A person who wants to provide value to their audience through their work.🎯 The Value Creator's definition of value: A piece of work that<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Educates</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Motivates</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Empowers</li></ul>their audience in achieving their goals.❌ Not mere entertainment. Not attention-grabbing TikTok videos that merely give a 10-second laugh.

Who is a Value Creator?

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">No one owes you their attention.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Be non-obvious and hyper-relevant.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Chase Thinker's High.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Category Creation.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">PUBLISH.</li></ol>

The Value Creator's Manifesto

Attention and time are people's most precious resource.👉🏻 If you aren't willing to pay for your content with your attention and time—why are you creating it?👉🏻 If your work isn't legendary, if it won't improve someone's life—why are you creating it?No one owes you their attention. Earn it by creating value.

1. No one owes you their attention.

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Obvious content: "3 Steps to get from A to B", "How to do X" ...</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Non-Obvious content: Non-obvious connections between topics, "Here are 3 timeless ways to think about the situation"...</li></ul> Obvious content gets outdated quickly.👉🏻 Non-obvious content remains relevant for years—or even generations.But if you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.So:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Strive for non-obvious insights</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Have ONE person in mind when creating content</li></ul>

2. Be non-obvious and hyper-relevant

People who like running often talk about "Runner's High"—The rush of good feelings while on a run.Non-obvious content requires deep thinking.👉🏻 If you can make thinking pleasurable, creating non-obvious content will be really fun.

3. Chase Thinker's High

If you merely "find your niche", you'll never stand out.👉🏻 If you want zero competition, create your own category.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">What is Ryan Holiday known for? (Applied) Stoicism.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What is Tiago Forte known for? Building a Second Brain.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What is Ali Abdaal known for? Acing medical school at Cambridge, and now Productivity.</li></ul>So think about:👉🏻 What's your unique intersection of skills and interests?👉🏻 Give this intersection a name and claim it.Remember: The best competition is no competition.

4. Category Creation

If no one knows what you're doing...They won't get value from your work.👉🏻  Show your work. Get feedback. Improve on it. Keep providing value.But that will only happen if you publish.

5. PUBLISH

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">I created a $1 <a href="https://teaforthought.kit.com/products/value-creators-manifesto">Desktop Wallpaper</a> to remind you of these principles every day.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I highly recommend reading <a href="https://amzn.to/3Wj5iK6">Category Pirates*</a>, the book on which this Manifesto was based.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Scared of publishing? Just learn—and do it in public. Here's my previous Stash on <a href="https://dsta.sh/L3gDZYEwDys6d2Qk8">Why You Should Learn in Public</a>.</li></ul> You can also follow me for more non-obvious insights on intentional living :)*: Amazon Affiliate link, at no extra cost to you

Further Resources

Want to leave a legacy through your work? Here are 5 principles to follow every day.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

writing

Reading & Writing

communication

Communication

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">N: Number of years of experience</li><li class="ql-align-justify">P: Number of (high-quality) peers</li></ul> In Computer Science, Big O notation is used to state how costs scale as a function of the amount of work to do (a steeper curve is worse).However, Big L is a benefit curve (a steeper curve is better).Let's dive in!

Plotting Learning (L) as a Function of N and P

This person:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">learns one thing (typically through their role)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">chooses to do that one thing over and over again for the rest of their career...</li><li class="ql-align-justify">without improving their skills and competencies over the years</li></ul>It's not always the physical jobs (barista, forklift operation, etc.)—it can happen in "thinking" jobs like teaching and programming, too. Why does this happen?<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Unfortunate circumstances</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Lack of personal ambition</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Comfort zone trap</li></ul>

L(1): The One-Trick Pony

This person learns, but also forgets what they learn easily.As a result:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Has to re-learn things often</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Commits the same mistakes repeatedly </li></ul> Why does this happen?<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Lack of curiosity</li><li class="ql-align-justify">No self-directed learning goals: Learning as a result of random events or because someone told them so</li></ul>

