Author: Benami Ark

How To Do ToDo lists and Addressing Procrastination [Long read] [Tutorial – Beginner]

Some people have a lot going on, and just write it in a list, and that’s it. But what if that works? And then, you want more? What if that could be improved?  

How is it then we would like to imagine ourselves? Drawing up those lists. Plotting – hopefully – the extent of everything we can most likely promise ourselves in achievement. And the most common, the most natural, the most explanatory. The simple and humble, yet dedicated and impactful. The  ‘ToDo list’. It’s one of those, ‘how do you like yours cooked?’ kind of things, with different strokes for different folks.  

Our task here is to discuss the fundamentals and core of the ToDo list. Can it be improved? And what happens if we make ToDo lists a way of life for anything that needs to be done, what problems may occur? 

Did you ever think there would be a counter-intuitive factor simply on the basis of ‘trying to accomplish’? Would you ever have thought that how it is you try to apply yourself would be the way in which you procrastinate alone?  

I wouldn’t have initially either, and as partially why, too busy as I put, ‘promising myself’ with distractions. You see when one creates a ToDo list, if that list is not based on ‘this absolutely needs to be done now or there will be trouble‘, then there is the potential of a kind of ‘impulse buying’ the lister may be vulnerable to.  

In a similar sort of way that it’s advised not to go food shopping whilst hungry. As one scripts a ToDo list, they may be toppling thriftless objectives that would otherwise have no place being on there. And as for their motives for doing this, there could an indication of something problematic. And then, stacking disappointment can embed itself into your mind.  

There could be many reasons for this behavior. One such possibility we will diagnose, is if they are so devoted to maximising output of their ToDo lists, that they are unhappy with their current situation, yet feel they cannot do anything about it other than plot. That this individual is then in a kind of ‘reactive’ state, unsettled, and in need of change. And due to this constant subconscious discomfort, a propelled desperation becomes through you. Entering and existing inside the background of your thoughts, your actions and meaning. And as it does, the duality of hope, inclusive of false hope and all the invisible delusive indecisiveness to boot that comes with it, seeps into expectation. Manifesting in ambition of productivity, in the form of the ToDo list, dare I even say now corrupted and leaking. 

But what’s the actual problem here? Is this actually ‘dangerous’??? ToDo lists that come with safety warnings??? But it is possible without knowing to be fulfilled by a special irony and that be the story written for you at this time of your life. To exist in a looming shadow that only complements how you languish, building the walls around you as they surround you affecting your mental health.

 You see, as one writes of everything they predict will help them escape, such is what the ToDo list masquerades as, serving as a proposal for improvement, two new equations secretly formulate. What may actually be happening, is they are without knowing, portraying who they believe they should be, and then living in that shadow. Basing what they hope to accomplish on what that supposed ideal would do. And here we are identifying the punishing consequences of that left unchecked.  

The other equation in question enabled, is also based on promise. A kind of indirect contract with how one atypically procrastinates signed in the form of ‘off-putting’ by listing placement and as this is happening, it’s being learned. Putting what goes where on the lists and feeling good about it.  And when you put something off, notice then when you get around to it, refacing that reason you put it off, with a bit extra momentum pent up.

I never really thought something as simple as a ToDo list would be a window into the soul. But, it does make sense that how you apply yourself and in what direction would resemble true character, as will the success and failings that follow. That said, you then also may become in touch with a special kind of intuition.  

One that is guiding in nature, but not in the form of attraction and instead, a deterrence. Like a each click on a Geiger counter  resembling the traction of nails inside your skull detecting radioactive mine sources, making mental movement difficult. A heightened sensitivity to stress in this state of stability that will be unnoticed to the point that procrastination will just unknowingly ‘become’ of you and consume you, ruining your day. And you will be dumbfounded as to why you are so suddenly struck. It’s a crashing feeling nulling any sense of progression previously procured by the ToDo list.  

The answer is without you even knowing, a part of you is well aware that somewhere down the line in pursuit of that outcome listed on that ToDo list, lies an air-pocket of headache and stress. A feeling of inability that reminds you of imprisonment that you currently feel unbearable and exhausted by, and that repeats so much over years, this foresight gains. Think of it like acute causal trauma detected by the your subconscious, maybe due to repetition  from past accrued senses of failure. Though of course, would be common amongst individuals that frequent inability, and thusly would more naturally find themselves in a state of distressing urgency… Knowing the ‘what’ they are to do, but not the skills ‘how’. And it is to escape this domain, temporarily, will you see how it draws you back, all happening right under your nose.  

I noticed that, also becoming of me. When work became too much and the mind’s gone a bit numb, how healthy it is to exit the room, go outside for a walk. Breaking all the rules as it were about what you tell yourself you need to do, and the pressure of artificially created deadlines engrained from the integration of ToDo list domesticated hustle culture. And come the change in atmosphere the draw of fresh air became most enjoyable, I sadly would have described it as a tool. But what I also enjoyed to my dismay, was how my mind was in this state, reflective of the surroundings. A kind of liberated state from the previous patterns of thought.  

But then I noticed what my mind also began to do, still enchained to work, goal setting. And what’s particular is how much of a good idea, average ideas sounded. It’s such a weird state. To want something, and then not want it, and became awash by this influence, like standing in omnidirectional gusts of wind. But when I would walk through that front door back home, I could stop. I would say, “there it is”. That feeling inside my skull and spine. Drenched by a mirky weighty energy sapping comeuppance almost crawling through me.  

Why is it one doesn’t want to do something? What is that force of nature that completely depletes them of will. I would say we all have secret counters, counting, ticking, accumulating failure. And as they rise, as do tipping point probabilities near, and transformations become. This can be accessed here.. This is going to be the most dramatic ToDo list you’ll ever make. And all you need to do is pick up your pen, or put your fingers on the keys, and question what is waiting around the corner. For any chess player will tell you not every move you make is a step forward to victory, and sometimes, the outcome of your own checkmate, is by designing your king’s inability to move, trapped inside the walls of his own defenses.  

For it is in our example, I’m back where I don’t want to be and I only get clues to know it. And all those goals I set, all that vision I had portended, about betterment and excellence, about striving and perceiving, and ultimately, about some form of ascension. Now act as forces against me. Ladders that break, paths that mislead, I’m building doorways in open fields. And your attempts to actually ‘do’, only serve to blind you, distracted from your feelings.  

And boy it’s so easy to put stuff off. And as that piles, somewhat of a hoarder I become. Reluctant to let go of tasks incomplete. Reluctant to admit defeat curtailing the ‘why’ it was I could not succeed. Held back by my own competitive determination. I proceed to hit that crooked now wonky nail repetitively trying to force it in unsuccessfully. Until now I just need to rest. For if I am to concede my own incompetence, it only proves I’m capable of enabling resistance. Not actually acting upon it.   

And so I’m burned out, taking time off, having a break from the act of initiating productivity in itself, let alone the actual work. But going with the flow instead, which is tied to my default autopilot minimum effort easily distracted self. Making ToDo lists, waiting for that sense of procrastination to leave me so history can repeat. Wishing. And all the time I’ve spent wondering what if, I just kept that strategy up, how productive I could have been.  

