Tending My Own System
Every morning, I open at least two apps just to figure out how to start my day. One for Notion, where all my knowledge and reference info lives. One for ByDesign, where my tasks live. It doesn't take long before I'm getting distracted moving from one to the other, trying to remember what I was actually doing in the first place.
A few weeks ago, in the middle of that same back and forth, I made a decision. Nothing dramatic. Just a choice to adjust my tools so I could stop the context switching and avoid the distraction that came with it.
I want to walk through the whole thing, not because switching tools is interesting on its own, but because the process I used on myself is the same one I use with clients. It's just easier to see the friction in someone else's systems than in your own. When you're standing inside something, it's harder to spot what's not working.
Intentional by Design
I have left more than one job because of a gap.
Not a gap in skills, or resources, or even vision. A gap between what an organization said it stood for and how it actually operated from the inside. The mission statement on the wall and how people were, or were not, supported. The values listed on the website and the expectations that greeted you on a Monday morning.
I raised it however I could. I tried to help close it. And when I hit enough resistance and started to feel the disconnect in my body, I eventually had to go.
What struck me each time was not exactly the hypocrisy. It was the unawareness. Most of these organizations genuinely believed they were living their values. The gap wasn't intentional. It was structural. Nobody had examined whether the systems underneath the values were actually built to carry them, not just for the clients or customers, but also for those inside delivering the service.
That is the work intentional design tries to do.