L(log N): The Lossy Learner

This person:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Learns something new every year</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Remembers what they learn</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Does not repeat their mistakes are not repeated</li></ul> How does this happen?<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Constantly pushing boundaries (i.e. outside comfort zone)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Building systems (principles, habits, a second brain, etc.) to remember stuff</li></ul>

L(N) - The Infinite Learner

This person is an Infinite Learner who also:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Automates their work to save future work</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Builds mental models that anticipate and meet future needs</li></ul> Example: I want to cultivate gratitude.<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">I find journalling prompts that inspire gratitude in me</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I made gratitude journalling a habit</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Automation: I create a "Daily Note" template in my note-taking app, containing the 3 prompts that worked best for me</li></ol>

L(N^2) - The Deep Learner

This person:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Learns with a group of peers—people either just behind them, slightly ahead of them, or where they currently are</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Learns by answering questions they’ve never thought to ask</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Taps into their network when they get stuck</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Shares their notes as they go</li></ul>Concurrent P matters more than Lifetime P.If you do it right, your peers can keep you accountable.

L(PN) - The Networked Learner

This person is a Networked Learner who also:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Actively grows a community around their learning</li></ul> Example: Wikipedia beat the traditional Encyclopedias at a fraction of their budget because it was able to grow at L((PN)^2) vs L(N) or L(PN). Your community should not be self-serving. People can always tell!Instead, it should serve a bigger goal/mission—benefitting others first before it benefits you.

L((PN)^2) - The #LearnInPublic Grand Slam

The TLDR:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Learn.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Make your learning visible to others</li></ol> "Make your learning visible" by producing Learning Exhaust:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Picking a medium (written text, audio, video) that's most accessible to you</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Producing valuable content in that medium</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Promoting that content</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Making friends along the way :D</li><li class="ql-align-justify">START</li></ol> Further reading:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">swyx's article on <a href="https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public">Learning in Public</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify">swyx's article is also summarized by Nicole van der Hoeven publicly <a href="https://notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/sources/Article/Learn+in+Public+-+The+Fastest+Way+to+Learn">here</a></li><li class="ql-align-justify">Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon</li></ul>

How to Learn in Public?

The world needs your unique set of experiences and insights.

In this post I sketch out `Big L` notation, which plots your learning as a function of `N` years of experience, with `P` peers. 

career

Career

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Why You Should Learn in Public (Big L Notation)

A farmer's son fell off his horse one day and got his leg crippled. All the villagers told the farmer, "It's so unfortunate your son got injured!"Yet, the farmer only replied, "Good thing, bad thing, who knows?" Months later, the country went to war, requiring all young healthy men to join the army.As the villagers tearfully said goodbye to their sons, they told the farmer, "You're lucky that your son didn't get drafted!"To which the farmer replied, "Good thing, bad thing, who knows?"

Good Thing, Bad Thing, Who Knows?

Labels are convenient for social interactions.Tell people you're a barista, and they know exactly what you do in your job without needing further explanation. If we're not careful, these labels can become limiting. The same goes with labelling the events in our life:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">When we label something as "bad": We assign a negative energy to it, which can block us from learning the lessons we needed to learn.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If we label something as "good": We might avoid taking full responsibility for what had happened.</li></ul>

The Caveat with Labels

This is a "Bad" Event: They didn't love me → I'm not good enough → I'm unloveable → ... This is a "Good" Event:  They were not compatible / They didn't meet my needs / ... Neutral Label: What can I learn from this experience? How can I get better at communicating my needs and boundaries? How can I show up better as a partner? Disclaimer: Does not apply to abusive relationships

Example: Your Partner Broke Up with You

If you ever find yourself ruminating on stuff in the coming year...<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Remove the labels :)</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Learn the lessons, then let go of the event.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Always start from where the chessboard currently is.</li></ol> After all, good thing, bad thing, who knows?

Your Mantra for 2025

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.kit.com/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by the twists and turns of my 2024.<a href="https://teaforthought.kit.com/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Want more ideas like this?

This concept helped me navigate the twists and turns of 2024.

My key takeaway from 2024 that I hope to bring into 2025.

philosophy

Philosophy

habits

Habits

Good Thing or Bad Thing?

