Building in public

Where I am at and where I'm going to go in the next 3 months

Harshan Karthikeyan · 26 September 2026 · 27 min read

Structure of Journal Article

I recently watched a business mentor of mine Nick Saraev's 5-hour "How to Think Clearly in the Age of AI" YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLLuZbuTIRc&t=90s), and it served as a timely anchor to refamiliarise and introduce myself with concepts to better my business and self as a person.

The following are my reflections from watching the video, along with ideas in my mind at the moment. It has been divided into 6 parts, collectively consisting of 34 ideas.

Where I am at and where I’m going to go in the next 3 months Six parts · thirty-four ideas 1 Why, and how the mind works Visualise your why How the brain functions Attention residue TAPs Batch notifications Earplugs Say the flinch out loud 2 How to decide Expected value Power law Fermi approximations Long-term games Local vs global maxima Yes means no Chesterton's fence Irreversible decisions Map is not the territory Show me the incentives Premortems Projects run long No plan survives 3 How to do the work Just do the thing Akrasia Ulysses constraint Consistency Never do it twice Effective over fun 4 Designing the environment Environment design — wardrobe — workstations — food Productising the day 5 Health optimisations Sleep Blood work Creatine 6 Staying honest long term Balance Complacency How to use AI Read in order — each part assumes the one before it.
The six parts, and what sits in each.

Purpose

in public Four reasons, one of them accountability Internalise · share honestly · invite conversation · be held to it
Why this is public rather than private.

The purpose of this journal entry is to:

  • Marinate and more deeply internalise these ideas through articulating them out loud and publicly, forcing me to refine my appreciation of them.
  • Honestly share the journey of building a business with others. Undoubtedly, the highs, lows, regressive setbacks, and steady state progress.
  • Inspire conversation and connection with others where there is an exchange of all of our ideas to create an improved collective understanding.
  • Serve as a form of public accountability for where I am and where I aspire to progress towards.

So below are some of the key concepts covered in the video, along with my ruminations and key ideas I especially related with.

Part 1

Why, and how the mind works

Visualise your Why

WHO EACH ANNUAL REVENUE LEVEL REACHES today Partner Mother Father Causes I care about $220k matches the day job income Partner Mother Father Children Siblings Causes I care about $550k their costs stop being a question Partner Mother Father Children Siblings Causes I care about $1.1m money stops being the constraint
The magnitude of impact with each income level.

My why is connection and people around me. Relatedly, business is the vehicle through which I can best financially support the people in my life. So me deeply visualising how it would feel once my business matches my day job income is really important. That means I would be earning $220,000 a year. That would mean my partner would not need to work and can care for our future children full-time and they'd literally get the devoted attention of their mother 24/7. Along with my siblings I will be able to ensure my mother doesn't have to pay for anything to sustain her current daily lifestyle. The same goes with my father and I'll be able to help them cover all financial burdens so they literally spend their twilight years engaging in their interests and passions.

There is a significant load of gratitude here, as my parents along with my grandmother, were single-handedly responsible for extracting us out of a third-world country (Sri Lanka) and bringing us to a first-world country in Australia to experience the fruits and opportunities we have. This was done at the expense of them abandoning their booming careers in Sri Lanka to start from ground zero in a foreign land at the mature age of 41 and 46. There's a deeper, more primal protector and provider instinct to this vision I've articulated that feels very positive with me. If I were to visualise life at 550k to $1.1million per year that would include a deeper sense of connectedness and influence in my world. Specifically, my three future children will be able to engage in any opportunity they desire as money is no longer a bottleneck. My partner is a full-time mother able to commit herself to raising children and maintaining a home. I'd collectively with my siblings be able to support my father and mother so that they don't have to financially lift a finger. I'd be able to direct funds towards causes I care about such as:

  • Reducing homelessness
  • Helping people regain their sight (Fred Hollows foundation)
  • Rebuilding efforts of my birth country (Sri Lanka)

I'd just have so much more depth, control in myself and be better able to influence my surroundings in a direction I feel is positive.

How the brain functions

NESTED, NOT SEQUENTIAL — THE TOOL SITS INSIDE BOTH GARAGE Everything you could reach for shelves you swap things back onto WORKBENCH · 3–5 THINGS 1 toolin your hand THE SAME SHAPE, THREE PLACES Your mind one focus · 3–5 to toggle your whole life A computer one program · RAM everything installed A company one worker · a department executive leadership
Nested, not sequential.

