How to Grow
a Digital Garden
How note-taking can break habits
of mindless consumption to consumption
that makes creation inevitable.
a Digital Garden
How note-taking can break habits
of mindless consumption to consumption
that makes creation inevitable.
Published October 15, 2025
This essay is an edited and revised transcript condensing parts one and two of Anna Howard’s Digital Garden series from her podcast, Wild Geese. Those podcast episodes were first published in February and May on YouTube and Spotify.
This essay is an edited and revised transcript condensing parts one and two of Anna Howard’s Digital Garden series from her podcast, Wild Geese. Those podcast episodes were first published in February and May on YouTube and Spotify.
I.
“Hello, Welcome
to Wild Geese.”
I started this podcast, Wild Geese, interviewing people who interested me; anybody who I saw while I was scrolling on TikTok who made me go, “oh, I want to deepen that conversation.” I would reach out, talk to them, and I had a great time. But in coming back to the show, I realized that a lot of that was sort of a crutch. It was a wall that I could stand behind because I didn’t trust that I had enough to say on my own.
I’ve always had this kind of worm in the back of my brain that has told me that I’m not a very interesting person. In high school theater, we all sat in a circle one day and went one-by-one saying what our biggest insecurity was (which is an insane thing to do to high schoolers). I remember saying, “I just don’t think there’s anything really interesting about me.”
You might know the phrase: “In order to be interesting, you need to be interested.”
Instead of putting all of your thoughts and energy into thinking about how to be more interesting or less boring, find a way to channel your own curiosity. Realize what you’re interested in, and really go full-force into your interests—that’s how you become more interesting.
The blanket advice of “create more than you consume” is good advice, but it’s incomplete advice. Because now we’re in such a routine of consuming so much in a way that’s really, really shallow. I think what you first have to do to break yourself out of that pattern is to become a better consumer—become a more intentional consumer.
One avenue into doing so is taking notes—and not just taking notes but building a “Digital Garden” for yourself.
to Wild Geese.”
I started this podcast, Wild Geese, interviewing people who interested me; anybody who I saw while I was scrolling on TikTok who made me go, “oh, I want to deepen that conversation.” I would reach out, talk to them, and I had a great time. But in coming back to the show, I realized that a lot of that was sort of a crutch. It was a wall that I could stand behind because I didn’t trust that I had enough to say on my own.
I’ve always had this kind of worm in the back of my brain that has told me that I’m not a very interesting person. In high school theater, we all sat in a circle one day and went one-by-one saying what our biggest insecurity was (which is an insane thing to do to high schoolers). I remember saying, “I just don’t think there’s anything really interesting about me.”
You might know the phrase: “In order to be interesting, you need to be interested.”
Instead of putting all of your thoughts and energy into thinking about how to be more interesting or less boring, find a way to channel your own curiosity. Realize what you’re interested in, and really go full-force into your interests—that’s how you become more interesting.
The blanket advice of “create more than you consume” is good advice, but it’s incomplete advice. Because now we’re in such a routine of consuming so much in a way that’s really, really shallow. I think what you first have to do to break yourself out of that pattern is to become a better consumer—become a more intentional consumer.
One avenue into doing so is taking notes—and not just taking notes but building a “Digital Garden” for yourself.
II.
We’re Stuck in Consumption Loops.
A Digital Garden is a place that makes it possible to make connections between all of the things that you are consuming. You can write about a certain topic and connect it to all of the other things that have to do with that topic or something adjacent to it.
You can see the ways that all of your interests are interconnected, as if you’re looking at the ways that a forest of trees are connected below ground. You can actually see the way that your thought processes, your interests, your takeaways are starting to all be interwoven.
The person who got me into this idea of taking notes is Odysseas, on YouTube. He has a video called “Mindful Consumption” where he makes a point that we’re really in a daze when we’re online.
Online resources today are more accessible than ever; they can literally change your life. But we’re definitely intaking more information than we ever should be. If a pilgrim saw the amount of information that we intake on a single day, they would just burst. And frankly, I think we don’t know what to do with all of it most of the time either.
Something I have observed in myself recently is that I can’t remember names. Not just people’s names, but also the names of TV shows and movies—any names ever.