A "pursuit" interaction is often done with the expectation of a gain.Most interactions—especially 1-on-1 interactions like informational interviews and direct messages—fall under this category. You're engaging because you hope to gain:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">information about a role</li><li class="ql-align-justify">information about a company</li><li class="ql-align-justify">the possibility of a referral</li></ul> An "attraction" interaction is done without expectation of reciprocity. You're:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">sharing what you know because you want to help people</li><li class="ql-align-justify">engaging with others because you love what they do</li></ul>

Pursuit VS Attraction Interactions

You can't have only one type of interaction.There are always new things to learn, whether you're just starting out or already established. This requires you to reach out to people and learn from them—a form of "gain" and thus, "pursuit".However, if 99% of your interactions are pursuits, you could easily build a reputation for being "transactional"—someone who only interacts with people who are "useful", and overlooks those who are not.

The Networking Paradox

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Get curious about the topic and how you can provide value to others in the field</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Get curious about the people you find interesting</li></ul>When you lean into your curiosity, you'll do more research before publishing that piece of content or reaching out to that person.The interactions feel less icky because you did your due diligence, increasing the quality of the interactions.

Principle #1: Come from a place of curiosity

To prevent social overwhelm and exhaustion, you need to be clear about:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">What kind of people you want to be around</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What kind of activities/interactions you do better in</li><li class="ql-align-justify">What ratio of "Pursuit" VS "Attraction" works best for you</li></ul>and use this knowledge to decide:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">how frequently you network</li><li class="ql-align-justify">what interactions and activities you engage with</li></ul>These preferences and capacities will change over time, especially when you network more and step into new roles in life. And that's okay!Experiment and double down on what works, then review periodically and adjust whenever needed.

Principle #2: Be very, very self-aware (and make use of it)

Society likes to label people with their career roles.But labelling reduces us to one-dimensional characters when we're inherently multi-dimensional.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple interests.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple aspects of life to take care of.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Multidimensionality means we'll have multiple changes in perspectives.</li></ul>Accepting that people are complex and will change over time is how you can best support people through their inevitable career and life changes.It's how you become THE person they remember—for seeing them for who they are.

Principle #3: Accept that people are complex and will change over time

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to design and live an intentional life, and I share what I’ve learned along the way.This newsletter issue was inspired by my networking experiences in Medellín, Colombia.I had to take a break from writing in 2023 but I hope to restart my writing in 2024. <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Want More Ideas Like This?

These are the secrets I uncovered after many icky experiences with "networking".

Networking doesn't have to be painful or overwhelming.

remotework

Remote Work

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

3 Principles for Effortless Networking

Growth correlates the strongest with applied leverage. If I had to write a formula for growth, it would be:Growth = ( Time^0.5 ) * Intensity of Effort * ( Leverage^2 ) <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">If your effort is focused (and thus, intense), you usually achieve the same amount of things in less time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If you work on higher-leverage stuff, you can achieve the same amount of things with less amounts of time and effort.</li></ul> Thus, the “shortest route” is not necessarily the shortest one.Don’t pick a route solely for its length.

1. Growth correlates poorly with time (and effort)

If you achieve a milestone earlier, will you be able to enjoy it for a longer time?Ideally, yes. But we never really know.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Things in life are impermanent. We are all on God's clock.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I could die tomorrow in some freak accident. Then, I’ll no longer be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.</li></ul> What we can do is make the best of what we have in the present.Enjoy your days, whether you achieve something or not.

2. Earlier achievements != More enjoyment time

Objects break down over time.That Porsche, Rolex, or fancy house won’t be “as good as new” 3 decades later. But you can relive your experiences as if they happened yesterday.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">You’ll remember that lovely honeymoon with your spouse.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">You’ll also remember the gruelling 70-hour workweeks you put in to get that Porsche.</li></ul> Collect good experiences that you can:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">feel happy in the present</li><li class="ql-align-justify">fondly look back on</li></ul>

3. Experiences last longer than material possessions

I.e. They keep saying you’re “too old”/“too young”/“too late” to do X…or that you’ll “lag behind” if you do X…<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Do your research. Know what you’re getting into.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If it still resonates, do it anyway.</li></ol>

So: If Someone’s Telling You That You Shouldn’t Do It…

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to design and live an intentional life, and I share what I’ve learned along the way.This newsletter issue was inspired by what others have told me about<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">taking a gap year</li><li class="ql-align-justify">studying overseas</li></ul><a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

I’ve taken the “longer route” twice in the past 7 years. Here’s why I no longer feel “left behind”.