A key framework presented in the video was how the human brain operates. Nick explained it using the analogy of a tool, workbench and garage, which is analogous to a software program, RAM, and computer, which is also analogous in a company to the worker, department, and Executive leadership.

  • Tool. This is the item that you'd hold and is the main object of your focus and attention (e.g. spanner). You can only really use and apply 1 tool at a time. Bringing this to the analogy of a computer, 1 tool is equivalent to 1 software program you are running (e.g. Microsoft Word).
  • Workbench. This is where 3-5 of your tools are laid out for ready access. This could be a spanner, screw driver, hammer, electric drill, (ruler + pencil). As they are laid out adjacent to each other, you can easily toggle between the different tools to work on the object of attention and focus in the garage (e.g. a car). In terms of a computer this translates to the RAM where the collective memory of all recent actions executed by the adjacent software programs is maintained so the computer can readily access them to execute tasks.
  • Garage. This is the ecosystem of your life which contains all the tools, shelves and items in your life that you can access. You can regularly interchange items from the workbench with those on the shelves in the garage. In terms of the computer it relates to all the software and even internet programs that can be accessed.

One must exercise deliberate Executive Function to decide what is kept in the garage so as to not clutter it (makes it harder to find what you need, when you need it). It is used to also decide what makes sense to be on the workbench to ensure productive and effective use of your time to do what you need to do. To decide on this you must lean on your experience, wisdom, and also evaluate in the last 6 months what you have actually built in the garage and what tools you've never touched in that period.

Keep no more than two tasks in your workbench at a time. Beyond this my effort gets diluted so much so I don't accomplish anything meaningful for the day. An example of this is when I use Claude Code, I could potentially have multiple chat windows running. However I get the best productivity gains when I only focus on two main chat windows at a time.

Attention residue

THE FIVE MINUTES AFTER AN INTERRUPTION ARE NOT FREE In flow on the build one tool, one focus ! a notification still on the old task coming back about 5 minutes, half of it wasted In flow again at full rate SAY THESE THREE THINGS BEFORE YOU SWITCH, AND THE AMBER SHRINKS What I was doing Why I was doing it My next step back in
Half the recovery window is spent on the task you left.

Often, when one engages with something that suddenly crops up midway though a task (e.g. notifications on the phone), when re engaging in the task post distraction, there's a lag for the next 5 minutes. For half of that time, the energy is composed of thinking about the old prior task. A way to reduce that attention residue is to note down prior to context switching:

  • What you were doing
  • What the intent of doing it is
  • What your next step post distraction is

For e.g. before I respond to a cold email lead notification, whilst I am currently engaging in an automation build, I'd mentally or better physically articulate out loud:

  • I'm working on a HubSpot CRM build
  • The purpose of it is to connect the client's pipeline stages to be updated by a code script I set up.
  • When I get back to the build I'm going to connect the cold stage of the pipeline with the custom code script.

TAPs

TRIGGER, ACTION, PLAN the trigger decided in advance go Actions On, borrowed from the military What I was doing · why · my next step
The action is decided before the trigger arrives.

TAPS = Trigger Action Plan. In the military this is referred to as Actions On. In your life whenever specific triggers happen, have an action plan to move on from there. Most critically for me, it's when I get a notification on my phone I need to at best, write down what I'm doing, what I'm going to do next, and why I'm doing this, and at worst mentally answer these questions.

Batch notification responses

NON-CRITICAL VERSUS TIME-SENSITIVE they wait batched On the train business, family, friends — straight through Everything else answers on a schedule Only genuinely time-sensitive things interrupt
Two queues: batched, and straight through.

All non-critical items: respond to them at decided times of the day, such as when commuting on the train or I'm waiting for someone. Critical items that I need to respond to straight away are time-sensitive messages (business, family and friends)

Yellow earplugs to drown out noise

THE CHEAPEST DISTRACTION CONTROL foam quiet Yellow foam plugs One more variable removed from the room
One less variable in the room.

Obtain some foam yellow plugs to drown out noise while I do work. Another way to reduce distractions

Articulate out loud any visceral responses

A FLINCH IS DATA the flinch say it “I notice I am confused about this.” Naming it makes it examinable Works alone, and works better in a room of people
Naming the reaction makes it usable.

