When enough info builds up in your scratch files, it’s time to batch process them into the Cyborganize system.
There are different processing steps for the Execution Loop, the Longform Loop, and the Snippet Loop. This page will explain how to do all the steps at once.
You should always process your scratch files in the chronological order they were created. This is easy because your scratch files are numbered in ascending order. E.g. scratch.org, scratch1.org, scratch2.org, etc.
Apply the same six steps to every scratch file:
1. Scan and retitle. If the scratch file covers multiple topics, disambiguate it.
2. Copy full text to T3 blog.
3. Copy full text to your chronological tapes.
4. Extract actionables to actionables.org
5. Delete the contents, save, and close the scratch file.
6. Open next scratch file and repeat.
Let’s talk about each of these steps in order.
1. Scan and retitle. If the scratch file covers multiple topics, disambiguate it.
For this first step, you need to skim the scratch file to familiarize yourself with its overall contents. Since you made the file recently, you shouldn’t need to read it in detail.
You only need to do this step if the scratch file contains a decent amount of material on two totally unrelated things, or two things that each deserve their own separate T3 blog headings. For example, if you write a blog post, and then start redesigning the layout of your website, that should be two separate scratch files.
If the unrelated topic is just a line or two, don’t worry about creating a separate scratch file for it. We want to go fast and achieve “good enough” organization, not stress about minor stuff.
Lastly, give the scratch file a good title that summarizes its contents.
2. Copy full text to T3 blog.
You do not have to do this step if the contents of the scratch file are not worth preserving for later searching in your T3 blog. But most scratch files will be worth preserving. It’s a good habit to save more than you need, because storage costs are near zero. At most, you will have another search result showing up for certain keywords. Keeping a complete record allows you to reconstruct the major work sessions for any individual project months or years later, which is awesome.
The fastest way to do this is to copy the plain text, switch to your WordPress local install, click the HTML tab, and paste the full text into the editor window. Then jump to the top, grab the headline, and move it from the editor window to the headline bar.
Next check all the categories that apply. Don’t worry about overlap, that’s a good thing. Then hit publish, and you’re done.
3. Copy full text to your chronological tapes.
Normally this step involves copying the full text of the scratch file to notes.org. This is a simple copy-paste job that takes two seconds.
But occasionally a scratch file will contain lots of copied research material. Notes.org is supposed to be stuff you wrote yourself. So if there is a lot of quoted material, you should break that down into your quotes chronological tapes.
Your quotes chronological tapes are divided into four files, ranked by importance: epic-quotes.org, elite-quotes.org, quotes.org, and reference.org. Epic is for truly life altering one-liners. Elite is for really good stuff. Quotes is for good stuff. Reference is for bulk material.
It’s easier to break down a scratch file into the appropriate quotes files by deleting stuff from your scratch file as you paste it into your quotes files. That way you don’t lose track of your place.
Often you’ll want to create redundancy between your quotes files. For example, you may want to paste a small excerpt into epic quotes, a larger paragraph containing that excerpt into elite quotes, and the full text into reference. However the level of redundancy is up to you, and should vary depending on how important an item is to you. If it’s critical that you find it again easily, then take a few extra moments to give it high redundancy. If it’s not as important, then just put it in one or two quotes files.
You don’t always have to record the source document when you’re quoting text. When you have an exact quote, it’s usually easy to find the source by using Google. Also, you’ll be able to find the context of the original quote on your T3 blog, which should spur your memory if it doesn’t contain the source explicitly.
4. Extract actionables to actionables.org
In this last editing step, you delete everything from your scratch file that isn’t an actionable. Actionables are any sentence that can be performed as an action. If there is an idea that is phrased in the passive tense but ought to be an actionable, rephrase it to the active tense. You should also make sure that each actionable can be understood independently, since it will be sorted out of its context in BrainStormWFO.
After you’ve removed everything that isn’t an actionable from the scratch file, copy it all and paste into your actionables.org.