Behind the Scenes: My Digital Common Place Book + Writing Archive

by SofiaWren January 1, 2025

How have things been going?

I had a busy last week, and did a lot of cleaning.

It was my husband’s birthday so I wanted to throw him a party. Nothing makes us clean like knowing company is coming over.

Today I wanted to let you know I’ve opened the curtains to show you a peak of my private digital space: my writing archive.

This is where I personally keep all my notes, ideas, and drafts of all my writing from beginning to end.

Why is this system important?

Finding things:

I have stacks of notebooks from writing over the years. Paper has limits, I cannot find things I wrote after a few months.

I was really tired of having ideas fall through the cracks so I found a digital system to supplement paper. And now I can find my ideas much better.
Peace of Mind:

Knowing I can find things again really helps with my anxiety. You have no idea how much I hate that “it’s all sliding into the cracks” feeling of being scattered all over the place.

And I hate opening a journal only to see great ideas I did nothing with for years. I have a lot less of that now.
Confidence:

I’ve had a lot of writing published across the web but I was stuck on this hamster wheel of feeling like I wasn’t doing enough. It wasn’t until I brought all my writing into my own private database and started weaving connections between all my documents did I really feel it:

the click of feeling like I am my most genius self, creating brilliant material.

I really want this feeling for everyone which is why I am passionate about sharing what is working for me. Everyone deserves to feel like their ideas are valuable and make the most use out of them.
Backups:

So many times in my life I have published writing on a platform only for it to go out of style or change. I’ve lost a lot of writing this way and been daunted by the process of extracting it all off of that platform.

Now when I write, I immediately make a copy of the final result and put it in my archive so I am always covered with a backup. It’s a great and sound practice to have.
Developing & or re-using ideas:

Ideas can always be improved, the key is not to forget them. If you keep them in mind, you can develop them over time. And when you have a good idea, don’t forget about it, keep sharing about it!

Having everything I have written and all my ideas easy to find means that good ideas get even better over time as I continue to develop them. It also means that the things I am passionate about are easier to reshare and republish in new ways.

There’s no reason why your best gold should go forgotten after sharing your ideas once. With organization it’s now easier to get the most out of every idea: squeeze every drop out of the orange.

I could go on and on in this vein.

But I’ll just pop in my new video and SHOW you:

I made this behind the scenes tour into my writing archive.

This is just a peak. The whole thing has over 3000 documents. But it’s organized so I can easily navigate around it to find what I need.

In this video I show how I organize my thoughts, ideas, and writing so they are easy to find and use.

I’d love for you to see it and imagine what is possible for you in 2025,

may it be a fruitful year ahead where you can find your ideas and use them to the max!

And just a reminder if you’d like to join us for the Winter Digital Organization Club, we start very soon!

Grab it on sale…

…

What about you?

Do you have a lot of ideas or journals to organize?

Having trouble finding your:

-notes?

-ideas?

-goals?

-documents?

Get organized this winter Jan – March. On Sale.

I used to have trouble finding things,

and using my ideas.

Now I am so much more organized!!

Organization benefits my life and mental health by:

Remembering my real priorities: I can finally break old patterns because I remember what I learn. No more forgetting. Clarity is lasting!
Sense of peace: Everything is ok. I can relax. All my ideas are written down and I know I’ll find it
Better boundaries: I stand my ground more because I know what’s really important to me.
More confidence: I value my ideas and I take myself seriously. I feel empowered. I am learning and growing in all the right ways.

And of course there are major career benefits Finding my ideas more easily benefits my writing and business by:

Saving time: No more taking an hour to find a document or file.
More energy: Since it’s easy to find everything I need, I can jump into the task at hand with full energy.
Writing articles, emails and blogs easily: I am never starting from scratch when I write because all my great ideas are at my finger tips!
The satisfaction of synthesizing: I’m building on my ideas, and developing them into something even better. I feel like a genius.
Better quality work: I’m feeling prouder of what I create, and share it with more people. I can even reuse or reference my work again over time.