Don't let the fear of "lagging behind" stop you from trying.

education

Learning & Education

3 reasons why you don't need to feel "left behind" in life

The root of self-sabotage is fear.
The 4 most common fears are:
<ol>
<li>Fear of Failure</li>
<li>Fear of Success</li>
<li>Fear of Judgement</li>
<li>Fear of the Unknown</li>
</ol>

Where does self-sabotage come from?

“What if [my target outcome] doesn't happen?”Result: <ul><li>You start on your project, then procrastinate on finishing it.</li><li>You believe that if you don’t launch anything, you can’t fail.</li></ul>

Fear of Failure

“If I succeed, will I ever achieve the same level of success again?” ”What if I can’t cope with the work that comes after achieving success, and burn out?”Result: You give up on ideas too early—right as you are about to achieve success.

Fear of Success

“What if people hate or ridicule my work?”Result: <ul><li>You spend hours working on and “perfecting” your work.</li><li>Your perfectionism delays or prevents the work's launch.</li></ul>

Fear of Judgement

“What if [something bad] happens?”Result: <ul><li>Your risk assessment might be inaccurate.</li><li>You might not start on the project at all.</li></ul>

Fear of the Unknown

<ol><li>Identify your fear(s) and their stories</li><li>Change the stories and beliefs</li><li>Embody your new beliefs through experiments</li></ol>

Conquer your fears with the ICE Framework

Before you can tackle something, you need to know what that something is.The 4 fears listed above are just examples. You might have more. So:<ul><li>Identify what your self-sabotaging behaviors are</li><li>Brain-dump the fear(s) driving each behavior</li><li>Identify the belief or story behind each fear.</li></ul> The story or belief could be about:<ul><li>Your abilities & lived experiences</li><li>Your familial and social environment</li></ul>

1. Identify your fear(s) and their stories

Question your stories and beliefs rigorously.Is it a valid concern, or are you making generous estimations of the future? Either way, turn those stories & beliefs into empowering ones that focus on what you can control.For more tips on this, you can check out this Stash: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/174293/how-to-conquer-self-doubt-over-and-over-again">https://deepstash.com/article/174293/how-to-conquer-self-doubt-over-and-over-again</a>

2. Change the stories and beliefs

Make your new beliefs your new life narrative using deliberate experiments.Then, let the data speak for itself and guide you on your next steps. For more tips on Deliberate Experimentation: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/170137/how-to-explore-your-interests-with-deliberate-experimentation">https://deepstash.com/article/170137/how-to-explore-your-interests-with-deliberate-experimentation</a> For more tips on "data collection" for goal achievement: <a href="https://deepstash.com/article/172029/3-data-points-to-collect-for-faster-goal-achievement">https://deepstash.com/article/172029/3-data-points-to-collect-for-faster-goal-achievement</a>

3. Embody your new beliefs through experiments

You might also like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I’m on a mission to find life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 8 years of grappling with self-sabotage.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

If you liked what you've read...

I used to self-sabotage myself a lot. Here's how I'm tackling it with ICE.

creativity

Creativity

How to Stop Sabotaging Yourself

Self-doubt leads to a lot of self-sabotage, such as:<ul><li>Fear of getting started</li><li>Analysis paralysis</li><li>Fear of failure</li></ul> After trying many things in the past 8 years, these 3 solutions stood out:<ol><li>Rewire your self-talk</li><li>Focus on what you can control</li><li>Be kind to yourself</li></ol>

Why tackle self-doubt?

