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.
Before you add another tool, answer these three questions
There is a particular kind of afternoon I know well. The work is not moving. Something feels inefficient, broken, or just hard. And somewhere in the background, a small voice starts asking: maybe there is a tool for this.
Sometimes there is. Often, there isn’t, at least not one that actually makes sense. And the difference between those two situations is harder to see in the moment than it should be.
I have added tools I did not need. I have experimented with even more and been down many rabbit holes. I have built systems that became the work. I have spent a Saturday setting up something I stopped using by Wednesday, because I hated the interface. Anyone else?
What I have learned, slowly, is that the question is rarely which tool. It is almost always best to first ask if a tool is the right answer at all. And the only way to know that is to get specific about the problem first.
The tools I actually use
People ask me about tools a lot. What do I use for scheduling? What about invoicing? How do I manage my calendar without losing my mind?
For a long time, I answered these questions one conversation at a time. Then I realized I was having the same conversation over and over, which is usually a sign that something wants to be written down.
So I wrote it down.
My tools page is my honest answer to the question: What do you actually use? Not what I have tried or used in the past, not what I want to try, not what a client is using. But what is open on my screen on a regular Tuesday.