What that can mean is that I’m missing a lot of smaller points. When you’re scrolling mindlessly, you might see a video that you agree with, but you never fully take the time to think to yourself, why? You might see an article that you disagree with and it rubs up against your understanding of its argument, and you may tease those feelings apart and figure out what you really think about its subject.
This is how you get stuck in a consumption loop and never really create anything—you’re not inviting your own thought processes into the conversation. Most of the time, inviting your own thought processes into the conversation is how art is made.
In Ayan Artan’s Substack article titled in defense of pretension, she makes some incredible points about the rise of anti-intellectualism, the falling literacy rates, and all of the things that are implicated when we devalue art and reading in our society. We’ve opened a door to a level of callousness and inhumanity that we should not get comfortable with.
Like I said, the phrase “create more than you consume” has its place and validity, but there’s also something to be said for, “I’m not going to speak more than I listen.” Any art that has ever been made has been influenced by all of the art that the artist consumed before it.
But if we know that, as artists, not consuming other art is not an option, then let’s stop putting so much energy into shaming ourselves for consumption.
Instead, say, okay, if I am going to consume this material, let’s make sure that I am there as I am consuming it, and I am active as I am consuming it. It’s the difference between passively watching a TV show and scrolling on your phone versus watching the show, taking notes, pausing when you have an interesting thought, pausing when you think:
“Oh, that reminded me of this.”
“Oh, I didn’t like that part.”
“Why didn’t I like that part? What would I have done differently?”
It’s leaning in.
In college, I had a professor who was a very old woman, and she was very iconic. Everybody just worshiped the ground that she walked on because she knew something that we didn’t. We knew that as soon as we walked into the room.
On the first day of class, she didn’t even say anything as we came in. She was just sitting there. And then, with her body, she started showing us how leaned in we should be—how deeply we should be listening. Any time that we weren’t up working on something with her, she was very adamant that we were sitting up straight and leaned in, fully listening the whole time.
That’s the difference between mindless consumption and consumption that actually makes creation inevitable.
A Digital Garden is a place that makes it possible to make connections between all of the things that you are consuming. You can write about a certain topic and connect it to all of the other things that have to do with that topic or something adjacent to it.
You can see the ways that all of your interests are interconnected, as if you’re looking at the ways that a forest of trees are connected below ground. You can actually see the way that your thought processes, your interests, your takeaways are starting to all be interwoven.
The person who got me into this idea of taking notes is Odysseas, on YouTube. He has a video called “Mindful Consumption” where he makes a point that we’re really in a daze when we’re online.
Online resources today are more accessible than ever; they can literally change your life. But we’re definitely intaking more information than we ever should be. If a pilgrim saw the amount of information that we intake on a single day, they would just burst. And frankly, I think we don’t know what to do with all of it most of the time either.
Something I have observed in myself recently is that I can’t remember names. Not just people’s names, but also the names of TV shows and movies—any names ever.
What that can mean is that I’m missing a lot of smaller points. When you’re scrolling mindlessly, you might see a video that you agree with, but you never fully take the time to think to yourself, why? You might see an article that you disagree with and it rubs up against your understanding of its argument, and you may tease those feelings apart and figure out what you really think about its subject.
This is how you get stuck in a consumption loop and never really create anything—you’re not inviting your own thought processes into the conversation. Most of the time, inviting your own thought processes into the conversation is how art is made.
In Ayan Artan’s Substack article titled in defense of pretension, she makes some incredible points about the rise of anti-intellectualism, the falling literacy rates, and all of the things that are implicated when we devalue art and reading in our society. We’ve opened a door to a level of callousness and inhumanity that we should not get comfortable with.
Like I said, the phrase “create more than you consume” has its place and validity, but there’s also something to be said for, “I’m not going to speak more than I listen.” Any art that has ever been made has been influenced by all of the art that the artist consumed before it.
But if we know that, as artists, not consuming other art is not an option, then let’s stop putting so much energy into shaming ourselves for consumption.