Self-talk refers to your “inner voice”—the way you talk to yourself.To rewire it:<ol><li>Take stock of what your self-talk contains</li><li>Rephrase negative self-talk into positive ones</li><li>“Install” the new, positive self-talk with affirmations and visualizations</li></ol>

💭 1. Rewire your self-talk

<ul><li>Use positive, empowering frames</li><li>Focus on what you can do about the situation, not outcomes</li></ul> Personal examples:<ul><li>“I’m the most inexperienced person here.” → “I’m a go-getter; what I lack in experience, I make up for it using effort and persistence.”</li><li>“This failure shows that I’m not good enough.” → “This setback shows me where I can improve. If I learn its lessons, I’ll do better next time. ”</li></ul>

How to rephrase negative self-talk effectively

Despite using affirmations and visualizations daily, my crippling self-doubt returned in tsunami waves whenever I faced a setback.This was because I was deriving my self-worth from things I couldn’t control. In general, you cannot control:<ul><li>The past</li><li>Other people</li><li>Event outcomes</li><li>Birth circumstances</li></ul> You can control:<ul><li>Your plans</li><li>Your efforts</li><li>Your response</li><li>Your consistency</li><li>Your mind and body</li></ul> Focus on the second list.

🧐 2. Focus on what you can control

Self-doubt will always come back. You will always be in new situations that create new fears.You will always meet new people to <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/teaforthought/p/how-to-get-out-of-the-comparison?r=1yp5g8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web">compare yourself to </a>and feel inferior to. In fact, if you're not doubting yourself every once in a while, it could mean that you're not growing! So:<ul><li>Treat self-doubt like your health. Both require consistent, long-term maintenance, not a one-time fix.</li><li>Treat mindfulness like an exercise. Do it consistently to reap the benefits.</li></ul> And when your self-doubt comes back from time to time, don’t beat yourself up over it.Remember, it’s not a failure, but a learning opportunity ❤️

❤️‍🩹 3. Be kind to yourself

You might like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 12 years of personal struggle with self-doubt.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

After struggling with self-doubt for 12 years and trying to "deal with it" for 8 of those years, here's what I learned.

If you're growing, you will have self-doubt. Here's how I dealt with it for the past 8 years.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

How to conquer self-doubt, over and over again

All types of journaling are helpful in gathering data about your inner and outer worlds.It just depends on your current needs and context. 3 types of journaling to have in your toolkit:<ol><li>Rant Journaling</li><li>Prompts-based Journaling</li><li>Brain Dump Journaling</li></ol>

Use the right journaling type for the job

Instead of suppressing negative emotions, let everything out on paper:<ul><li>Curse and swear about the situation</li><li>Rant about the “could haves” and “should haves”</li></ul>Stop writing the moment you feel like you’ve run out of things to say.Don’t read what you just wrote. Instead, step back from your journal:<ul><li>💆‍♀️ Wash your face</li><li>🥛 Drink some water</li><li>🔥 Burn the pages (optional)</li><li>🤔 Think about how to move forward, using prompts or brain dumping (see below)</li></ul>

🤬 Purge Poisons with Rant Journaling

Prompts are useful for:<ul><li>Tracking your progress over time</li><li>Revealing limiting beliefs and blind spots</li><li>Providing a starting direction for your writing</li><li>Thinking about a situation in novel and productive ways</li></ul> For more details on what to track for greater self-awareness and goal achievement, check out this Stash: <a href="https://dsta.sh/TbDnJsZetnwi7qDZA">https://dsta.sh/TbDnJsZetnwi7qDZA</a> You should find yourself using prompt journaling most of the time, such as for your periodic (daily, weekly, etc.) reviews.

🧪 Collect Data with Prompt Journaling

<ul><li>Use the same prompts for your periodic reviews. This lets you easily compare your progress across periods.</li><li>Keep things simple. You don’t have to use all the questions suggested by ChatGPT, a blog post, or a guided journal.</li></ul> As a rule of thumb, prompts should:<ol><li>Be relevant to your present situation</li><li>Leave you feeling neutral or refreshed, not drained</li><li>Help you organize your thoughts, not trigger a thought spiral</li></ol>

Tips for better prompt journaling

Brain dumping, also known as “stream of consciousness” journaling or Morning Pages, has 2 simple rules:<ol><li>Write whatever comes to mind until you reach your “goal”</li><li>Keep writing even if you can’t think of anything to write</li></ol>It’s like rant journaling, but without the intense negative emotions.Instead, you’re driven by a goal—usually a target page count or word count.Forcing yourself to keep writing is what helps you get unstuck.