And so it is. The Todo list you will find is a mortal struggle against inner demons. I bet you never saw that coming? But when you think about it, it makes sense. By choosing to practice ToDo lists, you have come to the conclusion (somehow and for some reason) that this listing strategy needs to be done. And by actually doing a ToDo list, you are challenging who it is you are for needing it rather than being good enough without it, which you clearly aren’t amidst your inadequacy. And your ego that’s been pulling the strings conducting the movement in your life, embarking into safe spaces and settling down via subtle nudges in your emotions, isn’t going to like that.  

For in your ToDo list, you will have things in there, that have the overall objective of making you a better person like another inner voice slotting those tasks into that list. Healthier choices in life for example. Or improving how it is you think, things you know deep down you should be doing but can’t quite find the strength to muster motivation.  

And to test all this, I could just straight up ask you right now, ‘why aren’t you better’? And there will be some idea to compare yourself to. Even though you know it’s a good idea to try and improve (if you were to know the true path of that improvement of course, but attempt it none the less), there’s a part of you that simply just doesn’t want to do it. Doesn’t want to get up early, to eat that less processed food, quit that pleasure inducing, stress liberating habit. And that part could be justified. Of course there’s a narrative. By how heavy you think the load is in life, or question if that’s just a narrative you tell yourself as this ego does love to take the easy way out or if you are at your limit. This ToDo list culture will act as a spiritual teacher and take you there. I’ll repeat. You will learn that, and as I say – not even knowing you –  I’ll speak for a foreign part of you when I say that specific part won’t like it. And let the inner conflict commence, and your transformation truly begin.  

And so it is here then I find myself, wondering my own failures, and if that then entitles me to portray an effective ToDo list? And I would say yes, on the basis of how failures build success, we can at least discuss different ToDo lists and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.  So, with that considered, we will create and evaluate ToDo lists on the basis we are aware of the potential corrosive effect this might have unbeknownst to whoever practices productive list making, the contracts they sign.  

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Getting Started on the Actual list 

A list is a list, if you wanted to keep it simple, on pen & paper, write point after point scoring off when completed. Easy. But as you do that over time, you may find yourself wanting to expand on the complexity for optimisation and analysis of which it is here you will be guided on how to do so effectively and maybe just find yourself on a little journey inwards too.  

Another thing you want to consider as you embark on practical ToDo lists, is what I used to identify as ‘shit just takes ages’ (because it fucking does!) And your ability to ‘play for time’ as a plan may be restricted, though you may then want to get your driving and transportation sorted as part of the 5 year master plan with this article considered. Thanks to AI, of course, it doesn’t take as long as it did, waiting for replies and searching who can do what job. But even so. You are most likely a lone worker. You I assume are likely to be under resourced, and can’t just take out your wallet to solve issues by paying someone else. Otherwise your ToDo list analysis wouldn’t need to be complicated as the tasks on there would be completed promptly and not your concern.  

I also write this as you should appreciate that any integration of any other party into your life, automatically adds an unpredictable element to your planning and will mostly likely cause delays due to their own personal interests out with yours. And competition usually is afforded to the highest bidder regarding who’s schedule works around who. Just something to be aware of as delays can garner frustration, but warrant discipline for the sake of peace which arguably is what most plans work towards.  

And lastly to add, if it’s then you, that is doing everything by yourself, you’re not going to be all knowing. And learning is going to be slow and sometimes difficult as you’re not ‘just going to machine through it’ as I used to force upon myself. And you’ll then make amateur mistakes, sometimes costly and can be set backing. And it’s all the shitshow of becoming an adult and gaining that life experience to avoid these issues. So all I’m saying is relax and try to not worry too much when things don’t ‘go to plan’, like you shouldn’t have but couldn’t help but promise yourself.  

For starts. I strongly recommend putting your whole Todo list system on some cloud based platform. So it’s on your phone, and computer simultaneously and interchanged instantaneously. Don’t worry about people spying with data and putting out sensitive information like your shopping list, your purpose here is to be productive, and that is a form of efficiency. So looking it up can be changed quickly. I would encourage you in this case to look past data protection. I remember my own hesitation to add my ToDo lists online. I didn’t like the idea of being spied on. To me, I just thought, it’s not that much personal information I’m already giving using search engines, in comparison to the practicality of having cloud utility.  Though I do have plans for an FTP own server set up for a future publish because I realise it is important. But also using the tools at your disposal.

Quite easy to ‘lose touch’, of a long project, and that distance contributes to further procrastination amongst other things. It becomes a ‘getting around to it’ objective in itself. Don’t make accessing your notes an ‘ordeal’, don’t make it extra steps and ‘exclusive’ for certain times. Make it seamless, 2 clicks away. 

At the moment, I’m using OneNote. It’s cloud based, it’s free, it works. That’s enough. Yes notes can become unsynced and then editing across two portals can result in a conflict. One Note gives you a chance to inspect both copies. And by just making sure they sync before you work, this can be easily avoided.  In our this tutorial, I’ll be showing off how it can be applied not as a note based platform as it’s usually used, but as a ToDo list software. Other generic contenders for the ToDo list platform would be a calendar based software, or a spreadsheet. Perhaps for a ToDo list article sequel were we can apply a bit of automation. 

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In OneNote, you can import pictures and videos for motivation. It’s not something I do personally for collecting inspiration. Also in OneNote, you can export to PDF. The biggest advantage bar being free (currently) is the omnipresence of it. Can write in your phone, or use an InPrivate browser on your work computer, or your laptop. You don’t need to remember a USB stick. You don’t need to copy the documents you need to work on, on the sly, whilst doing your job. You don’t need to then wonder, should I delete this or does it have important documents in it, when it comes to copying over onto USB. It just completely removes the fuss.

Also you’ve got a spell checker. Can format with word colours if you want. Insert tables. To be honest, I don’t like that there is no keyboard shortcut for ‘Strikethrough‘ like there is Bold (ctrl + b) or Italics (ctrl + i) and instead it hides amongst ellipses. Handy for crossing things off ‘Todo lists’, though inside the tags drop down exists tick boxes.  

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The ToDo List Objects.  

The manner and urgency in which jobs are done is every changing. But there are bound to be things you ‘need to get around to’, and things that pop up, along with timely occurrences, like bills that obviously will take high urgency. Not to condescend but let’s run through the basics. In every ToDo list there is three basic categories. The ‘One off’s’, ‘building towards (some kind of project), the ‘maintenance upkeep’ (your choirs).  

Maintenance ToDo List.