Instead, say, okay, if I am going to consume this material, let’s make sure that I am there as I am consuming it, and I am active as I am consuming it. It’s the difference between passively watching a TV show and scrolling on your phone versus watching the show, taking notes, pausing when you have an interesting thought, pausing when you think:
“Oh, that reminded me of this.”
“Oh, I didn’t like that part.”
“Why didn’t I like that part? What would I have done differently?”
It’s leaning in.
In college, I had a professor who was a very old woman, and she was very iconic. Everybody just worshiped the ground that she walked on because she knew something that we didn’t. We knew that as soon as we walked into the room.
On the first day of class, she didn’t even say anything as we came in. She was just sitting there. And then, with her body, she started showing us how leaned in we should be—how deeply we should be listening. Any time that we weren’t up working on something with her, she was very adamant that we were sitting up straight and leaned in, fully listening the whole time.
That’s the difference between mindless consumption and consumption that actually makes creation inevitable.
III.
The Case for a Second Brain.
Sönke Ahrens’ book How to Take Smart Notes outlines something called a “second brain.” Odysseas lays out the pros of having a note-taking process like this:
1. It forces you to slow down. Everybody’s all about “do it faster, do it faster, do it faster,” but when it comes to learning and curiosity and creativity, you’ve got to go slow to go fast. I think that going fast is why I don’t know the names to anything.
2. Instant feedback. If you cannot put your notes into your own words, that’s a pretty clear signal that you actually don’t have a good grasp on that concept yet. You should probably revisit the primary source.
3. You can present your ideas in a way besides just chronologically.
Say that you’re taking notes in just a notebook; you only really look at it from front to back. You might have a table of contents that points you towards a certain page, but thinking about a Digital Garden or a Second Brain in comparison, this way of note-taking is like creating a network or a web that interlinks your ideas together.
Suddenly, you can have a note from four months ago that connects to a note that you took today. And if you connected the two of them, suddenly you have an essay. Suddenly, you have a speech. Suddenly, you have the idea for the pilot of your first show.
Without a way of connecting those two ideas, you might have completely lost that first note to the timeline of your life.
Sönke Ahrens’ book How to Take Smart Notes outlines something called a “second brain.” Odysseas lays out the pros of having a note-taking process like this:
1. It forces you to slow down. Everybody’s all about “do it faster, do it faster, do it faster,” but when it comes to learning and curiosity and creativity, you’ve got to go slow to go fast. I think that going fast is why I don’t know the names to anything.
2. Instant feedback. If you cannot put your notes into your own words, that’s a pretty clear signal that you actually don’t have a good grasp on that concept yet. You should probably revisit the primary source.
3. You can present your ideas in a way besides just chronologically.
Say that you’re taking notes in just a notebook; you only really look at it from front to back. You might have a table of contents that points you towards a certain page, but thinking about a Digital Garden or a Second Brain in comparison, this way of note-taking is like creating a network or a web that interlinks your ideas together.
Suddenly, you can have a note from four months ago that connects to a note that you took today. And if you connected the two of them, suddenly you have an essay. Suddenly, you have a speech. Suddenly, you have the idea for the pilot of your first show.
Without a way of connecting those two ideas, you might have completely lost that first note to the timeline of your life.
IV.
Components of a Garden.
I like to equate a Digital Garden to your own personal Wikipedia. If you see a word that you don’t recognize, you can click on it and it’ll open up a new Wikipedia page—that’s also how your notes can look. You can take a note linked under a certain theme, click that link, and it will take you to all of the other thoughts that you’ve had about that theme.
In Digital Gardening, you take notes in two parts: the “Source Material” notes and the “Main Notes.”
In the Source Material notes, you’re just taking notes on the actual material itself.
For example, I recently rewatched the TV show Fleabag, and I took notes with every episode. I pulled quotes, I made note of what I found to be really funny, what I found to be really sad, and I would write down things that I didn’t notice the first time I watched it.
Here’s an excerpt from my Source Material Notes:
I like to equate a Digital Garden to your own personal Wikipedia. If you see a word that you don’t recognize, you can click on it and it’ll open up a new Wikipedia page—that’s also how your notes can look. You can take a note linked under a certain theme, click that link, and it will take you to all of the other thoughts that you’ve had about that theme.
