The Old Familiar Brew
There’s something deeply human about seeking comfort in routine. Like the familiar weight of a coffee mug in your hands each morning, our daily habits can wrap around us like a well-worn blanket. I know this intimately—I’m a creature of habit who finds solace in the predictable rhythm of my days. But the thing about comfort zones is that they can slowly transform from sanctuaries into cages. That’s exactly what happened with my technology.
I can still remember the anticipation of software season in my early twenties. Each update felt like unwrapping a gift, promising new ways to streamline my work and bring a spark of innovation to the mundane. Calendar apps weren’t just tools—they were gateways to a more organized future. To-do lists weren’t mere checkboxes, but the building blocks of my ambitions. Even the simple act of jotting down notes held a kind of magic, each idea captured feeling like a seed planted in digital soil.
But somewhere along the way, I found the garden walls. My calendar sat largely untouched, my reminders fell silent, and those notes apps that once promised to capture lightning in a bottle became empty digital notebooks. The old brew had gone stale.
Searching for a New Method
As those apps sat unused, I felt my organization and productivity slip away. It’s the kind of thing that creeps up on you until it’s suddenly overwhelming; that feeling of drowning in forgotten tasks, moving through your day with the nagging fear that you’ve missed a meeting or forgotten a promise. That feeling had to change.
So, I went to the one place that seems to have all the answers: YouTube. I started looking around and found a couple of productivity channels, specifically Ali Abdaal talking about the Second Brain Method created by Tiago Forte. My brain went into hyperfocus mode. I dove straight down the rabbit hole, learning everything I could about building a “second brain” using the PARA method.
This left me excited, but with a critical question: how was I going to keep track of it all? I know myself, and scattering my new system across multiple apps was not an option. I needed a one-stop shop, a single place to hold my thoughts, notes, projects, and lists. The stock apps on my devices had become white noise. I needed something new, something that could be the digital equivalent of my pour-over station. Through all my watching and reading, one option kept popping up: Notion.
From the Grounds Up
Okay, so I had my method plotted out and my tool selected. I was going to give Notion a try. But, boy, Notion has a ton of features. It was overwhelming at first, so it was back to the YouTube rabbit hole for me. Thankfully, there are amazing, Notion-focused creators out there with fantastic templates to get you started.
As I sat at my desk, typing and clicking away while setting up my PARA board, I felt it. That spark. The same excitement and enjoyment in technology that I used to feel every time I got a new device. I immediately downloaded the Notion mobile and calendar apps. There it was: my one-stop shop for meeting notes, long-form writing, project ideas, to-do lists, and my schedule.
I fell in love with the process. I found so much joy in tinkering, customizing, and creating within Notion. I started reaching for it to take notes in meetings and found myself opening it anytime a small idea or task came to mind. It was happening. This was the first pour, the one that starts the bloom.
Written by Sky Jackson. New posts land in the RSS feed, and there's more about me over here.