A slip-box that does the filing.
Niklas Luhmann wrote seventy books out of a wooden box of index cards. Commonplace is that box: capture slips from anywhere, and it files them, links them, and deals them back to you — no librarian required.
1 The method
Capture
1.1Every thought lands in the inbox tray — phone, browser, watch. No folders on the way in; each slip is date-stamped and filed later.
cf. 2 — anatomy of a slip
Branch
1.1aLink a slip to any other and it takes a branch address — 1a, 1a1, 1a2 — a thought growing under its parent, exactly where it belongs.
cf. 1.1 — capture
Resurface
1.2Each morning the box deals you a few old slips next to today’s writing. Serendipity, on a schedule.
cf. 1.1a — branching
2 Anatomy of a slip
the phone problem
4cThe phone is not the distraction; the negotiation is. Every unlock is a small referendum on what the next hour is for. Write the referendum down once — [[attention residue]] — and the vote gets quieter.
attention residuemorningsdeep work
filed under attention — cf. 1a, 2b, journal 9
- address4c sits under 4, beside 4a and 4b — position is meaning.
- linkstyped as [[double brackets]] in the body; the box does the rest.
- filed underautomatic — every slip that mentions you shows up here.