💡 Breakthrough with Brain Dump Journaling

Write down, as many as you can:<ol><li>Information you have about the situation</li><li>Details of your desired outcome</li><li>Possible ways to change the situation—even if the solutions seem unrealistic</li></ol>Then, implement one of the solutions in Step 3 and collect data on whether it works.Bonus: You can also use prompts to kickstart your brain dump.

How to solve problems using Brain Dumps

You might like my newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea for Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by 10 years of personal journaling experience.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Here's a simple toolkit for using journaling to manage your emotions, track your progress, and get unstuck.

A simple toolkit for managing your emotions, collecting data, and getting unstuck.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to journal for intentional living

Your efforts will always pay off.You'll always be paid in lessons and experience.Introspecting your feelings, ideas, and progress helps unlock those lessons.

Progress is great. But are you progressing on the right things?Noticing your negative feelings can tell you what’s wrong:<ul><li>Misalignment between actions and values/purpose/goals</li><li>Flaws in your strategy and execution</li><li>Overexertion</li></ul>

😶 Feelings

As you work towards your goal, you’re likely to encounter new information and perspectives.These can spark ideas for:<ul><li>improving your quality of work</li><li>improving your systems & processes</li></ul>

💡 Ideas

Most systems boil down to these 3 questions:<ul><li>How much progress (relative to a goal) did I accomplish?</li><li>What actions were effective in creating this progress?</li><li>What didn’t work, and how can I do better?</li></ul> Feel free to use more prompts to get a more detailed analysis.

📈 Progress

<ul><li>Double down on the actions that worked</li><li>Re-alignment (if necessary)</li><li>Experiment with ideas (and iterate)</li></ul>

🤨 What to do with all this data?

<ul><li>Introspect consistently (daily, weekly, etc.)</li><li>Record them in your note-taking system</li><li>Refer to your records whenever needed</li></ul>

How to collect these data?

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.📕 Bonus: I’ve also tied the above concepts together into a simple weekly reflection template.If you subscribe now, you’ll receive the template link in the welcome email.<a href="https://teaforthought.ck.page/tea">Come learn with me :)</a>

Your efforts will always pay off. Introspection helps with extracting those rewards.

Your efforts will always pay off. Introspection helps you unlock those rewards.

productivity

Productivity

strategy

Strategy

3 data points to collect for faster goal achievement

When you start a new job or move to a new place, there are so many things to do.It's not possible to do all of them without overexerting yourself. Create a vision and use it to:<ul><li>Filter out shiny new objects</li><li>Prioritize & align your actions toward your goals</li></ul>

🗺️ 1. Have a vision for the new phase of life

When you start a new phase of life, you usually don’t have a routine.This makes it easy to give in to temptations or quick fixes that can morph into unhealthy habits. The solution: Have good default choices, especially for your health and finances.

🥑 2. Have good default choices

Life is hard.Beating yourself up over your mistakes makes it harder. Two principles that helped me be kind(er) to myself:<ul><li>"You will make mistakes. It means you’re growing! Remedy the mistakes and move on."</li><li>"Your pace is the best pace. No need to FOMO or feel bad about it."</li></ul>

You might like my weekly newsletter, <a href="https://teaforthought.substack.com/">Tea For Thought</a>!I'm on a mission to find and implement life-tweaking ideas for designing and living an intentional life.For every concept I discover, I strive to find examples and stories from my own life. This newsletter issue was inspired by my undergrad experience—I had to move to a new country every 4 months.<a href="https://teaforthought.substack.com/">Come learn with me :)</a>

These 3 things helped me settle down quickly as I moved to a new country every 4 months for the past 2 years.

The Value Creator's Manifesto

Why You Should Learn in Public (Big L Notation)

Good Thing or Bad Thing?

3 Principles for Effortless Networking

3 reasons why you don't need to feel "left behind" in life

Pei Qi Tea