In Digital Gardening, you take notes in two parts: the “Source Material” notes and the “Main Notes.”
In the Source Material notes, you’re just taking notes on the actual material itself.
For example, I recently rewatched the TV show Fleabag, and I took notes with every episode. I pulled quotes, I made note of what I found to be really funny, what I found to be really sad, and I would write down things that I didn’t notice the first time I watched it.
Here’s an excerpt from my Source Material Notes:
Step 1: Source Material Notes—Fleabag
(Spoiler Warning: Fleabag, Season 2, Episode 5)
This note is from after Fleabag’s sister, Claire, got a horrible French haircut and has a breakdown, but then starts to have a breakthrough where she’s finally being honest with Fleabag about the fact that she’s a bit jealous of her:
“We realize Fleabag pursues her desires, but Claire doesn’t. That’s why she’s so bitter. This scene perfectly conveys this. But she’s honest for the first time when she says, ‘you’re a genius, you’re my fucking hero.’ We then immediately see this play out in real time when her crush runs into her at the park, and she refuses to say ‘yes’ to him asking her on, essentially, a date.
“She’s using her family, her shitty husband, and his weird son from another marriage that she hates as an excuse to say ‘no.’ She’s actively, in real time, saying ‘no,’ because her allegiance falls to not letting down the people who are making her feel trapped. Her allegiance does not belong to herself.”
(Spoiler Warning: Fleabag, Season 2, Episode 5)
This note is from after Fleabag’s sister, Claire, got a horrible French haircut and has a breakdown, but then starts to have a breakthrough where she’s finally being honest with Fleabag about the fact that she’s a bit jealous of her:
“We realize Fleabag pursues her desires, but Claire doesn’t. That’s why she’s so bitter. This scene perfectly conveys this. But she’s honest for the first time when she says, ‘you’re a genius, you’re my fucking hero.’ We then immediately see this play out in real time when her crush runs into her at the park, and she refuses to say ‘yes’ to him asking her on, essentially, a date.
“She’s using her family, her shitty husband, and his weird son from another marriage that she hates as an excuse to say ‘no.’ She’s actively, in real time, saying ‘no,’ because her allegiance falls to not letting down the people who are making her feel trapped. Her allegiance does not belong to herself.”
And don’t worry about making this, like, a huge intellectual exercise. Part of making this habitual and enjoyable is getting rid of that professor in your head that’s telling you that your Notes need to be perfect and academic. Your Notes can sound like you’re texting your best friend. I don’t really care!
Like for this Note: one question I had for Season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s TV show The Rehearsal was (not a spoiler), “are pilots scumbags? lmao.”
Like for this Note: one question I had for Season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s TV show The Rehearsal was (not a spoiler), “are pilots scumbags? lmao.”
Then you go to the Main Notes, which are decontextualized from those Source Material Notes. Thoughts from the Source Material are synthesized and pulled into conclusions about thoughts on the greater world around you.
I wrote this after the first Notes from Fleabag:
I wrote this after the first Notes from Fleabag:
Step 2: Main Notes—Fleabag
General observations based on themes from Step 1. They can be as long as a few sentences to a mini-essay.
“When we deny ourselves of everything we want, it creates great discomfort and steals our peace. We often blame things like love for our discontent, but that’s not the source. The source is looking our desires in the eyes and saying, ‘I can’t’—even when we know it’s the only thing in the world that we want. We cling and grasp that things like haircuts, because they feel like control, they’re not.
“Illusions of control are constantly pulling us under and away from the actual desire we’re too afraid to run towards. Sometimes, an unfailing devotion to family can translate to an absolutely abysmal relationship to self, and the family relations suffer disproportionately every time we try to prioritize shit we don’t care about. We think we’re being martyrs. We’re not. We’re being selfish. Every time we choose the thing we truly, at our core, do not want. Because the more severed we are from ourselves, the more havoc we wreak on those we love. We hate the people that dare to follow their desires. They become the scapegoat to our misery. They’re irresponsible. They are reckless. They’re attention-seeking.
“That, or they’re free. And that really pisses off the people in a cage.”
General observations based on themes from Step 1. They can be as long as a few sentences to a mini-essay.