Each time you notice something or each time you have a flinching reaction, articulate out loud: "I notice I am confused about X". That would prompt you to think deeper as to the relationship you had with X and why it provoked a strong reaction with you. Each flinch is such a good indicator of something that you should pay attention to.

In an organisation if you have that reaction and articulate out aloud amongst the team "I notice X felt incomplete" that will steer the discussion for everybody in the team to figure out what's going wrong. Same thing goes if you have an aversive reaction: you could say, "I notice I feel a bit strongly about this."

A recent example of this is how I felt the stinging cold last night (5 degrees Celsius) sharply whilst hanging out with friends, and I just desperately wanted to get back inside the comforting warmth of the car. That's reflective of an avoidance feeling I have where I'm avoiding things that are uncomfortable. The more I do that, the lower magnitude of that stimulus will induce me to avoid it more and more, and I'd end up in a place where I have no control over myself and surroundings and I lose Akrasia. Here the real solution from this fact is to maintain control over myself and sometimes stick it out longer, especially in the cold, purely because of that aversive reaction I had. It's okay if I'm cold for a little bit more than an hour without a jumper.

Part 2

How to decide

Sizing the bet

Expected value (EV)

EXPECTED VALUE = WHAT IT IS WORTH × HOW OFTEN IT LANDS EV = value × probability The three-pointer 3 points · 30% of the time 0.9 points per shot The two-pointer 2 points · 60% of the time 1.2 points per shot the default The three-pointer feels better. It scores less.
Value times probability, not value alone.

When deciding to engage in something, assess its expected value, which is a function of the probability of success times the impact of the outcome.

EV = (value) x (probability)

For e.g. in basketball, the probability of myself shooting a three-pointer in a game situation is 30%, and it gives you three points. That amounts to 0.9 points each time you shoot a 3.

EV = 3 x 0.3 = 0.9

Equivalently, shooting a two-pointer has a success rate of 60% and gives you two points. This results in an EV of 1.2 points per shot.

EV = 2 x 0.6 = 1.2

That means as a rule of thumb in a game go for the two-pointer which will over the long term provide you the largest score.

You can link the EV concept with processes that have multistage events to provide you with a distilled view of what areas require targeting for highest magnitudes of improvement. It legitimately shows how a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A good example of this is the sales cycle for a service business is closing deals.

The number of deals closed can be mapped as follows:

No. deals closed = Outreach x Lead nurturing x Proposals x Followups

FOUR STAGES MULTIPLY — SO THE WORST ONE SETS THE TOTAL Outreach20% × Lead nurturing50% × Proposals40% × Follow-ups30% = 1.2% of leads closed the weakest link SAME EFFORT, TWO PLACES TO SPEND IT Improve the top of the funnel by 5 points 20% → 25% outreach 1.2% → 1.5% closed · a quarter better Fix the follow-ups instead 30% → 90% followed up 1.2% → 3.6% closed · three times better
Four rates multiply. Figures are illustrative until the real ones land.

This can be further mapped with probabilities.

My current effectiveness in closing deals is as follows

If I focus my effort on improving my top of funnel outreach by 5% the probability of closing deals will be:

If I instead focus my efforts on improving my follow up of proposals by 30% to 90%, the probability of leads I'd close are:

Moral of the story is to focus on the weakest link in the chain to maximise your success.

Power law

WHAT WE ASSUME most things near the middle A normal distribution almost nothing that matters looks like this WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS the head 3–4 clients most of the income the long tail — held at a base standard x = yⁿ
Normal distribution against power distribution.

Very few things in life are normally distributed.

Most things follow the power distribution. Mathematically, you can express this as x = yⁿ.

The takeaway is that a few items you engage in will be responsible for the highest levels of your success. From a business perspective 3-4 of my clients will provide me with the majority of my income. Proportionally that means focus your efforts on best aiding them without neglecting the others at a base standard.

The things in my life that have been the key levers according to the power law that have produced my highest ROIs:

  • Immersing myself with people I admire and I'd like to emulate. A good example of this is upon starting my AI consulting agency I was scrolling through YouTube and the online web, figuring out the best way to start and execute a business. By joining a community of like-minded peers, I was able to turbocharge my progress by leaning on the years/decades worth of learnings, frameworks, and wisdoms of these members and readily employ them to obtain results. The monetary cost to enter such rooms (e.g. $2000 to $5000) literally results in a 10x ROI of monetary gains ($50k revenue).
  • Tracking, feedback, implementation loop. I'm not as consistent as clockwork on this as I'd like. By consistently tracking the quantities of outreach, follow-up, and proposals I send each month as a business owner, I'm able to at the end of the month assess my efforts, and reflect upon whether they align with my goals, and identify gaps or opportunities for redirection in the following month. I have noticed after doing this for the last 2 to 3 months more religiously with the same magnitude of effort, energy, and time I commit to the business I was spending in previous months, I'm more able to address areas for improvement and this has literally 2 to 3x my revenue. This is approximately 10 hours of extra time committed for tracking each month which has 2-3xd my income. That's a fair trade.

