Catching content, not creating it: a neurodivergent alternative to batching

I have never once stuck to a content strategy. Which feels a bit crazy to say…

Not the colour-coded spreadsheets (I love a spreadsheet, but sticking to it… oop). Not the “post three times a day” schedule. Not the 30-day batching calendars that everyone on social media swears by (I did this for one month, and that was it). I tend to either buy a Notion template or try for ages to find a free one, spend all night filling it in, feel very accomplished, and then never open it again… womp.

It turns out I was not failing at content. I was failing at content because it was designed for other people with different brains.

My brain does not do scripts; it HATES rigid posting cadences. And it most definitely doesn’t do “batching 30 posts in one Sunday.”

What my brain does do, very reliably, is generate a completely unhinged thought at 11 pm that I have to write down (or I will forget it forever). So I built my entire content system around that. And around the fact that I am very good at asking other people questions they have never thought to ask themselves.

Here is the workflow that has worked for me, personally. I don’t have a strategy document (that I know about). No designated batching session for ideas drilled into my calendar. Just voice notes, written notes, a talking-to-camera habit (well... trying to build a habit), and a little bit of editing magic. ✨

Step one: catch the ideas before they vanish

I don’t have a content creation hour. I have a Notes app full of half-sentences written in the dark at completely inappropriate times. “Rant about hustle culture.” “The problem with ‘just show up.’” Sometimes they make sense in the morning. Sometimes they really don’t. I do not judge them when they arrive. I catch them in any way I can.

The only rule is: get it down immediately. Do not trust your brain to remember an 11 pm flash of brilliance. It will not; well, my brain doesn’t anyway. I have lost probably a decent handful of good posts to the belief that I would remember that thought in the morning. I never do…

These notes are NOT content; they are essentially breadcrumbs. A sentence or two, a phrase that made sense in the dark and looks like gibberish by daylight. I do not process them or put them through MacWhisper to try and structure them. I just let them sit there until one of them starts making my brain itch.

Step two: film the rant when the idea starts itching

When the note refuses to leave me alone, I know it wants to become something. Maybe I wake up thinking about it. Maybe I catch myself explaining it to a friend and realise I have more to say than I thought. That is when I know it is time to film.

I do not script it. I sit down in front of the camera, hit record, and let myself talk. It is always messy; that's just the nature of the beast. I trail off, I contradict myself, I say “um” approximately 400 times. I might start in one place and end up somewhere completely different, but that's the beauty of the process. I am not performing content; I am thinking out loud and capturing the thinking.

This is my version of the anti-script. A script is what kills my brain and makes me sound like a robot. The rant is what wakes it up. Which is now called the "yap".

Step three: extract the gold from the transcript

Here is where my magic editing brain kicks in. I take the messy rant, yap, whatever you want to call it, and I run it through MacWhisper to get the transcript. Then I use software called Marker Toolbox to tag the usable bits and finally import them into Final Cut Pro, where they appear visually. Think of it like highlighting parts in a handwritten journal. I am looking for moments where I said something that resonates. Not polished or perfect, authentic.

A rant about camera anxiety becomes a LinkedIn post. A weird observation about how ND brains process time becomes a carousel. I do not decide what something is while I am recording. I decide after, when I can see the whole shebang in front of me.

This is the magic part. The marker system lets me treat content like editing: you shoot everything, then you find the story in the footage. You do not need to know the story before you press record.

Step four: sort it into three buckets

This is the organisational framework I use, and it is loose enough that I do not rebel against it. Every piece of content falls into one of three buckets:

• Lifestyle: the things that make people connect with me on a personal level. My workspace(s), my routines, and the fact that I filmed one reel three times because the first two made me want to scream.

• Authority: the “I know what I am doing” stuff—editing tips, workflow breakdowns, why marker-based editing saves my sanity. The post you are reading right now lives in this bucket.

• Trust: everything vulnerable. Money, burnout, imposter syndrome, RSD, etc. This is what makes people feel like I actually get it.

One decent rant usually gives me two to three solid pieces across these buckets. Sometimes more if I was particularly fired up. That is a week of content from one session of talking to myself, which is good because I don’t know if I could cope with more!

Step five: film only when the energy is there

Generally, I will use a rant piece and chop it up, so I do not need to film again; however, if I do feel like I need to film again, then I do not force a filming day. I’ve tried in the past, and it ends with me staring at the camera, hating my own face, and producing a video that looks like I am being held hostage. Instead, I look at my extracted clips and ask: what do I HAVE to film again, or what can I reuse?

Step six: let it be imperfect

The whole point of this system is to remove the friction between having a thought and sharing it. If I had to write a script, rehearse it, and then deliver it with perfect energy, I would post maybe… once in a blue moon! Instead, I TRY to talk like I am texting a friend, and then I clean it up later on.

Some of my best posts came from moments where I was mumbling, or trailing off, or saying “um” every third word. The editing fixes the pacing. The transcript system fixes the structure. The raw material only needs to be honest and authentic.

What I do for my clients

I built this system for myself because my brain cannot handle the context switching of editing while running a business. But I use the same process for my retainer clients now.

Here is how it actually works. You send me your footage. A Google Drive full of raw clips. A voice note rambling about something that happened in your business. A livestream you want chopped into short-form gold. However you work is absolutely fine.

I run it through the same transcript-and-marker workflow I use for my own content. I find the moments where you said something real. I sort the usable clips into the Three Buckets. And then I edit: proper pacing, story structure, captions, hooks, chapter markers, thumbnail concepts. The whole thing.

You do not need to brief me like a traditional editor. You do not need to write a creative brief or sit on a Zoom call explaining your brand for the fifteenth time. I find the story in the footage you already have. That is literally what the system is for.

The Mixed Edit - which is the package most people go for - gives you 2 long-form videos (think YouTube) and 8 short-form clips per month (think Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts). Two rounds of revisions. Async only. No meetings. No "quick calls." Just footage in, finished content out.

Why this works for neurodivergent brains

Traditional content production assumes you can plan, execute, and review on a schedule. It assumes consistency means doing the same thing on the same day every week. It assumes you have the same energy level on a Monday morning as you do on a Thursday afternoon. HA.

None of that is true for my brain, and if you're anything like me, it is not true for yours either!

The "capture it" method works because it honours how we actually think: in bursts, in spirals, in half-formed ideas that only make sense when you look at them from a distance. It removes the blank-page panic because the page is already full. You are not creating from nothing.

And for my clients, the async editing model works because it removes the second job nobody tells you about: managing the person doing the work. You do not have to remember to brief me. You do not have to chase deadlines or sit on calls when your social battery is already dead. You dump your footage, and I handle the rest.

Curation is so much easier than creation when you and your brain are already exhausted. And editing is so much easier when you are not the one doing it at 11 pm while overstimulated.

The part nobody tells you

You don't need a strategy; you need a capture habit and a willingness to be messy. The strategy emerges from the pile of voice notes and rants if you give it long enough. Your themes become obvious. Your voice becomes consistent. Your audience finds you not because you posted perfectly, but because you posted true/authentic things.

And if you are sitting on months of footage that never sees the light of day because the editing part is the brick in your to-do list... you don't need a strategy for that either. You just need someone whose brain is wired to find the story in the chaos.

My content system is not a productivity hack. It is an accommodation. I am not "batching content" in the traditional sense. I am translating the way I work into a format social media and the internet can understand.

If you have spent years feeling like content is harder for you than it is for everyone else, I promise you: I KNOW the struggle. Stop trying to do things the hard way; work WITH your brain, not against it!

Leah Bourne

Video editing services offered.

© 2024. All rights reserved.