A simple writing system turns into clarity, reputation, and a global network, in less than 30 minute a week.

Writing online is an underrated strategic advantage.

I just spent three days in a regional planning session with the other Partners of the firm and somehow the same question followed me around like a puppy:

“How do you find the time to write so much on LinkedIn?”

What surprised me the most was not the curiosity per se, but the fact that people assumed it takes ages.

It does not!

It’s embarrassingly quick: the secret is not talent or discipline, but having the right operating system.

I post twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm, and everything is scheduled in advance. On Sundays I’ll sit down for an hour and write four or five pieces, plus, when inspiration hits during the week, I top up during the commute or (weirdly) while lying in bed before falling asleep.

I always keep a queue loaded in the scheduler, so there is no “Oh god I need to post today” panic. When my posts go live, I am neither physically nor mentally there.

That’s why I say that posting is the easy part - the actual work happens before the writing.

I have built a note-taking and thinking architecture over the years. Without that, I’d be dead, but with it, writing feels like breathing.

(FYI - I have discussed this topic also in this post where I explained the process I followed to write and publish “Beyond Slides”)

Two tools run my whole system: Readwise Reader and Obsidian.

1. Reader is where every interesting piece of content goes: podcasts, YouTube videos, articles, books, newsletters, anything. I batch-read early mornings or evenings, usually 30-minute chunks, and while I read, I highlight aggressively. Everything I highlight automatically gets exported into Obsidian.

2. Obsidian is the brain that includes rough drafts, spontaneous thoughts, scribbles, quotes, hooks, this Substack draft started there. From that mess, the posts organise themselves.

Once you have a steady stream of insights flowing into your system, writing turns into connecting dots. It becomes memory retrieval and processing.

Now… if you combine that with a natural inclination for thinking and writing, you suddenly look prolific when, really, you are just very methodical.

When my colleagues asked, I decided to time the posting process.

How long does it take to write, clean, and schedule two posts on LinkedIn?

Less than 30 minutes. Total.

I was myself surprised!

LinkedIn right now feels like an untouched goldmine: I still don’t know what the gold is exactly, but it’s there. If I mine it for 30 minutes a week, and people tell me “You’re everywhere in my feed”, I’m starting to sense there is some leverage to get extracted from this platform.

OK, maybe I’m lucky.

I just don’t have the “Netflix and collapse on the couch” gene. My relaxation is reading and writing: this is simply what calms me down. ChatGPT has made everything faster: grammar cleanup, articulating half-formed thoughts, sanity checks and all. I use it as a companion rather than a crutch.

What I have realised is that writing benefits me externally, yes, but also sharpens my thinking, makes me better at my job, forces reflection and, perhaps most importantly, slowly builds an incredible global network of like‑minded people who think, read, and create in ways that resonate with me. I cannot articulate exactly how, but I feel this is an asset in the making.

(After all, it cannot be simply by chance that Leonardo, Seneca, Machiavelli, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, and so many more brilliant thinkers where also writers!)

Newton was known to document everything relentlessly

If you want to write more, don’t start by forcing yourself to stare at a blank screen. The goal should not be to “find time”, but to remove friction so ideas flow on demand.

Build a system that feeds your brain.

Clear writing is clear thinking, and clear thinking is your competitive edge in the industry.

Let me put it bluntly.

Public writing is asymmetric leverage, because it manufactures surface area for opportunities while building you intellectual equity.

And while I cannot yet put numbers on it, I already see it: unexpected relationships, deep conversations with people I would have never met, invitations for collaborations, messages from partners across continents.

Tiny ripples that hint at tectonic shifts.

We are moving into a world where reputations matter more than résumés, where networks exceed hierarchies, and where signalling clarity becomes a career accelerant. Writing forces you to confront your own mind, and the world rewards people who think in public.

Here is the only real call to action I have for you:

Try writing 100 words this week.

Not for likes, not for validation, not for “brand”.

Do it for your own clarity.

As usual, if you enjoy reading Consulting Intel, please do me a favor: spread the word and share this post.

👋

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👀 Links of interest

A few corners of the internet you may find interesting:

• I have been working on a small project…….

  Big podcasts and large publications chase Bezos-level names who talk about strategy from 30,000 feet: it’s inspiring, yes, but useless if tomorrow you are walking into a meeting with your client and a deck to defend…

  EDGE, a format by Consulting Intel, is where I sit down with operators, consultants, and investors working between business, tech, and AI… and where I distill what I learn in something you can read in ~7 minutes.

  

  IT IS COMING SOON on Consulting Intel!

• Have you looked into the Leaders Toolkit? It is a deck of 52 tools, frameworks and mental models to make you a better leader (use code CONSULTANT10 for 10% off);

• The Consulting Intel private Discord group with 250+ global members is where consultants meet to discuss and support each other (it’s free).

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