Fermi's approximations

ONE HOUR, SPENT TWO WAYS the same hour THREE ROUGH ANSWERS Project 1 in or out Project 2 in or out Project 3 in or out Three calls made, and the hour is gone either way OR ONE EXACT ANSWER Project 1, modelled to two decimal places 1
Three rough answers, or one exact one.

Doing quick mental maths leads to quicker decisions. The more quicker decisions you make in an X duration of time, you are several orders of power ahead of a slower, singular, more thought-out decision done in the same duration of time. An example of this is deciding which projects to engage in. If I do quick maths, even through a spreadsheet for an hour of analysis, I can see whether the hours expected for this project to be completed may result in an hourly rate that's way lower than mine or higher, and ultimately whether it's worth pursuing.

Choosing across time

Play long term games

ONE CALL, ONE CLIENT, ONE BAD WEEK the sales call that went badly one data point, nothing more where it is going time result the trend is the game
One point does not set the trend.

Playing longer-term games is the truest indicator of yourself and your ability in the game itself. As a business owner, one Sales call with a lead or a rocky relationship with one client that just ended is just one data point in the entire curve of your business success. Keeping that perspective helps provide balance and context of the whole picture. This extends to all aspects of life too, such as relationships, dating, and playing sport.

In a more fundamental, spiritual essence, longer-term views on aspects of life and things in the world yield the truest depth rather than transient, short-term, fleeting moments

Local and global maxima

THE HIGHER PEAK IS ONLY REACHABLE DOWNHILL a local maximum as high as this approach goes exploring, not exploiting earnings dip on purpose the global maximum Where I actually am: still on the first uphill, so the dip is ahead of me, not behind
The route to the higher peak runs downhill first.

Be cognisant of local and global maxima. Just as in maths, if there's a local stationary point, yes, you're the highest you can be, but often to reach a new global maximum, you would have to go through a downslope. At this point you'd be exploring rather than exploiting. This will temporarily result in slower earnings before you can climb up to the global maximum.

Just remember that, as you continuously reinvent yourself, exploration rather than exploiting is required to get to a new height. In my situation, I haven't achieved a local maxima in my business, as I'm steadily climbing up my revenue. I'm still on the uphill, so I can't comment on that just yet. I suspect in the future my outreach method of freelancer jobs or cold email may be the local maxima in relation to scaling my revenue. I'd have to then lean heavily on some other forms of revenue.

Saying yes to something means saying no to something else

EVERY YES IS ALSO A NO YES coffee with someone you do not care about NO the revenue work in the same hour opportunity cost The hour is spent either way The second door is the opportunity cost
Opportunity cost, made explicit.

If I say yes to go and hang out with a person I don't care much about, that is saying no to the other revenue-generating things that I could be doing with that time (opportunity cost).

Not breaking what works

Chesterton fence

BEFORE YOU PULL IT DOWN Two years of feedback from people who built it the client's old dashboard Find out what it was for Two years of decisions are usually behind it
Understand the fence before removing it.

Know what a fence is built for before you tear it down. When I go into a client's CRM and they've got an existing sales dashboard, I shouldn't just delete it because I think it's useless. I need to at least at a high level understand why that team came up with that so that I don't necessarily tear down something that was a product of two years of feedback and research amongst a team of people who blooded, sweated and toiled for the organisation.

Avoid irreversible decisions

TWO KINDS OF DOOR revolving — walk back through one-way — no handle on the far side Check which door you are walking through Burning it sets every future probability to zero
Reversible and irreversible are different decisions.

Don't burn a relationship with someone as they may prove helpful and an ally in the future such as my prior affiliate partner. Even though he's been very lazy in paying me, there may have been extenuating circumstances from his end and who knows what will happen in the future? If I did burn the relationship then there is now a zero probability of any positive interaction between us in the future. So I've decided to keep it alive in a civil, economical manner.

