Bala karthiga M

I’m gonna be brutally honest: my brain is an overstuffed, chaotic mess, too.

(Just like yours).

Ideas pile up like unread emails when I’m in the shower, half-baked thoughts get shoved into mental corners, and a dozen unfinished drafts stare at me like ghosts of good intentions.

Then, when I finally sit down to write, I somehow expect sheer brilliance to flow effortlessly? Yeah, that’s not how it works.

Instead, I get the dreaded blank page, mocking my existence—challenging my very pride as a wordsmith.

Why Writing Feels Harder Than It Should Be

The problem isn’t that I’m a bad writer. It’s that I used to make the mistake of writing from scratch.

Think about the last time I wrote a piece of content that actually felt effortless. Chances are, it wasn’t because I magically had a good writing day. It was because I already had the raw materials—I was assembling something, not struggling to create it from thin air.

And this isn’t just a theory. Every top-tier writer, creator, and entrepreneur has one unfair advantage: a system that does the heavy lifting.

They Steal From Their Past Selves.

Great writing doesn’t happen at the keyboard. It happens before you ever sit down to type.

The best ideas don’t arrive when you need them. They show up at random:

• In the shower, when your brain suddenly acts like a TED Talk speaker.
• On a walk, when the fresh air turns you into Aristotle.
• Right before bed, when your mind decides, Now’s the perfect time to solve all of life’s mysteries.

If you don’t capture these ideas, they disappear.

This is why you need to build an external brain—a Capture System that stores your best insights and organizes them so future-you can write effortlessly.

(Yes, it’s been more than 2 years since I have built my external brain and it’s a solid system that runs smooth till today like a well-oiled machine)

And now? I’m handing over my blueprint so you can steal it and make it your own. Let’s break it down.

The 3-Tier Capture System (A.K.A. My External Brain)

I needed a frictionless system that could take all my scattered, half-formed ideas and turn them into polished content—without forcing me to rely on my unreliable, goldfish-memory brain.

After years of trial and error, I built a system after closely studying the tools and techniques elite writers, marketers, and thinkers swear by. And now, I’m giving it to you.

1. Effortless Collection (Stealing from My Future Self)

The first rule I live by: If I don’t capture an idea immediately, it’s gone forever.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a brilliant thought while basking on the sun as a passenger princess on a drive with Tanuj, showering, or pretending to listen in an office meeting… only to have the brilliant thought vanish by the time I actually sat down to write.

Turns out, my brain treats ideas like Snapchat messages—here for a second, gone before I can even process them.

So, I built a system to steal from my future self—to make sure every valuable idea sticks around long enough to be used.

How I Do It:

I Use a Note-Taking App – I picked Notion (but Obsidian, Apple Notes, or Google Docs Keep work too). The key was choosing ONE place and committing to it.

I Keep It Stupidly Simple – If it takes me more than 10 seconds to save an idea, I know I’ll never use it. This is how I made sure my process was frictionless.

I Rely on Voice Notes & Quick Captures – If I’m on the go, I record a voice memo or send a WhatsApp message to myself. No overthinking. No losing ideas.

]The Rule I Swear By: Capture first, organize later. Raw ideas don’t need to be pretty—they just need to exist.

This one change alone transformed my writing process. And trust me, once you start doing this, you’ll wonder how you ever wrote without it.

2. Intelligent Organization (Turning Chaos into Gold)

Collecting ideas was the easy part. Figuring out what to do with them? That’s where I used to fail—badly.

At first, my notes were a digital junk drawer—a chaotic mess of half-baked thoughts, random links, and ideas I vaguely remembered were “brilliant” at some point (but had no idea why). When I actually needed them? Useless.

I realized that if I wanted my external brain to work like a well-oiled machine, I had to structure my ideas in a way that made them instantly usable.

Here’s how I did it:

How I Turned My Idea Dump into a Goldmine:

I Created Categories (A Simple Notion/Obsidian Structure)

I needed a way to quickly find the right ideas at the right time—so I built these core categories:

• Hooks & Headlines: Attention-grabbing phrases I can use in tweets, blog intros, or sales pages.
• Frameworks & Formulas: Writing formulas that work every time (e.g., AIDA, PAS, storytelling structures).
• Content Ideas: Topics I want to develop further—things I know will turn into great posts.
• Golden Sentences: Phrases that slap. These are the one-liners that make people stop scrolling.

This made it stupidly easy to pull from my notes and start writing without overthinking.

