Most stories follow a typical arc: beginning –> middle –> end. But my favorite movie from the Predator franchise took a different approach. The opening scene of Predators (2010) sees the mercenary Royce deploying a parachute and crash landing into a jungle after waking up in the middle of a freefall from the sky. Just like Royce, the viewer is thrown right in the middle of the story with a bunch of questions: Where is he? Why was he falling from the sky? And how is he going to find his way...
9 days ago • 2 min read
One of the best habits I've developed is to extract quotes from my reading sessions and write them in my pocket notebook. Before this habit, I would consume information passively and none of it would stick. The pocket notebook enabled me to capture the ideas that resonated with me and created an alternative in my pocket to reach for in times of boredom. I started to reflect on these nuggets of wisdom in place of impulsively checking my email and eventually found myself memorizing passages by...
16 days ago • 2 min read
Recently a commentor on a video of mine said, "journaling in a notebook is a more charming experience" than using an app like DayOne or a Google doc. I had never really considered the value of charm in the context of writing but the more I thought about it, the more I started to think this commentor was pointing at something largely missed in our modern culture. Growing up as an older brother in an all female household I'm used to hearing the phrase, "That's so cute!" when something caught my...
23 days ago • 3 min read
Seven years ago, while writing Digital Minimalism, computer scientist and author Cal Newport proposed a challenge to his newsletter subscribers: 30-days without a smartphone. 1600 subscribers agreed to take on the challenge. After surveying the participants, Newport saw a few patterns emerge. The participants who tried to whiteknuckle the challenge through sheer willpower almost all failed to make it through the full 30 days. Most participants used their smartphone as a source of...
30 days ago • 2 min read
[This email was originally sent Tuesday, Jan 6th but a link was mistakenly flagged as spam causing it to land in most people's junk inbox. Sorry for the inconvenience.] In June of 2023 I was bored. It had been two months since I quit drinking and I was restless. What do sober people do for fun? I couldn't remember. I tried hiking on the weekends with friends to reclaim that sense of adventure I was missing. During these hikes I would take photos with my phone and eventually had the idea to...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
In June of 2023 I was bored. It had been two months since I quit drinking and I was restless. What do sober people do for fun? I couldn't remember. I tried hiking on the weekends with friends to reclaim that sense of adventure I was missing. During these hikes I would take photos with my phone and eventually had the idea to buy a digital camera to document these excursions. I acted on impulse and bought a brand new camera that I had no clue how to use. I decided the best way to figure out...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Consistency. That was the only word on my mind when I published my first newsletter two new years ago. I was only three months into my writing journey with no real clue about what I was doing. But one fact was obvious to me: If this was going to go anywhere I needed to build a consistent practice. The best way I knew to do that was to set deadlines and be held accountable for showing up. So I set the one-word theme of 2024 as consistency and committed myself to publishing a newsletter every...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
[If you missed part 1 of the newsletter you can read it here.] 6) The Reading Journal I read every day. It's a core daily habit that fuels my brain with the nutrients it needs to focus, learn, and create. To get the most out of reading I keep a reading journal. The simplest version of a reading journal acts as a log where you record time spent reading and pages read. You take the number of pages in a book and divide it by the time frame you want to read it in to get a measurable daily reading...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
The most powerful tool I used daily in 2025 was the pocket notebook. These phone-sized notebooks kept me from wasting my days staring at a screen while giving me the power to write a better future at any moment. Today, and next week I'm sharing every pocket notebook system I used in 2025 to hopefully spark some ideas for you to experiment with in 2026. I'm splitting this newsleter into two parts to save you from a wall of text so be sure to check back in next week to read about the final five...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read