When I'm at my best
Ever felt like some days you’re at the top of your game, while on others, you just can’t seem to get there? Some moments you’re juggling a myriad of tasks with ease, and the next, your brain feels like a cluttered mess.
It’s natural to feel like things aren’t going smoothly all the time. After all, career growth means constantly pushing yourself beyond what you thought you could do. But is the struggle an inevitable part of growth?
I’ve often been amazed at how some colleagues seem to have an infinite repository of information available on demand—the due date of every project, who is working on what, and the status of every ticket. (These same people might say I have an encyclopedic knowledge of how our systems work, but that’s not the point.) I wanted that level of effortless recall for everything else.
The Search for a Magic Bullet
In the past, I tried a myriad of techniques, searching for that one magic trick that would unlock a new level of organization and effectiveness. My journey looked something like this:
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Physical Notebooks: I started here, but quickly grew frustrated that I couldn’t search the contents.
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Evernote, then OneNote: These digital tools seemed promising, but I always felt like I was missing some secret organizational method that everyone else knew. My notes became a digital junk drawer.
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Personal Kanban Boards: I tried writing notes directly into stories, but my to-do list was so granular that the board became unmanageable.
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Physical Notebooks (Again): I went back to basics, but this time I was terrified I would lose a notebook containing confidential information.
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The Kindle Scribe: I invested in new tech, hoping it would be the best of both worlds, but found its search capabilities were even clunkier than flipping through a paper notebook.
I scoured the internet to learn from others. I read about presidents who kept detailed notebooks but could never find specifics on what they actually wrote in them. My quest to be more effective was, ironically, making me feel more ineffective as I bounced from one failed system to another.
The Turning Point
Just as I was about to give up, I revisited a classic Harvard Business Review article, “Managing Oneself” by Peter Drucker. It presented me with two simple questions that prompted a profound reflection on my string of failed attempts:
- Am I a reader or a listener?
- How do I learn?
The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. The problem wasn’t the tool. The problem was that I was trying to use these tools for storage and retrieval, when what I really needed was a tool for processing.
The key insight was this: I learn by writing.
Not by reading. Not by listening. I learn by taking what I read and hear, processing it, and regurgitating it in my own words. It almost doesn’t matter what I write or what medium I use. The very act of writing is what solidifies knowledge and brings clarity to my thoughts.
My System Today
Today, I’ve gone back to basics, but with a new philosophy. I keep a simple daily diary—a digital stream of thoughts. I don’t try to organize it with complex tags or nested folders. The key outcome isn’t the notebook itself; it’s the daily practice of writing.
The goal is no longer to create a perfectly searchable external brain. The goal is to do what I need to do to learn and process information effectively.
So, when am I at my best? I’m at my best when I write.