I Used Tags & Keywords (So I Could Actually Find Things Later)

I learned this the hard way: An idea is only valuable if I can actually retrieve it when I need it.

So, every time I saved an idea, I:

• Added a one-liner description so future-me wouldn’t wonder what I was thinking.
• Used searchable tags so I could quickly pull up related ideas.

Example: Instead of just saving “The best writing is stolen,” I tagged it with #contentstrategy #creativity #copywriting—so anytime I needed ideas on originality, it popped up.

I Committed to a Weekly Review (The Non-Negotiable Habit)

Once a week, I sit down and:

• Delete anything useless (because not every idea is a winner).
• Expand anything promising (turning rough ideas into structured notes).
• Reorganize anything messy (so future-me isn’t cursing past-me).

This small habit changed everything.

Now, when I sit down to write, I’m not “thinking” of ideas—I’m pulling from a goldmine of insights I’ve already curated.

This is what separates idea hoarders from high-output creators.

And trust me—you want to be the latter.

3. Creative Output (Effortless Writing, Every Time)

At this point, my writing process is effortless—not because I suddenly became a creative genius, but because I stopped relying on creativity to show up on demand.

Now, when I sit down to write, I’m not starting from scratch—I’m assembling.

No more staring at a blank page, waiting for inspiration like a clueless protagonist in a bad rom-com. Instead, I:

1. Pull a pre-collected idea from my Writing Vault.
2. Connect the dots.
3. Write without suffering.

It’s like having a treasure chest of insights just waiting to be put together. No overthinking. No “what should I write about?” existential crises.

I Really Did A Case Study On How Top Creators Do It

This isn’t just my system—this is how the best creators in the world operate:

• Ryan Holiday (Bestselling Author) → Uses The Notecard System. Every idea is captured on an index card, categorized, and ready to be assembled into books, blogs, and essays.
• David Perell (Writing Instructor) → Calls this a Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) System—a process that lets ideas “compound” over time, so he’s never starting from zero.
• Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek) → Saves every idea, lesson, and experiment in Evernote, turning his notes into a high-value content vault that he pulls from whenever he needs inspiration.

They’re not more creative than you or me. They just have systems that do the heavy lifting.

Why This Works (And Why It Feels Like Cheating)

Here’s the game-changing shift: Writing isn’t about creating—it’s about curating.

The best content isn’t pulled from thin air. It’s built from layers of ideas, insights, and observations that already exist.

By using a Capture System + Intelligent Organization, I turned my writing process into a paint-by-numbers experience—just connect the right pieces, and the final picture emerges effortlessly.

End result? Writing stops feeling like a struggle. It becomes a habit.

And once you start doing this, you’ll never stare at a blank page again.

FAQ: “But What If I Don’t Want Another System?”

Fair. Here’s the simplest version:

• Capture raw ideas → (Voice notes, Notion, sticky notes—whatever is easiest).
• Review once a week → Delete junk, organize the gold.
• Write from your vault → Never start from scratch.

That’s it.

Final Action Step: Set Up Your “Writing Vault”

Enough theory—here’s what you need to do today:

Pick Your Capture Tool (Notion, Obsidian, Apple Notes).
Create 3 Simple Folders (Ideas, Hooks, Frameworks).
Commit to Capturing & Reviewing Weekly.

This system stops writing from feeling like a chore and turns it into an effortless process.

Because the truth is, great writing isn’t about trying harder. It’s about working smarter.

Your goal? Never write from scratch again.

Now, go build your external brain. Your future self will thank you.

TL;DR (Too Lazy? Here’s Your Cheat Sheet):

• Your brain is unreliable. Stop trusting it to remember ideas.
• Great writing happens before you sit down. Capture first, organize later.
• Use a simple 3-step system:
  Effortless Collection → Capture ideas instantly.
  Intelligent Organization → Make them searchable.
  Creative Output → Write without suffering.
• Set up your “Writing Vault” today. Future-you will love you for it.

Stop Writing from Scratch—Steal My System Instead

By now, you know the truth: Great writing doesn’t start at the keyboard.

It starts with a system—a way to capture, organize, and effortlessly assemble ideas into content that flows.

I spent years refining this process so I never had to face the blinking cursor of doom again. And now? I’m handing over my full blueprint to you.

Introducing: The Kindle Writing Playbook—The Ultimate System for Effortless Content Creation

Grab your copy now and steal my system. Your future self will thank you: Book link –> https://shorturl.at/zCHA4