Seeing the real situation

The map is not the territory

THE MAP MONTHLY DASHBOARD Sales calls − 5% Revenue down Proposals out flat Close rate flat the easy reading: “the sales team is slacking” THE TERRITORY Nobody feels valued and nobody has said so Quiet fear about job security A good rep left back in March Two leads never got called back None of it is on the dashboard. All of it is the actual cause.
What the dashboard cannot show.

The map is not the territory. For e.g. my monthly business dashboard analytics is a representation of how my business is going, but not my business itself. Keep that in mind, because sometimes, when analysing things, don't keep the map as gospel, as there are things happening in the ground that are critical and not represented on the map. For example, a CEO can get direct reports from his immediate subordinates about how sales calls entered by his organisation are down 5% for the quarter and revenues are relatively down. Instead of interpreting that to be a simplistic reflection the sales team is slacking, the CEO doing a territory analysis and talking to his people can help identify a more critical culture issue of his employees not feeling valued and not having a sense of job security.

"Show me the incentives. I'll show you the outcome" — Charlie Munger

CHARLIE MUNGER What you say What you pay What people actually do
Behaviour follows the incentive, not the instruction.

This is quite apparent in leading teams and organisations, as I found out working with 1 affiliate partner of mine. The CTO's interactions with me in a recent call were condescending coupled with the fact that I hadn't been paid in 1.5 months, is just disincentivising me to work hard for them. The only reason I'm continuing with the quality of work I am is because of the professional integrity I hold.

Premortems

START AT THE DISASTER AND WALK BACKWARDS A client's API keys get leaked the outcome I refuse How it would happen Pasted into a shared doc What removes it One store, 1Password How it would happen Left in a screen recording What removes it Redact before publishing How it would happen Still live after a handover What removes it Rotate on the day, every time Said out loud, before anything has gone wrong
Failure modes traced back to their fixes.

Articulate out loud the potential undesired outcomes of a situation, map out the associated failure modes and rectify it. For e.g. in my business an undesirable situation is if my client's sensitive details such as API keys are leaked. Reflect back as to how this would happen? And a solution to mitigate that is to rotate API keys, be comfortable knowing how to rotate them on short notice, and also use a secure password storage tool such as 1Password Manager.

Planning honestly

Projects often take longer than expected

PLANNED AGAINST ACTUAL The plan BEST CASE The plan friction · constraints · the extra work WHAT HAPPENS never in the estimate Planning prices the best case The best case is not the average case
The estimate excludes the friction.

Planning accounts for the best-case scenario. Often, there are friction points, time constraints, and also additional ancillary work that pushes out this timeline.

No plan survives first contact

FIRST CONTACT the plan contact the best man falls ill · the bar shuts they take a better offer Plan anyway, then plan for the break Redundancies and actions on, then try your best
Plan, then build in the redundancy.

I never really know anything. Even if I plan things out meticulously my plan is not going to survive fully intact upon the first enemy contact. The universe consists of millions of variables that are practically impossible to all account and to control. If you plan a nice wedding, maybe your best man gets an intense illness that requires medical attention, and he can't attend it. If you plan the ideal birthday at a beautiful rooftop bar, what if the bar closes down a week before because of insolvency. What if you're about to close a business deal with a partner, and suddenly they get a better offer elsewhere and they back out of it. All you can do is have redundancies and actions on in place, and then try your best.

Part 3

How to do the work

Just do the thing instead of planning how to do the thing

THE SAME TEN MINUTES Deciding how 10 minutes still not started Doing it 10 minutes done Ten minutes either way Deciding how took as long as the task itself would have
Ten minutes, two outcomes.

Rather than thinking about how I'm going to do something which can take 10 minutes, just do the thing and it is often done in 10 minutes. An example of this is as I'm writing this journal entry I'm strategising how it'd be nice to go to a cafe and do this reflection amidst a nice environment. I only have 4 hours of work time available until I have some commitments with friends. The best move, which I actually decided upon, is to sit down where I am and get all the work done instead of going to a cafe. In the end, I was way more productive in the work I did as opposed to if I went out and spent half my time available searching for a good spot.

Akrasia

SELF-CONTROL, COMPOUNDING kept broken how much you believe yourself next time Be the person you say you are Each kept promise makes the next one easier
Follow-through compounds.

A Greek term referring to self-control. Be the person you say you are. The more you follow through with things you say you are going to do, the more you believe in yourself and the more you respect yourself.

