Making Peace With How I Think

Lately, I’ve been noticing what’s working for me and trying to externalize those patterns, making them more explicit and using tools like custom reMarkable templates to support that process. What’s emerged is a personal productivity system shaped around what’s easy for me and where I struggle, rather than what I wish were true or what works for everyone else. In a sense, I’m reverse-engineering how my brain behaves so I can make a system that cooperates with it, turning implicit habits into explicit structures. I’m sharing it as I go, partly to keep myself honest, and partly in case it’s helpful to anyone else whose brain works a bit like mine.

I’ve spent a long time trying to understand how my brain works, and only recently did something important click. I didn’t need to become more organized. I needed a system that worked with the way I already think. Looking around, I started to notice that the people I admired most weren’t effortlessly organized either. They had found structures that played to their strengths instead of fighting their weaknesses.

I’ve been obsessed with planners for as long as I can remember. I’d fill out the first few pages, feel very on top of things for a week or two, and then forget about it entirely. The abandoned planners always had the same problem. They were either too structured or not novel enough to hold my attention. If only all day planners came with a holographic, Frutiger Aero–style cover.

For most of my career, I never really needed a to-do list. My work fit comfortably in my head, and when it didn’t, I’d jot things down on an index card and move on. That stopped working when I became a software engineering manager.

What felt manageable at first wasn’t going to scale. I realized that quickly. Around that time, I started using a reMarkable tablet, an e-ink device designed for handwritten notes. It let me write, think, and capture ideas freely, then reorganize them later by selecting, moving, and reshaping my notes into something more structured. That was something I hadn’t been able to do with pen and paper alone.

Without that separation, my brain gets hamstrung trying to capture and organize at the same time, which I’ve never been good at. My notes would end up either thorough and chaotic or perfectly organized and nearly empty. Neither was actually usable.

A similar thing happens with to-do lists and productivity apps: I love, love, love the idea of them. In practice, they rarely work for me. If there’s too much on the list, I freeze. If a task isn’t in front of me visually, I forget it exists. If the system is too structured, it becomes more work than it’s worth. And if I can’t adapt it in ways that make it feel like mine, I lose interest and move on.

So I started building my own system. One that lets me capture things quickly, manage my attention, and keep enough novelty to stay engaged. It’s flexible by design and gives me a way to consciously set things aside until it’s time to deal with them. That frees up capacity to work on what matters right now. The goal isn’t perfection (because perfection is a deeply rewarding waste of time), it’s focusing on what matters so I can be better for the people who depend on me.

This is me figuring it out in real time, and sharing what I learn. If any of this feels familiar, welcome, friend.