So often is in in cheffing a choice is made by the individual or team. As the food orders are flying in and space is limited, tools are wonky, and resources scarce. Do you stop working entirely and do a ‘clean down’ and regenerate your stocks, and refresh your mind, as the orders continue back up, or, do you keep prodding along hoping for a break in the weather? And the answer is inconsistently situationally judged. For as chefs work, and work quickly in heat. Things spill and deplete and become misplaced, and damaged when making sure that food comes out timely and hot all for that all important minimum wage cheque. And order is required to be keep systems running effectively, which also has a knock on effect, on, morality, call it. Walking into a bombsite on top of a busy night definitely has a disheartening effect to it. Not the kind of start you want. One that also then echoes throughout the shift.  

The same concept is actually applied to your life. A need to ‘recuperate’ and get back on track. So easy it is for us, whilst we relax in our own space, to revert to a slob state in times of peace. That is the work of your reoccurring Maintenance ToDo. Repairing yourself and surroundings from the drudgery of your imperfection. And as reluctant you may be to do it also on the flip side, you may find an attraction towards it. I used to enjoy getting around to sorting out the heaps of notes I’d accumulated throughout the week. Because these notes acted as a sort of saving grace, a get out of jail free card when it came to feeling guilty about not being productive. 

Unfortunately, this case, it was for nought, as the systems I had in place for note extraction to their designated location were flawed. Infantile if you will, compared to how those systems progressed and matured over the years. And also the ideas they were for, wouldn’t be deployed at the time but maybe for 15-20 years.

And so I found I was really just ‘doing what I knew to do, to feel like I had a sense of progression’, I had these systems in place I knew, and I could just step in and start doing them, without a recap. And get a feeling of control over my life, when really, what I knew to do, wasn’t really that productive in my life. But it was difficult for me to understand that proper at the time. On the bright side though, to play the long game, those ideas planted over a decade ago are now starting to bloom.   

It’s somewhat a skill, a discipline to, a sign of intelligence. To not just race for the finish only prioritising the one off jobs, or the tasks that accumulate towards big projects. And appreciate pathway clearing. I used to even say it’s a privilege. Getting ready for work, waking up at 7. Coming home at 7, and in some cases, that’s not waking up in the morning. And then after the traffic and getting home, cooking food. And finally sitting down to eat, and relax. I don’t want to start cleaning after doing dishes in the kitchen too small to put a dishwasher in. Who actually does that I thought? People that have a cushy enough life to not be so burdened by that 9-5 kind of life and stress. But it’s not going to clean itself I sigh. So the ‘Maintenance ToDo’, the list of things in your life, you do to maintain health, hygiene, stability.  

One Offs. & Building towards.  

As a reminder, then, careful not just to put things on your ToDo list, ‘for the sake of it’. Because it will ‘probably help’, or ‘may as well’ motives.  Embarking on your path to be hexed by the curse of perfectionism. Though, arguably, it’s difficult to know what will actually help. An of course, until you actually get around to doing it, and realise I don’t give a shit about this activity, is a good indicator. Also unforeseeable problems arise only after the prototyping of a long task. You have to not take these things too seriously. As they do cause delays, and then result in missed targets.  

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Now let’s sort out your ToDo list structure. Built on 1N. You’ll see that most writer’s software, is just folders inside folders and files inside folders. Organised in a certain way. The Notebooks of Microsoft’s OneNote is like a folder. The new sections are folders inside folders, and the ‘pages’ are just files. These files are like HTML Files that can easily create text boxes. That’s it. It’s got a lot of stuff. Master folder ‘notebook’ -> Subfolder ‘Section’ -> file ‘Page’.  

Create account. Get your notebook. [yourName’s Notebook].  

Then create 3 sections. And then the sub bullet points are pages.  

1. Master Notes / Template Notes
   1. Morning ToDo 
   2. Evening ToDo 
   3. Sunday ToDo 
   4. Work ToDo 
   5. Gym plan 
   6. Things to Remember.  
   7. Finances
      1. Perhaps then integrating some kind of accounting software? Not covered in this basic tutorial. 
2. Dated notes.
   1. 1Dump (stockpile tasks to sort and address later, and of course, to evaluate if they are worth completion) 
   2. DDMMYYYY.  
3. Archive.
   1. Old dated notes to be kept for reference.  
4. Project 1 (Actual name) 
5. Objectives.
   1. Bounty list. A dossier of targets. A file/page per each. Your checklist. What the actual job is, how far along you’re on with it.
      1. Example: Driving: acquired provisional. Savings targets for lessons. Setting nightly theory revision. A potential car you are eyeing and making sure it’s not sold. Insurance 

The Master ToDo List.  

A set of documentation, you would rarely be changing. Your master notes is an idea taken from the master sheet in spreadsheet work. Same concept as that primary reference.

Morning & Evening ToDo List.  

What? Ensuring you get your freshly pressed juice and doing your brain puzzles in the morning? Good luck with that. What about the Night ToDo list? That you and your little wind down routine with a nice book is it? And no blue light, phone screens off by 22:00! A lot of these things, if you’re not into them, writing them on a list isn’t going to do much. It’s just going to make you live in a shadow of who you should be, and that’s going to have a negative influence on you.

But, having said that. I used to think having a functional body clock was a privilege, that’s me using that word again. Because the jobs that would only hire me had late shifts like 5-2, and then only 1 day’s break between and expect you to come bright-eyes and bushy tailed for a 9-5. And maintaining a body clock ‘just getting into a routine’ was the big hope I’d hold out for one day, was reason enough for me not to start these little morning rituals for the sake of accruing good karma feeling and positive energy vibes with some nice green tea and deep breaths meditation for the day.  All I’m saying is routine in your life can be good, and maybe at the point in life I take inspiration of, without it, could have contributed to that agitation.

Sunday ToDo.  

The Sunday ToDo, is a kind of representation of a peaceful restoration. When we do things, we create mess. The Sunday ToDo list is about resetting the stage for the next week, to make sure it can go as smoothly as possible. You should be thinking about those little things that are weighing on your mind, that you “need to get around to, but…[insert excuse]”. And if you haven’t gotten around to them, address them on the Sunday ‘weekly spring clean’.  

In cheffing, there is a term used when there’s a reviewal of what you’ve got in the back fridges. A big list for then another list, the ‘prep list’, the todo list of tomorrow morning. Where I was, stationed, it was called ‘a recky’. I don’t know where that word came from, is it to, reckon what’s in store? Don’t know. But the principle is to check what you’ve got to work with, and what you need, is good. To reacquaint yourself so you know what is and – equally important – isn’t to be done.  

The same thing should apply to your ToDo list. Sometimes projects can get so big, you don’t even know what ideas is located where. And that can become a feeling of lostness and disconnect that can build into procrastination. Or notes you forgot to tidy up that require to be sorted for later. You should do a recky of both your current projects, just going over them, reminding yourself of where you’re heading with them and how far you are with them and how you currently feel about that project. Just self reflective in your mind. And also you should do that with your overall database. Just looking what ideas are where, what’s been brushed to the side. Where are those procrastination land mines. What was the driving stake of your procrastination? Trying to see your way through the emotional haze with your feeling. This is you, ‘staying on top of it’.  

