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The System That Works Around You
Collect. Connect. Create. On Your Terms
Gordana from Collabwriting
September 19, 2025
We all get caught up in trying to follow someone else’s “perfect” system, whether it’s for note-taking, reading, or research.
Some people swear by Adler’s Four Levels of Reading, others love Zettelkasten for note-taking, some organize their work with Getting Things Done, and plenty swear by a simple bullet journal.
The truth?
No system alone will make you smarter, more productive, or more creative. You will.
Each of these techniques can be powerful but only if it’s adapted to you, not copied blindly.
Your System Can’t Fix Everything
Back in the early 2000s, work started to feel endless.
Email piled up, tasks kept coming, and everyone was hunting for the “perfect system”: Getting Things Done, blogs, apps, you name it.
For a while, it seemed like these systems worked, until managing the system became a job of its own.
Lists grew endlessly, tweaks became obsessive, and the line between working and organizing your work blurred.
Merlin Mann, creator of 43 Folders and the term productivity pr0n, once reflected on his experience with Getting Things Done:
“Productivity pr0n was becoming a bewildering, complexifying end in itself - list-making as a ‘cargo cult,’ system-tweaking as an addiction. On more than a few days, I wondered what, precisely, I was trying to accomplish.”
Mann realized that obsessively optimizing his system didn’t solve the deeper problem: work itself was chaotic, unpredictable, and often shared with others who were also overwhelmed.
Systems can help you manage obligations, but they can’t magically fix the way work flows around you.
So, How Do You Make It Work?
Start by focusing on clarity, not perfection.
Once you step back and look at your work, you start to notice patterns.
Some tasks repeat every week, some ideas pop up in multiple places, and some threads of thought are scattered across apps, tabs, and notebooks. It’s easy to feel like you’re losing track, but the first step is simply seeing where your work lives.
And instead of letting tasks, notes, and inspiration slip through the cracks, you collect them as they come - right in the moment you notice them. You don’t have to wait until the end of the day or the week.
That article that sparked an idea, the quote from a podcast, the question you want to explore later - they all get captured immediately.
Collabwriting is designed to work around you, not the other way around. You can use it as a personal knowledge base, a research hub, or a system for managing team insights.
Mix and match, experiment, or simply collect ideas that spark your curiosity. There’s no single “right way”. The only right way is the way that works for you - save what matters, organize it how you like, and revisit it whenever you want.
The key is that you control the system, not the other way around.
By experimenting and finding your own rhythm, you start reclaiming your attention from the endless pull of tasks and notifications. Insights don’t get lost, ideas don’t vanish in a sea of tabs, and your work feels manageable, meaningful, and truly yours.
💡 Your insights. Your system. Your rhythm.
If you come across an article, picture, meme, or anything else you think is worth sharing, feel free to send it my way. I might include it in the next newsletter! 💗
📩 Reach out at: [email protected]
And hey come join us Reddit. 🎊
Until next time
Gordana
Community Manager @ Collabwriting