“When we deny ourselves of everything we want, it creates great discomfort and steals our peace. We often blame things like love for our discontent, but that’s not the source. The source is looking our desires in the eyes and saying, ‘I can’t’—even when we know it’s the only thing in the world that we want. We cling and grasp that things like haircuts, because they feel like control, they’re not.
“Illusions of control are constantly pulling us under and away from the actual desire we’re too afraid to run towards. Sometimes, an unfailing devotion to family can translate to an absolutely abysmal relationship to self, and the family relations suffer disproportionately every time we try to prioritize shit we don’t care about. We think we’re being martyrs. We’re not. We’re being selfish. Every time we choose the thing we truly, at our core, do not want. Because the more severed we are from ourselves, the more havoc we wreak on those we love. We hate the people that dare to follow their desires. They become the scapegoat to our misery. They’re irresponsible. They are reckless. They’re attention-seeking.
“That, or they’re free. And that really pisses off the people in a cage.”
Okay, very dramatic, but those are my thoughts. It is about what I just watched in Fleabag, but also what I’m thinking about the world. So suddenly, you’ve invited yourself into the conversation instead of passively watching the show.
Now you have the decontextualized Notes where you can create “tags” to organize them. Tags are like themes—you want them to be pretty general, but specific enough. You’re going to use those tags as the link between other Notes.
Step 3: Source Material Tags—Fleabag
Words and phrases to categorize Notes from Step 2 to look back on for future reference.
#desires
#saviorcomplex
#suppression
#romanticlove
Words and phrases to categorize Notes from Step 2 to look back on for future reference.
#desires
#saviorcomplex
#suppression
#romanticlove
With that episode of Fleabag, everybody who watches it will cling onto different parts and go deeper with different realms than me. I’ve been super interested in concepts of women’s rage, women’s desire, suppression, and martyrdom. It’s clear in this Note, but it will also become clear in the amount of Notes that build up over time in that tag. Revisiting and digging into tags shows themes that pique your curiosity but come from different sources; you’re visualizing how things you consume can be in conversation with each other and make unexpected connections.
Then, it’s totally up to you what you want to do with those interests—how you want to dive deeper with them.
Maybe you want to start a Substack or a podcast. You write a film or you want to create a song. I don’t know what kind of artist you are, but the point is that we never sit down to create something with a full understanding of what it is that we want to create. We have to go through the long, laborious, sometimes boring, sometimes embarrassing process of creating it and of finding our own interests and curiosities and questions along the way. This note-taking process can be your friend in that.
Then, it’s totally up to you what you want to do with those interests—how you want to dive deeper with them.
Maybe you want to start a Substack or a podcast. You write a film or you want to create a song. I don’t know what kind of artist you are, but the point is that we never sit down to create something with a full understanding of what it is that we want to create. We have to go through the long, laborious, sometimes boring, sometimes embarrassing process of creating it and of finding our own interests and curiosities and questions along the way. This note-taking process can be your friend in that.
V.
A Digital Garden’s Key Factors.
I want to leave you with a couple of the key factors that make up a Digital Garden—if you’re ready to become a little digital gardener with me. These come from A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton.
1. Topography over timelines. “Gardens are organized around contextual relationships and associative links. The concepts and themes within each note determine how it’s connected to others. This runs counter to the time-based structure of traditional blogs.” Again, it’s more like making a Wikipedia page that’s all for you.
2. Continuous growth. “Gardens are never finished. They’re constantly growing, evolving, and changing. Just like a real soil, carrot, and cabbage garden.” These are different from posts and blogs that feel more finite. But if you ever do want to write an article or an essay, you’ve got a foundation of writing to start from, all from your past consumption in one place.
3. Imperfection and learning in public. “Gardens are imperfect by design. They don’t hide their rough edges or claim to be a permanent source of truth.”
4. Digital Gardens are playful, personal, and experimental. “Gardens are non-homogeneous by nature. You can plant the same seeds as your neighbor, but you’ll always end up with a different arrangement of plants.” I really like this, because if we think back to the essay in defense of pretension., Artan made a point to be like, “Hey, if we’re all seeing the same TikToks and watching the same films, how are we ever going to be individual?”