Ulysses constraint

TWO VERSIONS OF YOU, AND ONLY ONE GETS A VOTE Clear-headed you decides once, in advance this morning sets a constraint The constraint phone in another room no negotiation Tempted you arrives at 9pm with an excuse and has no vote THREE WAYS TO MAKE ONE STICK 1 A contract with yourself no morning routine, no leaving the house 2 Public accountability $10k USD a month, declared on YouTube 3 Financial stakes 20 sales calls, or $100 to a cause I hate
The decision is made before the temptation.

When you're in moments of higher, deeper clarity, make a decision that confines you to the outcome you want when you are tempted at a later time. For example, putting your phone in another room constrains you to the task at hand. Rules can also work as an Ulysses constraint if discipline is exercised in adhering to them. For example, personally the constraint I keep is I am not going to leave the home without doing my morning routine. Great ways to make yourself stick to an Ulysses constraint are to:

  • Make a contract with yourself
  • Set public accountability. I declare on YouTube my goal to hit 10k USD revenue per month by the end of the year.
  • Financial stakes. If I don't hit 20 sales calls this month with new leads I am going to donate $100 to a cause I hate (e.g. gambling). The more painful, the better.

A behaviour that I keep getting tempted to, which would benefit from an Ulysses constraint is responding to non-urgent messages straight away.

Consistency

FOUR YEARS OF SHOWING UP, DRAWN HONESTLY 75% of the time the level I have historically run at 96% of the time the level I have not yet run the gap Every missing square is a day that was available and not used. University, the military, the gym — I have never yet run the right-hand panel.
75% and 96% are different games.

I have never been relentlessly consistent in my life in a long time. In the main blocks of my life, such as university, the military, and working out, I have been pretty good at showing up 75% of the time and doing what I need to do to embrace the learnings of that particular stage in my life. But I don't think I've ever demonstrated a maniacal level of focus, such as Michael Phelps showing up every day for a 4-year stretch and never missing a single workout in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I really do think that a maniacal, relentless 90-100% level of showing up really would unearth greater parts of myself and also proportionately greater results. I think from a personal contentment point of view: it'd be cool to do that.

Do not do the same thing twice

DO IT ONCE No record recheck it every time Written down straight from the note Half the time on a routine update Your future self should never have to rebuild the answer
Recording it once removes the rework.

This is most relevant for me because when I answer clients, I often recheck the work that I did before to confirm the information I conveyed to them is accurate. This translates to all other areas of my life and it's just a huge time sink. A way this can be made better is to just do the initial milestone of work with confidence and record all information so that your future self does not redo that work. This way I become so much more economical and spend 50% less time on a routine update check with them.

Business is about being effective rather than always having a good time

TWO WAYS TO SPEND THE AFTERNOON 50% jokes, good company 90% the other room 90% alone beats 50% in company Same hours in the chair, different output
Effectiveness against company.

Yes, enjoy the things you do, but often, if your productivity is at 50% when you're working in a cubicle with friends and cracking jokes, maybe sometimes it's better to remove yourself to another room and work at 90% effectiveness. It would make the breaks that you do have with your colleagues and mates much sweeter.

Part 4

Designing the environment

Deliberate Environment Design

DESIGN IT ONCE, THEN STOP DECIDING Wardrobe Strip 80%, then segment what is left Workout Casual Smart casual Work Workstations Two rooms and a travel kit Bedroom Dining table Travelling Day bag The refresher kit, always packed Deodorant Cologne Sunscreen Moisturiser Make yourself want the things that match the future you want.
Three areas, designed once.

Perform deliberate environment design to make yourself want the things that are aligned with the future you crave. For me, the deliberate design areas are my wardrobe, workstations, and day bag.

My wardrobe

EIGHTY PER CENT UNWORN three in fifteen earn their space workout · casual · smart casual · work Strip it, then segment what is left One to three hours, and the decision fatigue goes with it
80% unworn, still costing decisions.

I currently have an incredible amount of clothes and I've not used 80% of them. It's cluttering my "garage" and also "workbench", and increases my decision fatigue. And in a practical sense, it occupies space in the meagre amount of space I have in the apartment with my partner. I need to commit 1 to 3 hours of my time to sit down, identify the things I don't want or don't use (as a yardstick, anything that I haven't used in the last 6 months), and commit that to charity or discard it. Thereafter I'm going to segment it so that:

  • My workout clothes are easily accessible.
  • My casual clothes are easily accessible.
  • My smarter casual, dressier clothes are easily accessible.
  • My work attire is easily accessible.

