The pocket notebook changed my life forever. It was the tool that got me off my phone and thinking on paper again. It was the catalyst that started me down the path of YouTube, writing, and tech-criticism. It woke me up to the reality that the world around me is designed to keep me in autopilot and the page is where I would find myself in the cockpit again. If not for the investment in a Field Notes journal and a leather wallet cover, I might still be spending 5.5 hours a day staring at a...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Journaling every day for the last two years has completely changed my life. But most people struggle to build a consistent journaling habit and never see any of the benefits it has to offer. Today I'm sharing the exact strategies and tactics I use to make journaling an automatic part of my day so you can build a habit that sticks. This is a longer than usual newsletter but, it's packed full of tactical tools you can implement immediately. Recently, I relistened to Atomic Habits by James Clear...
17 days ago • 8 min read
I was reminded of a powerful life lesson Tuesday morning while reading The Book by Keith Houston. A section on the history of illustrations in bookmaking stood out to me. The Chinese were the first to discover the power of mass-producing images with the invention of wood block printing. Take a block of wood, carve out the negative space, ink the wood that remains, and press the relief image onto paper. A simple, yet revolutionary concept that allowed an image to be created once and reprinted...
24 days ago • 2 min read
Within two hours of waking I know whether the day will be won or lost. It all comes down to a 5 minute ritual. If I get it done, odds are my day will be productive. If not, I can almost guarantee I will procrastinate the day away. Here’s the ritual: 1) I open up my Bullet Journal to a blank page. 2) I write the day’s date at the top. 3) I draw a two column schedule of the day ranging from 6am to 10pm. Each column is divided by one hour chunks. 4) I create a to-do list for the day starting...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Writing hasn't felt fun for me lately. I started writing for two main reasons: To facilitate video making. To go deeper with my thinking. But there's something that bothers me about typing on a computer when it comes to thinking. The constant presence of the delete key guarantees I don't follow lines of thought to their natural conclusion, whether they be sound or ridiculous. It's a button that allows me to self-censor compulsively. Even this sentence you read now was started with a different...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Morning Meditations 2000 years ago, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote notes to himself that have survived to this day in the book Meditations. It’s thought that Marcus did most of this journaling in the morning as a Stoic exercise to brace himself for the day ahead. This allowed him to make more rational decisions, be intentional with his actions, and prepare himself to deal with the responsibilities of his power. Spending a few minutes to think about the day ahead will help you create...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
A spin-off of the diary entry is a journaling exercise author and storytelling champion Mathew Dicks calls Homework for Life. Instead of recording your entire day as a series of events, you’re simply looking for the most storyworthy moment of the day. The original purpose of this exercise is to build a library of stories to use as material for speeches, presentations, and content. But it has the added benefit of training yourself to notice the magic in the mundane. For instance, on the 23rd...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I wasted years of my life training my brain to be distracted. I used to: wake up check the news and stock prices scroll social media rush to work listening to podcasts listen to music on the way home end my day watching TV and doomscrolling There was never a moment of quiet. The only time I was alone with my thoughts was right before bed, which meant all of my anxieties would surface right when my face hit the pillow. This meant my sleep was terrible, I woke up in a reactive state,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
4000 weeks is the average lifespan. It's a life full of "endless battle and conflict," as Robert Greene points out in his book The 33 Strategies of War. For most of my life, it's been a chronic tension with distractions. But I didn't realize it was a war until I was in my 30s. I lost years of my life to mindless scrolling, online gaming, and poker. There is a deep pain in admitting this because I know there's nothing I can do about the past. "You cannot fight effectively unless you can...
2 months ago • 2 min read