5. Intercropping and content diversity. We’re not just talking about taking notes on books or movies. I’ve taken notes on a YouTube video. I’ve taken notes on TikToks that I’ve watched—like, some TikToks are ten minutes long now. If you feel like it has enough information for you to want to tease apart and put yourself into the conversation, take notes on that. Add it.
6. Independent ownership. “Gardening is about claiming a small patch of the web for yourself, one you fully own and control.”
As you’re taking these notes, keep that in mind: this is for you. This is not to post. It’s for your own learning, for your own understanding, for your own tracking of your interests.
I want to leave you with a couple of the key factors that make up a Digital Garden—if you’re ready to become a little digital gardener with me. These come from A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton.
1. Topography over timelines. “Gardens are organized around contextual relationships and associative links. The concepts and themes within each note determine how it’s connected to others. This runs counter to the time-based structure of traditional blogs.” Again, it’s more like making a Wikipedia page that’s all for you.
2. Continuous growth. “Gardens are never finished. They’re constantly growing, evolving, and changing. Just like a real soil, carrot, and cabbage garden.” These are different from posts and blogs that feel more finite. But if you ever do want to write an article or an essay, you’ve got a foundation of writing to start from, all from your past consumption in one place.
3. Imperfection and learning in public. “Gardens are imperfect by design. They don’t hide their rough edges or claim to be a permanent source of truth.”
4. Digital Gardens are playful, personal, and experimental. “Gardens are non-homogeneous by nature. You can plant the same seeds as your neighbor, but you’ll always end up with a different arrangement of plants.” I really like this, because if we think back to the essay in defense of pretension., Artan made a point to be like, “Hey, if we’re all seeing the same TikToks and watching the same films, how are we ever going to be individual?”
5. Intercropping and content diversity. We’re not just talking about taking notes on books or movies. I’ve taken notes on a YouTube video. I’ve taken notes on TikToks that I’ve watched—like, some TikToks are ten minutes long now. If you feel like it has enough information for you to want to tease apart and put yourself into the conversation, take notes on that. Add it.
6. Independent ownership. “Gardening is about claiming a small patch of the web for yourself, one you fully own and control.”
As you’re taking these notes, keep that in mind: this is for you. This is not to post. It’s for your own learning, for your own understanding, for your own tracking of your interests.
VI.
Misconceptions.
A Digital Garden is not a blog or curation round-up. It’s easy to have an audience in your head watching you document anything, and sometimes you’ll start to write your Notes with those readers in mind. In this case, it’s just more useful to write without that reader—as if nobody is ever going to read this stuff except for you.
The two main things that I’ve seen Digital Gardening get confused with are blogs and those curation roundups of things that people have consumed recently.
A Digital Garden can be a tool that helps you create a blog, but you must set aside the premature performance and judgment. It’s really hard to do that when you’re thinking about your garden as a final product—like a blog.
And while curation is helpful, it’s packaging up another product and putting it out there; it disregards how that piece affected you. You’re not seeing more of yourself by just spitting out all of the things that you’ve observed and saying, look, these are the things I saw this week.
With Digital Gardening, I’m not talking about growing the garden that you put on your front lawn just to impress your neighbors. This is the garden that’s in the back that you’re experimenting with—you’re seeing if you can actually keep those flowers alive. Digital Gardening is about ensuring you are giving yourself the tools to step out of the role of consumer and into the role of creator.
You should also go back and read your own Notes. Remind yourself of what you were thinking. Reading back that note just now—that’s the first time that I’ve read that it since I wrote it. And I’m like, “Well, I had that thought. Post that thought, girl!”
This is not just for writers.There can be a misconception that this is only a valuable process for writers, especially the Main Notes and mini-essays from your findings.
The thing is, writing is thinking. This is not just about having a bunch of little mini-essays that you can one day stitch together for a post. Getting to the Main Notes is a way to observe your thought process for your next project. So you can become more attuned to your own obsessions, to where your mind goes. To develop your taste.
