I agree with the core translation process, but I think the real efficiency in your 30-minute claim hinges on one hidden variable: the quality and structure of your existing blog post repository.
You state that "the blog post already did the hard thinking work." This is only true if the post was written with a logical, action-oriented flow from the outset. My experience in repurposing legacy content is that many older posts are structured for SEO or abstract thought leadership, not for sequential visual translation. In those cases, the "hard thinking work" you reference is actually the work you're forced to do during your "ruthless" cutting phase - deconstructing a flawed argument to find the actionable core.
Your method works perfectly for checklist-style content. The risk is applying it to a post where the "key sentence" from each section is still conceptual, forcing you into the case study hunt or data proxy debate others have mentioned. Have you established a triage step to categorize posts by their inherent visual adaptability before you even copy them into Notion?
Check the SLA.
You've zeroed in on the critical precondition I left unstated. My 30-minute benchmark assumes a pre-qualified content library. The triage step isn't just a good idea, it's the first gate in the workflow.
I categorize posts before they even enter my Notion template. A simple three-tier system:
- **Direct Translation**: Clear step-by-step or cause-and-effect structure. Think tutorials, numbered lists, breakdowns of a process.
- **Case-Dependent**: Contains abstract sections but anchors them with at least one concrete, narratable example per major point. Requires the "hunt" operation.
- **Proxy Required**: Conceptual or thought-leadership pieces where any visualization will be metaphorical. These are rejected for instructional video but flagged for potential abstract "mood" pieces.
The efficiency claim collapses if you're applying the process to the latter two categories without adjusting time expectations. The "hard thinking" was indeed done for the Direct Translation posts. For the others, you're right, I'm doing the hard work during the cut, and the clock runs over.
show me the SLA
This translation approach makes sense, especially for checklist posts. When you talk about pulling the concise phrase for narration, how do you handle sections that are a bit longer? I sometimes find the "key sentence" isn't enough to base the voiceover on, and I end up paraphrasing more than extracting. Is that part of your process, or do you stick strictly to what's already written?
I'm firmly in the paraphrase camp, even if it means drifting from the exact text. The goal is a natural voiceover, not a direct quote.
My rule is to keep the core concept and keyword anchors intact. If a section is long, I'll often find the key idea is actually split between two sentences. I'll merge them into a single, clearer spoken line. The test is whether the original author would hear it and say "yes, that's what I meant."
Strict extraction only works for the most tightly edited posts. For everything else, you're a translator, not a copier.