Dedicating a day, Sunday, as as not simply a maintenance objective, but a time of maintenance objectives. To recharge, revaluate, recourse. And so as you are week planning, one thing you need to be careful of when warding of failure, is speaking for your future self. Oh yeah I’ll do X on Tuesday and Y on Wednesday.  

Here are same exemplary tasks that may appear on your Sunday ToDo list:  

• Food shopping 
  • Separating the dry store list from the fresh veggies list, that you top up regularly throughout the week.
• Cleaning
  • Washing & drying clothes  
  • Emptying bins, and recycling. (And reminding yourself which bin day it is!) 
  • Small deep cleaning
    • Just a section at a time booked in, perhaps the grime behind the kitchen sink, and maybe next Sunday, vacuum under the bed. Clean and around in the window frame in the bed room. Top surfaces where dust gathers. Gut out cutlery drawer, Etc.  
  • Tidy computer desk including a wipe down.  
  • Get your school/work uniform clothes laid out and bag packed so the first morning of the week isn’t chaos (for a change).  
• Batch cooking, if you’re into that kind of thing.  
• Tidying virtual data
  • Backing up pictures from phone and all your generated photos.  
  • Sorting notes on computer like note dumps.  
  • Backup computer or ensure your auto backups are running.  
  • That ‘once a week’ long term project you slowly add to.  
  • Refamiliarisation.
• Write in your journal, your review of the objectives of last week and thoughts and feelings about life’s direction. 
• Week Scripting.
  • Just knowing a rough idea of what’s going on and when, knowing it can change, but also including appointments.  

Work ToDo. 

This isn’t just your job responsibilities to remember. If anything, I’d have a separate document on that, including forgettable things like access codes / passwords and little rules the work has to keep order, or tricks that are required, like setting up a piece of equipment that has a knack to it.  Even though eventually you’ll remember it, it’s great to share with new colleagues, and they end up appreciating you for it which is nice.

The Work ToDo file, is based on the little projects you’re able to sneak in and work on during work hours on work computers. Which may also include access to passwords you would use to log into certain accounts on an inprivate browser so you can get your set up time minimised. Always important.  

The ‘Elaborate’ ToDo list.  

A question you would ask is, is it best to keep it simple? Let’s say for discussions sake we weren’t to do that. For what a ToDo list can moonlight as, is a form of diary. Seeing what day you did or didn’t do what on. And include follow up comments as to why it became that outcome. Expressing thoughts and feelings in the process.  

Dated Notes  

Each file, named as the date. How are you going to play it? For ticking things off the ToDo list, it becomes messy, and nice to see it clear. But also nice to see how much you’ve achieved. For me, once the ToDo list is sorted, ready for execution, create a copy, and put it at the bottom with a big line. And then with the first original, just delete the text. Alternative, you could use a strike out feature, or put tick boxes in. But by keeping what it is you set out to do, you can then compare and ask yourself, was doing that really that progressing?   

Did you just add jobs ‘just encase’, but then when getting around to do them, realised through your procrastination that you don’t care about this objective and it’s kind of a waste of time? How did you perform in what task that was actually fundamental?  Suggestions for your ToDo list: Sign onto loyalty card schemes for the regular super market you shop at, that free sandwich you get for shopping there daily for the last 4 months might just be the lunch you can afford on days you’re broke.  

Things to Remember.  

In your Things to Remember, Your personal notes to self and important information to you. Bus times. Train times. Opening/closing  times of certain shops. Addresses you should remember but have lots of other stuff going on, same with common phone numbers you need to quickly copy and paste – though there is autofill. Though I write assuming internet access isn’t always available. Other tidbits worth remembering. Salary information. Certain deal prices, what time the bargain bin goes out when the supermarket does its first sweep of discounts. And can put other important reminders in it. Like your main system file. A reminder as to what it is you are doing. What notes are going where, what is the structure of your virtual organisation. Including your accumulated ideas, journaling, saved content online, plans. And the method to ‘keep on top of it’.  

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Concluding thoughts:

The thing to remember about ToDo lists is the way they help you is a small portion of the actual jobs done. It is easy to think how tomorrow’s going to be all sorted so you can sleep easy because you’ll be so organised, but it’s very much possible to be all nice and organised, then when it comes to carrying out the jobs, be stunned by lethargic dreariness. Because it turns out you were just using ToDo lists as a way to put things off. Because you just liked the idea of jobs being done, not actually doing them. So don’t take them too seriously. It would make sense to take them seriously for the sake of productivity, but there’s a rebound effect in the form of your failure and inaccuracies that will become, haunting and undoing towards your motivation and momentum.

Build your Writer’s Database. [Tutorial – Beginner] [LONG READ]

As a budding or developed writer, you will often question how it is you structure your current and future works and if you could be doing that better? And it is here we introduce an unlikely contender to supplement that curiosity. Then offer insight as to navigating how one might implement its own offerings into their structuring complex refinery.

Introducing a veteran software of the coding world, built upon as it’s aged, but retuned into a more literary one – Notepad++, or as we’ll be abbreviating it as: N++. And it is here we’ll fashion and design a raw writer’s database, then pilot it like a pro.

Other Players in the Game:

Based on my research, N++ is definitely a dark horse amongst writers. I haven’t seen it mentioned once in recommendation. Could that be because it’s a hidden gem? Or perhaps it’s that bad? Let’s decide that after reviewing its features.

All these big names, that get brought up when writers alike come to enquire what others use to create their works of art. Titles like Scrivener, MS Word, Google Docs. Along with note taking apps like Notion, Obsidian and OneNote.

Scrivener seems to be the most recommended. I don’t think they even need to advertise. A plethora of little features. A one off payment. Features such as taking snap shots as a form of saving, this ‘corkboard’ big picture view, like putting all ideas on a big table and looking at them flat, and goal setting functions. It comes with more decorations than this article has icons.

Obsidian that grants users option of a complex mind map function to visualise relationships between notes. Or an omnidirectional canvas much like OneNote so your ideas aren’t so, Fortran, and can be instead, more, horizontally expanded. Has pricing options.

Other paid options exist like: Novelcrafter, Livingwriter, Dabble. Subscription platforms like Novelpad that offers ‘character tracking’, as to follow the story from a character’s perspective. Novlr, ‘built by writers, for writers’ claiming to be the only writer-owned creative writing platform. Or Metos, that also lets you build comprehensive character profiles using gages.

There’s Bibisco Novel Writing Software, that offers a free and premium version, self described as the ‘novelists’ go-to tool for organizing ideas, characters, and plots seamlessly’. Also lets users create mind maps of relationships, a built in tag system and with a built in questionnaire to help build even a character’s psychology.

As for the more budget friendly options alike N++ (which is free), there’s Scribus, free publishing software, a sort of early 2000’s version of Word. Along with Atomic Scribbler. Wavemaker that helps apply note cards to your writing that can be nicely organised, and act as a database. Novelwriter.io designed by a Linux user disappointed with the options of editors. With nice graphic user interface options, and easy ways to set up the stage of your book to help organise it.

