Doing vs thinking

May 10, 2023

Doing > thinking #

I mastered the art of founding companies in my head. I have ideas, come up with features, see the potential for expansions, and envision a future in which the company has thousands of employees, all before working a single minute. This process can go on for days, and some unrealised ideas spook around my head for years.

While I have an above-average backlog of ideas in my optimised Obsidian setup that is part of my perfect productivity environment, I fail to show any output. The ratio of ideas to progress is embarrassing.

If I’d never taken a single note but just worked on one project, I’d be much closer to my goals.

Realising this took me a long time, but it was an eye-opener. My thoughts and their organisation are a form of procrastination. I just spent months perfecting my digital setup, going back and forth between solutions to be more productive. But does this help?

Should I just delete everything and only use Apple Notes for some daily things?

While the idea of a minimal approach to productivity still tempts me, I think it would be a mistake to delete all the thoughts I deemed my most valuable possession. I finally have a setup that, while being more complex than Apple Notes, is not in my way and allows me to focus on a single project at a time.

In the end, it is not about the digital setup I use, the way I write down my notes, or the number of ideas in my backlog, but solely about my output, i.e. the hours I spend working on projects every day.

For now, I’ll focus on working. In the future, I might explore the idea of minimal productivity further.