Tags as Channels: Organizing Content by Topic

One of the first design decisions I made for Jottings was simple: no rigid categories. Instead, I wanted tags—flexible, organic, and more human.

Here's the thing about categories: they force you to make a choice. You're jotting down a thought about productivity and design? Does it go in "Productivity" or "Design"? Now you're stuck. You pick one, and the cross-pollination is lost.

Tags solve this elegantly. The same jot can live in multiple channels simultaneously.

The Problem with Categories

Traditional blogging platforms force you into a categorical straightjacket. Migrate from WordPress to Medium, and you're working within their predefined structures. One post, one category (usually). It's efficient for them, frustrating for you.

Worse, you're writing for your category system instead of writing what you actually think. You self-censor before you hit publish. "Will this resonate with my 'tech' audience?" instead of just... sharing the thing.

Categories also create decision fatigue. Before you publish, you're mentally filing your thought: career advancement + remote work + leadership = which single bucket? This friction exists before you've even finished writing.

Why Tags Are Better

Tags work differently. They emerge from your content naturally, not before it. You write a jot. You tag it with whatever feels right. Tag it with three things? Great. One thing? Also fine. Same jot next month and you realize it applies to two new topics? Add those tags too.

This is how people actually think. Your thoughts aren't siloed. They're interconnected. A jot about remote work is also about company culture, productivity, and hiring. All of these are true simultaneously.

Tags also reveal patterns. Over time, your most frequent tags become your natural channels. You don't decide your interests upfront—you discover them. Want to know what you've been thinking about most? Look at your tag cloud. The bigger the tag, the deeper the rabbit hole.

Tags as Lightweight Channels

On Jottings, tags function as lightweight channels. Each tag gets its own page with a feed of all related jots, chronologically. It's organized, discoverable, and automatically maintained. No configuration needed.

This matters for your readers too. Someone lands on your site and sees you write about design. They can click "design" and follow that thread across all your jots, regardless of what else they're about. They're choosing their own adventure through your thoughts.

The tag cloud on your home page gives visitors an instant sense of what you care about. Big tags = main interests. Small tags = tangential explorations. It's a visual representation of your mind.

The Freedom of Flexibility

Here's what I love most about tags: they're a living system. Nothing is locked in. Change your mind about how you tag something? Edit the jot and adjust. Realize two tags are duplicates? Merge them. Want to stop using a tag? It simply disappears from your cloud when the last jot with it is archived.

You can be experimental. Create a tag for a new project without commitment. If it doesn't stick, it's gone in a month. No restructuring, no database migrations, no regret.

This freedom extends to how you grow. When you start, maybe you have three tags. In six months, you have thirty. That's not chaos—that's your interests deepening and diversifying. Your tag system grows with you.

Practical Approach to Tagging

I use tags on my own Jottings site, and here's what I've learned:

Use real words. "productivity" not "prod" or "p". Make tags readable both for you and visitors.

Be consistent but not rigid. If you call it "remote work" one day and "remote-work" the next, that's two tags. But don't spend ten minutes debating capitalization. Just pick one and move on.

Tag liberally. Multiple tags per jot is the norm. I rarely publish with just one. If a jot touches on three topics, tag it with three.

Let tags emerge. Don't plan your tag taxonomy upfront. Write for three months, then look at what emerged. That's your real system.

Trust the archive. Old tags will fade as you evolve. That's healthy. Your tag cloud tells the story of where your attention has been.

The Bigger Picture

This is part of Jottings' philosophy: lightweight, low-friction tools for thinking in public. No mandatory categories. No complex taxonomies. No blog post templates that feel corporate.

Just you, your thoughts, and flexible tags that help you (and your readers) make sense of it all.

Your blog shouldn't force you into someone else's organizational system. It should support the way you naturally think.

If you're ready to write publicly without wrestling with rigid structures, give Jottings a try. Start with one tag, see where it goes.