And that’s me not even getting started on these ‘minimalist’ distraction free based writing apps some recommend, though, N++ has a distraction free function itself and if you truly wanted a minimalist experience, press Win+R and type ‘notepad.exe’.

Though admittedly in this feature, untested against applied screenwriting software, like that of Celtx. Or ‘Fade In’, that enables collaboration. These platforms can enable an automated flow of the project, rather than depending on manual control.

I’ve even come across people setting up their own Wiki for their book, that enables the settings, characters, and plot of their story. Or other world building platforms like World Anvil.

So here we are getting insight into what a writer themselves would personally want in a software. In my view, writing specific, what actually makes a writing software worth using is how you are able to organise and access your ideas efficiently, without distracting your mindset. That’s it. As for ‘idea generation assistance’, Things to help you think, you can just have a document that’s a questionnaire and run it side by side. The mind mapping and sprawling features are nice though, sometimes projects are so big and it is nice to see a picture view of everything rather than visualising it all. I discuss N++’s limitations at the end of the article.

Personal Writing App Experience

I’ve not given dedicated years to most of the aforementioned highlights. Other platforms with me have had their chance to be quite frank. Even in 2025, I discover design flaws in Notepad in Windows 11. Like having multiple tabs open, and then when you zoom in or out in one tab, it zooms them in and out in all of them at the same time. So if one is document is one size of text and another document is another size, frequently you are going to the new document and it’s super zoomed in or out. And yes this is a bug that can be simply fixed, but still to find these issues so easily, reassures me of my decision. Although a text document is handy to have on the side, just for a paste clip board such is my workflow. Much like with web browsers and N++, you can now close Notepad without saving, and open the document and it will restore your recent tab window.  

Never really used Microsoft Word for this kind of big styled work. That’s more for work meant for PDFs and actual final products. Word, a tried and tested vet in its own right, has that formatting ability. Bit too clunky for me. I like to have over 30 documents open at once. And I don’t like that being a messy or cumbersome experience

Tried doing Linux Leafpad in 2015. Opening documents to them just being blank, self-deleting. That was fun. Wouldn’t recommend ever.  

I used to use Evernote back in 2011 for a couple of years. Very much enjoyed it. The problem was it was just too slow. And eventually they went cloud based and charge a subscription. I’m surprised it wasn’t mentioned much during my research.

With OneNote. It’s free. And it’s pretty good. I used to be hesitant to use it because the text is just basically text boxes and not purely aligned. And that means it’s not going to be purely near like the structure of a Notepad.txt or the text boxes overlap and look messy. But, I got past that discomfort. Migrated parts of my database onto OneNote fairly recently. And I’m enjoying it and will come with a review of applying a ToDo List system put to article.

I encourage everyone to use Notepad++, or at least try it. Even if you already come from a coding background you may not have particularly enjoyed and have horrifying memories debugging C++. I hope you can use this article to fight your inner demons and bring out your inner writer in its place. Here I’m giving you my best tips on how to structure your writing database and manipulate/navigate the software.

Just starting off with an external concept. You may want to include some ASCII Art in your documentation.

Standing for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. I don’t know. Some 20^th century thing. A more simpler time. I recommend and use ASCIIART.EU. Very easy. Type the word you want. It appears at the bottom, and just hit the copy button, and paste it in the document.  

The big blocks of words are good because when you are sifting through the document quickly, in the blur of text, you can notice these big shapes, and that can make you think you’ve hit the correct place. You can adjust how long the words can be before they start going on top of each other as a new line. I like the default, because when you make your text document split half the screen, it still fits nicely without messing up the format of the text.

The squares is just stacked equal signs ‘=========’. Notice the lines down after it says ‘Chapter 2’. This is because of the tab function required in the making of the text art that declares the start of a new line. To remove this, as shown in ‘Chapter 1’, simply add a nice hyphen line under it to clear any relies to start on a further indented line.  

As for troubleshooting, you may encounter an issue of vertical line spacing:  

.

Good: 

Bad:  

Notice in the orange ANSCII art text, the spaces between each line are bigger, warping the readability.

To fix, we go to Settings -> Style Configurator (language) Global Styles -> (Style) Default Style -> font size. Try increasing it to 20.  Then you’ll need to zoom out. (Ctrl + Mouse wheel). And this will now be true for your current theme.  Or if you’re still having trouble, visit the ‘Global Override’ just above ‘Default Style’.

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We assume you know how to install the software. Let’s get started on explaining some of the great features of this software that makes it useful for writers.

Select Word wrap if not already selected.  View -> Word Wrap.

Then, under ‘Encoding’ you can select ANSI or other forms like UTF-8. If you choose ANSI, then typing other foreign to English characters like: ‘样本中文’ will result in ‘????’. If you want to include other characters of other languages, perhaps as a decoration or tag or someone’s name if you don’t use that human language, then you would need to consider the Encoding.  

Fix Tabbing

Another slightly annoying feature for a writer but not a coder N++’s factory settings is related to tab indenting. As a writer would use to start a new paragraph, the line after the indented paragraph, would return to the start. However in N++, when a line is intended, then all text starts at that newly intended line. 

So as you can see, in this example, after the indent, all text reaching a new line becomes indented. I actually lived with this for years. And instead of indenting, put a full stop at the start, then indented. Because I was too afraid to dip my head into the settings encase I messed it all up beyond repair.  

But don’t be afraid. The fix is very easy. In settings -> preferences -> editing -> ‘Line Wrap’ -> Default 

Install Spell Checker

Plugins -> Plugins Admin -> Available -> DSpellCheck by Sergey Semushin.

Make sure you go to the ‘Library’ in the spell checker settings and change it to Windows for it to have an effect: 

Text-Speech app

Plugins -> Plugins Admin -> Available -> SpeechPlugin by Jim Xochellis.  

Adds Microsoft Sam styled robot voice. Accessed by going to Plugins -> Speech -> Speak Selection. Handy to have.  

You can select your theme:  Settings -> Style Configurator… -> Select theme

I’ve gone for a DarkModeDefault. But if you are feeling particularly, abstract, why not try the ‘Hello Kitty’?  

Ahh my eyes!  Too bright!

You’ll see the top tabs are still dark and not matching the electrifying pink. That’s from my ‘Dark mode’ I’ve got enabled. Find it in Settings -> Preferences -> Dark Mode

Summary Report:

View -> Summary

Use to make sure you are meeting those pointless words per day writing targets writing noobs set themselves. Boasting word count (especially to yourself) is meaningless other than to delude you. But this is still handy to know.  Controlling document size.

Document List

One of the massive advantages to using N++, is that you can keep all your files open at once, neatly. And can also open and close all of them easily. Let’s look at navigating this with ‘document list’.

Turn on ‘Document list’: View -> Document List 

This creates a list of all the open documents in this window/project. And then can open and close N++ and immediately return to your whole work session. Instead of having to individually open up the documents you want. Excellent if you have 20+ word dumps for ideas and can quickly store it.  

