growing a digital garden to end my doomscrolling (part 2)

Digital gardening isn’t a blog or a weekly roundup—it’s a private, iterative system for turning what grabs someone’s attention into their own thinking, so they can shift from consuming content to creating from curiosity. Anna Howard draws a hard line between “curation” (collecting screenshots and links) and gardening (slowly integrating reactions, themes, and questions into notes that reflect the gardener’s mind). The payoff, she says, is escaping doomscrolling and performance pressure: instead of chasing a polished output, the practice treats attention like soil—something to cultivate, revisit, and let grow.

Howard argues that many people misuse the term by calling any publishing workflow “digital gardening.” A blog can be a product of gardening, but it’s not the same thing as the garden itself. Likewise, a curation roundup can be valuable—curators exist for a reason—but it doesn’t automatically capture how a person’s thoughts change after encountering an idea. The core distinction is integration: gardening is about letting observations connect to the self over time, not packaging what was consumed.

The episode then moves into practical Q&A, starting with tools. Obsidian is Howard’s main note-taking system, while Arena serves as a “source dump” and inspiration finder—useful for storing Substacks and collecting images or memes, but less ideal for the actual writing of notes. She also points to other options, including Notion (via Lexi Merritt’s “desktop organizer” and its “second brain” template) and the Sublime app, described as a knowledge tool for saving internet finds and making connections. Her advice is to avoid getting stuck building the “perfect” system; if setup feels overwhelming, start taking notes immediately and adjust later.

On process, Howard says losing notes is normal and even expected—like memory, the system can’t hold everything forever. Better naming and tagging make forgotten notes retrievable: clear titles enable keyword search, while tags let someone review everything tied to a theme in one sitting. She also reframes what makes note-taking enjoyable: it’s not only about liking what’s consumed, but about finding it interesting—whether that interest comes from love, dislike, or a nagging question.

A key workflow emerges for source material notes: split them into three sections—themes, highlights/observations, and questions. Themes help identify what keeps recurring in the work; highlights capture quotes, funny moments, or emotional beats; questions track curiosity in real time. Those source notes then feed “main notes,” where the gardener writes a short mini-essay (two to three paragraphs) that turns snags of curiosity into original reflection. Howard emphasizes that notes don’t need to be academic or perfect; they can read like texting a friend, even when the only entry is “lol, this was crazy.”

Finally, she addresses time and outcomes. Gardening doesn’t have to be daily; she does it a couple times a week, using it as unwinding and self-conversation. She also argues that practice doesn’t always produce a finished project immediately—writing is thinking, and larger work often comes from connecting notes later. Revisiting past obsessions is her recommended entry point because it deepens attention and naturally leads to new sources. She closes with a personal claim: digital gardening has made her “more curious and creatively guided,” pulling her out of creative uncertainty and into a clearer sense of direction.