This extends from fabric clothing to shoes. I also have my buckets of stationery, bags, and all sorts of books that I need to sort out in those two locations that are adjacent to my wardrobe. Let's strip out 80% of that stuff for mental clarity, ease, and efficiency. I also want to set up a refresher toolkit which contains all my hygiene stuff, such as:

  • Deodorant roll-on
  • Cologne
  • Vaseline
  • Sunscreen
  • Moisturiser
  • Hand sanitiser

I want to carry this refresher tool in my day bag.

Work stations

WHERE THE WORK ACTUALLY HAPPENS best Bedroom Locked in. One focus area: the laptop. guarded Dining table More variables dancing around me. Face the wall Back to the room Do not get up portable Travelling The kit that makes anywhere workable. Laptop Stand Mouse + pad Keyboard The one rule that protects all three I do not get up from the seat until a decided time — because that is what breaks the momentum.
Three setups, one rule.

I have two main workstations and a third portable workstation when I am travelling. When I'm in my apartment it's our bedroom, which is nice because it's locked in, and I only have one focus area, which is my laptop.

The other secondary one is the dining room table, which is slightly more open to distractions (I move here when my partner is sleeping in the bedroom), as I have more variables that are dancing and moving around me. From a practical standpoint, having cats, my partner, and my current apartment setup, I cannot feasibly, nor do I want to lock myself in a cupboard and do work. I'm thinking a good strategy when working at the dining table is to face the wall and have my back to the rest of the dancing distractions to help me lock in more. Also, a thing that happens is that my partner when she wakes up spontaneously, wants food and all of that stuff. I am not going to get up from my seat until a decided time, even if she compels me to, because that just screws up my momentum. So I can have a bit of the snacks she feeds my way, but sticking to my timings will help me get the momentum of work I want done. Productising my day as a business owner is something I got to improve on.

The third workstation is when I'm travelling, and that breaks down into my:

  • Laptop
  • Laptop stand
  • Mouse pad
  • Mouse
  • Keyboard

Food

WHAT IS IN THE HOUSE GETS EATEN tuna · bread · cheese, then yoghurt · nuts · coconut · fruit The staples decide most of it Already the one area I design well
Availability decides intake.

I am already doing deliberate environment design well with food. My partner eats a fair bit of junk food, and not necessarily because it exists in the house, but she goes out and buys it. I guess, by virtue of that, she eats less now than she would have otherwise because it's not readily available at home. I have a good staple of tuna cans, bread, and cheese that I resort to (my go to do staples). I just want to expand that to a few other foods, such as yoghurt, nuts, and coconut-based products, along with certain veggies and fruits that are always available at home.

Productising my day

6:00 AM TO 7:45 AM, AS A PRODUCT Wake up autopilot 6:00 Ablutions autopilot 6:10 Brush teeth autopilot 6:25 Meditate autopilot 6:35 Outreach about an hour 6:50 four steps that need no willpower done by 7:45 The fifth step is the whole business, and the only one the world can encroach on. Phone calls, friends, family — this is the hour that needs defending.
Four autopilot steps, one that needs defending.

My morning routine now consists of:

  • Wake up
  • Ablutions
  • Brush teeth
  • Meditate
  • Outreach

The first 4 items I can do readily on autopilot, and the 5th item, which is about 1 hour of outreach, usually is the one that's a bit harder to complete because it takes a fair bit of time and the world can encroach a little bit on that through phone calls, friends, and family coming in.

But if I can wake up at 6 am each day, I can knock out all of this by 7:45 am, which is helpful. In this 2026 period, when there are only a few weeks left of the year and I'm trying to grow my business past the point of critical expansion, I will lose this opportunity forever if I don't dial in.

Part 5

Health optimisations

Sleep

WHAT THE WEEK IS ACTUALLY MADE OF Day job 40 hrs Business 30 hrs Sleep 42 hrs · 6 a night Sleep is the variable the other two are currently borrowing from. 6 hrs 7 hrs 9 hrs what Nick recommends where I am 11:30pm stop · midnight bed · 6am up WHY TRACKING IT CHANGES IT Track Notice Care Improve outreach · money in · sales calls
Where the week's hours actually go.