From here, you can then ‘group save’ your selected windowed opened tabs. Even though by default N++ automatically opens the previous work session as it was whether you saved it or not, still showing if it was unsaved by a little pencil beside the name. Under File -> ‘Save session’. Then you can quickly open all the files you normally want open, encase something happens. Like you close the main session down, and have another session open, and then it opens up the most recent session open which isn’t your main session. And unlike web browsers, there isn’t an option to view history of opened tabs and select closed entire windows of tabs. Like with any threat of loss of progress, It’s not just loss in a file like corrupt data. Also it’s possible to lose the infrastructure, the set up of your work station, and if you do accidentally close all windows and can’t get it back some how. It is going to be disheartening and that’s costly. So make sure to always have a backup of your session. Perhaps include that in your Sunday.ToDo.  

This similar effect can be achieved with the ‘Workspace Function’. Accessed by View -> Project Panel. However, this isn’t something I use, and instead, use divider files in a singular file index.  

Different work spaces can mean different groups of files open at once. And you can go back to your previous on so it’s not lost.  

In my own system, when it comes to file structure, I use ‘Divider Files’

A divider file is simply a text document, with a patterned name, nothing else. And that patterned name is placed in a section of the file hierarchy in the Document List as to then show a different project or break it up a bit for readability.  

These files named ‘———–‘ have no text in them, and serve the purpose of separating file group types. You can easily click and drag to move files in the files tab section at the top.

Auto Backup.

In preferences, remember your backup just to be safe. Settings -> Preferences:

No special back up is save normally. Simple backup is keeps one previous version. And Verbose backup, keeps making new copies, more secure, but more data consuming and messy (though they do get named appropriately)

Also for ‘security saves’, why not also install a plugin?

plugins -> plugins manager -> Available -> AutoSave by Franco Stellari.

(This picture shows it installed, you’ll find it in Available as the first tab)

This is the settings accessed by Plugins -> Autosave -> Options. You can even auto-save when you switch tabs.  

Colour Code Your Files.

Right click the file in the Document List, and then Apply Colour to Tab:

Easily Locate File Origin.

You can quickly access where that file is stored.

Also works on the tab bar. 

Set Data / Time.

As it comes, N++ doesn’t offer a simple print of F5 for the current time and date. We have to make it ourselves, but it’s still possible.

By default, ‘Run’ is on F5. We don’t have use for that as writers. Can change it.  Settings -> Shortcut Mapper…

Then you can just press F5 and it prints the date and time.

Tab Control

If you are using the ‘Document List’ in View -> Document List as recommended. You don’t really need tabs, but it’s personal choice. You could hide them. But doing so makes clicking and dragging to organise the tabs difficult, as document list doesn’t allow this.  

Ticking ‘multi-line’ will allow more tabs to appear at the top than just a single row of them: 

Auto-Complete Text

By default, in Preferences –> Auto Completion, it will present a drop down after you nearly finish a word for a word that is the same already written. Not like predictive text towards an entire dictionary. I didn’t like this when first using N++ but grew accustomed it it. Handy for searching quickly specific names or correct spelling. To disable, uncheck ‘Enable auto-completion on each input’. 

Quick Internet Searches

Choose which search engine you want, then when you highlight text, right click and select ‘Search on Internet’, it will use that search engine in your default browser. 

Top Tier Find / Replace Function

Another amazing feature of N++ is the advanced ‘Find’ function (Ctrl + F)  

I can slot the find function, at the bottom of half the screen as the file I’m emptying. And quickly fire them into their allocated sections on a different window. So in the below example. I’ve located Idea5,,, and now those ideas are going to be cut (ctrl + x) and pasted (ctrl + v) into the file Idea5. Still working out a method to automate this, that would have saved me YEARS!! Perhaps I’ll review Macro recording for a solution.

But yes, the find function of N++ is the best in the business. Excellent when working with very big documents.  

Sometimes during turn based games or when things are getting loaded up, I’d put on transparency as I work, then I can see when it’s my turn and flip back to the game. 

There is hidden practicality to the replace feature. Common examples of replace are mass changing an incorrect spelling. But what if you are copying text from a PDF? For the purposes of selective quotation of course. And the PDF format on plane text has wonky formatting:

You can use the search and replace function to fix that.

Ctrl + H opens Find & Replace.

In “Find what” type: \r\n. Then in “Replace with”, type: a space

Apply Book Marks to Lines

You could create a search tag, to show points of interest like this [!]. Easy to find in Ctrl + F.. Or also try the N++ blue circle. You can just click on the line number and it creates a blue dot on that line. Also note the orange vertical line. That shows what hasn’t been saved. Green when saved. These are officially called ‘bookmarks’.   

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Now we’re going to ‘make our language’. What that is, at least to us writers, is just adding colour codes to the text, and enabling us to fold text. Lets work through each section of the UDL interface and customise our language.

UDL: Folders & Default  

This comes with It a very useful feature, that allows us to ‘fold’ or collapse a designated text. The text doesn’t disappear entrely, just the lines the text are on are skipped until the space is expanded. In our example, we use ‘[+]’ to open the space for folding, and [-] at the end, to close everything that is folded. We can decorate our tags for opening and closing.  

This feature is handy because if allows us to shut off large sections of a document, which makes navigating it significantly easier. However if you are searching a word, and that word is within side a folded section, it will automatically expand to present to you the location of the found word.  

In the Folding in Code 1 Style ‘styler’ box, you can select the size of the ‘[+]’, the font – which can include ‘Webbings’ if you want to be that creative, or of course, change the colour 

Inside the ‘Default style’ box’s ‘Styler’, is the default style of the whole language. So this is what your characters will default to, in this example if you’ve noticed in the pictures, is orange.  

If you tick ‘Fold compact (fold empty lines too), that means everything after the [-] that is empty also gets folded. Not very useful unless you add a lot of page breaks to separate ideas.  

Here is an example of the Folding tag in comments. The tag is set to appear as yellow. But this is only in comments.  

In our example, we aren’t going to focus on the Folding in Code 2 Style (Separator’s needed). But it will be wise to just set it to the same as point 1 just encase you use separators in the future. The separators needed part means your fold markers must be separated from other text by spaces or delimiters or it won’t be recognized.  

Here is an example of the text not folded inside folding parameters:

And here it is folded: (Observe the lines 258 skipping to 267. The text isn’t deleted. Just hidden.  

A similar effect without folding parameters, can be created with ‘hide lines’. Simply highlight the text, and right click, and then at the bottom it says in the drop down ‘Hide Lines’.  

Here is the lines hidden: 

Also, you can look at View -> ‘Fold All’ (alt+0) or ‘Unfold all’ (alt+shift+0) to fold or expand all sections that can be folded. Handy if you want to scroll through the document quickly. Also remember to ‘Word Wrap’ so the text isn’t coming off the page.

UDL: Keywords Lists

User Defined Language -> Keywords Lists section. You will see a list of boxes that have 1st group. 2nd group. And also Suffix.  

