Experiments in journaling, habit tracking, and self-reflection — written by someone who has tried (and broken) more productivity systems than most people own.
The one everyone asks about first.
I subjected myself to 30 days of cold showers and tracked everything — mood, energy, skin, sleep, and the exact moment I nearly quit on day 11. Here's what the data actually showed, and whether I'd do it again.
Read the full experiment →Visualizing consistency — the only metric that matters.
Fresh from the log.
After years of overengineering my productivity stack, I condensed everything onto a single page. Here's exactly what's on it and why it works.
Seneca's evening meditation, translated into a five-minute routine you can actually stick with. No philosophy degree required.
If it takes under two minutes, do it now. Sounds too simple to work — until you track what actually happens over 90 days.
I used eleven habit trackers in two years. Most made me worse at habits. Here's the pattern of failure and what actually stuck.
A full year of daily mood data, visualized and analyzed. The seasonal patterns were obvious. The day-of-week patterns were not.
Willpower is a finite, unreliable resource. The trick is engineering a morning that runs on environment design instead.
Tested in real life, not just for a week.
A full year migrating my entire system to .txt files. The freedom was real. So was the chaos. Here's the honest verdict.
I journaled on paper for six months and digitally for six months, then compared depth, consistency, and what I actually retained.
Thirty days, zero social feeds. The first week was withdrawal. The last week was clarity. Full breakdown inside.
Three questions to sit with over coffee.
What did I avoid this week, and what was I actually afraid of?
If today repeated for a month, would I be moving toward the person I want to become?
What consumed my attention that gave nothing back — and what would I do with that time instead?