You’ll be guided towards your next project, whether it’s a painting or a book. We might believe the process of making is different between a painting and a book, but this comment from the first Digital Gardening episode is such a great foil to that idea:“One of my art professors talks about this. He urged us to document things, images that captivated us—cracks on the sidewalk, pieces of trash that you find in cities across the world. Art gallery visits, your favorite colors, what you ate, textures of the city, etc. He says whatever draws your eye is sort of like your subconscious mind making inquiries and connections between those things. He talked about this curating curiosities, and it really stuck with me. He said, instead of using Pinterest for inspo, use the world around you. He said, each of us is a walking curatorial board. The concept of Digital Gardening reminds me of that.”
All of this is about following your curiosities.
Some people are more inspired by words. Some are more inspired by images. Some are more inspired by sounds. These things will become clear to you. Regardless of your medium of choice, Digital Gardening is helpful in the creative process because writing is thinking, and you need to be thinking about what you’re seeing in order to create something “new.”
Don’t write about everything—and not only about what you like.I used to look at Digital Gardening as a blanket practice to do with everything that I was consuming. I was getting really frustrated, because I would start taking Notes on an essay, and then get halfway through and realize, there is nothing of substance here for me to take notes on.
I’ve found with time that the process that often works for me is consuming something in full first, and then going back and taking Notes. If you’ve been trying to get into the habit of Digital Gardening but it’s just not working for you, I recommend revisiting something from the past that you know that you were obsessed with. Your interest is clearly there.
I also take Notes on things that I really don’t enjoy. I find it interesting when you don’t really enjoy something; that’s the critic in you. I can keep up with Digital Gardening because I’m only taking Notes on things that are interesting to me.
But sometimes some of the stuff that you consume is just not interesting; taking Notes is just going to feel like a drag. Don’t make yourself do that.
A Digital Garden is not a blog or curation round-up. It’s easy to have an audience in your head watching you document anything, and sometimes you’ll start to write your Notes with those readers in mind. In this case, it’s just more useful to write without that reader—as if nobody is ever going to read this stuff except for you.
The two main things that I’ve seen Digital Gardening get confused with are blogs and those curation roundups of things that people have consumed recently.
A Digital Garden can be a tool that helps you create a blog, but you must set aside the premature performance and judgment. It’s really hard to do that when you’re thinking about your garden as a final product—like a blog.
And while curation is helpful, it’s packaging up another product and putting it out there; it disregards how that piece affected you. You’re not seeing more of yourself by just spitting out all of the things that you’ve observed and saying, look, these are the things I saw this week.
With Digital Gardening, I’m not talking about growing the garden that you put on your front lawn just to impress your neighbors. This is the garden that’s in the back that you’re experimenting with—you’re seeing if you can actually keep those flowers alive. Digital Gardening is about ensuring you are giving yourself the tools to step out of the role of consumer and into the role of creator.
You should also go back and read your own Notes. Remind yourself of what you were thinking. Reading back that note just now—that’s the first time that I’ve read that it since I wrote it. And I’m like, “Well, I had that thought. Post that thought, girl!”
This is not just for writers.There can be a misconception that this is only a valuable process for writers, especially the Main Notes and mini-essays from your findings.
The thing is, writing is thinking. This is not just about having a bunch of little mini-essays that you can one day stitch together for a post. Getting to the Main Notes is a way to observe your thought process for your next project. So you can become more attuned to your own obsessions, to where your mind goes. To develop your taste.
You’ll be guided towards your next project, whether it’s a painting or a book. We might believe the process of making is different between a painting and a book, but this comment from the first Digital Gardening episode is such a great foil to that idea:“One of my art professors talks about this. He urged us to document things, images that captivated us—cracks on the sidewalk, pieces of trash that you find in cities across the world. Art gallery visits, your favorite colors, what you ate, textures of the city, etc. He says whatever draws your eye is sort of like your subconscious mind making inquiries and connections between those things. He talked about this curating curiosities, and it really stuck with me. He said, instead of using Pinterest for inspo, use the world around you. He said, each of us is a walking curatorial board. The concept of Digital Gardening reminds me of that.”
All of this is about following your curiosities.