The prefix mode means any word after the tag entered will become highlighted. So if your tag was ‘Great’, Prefix mode will highlight ‘Greater’ because it contains the prefix ‘Great’. Were as it won’t if off prefix mode. Separate tags with a space.  

You could use it to style your brackets  

Or perhaps create a tag to strike attention, here, I even changed the font of the ‘!!’ to help it stand out: 

Maybe there is a list of key phrases you want highlighted throughout your document? Observe the use of “” that enables  phrases to become used as keywords. ‘Chapter 3’ serves as an example of when it’s not included. The 3 is considered a number in its own right 

Use this section to highlight your tags so they can be easily seen, or personalise your structuring experience. Maybe adding character’s names or highlighting various forms of punctuation.  

When using it for tags, make sure to add each variation of how you might write a tag, since it is case sensitive. Sometimes in the moment, you might not apply how it is correctly addressed, though wouldn’t really matter in a search.  

Or maybe you just want to add lots of colours, and every time in your writing you add the word ‘the’, it comes blue, and ‘if’ comes green. World’s your oyster.  

UDL: Comment & Number

In ‘User Defined Languages’ -> Comment & Number section.  

Design the style of number you have. In Number Style -> Styler.  

In my example, I set numbers to being a lime green. Observe the other aspects of Number Style, like suffix and extras. We are going to ignore that. These are just items that change a number from being a number. So if you add a decimal point, the computer will realise it’s a number rather than a full stop in Extras etc.

If you want, in the Suffix section, you can add “st nd rd th” And then 1^st will be considered a number and be your number style, rather than be considered a word. But also will 2st. But oh well.  

Observe the // comment // Anything in there would be assigned to that pink. As shown in the first ‘Comment Line Style’ box of the screenshot above. This is for single line comments. Any line with a // will include pink as set by the style of the ‘Comment Line Style’ and can be deactivated by another // as set shown in the picture, or by hitting enter for a page break.  

UDL: Operators & Delimiters

These are character combinations that set the start and end of attributes given to what’s between.

Everything inside the && becomes blue and highlighted, unless ??  

Can use to highlight important issues.  

Perhaps to apply text effect, like bold, italics, or underlined. Observe a tag simply will not work, it only addresses the start of the word. Not useful. Almost as if we are limited. We need a delimiter.  

You could perhaps be bold. And use it to change the colour of the titles you create with ANSCII art.   This wouldn’t be from your tags menu. But instead, the ‘Delimiter’ ‘Operator’s and Delimiters.  

| _ / \ ( ) { } < > , . –  ‘ ‘ and copying these codes, including the ‘ ‘ twice. 

 

But this will paint all other ( ) as that title colour.

Other ideas for an example if you wanted to be creative with colour, you could make the starting and closing each Shift+Number. !! Red !! “” Blue “” ££ Green ££ %%Yellow%%.  And then when you want to highlight something, just remember to yourself open and close a section with a double shift number for a set colour.  

We could also create tags to set titles to organise our documents.

We made a title style out of delimiters. Underlined and big using ‘++’ as the ‘activator’. But notice it changed the line spacing, that will alter our ASNCII art, so you have to choose what kind of title method you want, and if you want the title to be bigger in text. But this is how we would use bold, italics and underline. Rather than just Ctrl B for bold. Which instead is by default: 

File Management / Document Structure Strategy

A big question I have asked myself throughout my years writing is how to go about an actual project? Everything in one document? Or all spread out into little documents?  

 It’s difficult for me to say, because I lean on both sides back and forth. You need to think about efficiency, as you are going to be working on projects for a while, you will need to factor time saving things. As if you have aspects in your design that take up little bits of time, be it pressing CTRL + F and it taking 2 seconds to load the finder in a big file which is enough time for your mind to drift and lose focus which is then energy spent regaining, or wondering which file has what note in it, that over time is going to cost you in time and precious motivation. 

 Our job here is to lay the foundation of our workflow strategy to tidy up these blockages and technically boost efficiency. The reason I flip back and forth is because my projects tend to grow beyond 500,000 words. And that’s a lot to manage. And having one file to manage that becomes bothersome, as in your mind, you will think sometimes ‘X’ idea is located at ¾ of the file down, but if the file scroll is so big, then you still misclick elsewhere. Or maybe when searching, start searching other ideas/words related to the idea you’re searching, and that also becomes a time chew.  

So, to actually choose, what I generally do is if a book format eventually, I’ll make chapters there own section. And then I have to link together with a master index. Saying what idea is located where, and that does need ‘manually updating’, which is a flaw. But as a programmer will tell you, you forget things, and that’s why comments are used. Well this is the writer database equivalent of that. The benefit to that is, that you can then take full advantage of the search function to locate specific talking points for when motivation in that department strikes (and it can do at any time). Although, base in mind, given that we are using N++, this means that we have easy access to all files we need. So it can become experimental preference.  

Document Formatting 

Inside these big documents. You are going to need some structure that sadly, requires ‘upkeep’. This structure includes reference tags at the bottom including actual reference tags (explanation momentarily). And also at the top, writing what core ideas and themes are used. Just so you can keep track. So often is it when going off your motivation, an example that could link to two ideas, will link particularly better to one than the other. But you working with such a big file, might just reuse the same idea not knowing you used it 4 months ago. That’s bad because it attacks your motivation and wastes your time. So you can put these pointers at the top to guide you. And it’s really just a few words you remember to associate with that idea.  

As for ‘actual references’. You don’t just want to be splashing your notes out whenever because you’ve got so much motivation to spill out you don’t have the typing speed to match the flow. In your text document, more or less you do want to be tidying as you go. It’s the 5 minute rule except highlighted for 10 second jobs. If you can do it in 10 seconds, do it now. Get it out the way. Don’t leave it festering as ‘something to get around to’ and that mind weight. And also trying to make the thing you create, be the final product as much as possible (even though you later on will probably come to rewrite it better). And by placing actual references with would be something like, here is a fact about a fact[1]. And then at the bottom of the document. Put [1] [FACT SOURCE | SOURCE TITLE | SOURCE AUTHOR | SOURCE LINK] Whatever it is, usually on scientific studies websites you are able to ‘cite’ a document and it basically copies the appropriate text for reference. You need this to have any ground and sustenance when making an argument.  

Tag System

As previously stated, one of the best things about N++ for writers is its search system. You should further the creation of your ‘language’, by designing some ‘tags’ to quickly navigate around your document. Tags of course you can add to your UDL: Keywords Lists for decorative purposes. Though before we get into it, the most obvious tag one might use, has it’s own plugin! ‘ToDo’ tag.

Task List by ‘blitowitz’ if you don’t want something more manual. Creates a pane at the other side. And with the tag TODO: on that line, will show what is after that tag. And can just click to the tag and zip to it.

