How do you keep on remembering all these things? I never see you with an agenda, pen, or files… — Oh, I don’t know how to take notes properly, so I don’t do that.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of optimizing my work. There’s something alluring about seeing yourself grow and improve, and it feels rewarding to know that you’re doing it for good. Maybe it’s the dopamine hit you get from the results of a few hours of work. Even a one percent improvement can make a significant difference in the long run, amounting to a fifty percent increment. And if that one percent is easier to keep than the fifty percent, you know, for sure, which one you maintain.
From the above lines, you can easily see that I didn’t have a system to think of this process; I didn’t have a methodology or a long-term goal to improve life. I didn’t know why I wanted to do it. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and how I would do it. As you can imagine, too much progress wasn’t made - maybe only in managing failure - by being continuously exposed to it.
Now, I have a toolset with a flow to use, and I know it works for me. I won’t get into too many details today; a big topic requires a reflection post for himself.
What do you think of Camile’s reply this morning? I can’t wait to see what Miles replies. — I didn’t read the email yet. After lunch, maybe I will get to it
So, let’s start with setting the stage, explaining a few terms, and adding some remarks for better context. The system will manage tasks, information, and time efficiently, focusing on integrating the user’s automatic behaviors.
I have a list of principles for this system:
- The toolset will adapt to and build on the user's automatic behaviors. It will make good decisions easier and bad ones harder to make.
- A tool will at least solve a need it doesn’t introduce. Only then it will be part of the toolset.
- Only results matter.
- An action will be done in a certain way and only that way.
- Best practices and industry standards are not suited for me.
Let me share a bit more about the principles. Each one will have a deep dive somewhere in the future, but for now:
