Blog
A notebook from designing jotsum
Small decisions. Unexpected trade-offs. Things we removed. Things we kept.
Turn a timeline into a scheduled Instagram feed
A working automation: a live jotsum timeline becomes a queue of branded Instagram posts via Claude, jotsum’s MCP server, and Buffer’s API.
Dump first. Organise later.
Your head is full. The mistake is sorting while you empty it. Capture and organisation are different kinds of thinking; dump first, organise when you can.
The gap between knowing and starting
You know what needs doing. You can’t start. Not won’t. Can’t. The stall often happens before the work, at the moment you try to write it down.
Case study: Pluk Farm
Who is doing what this week, and what did we agree last time? One Amsterdam farm co-op looked for somewhere to hold the answer for more than a year.
A notification’s only job is to interrupt you
Before you’ve turned over the screen, you’re already braced. The cost isn’t the message. It’s the uncertainty of a demand you didn’t choose.
What did I even do today?
What did I even do today? The feeling is awful, and it is usually not true. Write what you did as you went, and the timeline keeps the evidence.
You don’t have to carry everything into today
When everything unfinished rolls into “today”, the list is crushing before nine. Place tasks by the capacity you’ll have, instead of cramming them into now.
Sixty-two planners in a drawer
Sixty-two planners, and still not a discipline problem. Software mistakes time for obligation: precision when capacity changes, punishment when time passes.
What happens to your second brain on a hard week
It starts with a hopeful template. Then a hard week arrives. Maintenance tax peaks when capacity is lowest, and trust goes with the gaps.
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We'll write when there's a new design note on the blog. Not release updates — those are on the changelog.