As for the tag and search system I’ve got going on, you’ll notice in some examples, an ellipses of commas,,,. This is the search tag. It can’t be a normal ellipses because full stops are disallowed in names. Remember you may be searching file names, or words or phrases in a file. And two comma could work too. But it just means if I have a name. Let’s say you’re writing a story about cars. Maybe you could choose a unique name for the story, and call it Bobcar. Something that won’t appear in a word. That’s a good idea. But whenever that word is used, and you’re searching for it in a big document, it’ll come up. So if you’re writing a story about cars. And use the tag, as ‘car’. But any other word with car in it, carb, carer, scar. So the workaround is choosing a unique word, or using a ,,, system for searching. Or if searching multiple files at once. You might write about your experience writing something else in the journal, and that’ll search Bobcar.  Sometimes I’ve got tags of the same thing and I search them both. Yes it’s less efficient, just not got around to forcing myself to go with one.  

{

[X] – Not the main backup file, therefore, do not add to this, add to a separate document, and then then, add that document in later. 

WTU,,, – ‘Words to use’, means I’ve found an interesting word I’ll store for use later. A tag used in the Dump.  

Unsure,,, / notsure,,,  – In a project, something’s not making sense. Maybe research too complex and requires another reivew, or maybe an idea just isn’t that strong. Unsure,,, tag at the end of the title. Usually followed by a ToDo,,,, tag.  

N2S,,, Note2self,,, – Reminders of interesting points.  Could be used for comment instead.

Todo,,, – Work that still requires completion.  

[P] – Personal information I wouldn’t want published. 

##here – if a document is super big and I need to go to a different point in the document real quick and then jump back. Sometimes have ###here / ####here because I forget to clean them up

<-> – If you have pieces of an idea that has potential but busy doing something else. Idea1 <-> Idea2, as to find the link later  

TOW,,, – Stands for ‘Thought of When’, for future reference, when I think of an idea, what inspired that idea encase I need to ‘step into that mindset’ again in the future. Though obviously won’t be as an effective experience.  

%F – ‘Finished’. If you are running multiple files, add to a name to say that it’s done. Remove if a note is added to that file’s dump.  

QM – Question mark (used in file titles since ? Is not allowed in names) 

Mot,,, – Keeping a note that inspired motivation.  

[!] – Important.  
}

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We should also factor the setbacks as to what Notepad++ doesn’t have. Which then may require extra work to mediate compensation when applied as a operating system for your writing.

Ideas References % Dump Storages

Notepad++ in a way is very ‘manual’. So if one file is related to another, you have to edit both of them. Rather than, say, a storyline function, or you have to monitor your own word frequency. Or if a writing software had a character tied to it in file, and you changed the character’s name for example, and then that change reflected throughout the works automatically. And also then doesn’t have, perhaps personalised attributes, ways you could connect documents based on say, character relationships, and instead, has to be done more, noetically. But you know, there’s something to that. Though that could just be my inexperience, with a follow up more advanced tutorial.

Another downside of this system applying N++ is that doesn’t allow a sort of ‘free’ environment, like that of Evernote, that you can just copy entire websites and it’ll give you the structure of. Notepad++ is a realm bound by characters and not pictures. You start at the top and read to bottom. This means that any picture or video you have in your notes as an example, will have to be referenced to with a hyperlink from inside your computer, to that video. Which then also means consistent paths.  Rather than making lovely visually pleasing notes in a note based software.

Then you would need to think about your file structure. You can either, ‘dump it all in one big location’ or, as you go, sort it. 

What would seem practical and be organised-like, is to tidy as you go and have all your video references were you need them. So this picture of a castle, being stored in folder: writing -> book -> [medieval theme story name]. However, I’m here to tell you that may not be the best idea. Why? Just due to the fleeting nature of motivation, and the method of idea build up. It’s just not going to be that relevant 10 years down the line, and you’ll be sorting so many different ideas, it’ll be exhausting and time consuming. It’s better to just dump it all in one big file, can name a directory if you want. Or can just give it a random number by pressing multiple number keys at once ‘342284942389298’. Something that you won’t accidentally type again and create an annoying conflict between two files named the same. And then use that as a number reference beside the idea. However, you will also need to name these super dumps. And add that name beside the reference tag. So for example 342284942389298 SD1. Because you will likely be storing your backups across multiple drives. And your Super Dump may get so big it exceeds a whole hard drive. Therefore you will need a different one, and in your reference, you’ll need to know which SD you are referring to that has the code of that reference.  

The the flaw of this Super Dump method, is that it’s quite long to actually look at all the files. Individually searching them. However, you should really only be doing that when you are making that particular project your main project. Which, you may just be doing if you want to focus on a project for a week at a time, though I wouldn’t recommend that. ‘Getting up to speed’ with things, can be a procrastination and energy sapping task over time. What you want to be doing, is working on a project, and it won’t be just pure fun. There will be long boring research elements to it, that you will need to just ‘muscle through’ and ‘get on with it’. And getting up to speed with that research as well can be overtime exhausting if you do not see. And also you should think inside your mind, how you think you will be motivated. You might be treating your stored cache of inspiration as a ‘break glass encase of emergency’ when it comes to motivation, but honestly, I think I speak for most it just won’t work that way. What you want to be doing, is storing ideas in bottles whilst they exist, and then, referencing the origin of that stored idea later if needed. Like during actual construction of the project the idea is for.  

If you also wish to save websites as a dump. Then that should be a different dump opposed to the media. As websites have lots of little folders and files and it’s good to keep that organised. Saving webpages can be handy if you don’t have frequent access to the internet or if you think a webpage will go offline or be taken down. Remember there’s a difference between saving a web page (Ctrl + S) on the web page, and saving an entire website, which will require software, and probably all night. In the past I’ve used HTTrack website copier to ‘mirror’ a website. It was good. However I realised copying the websites I copied wasn’t as practical as I thought it would be. You should always be careful of your inner data hoarder. As it can result in saving a lot of stuff you don’t need creating a kind of baggage in your mind worrying about losing it, and costing you money in hard drives.  

No Calendar function

I don’t really use a calendar based system. Most people, like for birthday reminders, just have social media. I personally would have it written down too. It’s a similar kind of thing like, why wear a watch when you’ve got the time on your phone? Just to be a bit more organised and smart.  But if you have many meetings an appointments, I would integrate an actual calendar into your workings.

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And that is why I recommend Notepad++ as a tool for writers. Very dependable. Very efficient. Very customisable. And definitely inspired me to go through some of the plugins, and as suggested, try the macro function to integrate that into my writing operations for perhaps a part 2. Some things I did not include. I saw an Open AI plugin, seems like the newest plugin because some of them in the description says ‘works with Windows XP’. Didn’t try it, but I’m going to. Other things excluded like using FTP with N++ might be included in there too, but will be mentioned on the next article about also integrating OneNote into how you go about your writing. Exploring more on file management, and also applied ToDo lists. A somewhat artful craft to actually make them work.

Lastly, I’d like to take a moment and suggest if you do use and enjoy Notepad++, to make a donation. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/donate/

The designers are clearly cooking up something nefarious and I can’t wait to see what it is.

I hope Notepad++ gives as much efficiency and practicality to your writings as it has me over the years.

Thanks for reading.