create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Even if you tried to consume it all, you couldn't.

I've always loved how Tana keeps everything at my fingertips. But with the new Related Content feature, it's like having a supercharged dashboard right on my day page!

I have always loved the Bullet Journal system. It's simple & yet a profound way to get things out of your head and stay focused throughout the day.

Can AI really make your note-taking more powerful?

How I'm using my Daily Page now with the release of Tana's Core features like Related Content & Google Calendar integration.

I very rarely miss my paper notebooks now that I use Tana. But every now and then when my brain needs to arrange my thoughts visually & find myself longing for a simple workflow where I can go from notes → drawing → back to my notes.

Confession: I've never been very good at a consistent weekly review habit.

I am notorious for creating day plans that are unrealistic and have WAY too much packed into them. Which is why when I saw Sunsama's daily planning routine it really got my attention

How I Use Tana To Get Admin Jobs Done Faster & More Efficiently Than A Human Asisstant

In this video I show you 5 ways you can use Tana's Random Node Field to review past notes, mix up your journalling practice, and have a little fun.

Tana is one of the most powerful knowledge management tools I have used. But sometimes all those powerful features can overshadow just how simple it can be to get started. And I guarantee that most people are overthinking it from the very start.

Throw away your Affirmations apps & subscriptions and build your very own custom one in Tana

How to organise just about any kind of information in Tana using the Tana Supertag page

Traditional wisdom tells us we should have a lead magnet to 'trick' people into signing up for our newsletter because no one just signs up for newsletters anymore right? WRONG. Every day, no less than 5 people sign up for my newsletter without having to be coerced or 'tricked' by a lead magnet.

In 2 years I've grown from 0-18k here on Twitter and people are always asking me what the secret key or tactic or hack to unlock growth is.

The biggest creators I know have started on one platform and then as they grew they branched out onto multiple platforms. Because being a creator on a platform isn’t just about the content, it’s about understanding the platform, engaging with people and a million other different factors.

Social media can make us crazy as creators or writers. On the one hand, it's the perfect conduit to get our message out there and build an audience. On the other hand, we're constantly wrestling with algorithms, and the shortest shelf life for all of our content.

Twitter Impressions are down. That seems to be the only thing I hear from creators at the moment. And yeah, it sucks. But it's not the first time they've gone through a dip, and it won't be the last.

Content alone isn't going grow your audience on content platforms. As creators, our main 'thing' is creating content, so it's easy to see social media platforms as just big distribution channels to get more people to see what we are creating. But if the internet is just one big distribution channel for your voice you are missing the point.

It's the (new) age old question - Should you publish on Medium or your own blog? Over the past few weeks, I've had multiple people ask me why I chose Medium over my own blog or substack or the many other platforms I could write longer-form content on.

Just over a year ago I got started writing on Twitter. I always viewed Twitter as a distribution platform. A place where you came to tell the world things you created. But these days Twitter has become my main publishing platform where I test ideas and get (mostly) instant feedback on them.

1000 people. 30k essays. 7 million words.When I first heard that we had 1000 people in the January cohort of ship30for30 I thought I might have to quit my day job after all 🤣

The creator economy is both wild and lonely at the same time. On one hand, I feel so lucky to be living in this moment where there are so many opportunities for creators. And on the other hand, it's an extremely lonely place that's easy to quit

It's easy to get caught up in numbers on Twitter. There is literally numbers everywhere. Number of followers, number of likes, engagement rate numbers, numbers of notifications. It's enough to make you think that Twitter is all about numbers...

In 2021 I became a legit creator. Generating over 12k in revenue from digital products. Here’s how it played out step by step. I have played around on the internet for over 10 years. Always wanting to create something of significance, never quite hitting the mark. Never staying at it long enough to see any significant growth.

The internet has absolutely ruined us for real life. We are constantly bombarded with messages about scale. Build a SAAS company that can infinitely scale, create digital products that you build once & sell twice, free up your time and automate every process you can.

⚡️NEWS FLASH: You don't have to be using Notion as your main daily productivity driver to build cool products with it and make money online as a creator. Here are 17 product ideas that you could build & launch in the next week using Notion.

The beauty of the creator economy is that there are so many ways you can make money. And you don't have to create your own 20+ module CBC transformational online course to do it. And you probably shouldn't (at first). A course is a big endeavor, it takes a lot of time and energy to build and there is no guarantee that anyone will buy it.

I believe if you are creating & publishing online everyday, then you can build and sell a product. I've been writing online for the past 80 days. Not about one specific thing, but about a lot of little things. I've built an audience over that time. I've built credibility as a creator. And I've followed the signals to create products that my audience wants.

I live in a beautiful place called Sydney, Australia. It's amazing. But it's far away from where lots of the action happens... especially in Cohort Based Courses (CBC's). As an Aussie, I immediately have to make a decision when I see a new CBC. Not about money or value. I either have to choose to miss out on a big part of the live experience of the course. Or I have to forgo my sleep and jump on zoom calls at ridiculous times of the night usually between 1am & 3 am.

This time last year the Australian government announced that every single one of my clients would have to close the doors to their business... in less than 24 hours. I coach Gym & Fitness Studio Owners. I remember sitting in our office and thinking - WTF!?!

I used to hate yearly planning. And I think it comes down to my relationship with goal setting. I’m not much of a goal setter. A year is a long time and I don’t like to be locked into heavy goals throughout the year.

Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.

Consistency. I bet it's on your list of 'want more of it' in 2023. After all, it's the holy grail of productivity & self-improvement. And yet most of us feel like we're failing at it most of the time. But what if locking yourself into a rigid view of consistency is actually hindering you rather than helping you?

Strength training has taught me more about consistency than any other thing I've done in life (including growing as a creator). The other day my trainer programmed inverted rows (under a low bar and pulling/rowing up). Every time I've attempted them before I have had to do them in batches. So when she said 15 reps I yelled an expletive in my head.

When starting something new you should probably find a way to do it daily. For years I thought the way to become a creator was to write two blogs a week (or 2 podcasts or two vlogs). After all, that seemed like a reasonable amount of writing each week.

I almost signed up for an 8 week summer book writing bootcamp this morning on Instagram. I don't need another Bootcamp or mastermind or course to actually write my book. I have an outline, I have half the content for it already! But I thought maybe this is what I need to get this thing finished.

Reminder: You are under no obligation to play by anyone else's rules. Most of us don't remember a time before the noise of the internet (& Twitter) meant every time you scroll you see another influencer or person with a social media account telling you how you should be doing everything in your life.

I am the queen of unused trackers. A few days ago I threw out a tweet declaring tracking bankruptcy. It came as I looked at my Daily Page and realised that the tracker I set up to track my mood daily that I thought would be interesting, I had used a total of 2 times out of 50.

I have a decent library of books that sits in and around my desk. I designed it that way. Literally, my desk is built into my bookshelf. Every book holds a significant moment or memory or reason for being on that shelf.

Consistency is hard. But when you master it, it's addictive as hell. 2 months ago I started training again with a personal trainer after taking a break for about 6 months. Starting again was HARD. Especially because I know what strong feels like. But what seemed hard on that first day is now starting to feel easier (if you can call lifting weight easy!).

I've been a little MIA this week. You might have noticed, maybe not? On Monday I landed myself in the hospital after having chest pains & thinking I was having a heart attack. Don't worry, I was cleared of any heart problems.

This is going to be an uncomfortable essay about consistency. I am going to put a caveat at the beginning to say I am NOT the queen of consistency. Most of the time I write about things I'm currently experiencing and thinking about. So take this as much as an essay I'm writing for myself as for anyone else.