optimization is ruining your life
your notion os is killing your creativity
The time when there was less noise.
I miss that time.
I miss the empty page.
No notifications, Slacks, feeds, multi-platform systems.
Just making things. Just following my curiosity to my heart’s content.
I think it’s my time to return to a state of pure simplicity. It’s all coming back.
An old version of me that’s just… right.
I need a break. From Notion. From all the tabs, databases, relations, goals, projects, chaos. It’s all noise.
What are we really doing here anyway? What’s the point of all this hustle and hurry if we never even taste what we’re stressing about?
Success is 99% not doing stupid things and 1% locking in on 3–5 activities consistently. It feels weird when you say it like that. There’s this “oh…” that goes off in the back of my mind.
Like what was all that systems work for anyway? What was the perfect OS for? What did we accomplish?
I do plan to still use these systems. But I want to see how much I can do with as little as humanly possible. Less features, less frills, less stuff. More work, more output, more clarity.
Ultra-minimalism is intentional.
We need a place to manage ideas without overcomplicating them.
I’ll argue 99% of knowledge management platforms lose the most important power of their tool in the name of being “the most powerful” or “all-in-one” software.
Forget that.
Stop trying to be everything. Stop trying to do everything. Do one thing. Do it well. Do it consistently. See it through to the end.
No more half-baked thoughts and ideas. Be the person who controls their focus and puts real things out into the world.
All you need is an idea and the will to bring it to life. All you need is a laptop and a dream. The laptop is your container, your tool. You don’t exist to serve the tool. The tool exists to serve you. Use things, love people — not the other way around.
I’m obsessing over minimalism because I’m reminded of how blissful it is to just engage — without deciding about the random stuff that’s just that: random, mostly irrelevant constraints we add to the process before we’ve even completed our first attempt. We over-engineer, systemize, strategize, research, curate — stuff our minds full of hype, then crash on our beds and scroll for hours, pretend our way through the workday trying to feel like we’re doing something important, then get to the end and wonder what we were doing all that for in the first place.
I used to look up old LEGO set manuals and fish through the pile to make them come to life in different ways. It was exciting. I was on a quest to bring an idea to life — in my own fashion, using a blueprint that already worked.
I loved recreating old things in new ways. I wasn’t the greatest at making up the blueprint from scratch, but with the right one, I’d dig endlessly to make it right. I’d lay my foundation, then spend a few hours every morning looking for pieces that matched what I was trying to build.
I only worked on one at a time, and it was obsessive. I couldn’t stop until it was done.
I think I’ve broken from this, and it’s slowly ruining my creative life.
I’ve drifted into the “take every opportunity,” “do everything,” “be everywhere” mentality you hear online — which makes sense for some people. But for the hyperfocused, it’s torture.
I’m a dreamer. I like to build things. I like to race. And win. When I’m given one thing to do, I thrive. Ideas come naturally. Focus arrives with the lack of other options to worry about. The will to complete the work has always been natural for me.
I’m diligent.
But with options — I’m distracted.
I value an extreme amount of simplicity. I don’t like to look at a lot of stuff. I like my routines. I like my high-action hobbies. I like my tools right where they go.
My brain turns to mush when I’m spread too thin.
So this is my attempt to escape that.
The core is simple:
Do less.
Go deep.
Follow your natural flow.
If you don’t ship, you’re wasting time. You’re not a pro. You’re pretending. You’re protecting your pride. You’re avoiding the real work because you’re scared it’ll make you less — when in reality, it’s the work that will make you into everything you ever wanted to be.
Do the work.
There’s nothing more fun than being possessed by an idea and furiously working to bring it to life.
In between the work is deep rest. No phone. No interruptions. Pure, blissful rest.
Don’t waste the space.