Notice, note-take, curate, create.

My process for capturing great ideas.

👋🏼 Hey, I’m Anna; a founder and operator in an ongoing relationship with writing. Welcome to my weekly newsletter, where I share insights and ideas across career, business, personal development, creativity, productivity..and everything in between.

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I once got paid to jump on a plane to Barcelona and document my experience riding down a big red slide into a Sephora store.

At the time I was working for beauty retailer Mecca, and my job was to bounce from city to city scouting the coolest retail experiences in the world. I sleuthed my way through Saks Fifth Avenue, undertook espionage at Ulta in LA and plonked myself on a plush velvet couch at Le Bon Marché in Paris, meticulously observing lines of traffic throughout the space. I visited hundreds of stores and took thousands of notes, and over time developed a system for capturing and storing everything I saw.

Years on, while I no longer stake out beauty stores, I still use a system to capture my ideas because without one they’d be lost to eternity. That’s the thing about thoughts, they’re slippery little suckers; abundant yet fleeting, if not immediately restrained they fly out of my brain faster than a Tesla reaches 95km per hour (2.3 seconds for those playing along at home).

I’ve cultivated a habit of noticing and note-taking, growing a personal database of ideas that powers the Anna Mack engine. It houses a rainbow-coloured candy store of inspiration; the first place I go when I’m writing my weekly newsletter, building a strategy for a client or dreaming up a new business idea.

Curious to know how it works? Read on.

Setting up my note-taking system.

Big fat caveat: I don’t claim to be a master note-taker. This is not the perfect system or approach but it works wonders for me. If you’re tempted to create your own, here are my suggestions to get started. Take ‘em, leave ‘em, do whatever you want with ‘em.

1. Find your why.

Are you designing a system to capture anecdotes for writing? Creative references for inspiration? Genius ideas for your business? Like most things, drilling down into the why helps you with the what, when, where and how.

2. Pick a tool, any tool.

I use Notion, author Ryan Holiday uses note cards and a pen, others automate their entire system using AI-powered zaps. The tool itself is irrelevant. Use whatever works for you.

3. Figure out your structure.

An important part of the system is having a structure to categorise your ideas. Do you want to use tags? Folders? Lists? Databases? Come up with a way to organise the idea mess but…

4. …don’t overcomplicate it.

The more over-designed a system, the less likely it’ll get used. The Tuscan Nonna who taught me how to make pasta earlier this year said it best: “Stop adding olives when olives are not needed! Keep it simple, bella!”

My note-taking workflow.

Here’s how I take a buzzing thought in my head, store it, and turn it into something interesting later on.

Step 1: The Inbox

If a lightbulb goes off in my brain I whip out my phone and dump it into my Notion inbox. This mostly happens at the least convenient time, and so there are often spelling mistakes. I don’t care. The point is to get it down, not make it perfect.

Step 2: Fleshing It Out

In an ideal world after I note down an idea I spend a couple of minutes fleshing it out. A few dot-points gets the ball rolling, and when it comes time to build on it later on I’m not starting from a blank page but with a base.

Step 3: Binning The Junk

20% of my ideas are about as useful as a single fitted sheet on a California King sized bed. These ones get sent to the trash, usually on a Sunday evening while I’m accompanied by a glass of Pinot Noir (or a nip of something stronger if it’s been a bad week). “Holey cheese as a metaphor for life” doesn’t make the cut, whereas “how I know whether to persist or quit” does.

Step 3: Banking The Gold

Once I’ve thrown the worst ideas in the trash I indulge in my loosely held addiction to organisation and structure, and file what’s left into their neat little folders; or as I quaintly like to call them - my notebooks.

Step 5: Choosing My Candy

Whenever I need inspiration - for a business idea, a product or an article - I mosey over to the idea pantry and instead of opening the cupboard to crumbs, I’m greeted by an abundant candy bar of stories, insights and ideas. Here’s a peek into my career cupboard:

Step 6: Layering Them Up

Sometimes one topic is simply not enough, so being the idea glutton I am, I indulge in two or even three. I engage in a jam sesh, layering one on top of the other; a career insight with an overseas story, a business lesson mixed with a creative thought. When I do this, sometimes…just sometimes…I find magic.

Step 6: Launching The Thing

If my ideas stay in the system and never see the light of day, I’m simply a hoarder with a well organised, overstuffed house. My personal database becomes worthless. The candy has no sugar. To make the thing, I have to make it. To do the thing, I have to do it (hence, this newsletter).

Notice, note-take, curate, create.

So there it is. A noticing and note-taking system that fuels my writing, business, and career. I’m still honing this skill but if there’s anything I’ve learned throughout the process, it’s this.

Notice what’s around you. Take note of what inspires you. Curate what’s useful to you. Create what’s valuable to others.

If you do this, you may just find yourself hurtling down a big red slide to candy-land too.

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👀 Let me know what you think?

Was this useful? Do you want to learn more? I’d love to hear what you think.

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