Some people are more inspired by words. Some are more inspired by images. Some are more inspired by sounds. These things will become clear to you. Regardless of your medium of choice, Digital Gardening is helpful in the creative process because writing is thinking, and you need to be thinking about what you’re seeing in order to create something “new.”
Don’t write about everything—and not only about what you like.I used to look at Digital Gardening as a blanket practice to do with everything that I was consuming. I was getting really frustrated, because I would start taking Notes on an essay, and then get halfway through and realize, there is nothing of substance here for me to take notes on.
I’ve found with time that the process that often works for me is consuming something in full first, and then going back and taking Notes. If you’ve been trying to get into the habit of Digital Gardening but it’s just not working for you, I recommend revisiting something from the past that you know that you were obsessed with. Your interest is clearly there.
I also take Notes on things that I really don’t enjoy. I find it interesting when you don’t really enjoy something; that’s the critic in you. I can keep up with Digital Gardening because I’m only taking Notes on things that are interesting to me.
But sometimes some of the stuff that you consume is just not interesting; taking Notes is just going to feel like a drag. Don’t make yourself do that.
VII.
Platforms to Set-Up Your Digital Garden.
There are so many systems to choose from; some platform setups can be confusing and take a bit of time. If it’s overwhelming you so much that you feel you can’t get started, scrap it and simplify. Just start taking Notes.
It’s so easy to get so caught up in building the perfect system before we can start using the system. When I started, I set up my Obsidian the same way that Odysseas set up his, and I was not using it perfectly. His setup worked for me then, and now I use Capacities and Sublime. I can keep assessing if it’s working for me over time, and I can always make changes.
There are so many systems to choose from; some platform setups can be confusing and take a bit of time. If it’s overwhelming you so much that you feel you can’t get started, scrap it and simplify. Just start taking Notes.
It’s so easy to get so caught up in building the perfect system before we can start using the system. When I started, I set up my Obsidian the same way that Odysseas set up his, and I was not using it perfectly. His setup worked for me then, and now I use Capacities and Sublime. I can keep assessing if it’s working for me over time, and I can always make changes.
VIII.
How Note-taking Changes You.
Someone asked me, “have you seen your writing or thought process change as you’ve progressed as a gardener?”
Absolutely. One hundred percent.
I have never felt more curious and creatively-guided in my entire life. I think that there’s a certain kind of pain that comes with being a creative person and feeling lost in not knowing which direction to take, not knowing what to make. These things really eat at you…when you have a lot of creative energy and you just don’t know where to put it.
Digital Gardening has provided a real sense of guidance that is coming from nowhere but myself. And that feels really good.
I hope this helped you get started with Digital Gardening or pick it back up, whether you make something from it or not. It’s a lovely process to get to know yourself better and pull you out of that doomscroll.
I have to say, I’ve been really, really touched by the amount of people that have reached out to me and told me about the things that Digital Gardening helped them make. One person even emailed me and said they were inspired to write a movie, and they sent the whole deck for it. They already have producers in place. Like, this is going to be a real thing that they bring into the world.
If something in your Digital Gardens sparks you in a way where you put something out into the world, I want to see it.
Someone asked me, “have you seen your writing or thought process change as you’ve progressed as a gardener?”
Absolutely. One hundred percent.
I have never felt more curious and creatively-guided in my entire life. I think that there’s a certain kind of pain that comes with being a creative person and feeling lost in not knowing which direction to take, not knowing what to make. These things really eat at you…when you have a lot of creative energy and you just don’t know where to put it.
Digital Gardening has provided a real sense of guidance that is coming from nowhere but myself. And that feels really good.
I hope this helped you get started with Digital Gardening or pick it back up, whether you make something from it or not. It’s a lovely process to get to know yourself better and pull you out of that doomscroll.
I have to say, I’ve been really, really touched by the amount of people that have reached out to me and told me about the things that Digital Gardening helped them make. One person even emailed me and said they were inspired to write a movie, and they sent the whole deck for it. They already have producers in place. Like, this is going to be a real thing that they bring into the world.
If something in your Digital Gardens sparks you in a way where you put something out into the world, I want to see it.
Watch Anna’s full original
Digital Gardening episodes:
(YT)@iamannacorinne
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