Going from Sheets, Airtable, then Notion, Obsidian, and now finally to Capacities. I find that there were a lot of things that contributed to my success as a content creator. Having a strong system is key point of them all.
Notion had been the strongest in my opinion, as I was able to make a complex database to house the PolyInContent Ecosystem. However when I came across Capacities I realized their "Object based notetaking" would be a far stronger solution.
This screenshot below shows my "Content" object type, which allows me to make any number of "Collections" as they call it. Those are essentially database views like in Notion. However unlike Notion the amount of screen real estate taken up, the swiftness of switching between them, and being able to have the same post in multiple collections. All of those things are drastically improved.
Why is it important to have a system?
This is a content creation and repurposing newsletter, but how would you track all of your content if you don't have a home for it all?
I moved websites from Wordpress to Ghost for example, in that process I copied all of my posts. If my site ever goes down, or I need to copy them again to a new CMS down the line. Now I'll have a much easier time exporting my content, as they are more easily accessible.
Have a post that you want to link to in a new piece of content? Quickly search for it in your database.
How does it help you?
By being able to see everything in a bigger picture, it allows you to plan out your content ahead of time. If you used a google sheet or something less effective like that, it creates a jumbled mess.
Having a tool like Capacities changes how you interact with your content, and the quicker you are able to retrieve that information.
With the object based note taking that they use, there is this layer of organization that operates differently. It is hard to explain in words, but you can do so many things with that style of information architecture. For example I have my separate gaming brand, and thus it is its own "object", that I then split into different collections for written versus video content.
You also have people object, that allows you to keep track of the people you interact with. Creating different collections for different use cases. I.e. guests on my show, or podcasts that I am a guest on (in this case their hosts). Etc.
🥡 Takeaways
This simple post is to give you an inkling into the sheer raw power a tool like Capacities has. Sure I've made my content ecosystem in Notion or Airtable. However I moved from Notion to Capacities for a reason.
The difference in how I interacted with that database was so great. Being able to quickly switch between series or content types was a lot slower in notion.