Currently, this variable is the one that gives way to maintaining and achieving the outcomes I have set up to complete for the day. This is because I work a 40-hour day job and commit about 20-40 hours to my business a week in addition to that. As I become more efficient, I see the 40-hour day job maintaining, but me achieving a higher business output with fewer hours worked. Nick recommends sleeping 7-9 hours a day and from my anecdotal experience, I do feel more refreshed, clear-headed, and able to make clear decisions when that's the case. A middle ground in my current case is to aim for 6 hours of sleep. This can be achieved by me retiring from work at 11:30 pm and going to bed by midnight, followed by waking at 6 am the next day. I know life is such that you should be able to operate in a variety of conditions, and you're not always going to have everything at a peak state. Saying that though, when I can impact my days through deliberate design, I think it's only best I do. I'm considering getting a Whoop watch or something else to track my health parameters as well.

I do notice the pathway and logic of when you track something, you observe it, care about it and discern improvements, and you're more dialled in on improving that aspect. This is most evident in my business, where I'm tracking stats for the month:

  • How much outreach I do
  • How much money I earn
  • How many sales calls I have

This is an indicator of my success and the path I can dial down and get better at.

Prior to this I was not doing that, and even though I engaged in my business with the same level of dedication, I wasn't moving the needle as sharply as through the strategic identification of areas for adjustment, and adjusting accordingly.

Get my blood work done every 6 months

TWICE A YEAR numbers, not moods A deficiency becomes a number Then the lifestyle change is obvious rather than guessed
Twice a year, measured rather than guessed.

This will help me identify deficiencies and appropriately update my lifestyle to iron them out.

Creatine

ON THE LIST, BEHIND SLEEP 3–5 g a day 1 · Fix sleep first 2 · Then try this Not yet tried Worth doing, but not the bottleneck
3–5 g daily, after sleep is fixed.

Nick recommends to use 3-5 g of creatine per day for improved mental clarity. I have not yet tried this and may seek to do so in the near future. It is not as much of a priority as improving sleep.

Part 6

Staying honest long term

Balance

TWO THINGS THAT ARE BOTH TRUE Structure gets the inputs done builds the momentum Serendipity camping, a mate's wedding teaches what you did not know “On my deathbed, would I be grateful for the extra six hours, or glad I went to the wedding?” It settles the argument every time.
Structure against serendipity.

Balance the structure with fluidity, flexibility and serendipity of life.

It's easy when running a business and living a life in the Western world, to stick to a strict schedule. Sticking to a disciplined structure helps you complete all the inputs you need to and generate the momentum of work required to achieve the results you're after. However, saying that, I think having structured times to let your mind wander off and have experiences is important. Whether that is camping overnight with some friends in the bush which takes me away from my laptop for 2 days, or whether it's attending a mate's wedding overseas, these are all important things in life. Boredom, serendipity, teach you things you didn't know. A frame I often use is: "In my deathbed when I inspire my last breath, would I be grateful for the extra 6-hour block of work I did at the expense of a close mate's wedding, or would I be glad I attended that mate's wedding". In this reflection I'd be happy with the latter choice.

Complacency

THIRTY, AND COMFORTABLE easing off Strenuous exertion in an authentic pursuit Thirty, with the early wins already banked The risk is treating the current level as the ceiling.
Comfort at thirty is the risk.

There's a mental complacency that comes over me as I'm 30 years old now, and I've achieved some level of economic, academic success, and career success as a systems engineer. Especially when I see those around me that are also at this age and more inclined to take the foot off the pedal and enjoy married family life, it imbues that standard onto me as well. I think enjoying the simple everyday things of life is cool, and there's also a part of me that strongly believes strenuous exertion in an authentic pursuit is the only way to unearth the truest parts of yourself. And it is this last part that I really want to remain cognisant of because that's a part of my true nature.

How to Use AI

SAME QUESTION, TWO PROMPTS “Is this a good plan?” “Yes — great thinking.” agrees with you, and you learn nothing “Assume I am wrong. Push holes in my logic.” Three things that break it and now you have something to fix It will agree with you all day. That is exactly the problem. Never take the answer as gospel — make it argue against you first.
Two prompts, two different answers.

Consistently ask, "What is wrong with my plan or idea?" AI is really good at agreeing with you and hence you can't just blindly follow what it says as gospel. So whenever I use it, I consistently ask it to "assume I'm wrong and push holes in my logic."