The Doomscrolling trap
I feel like many of us have fallen into the doomscrolling trap behind apps like TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest (even though I feel like Pinterest shouldn’t count towards doomscrolling). No matter how we try to spin it, for the most part, doomscrolling is unhealthy. We know this, yet so many of us can’t seem to stop. That’s why I’m raising a proposition. Maybe we don’t stop doomscrolling entirely.
Maybe we just begin to doomscroll mindfully, to engage with the content we’re seeing rather than just scrolling past it without thinking. I believe that if we start to make connections and start fully thinking about the content we’re seeing, that it won’t be as unhealthy, and might not even be considered doomscrolling at all.
Instead of mindlessly scrolling on TikTok, let’s follow creators who are creative, insightful or make meaningful content and then begin to engage with said content. Let’s surround ourselves with meaningful and thought-provoking media so that we have no choice but to begin to interact with the media we consume.
what is digital gardening?
Digital gardening is an internet term that refers to cultivating an online garden. In this case, the garden is full of ideas that represent plants. These ideas are in various stages of growth, some are just resources so they’d be considered soil while other are just sprouts, ideas that have some depth to them but need to be fledged out more before they become a flower. In digital gardening, you take care of these ideas. You go out of your way to water them with information and research, to grow them from soil to flower.
the process: from soil to flower
The process of developing an idea from the source (soil) to a full fledged idea (flower) isn’t a far fetched one. You take the source material, often a podcast, book or an article, and copy important information down such as the title, the author and some key notes (if you feel so inclined).
This can be material for ideas later, or you can go straight into the next step, which is to start planting seeds. To start planting seeds, you need to use your soil/sources to think of ideas. These ideas could be single words or phrases that may spark something later.
Maybe these seeds are quotes from the source material you put as soil earlier, or maybe these seeds are ideas that popped up while you engaged with the content in the source.
My own definitions (combined with the definitions of the Notion template mentioned above) of each of the phases of growth are the following:
πΏ Your Garden: Everything youβve planted and nurtured lives here
π€Β Your Soil: Raw material for your ideas. This is the podcasts, the videos, the books that you take your seeds and ideas from.
π« Plant Your Seeds: Whenever inspiration strikes, come here. Drop an idea, a quote, a thought even if itβs messy or incomplete.
π±Β Let them sprout: Develop these ideas further. How can I grow it? What do I think about it? What is my perspective?
π« Let them take roots: Connect your ideas to other ideas, whether your own or other peoples. Eventually, your garden will have an entire root system underground.
π§ Water Plants: Ideas need attention to grow. This view shows the notes you’re developing or want to revisit.
π§Ί Composted: Ideas that have been fully explored and no longer need active attention. They’re archived, so you can return to them anytime.
Don’t get too overwhelmed by all the details, just think of it as the more developed an idea is, the more grown it is. Soil is resources, water is attention, everything else is just a stage of growth of your idea.
Naomi Vizcaino’s Backlog
I recently read the article “The Creative Workflow That Makes Me More Productive” by Naomi Vizcaino on Substack. It’s an incredibly insightful piece on how Vizcaino goes through their projects and how they come about creating a finished piece.
In this article, they described something they called the “backlog.” The backlog, in their case, is a notion database system where they put ideas, projects and other things relating to their creative process. Funnily enough, I put this article as a source in my digital garden / backlog.
Naomi goes into detail about how they go about finding inspiration and how they manage their projects. They talk about taking pictures and screenshots, using websites and resources and compiling all these bits of information and ideas into this backlog.
This backlog sounds quite familiar to digital gardening, so my brain naturally made a connection between the two. While digital gardening is an phrase to identify a certain type of idea system, it’s important to note how many other ideas there are out there to organize ideas and projects.
Starting your digital garden
Starting your digital garden is quite simple. You can use any software such as Notion, Obsidian or even Google Drive, if you’re more comfortable with that. I’m going to describe how to use a digital garden with Notion for this article as it’s what I personally use.
I use a template I found online called “Digital Garden” by Immi. I edited it a bit to include the system that I find most suitable for me. This simply meant adding a “soil” category and a “flower” category to the list of the phases of growth.
To start out everything, I’d just scroll through as you normally do. I wouldn’t try to make it a big daunting task in the beginning and, instead, start out by just writing some notes on YouTube videos you’ve watched or TikToks that stood out to you.
From there, you can start adding new media formats. Maybe you’re getting into podcasts, so you could start including that in your digital garden and start taking a few notes. Whenever you get an idea, write it down in your digital garden and see how you can make it into something later on.
how to use your digital garden after creation: Naomi Vizcaino’s Three project strategy
In addition to the backlog system, Vizcaino goes in depth into what they’ve coined as “The Three Project Strategy.” They go on to say that this doesn’t mean they only have three projects going on at a time, but rather that they have at least one project in three different categories at a time. These categories are planning, progressing and polishing. Vizcaino has at least one project in each category at a time, and this is where the name of the strategy comes from.
The planning stage, although often the most difficult, is one of the most important stages. More often than not, the more time spent in this stage, the less time spent in the progressing stage. The planning stage is when you go through and begin developing an idea.
This would be when you start sketching or prototyping or begin collecting your supplies. This is also the part where you may watch tutorials, research techniques or learn about a new medium.
The next stage is progressing. This is the stage that is more mindless or allows you to be more zoned in without consequences.
“This is the scheduled, repeatable work that just needs time to get done,” Vizcaino said.
You can have multiple projects in the planning or progressing stages, it’s mainly the polishing stage that you only want one project in.
Speaking of the polishing stage, this is the final stage. This includes the satisfying ending bits of a project and while it may take more time than you initially expect, it’s usually extremely rewarding.
Having only one project here can be extremely important as it allows you to have the end in sight and to get that extra motivation for it without being overwhelmed by the other projects you’re finishing up. Having only one gives you the proper “I’m finished with it” feeling.
A final note
If you ever begin to feel overwhelmed by your system, take a step back or change it! It’s your system, they’re your rules. Do what you feel fits. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed and bogged down by your own creations. You control how you create and consume. Don’t let yourself be mindlessly controlled by the doomscrolling apps’ algorithm.
Thank you so much for reading my article, I really appreciate it! Please check out other articles by the Kent State University Her Campus chapter, we love writing!