In April of 2024 I was obsessed with the idea of gamifying my life.

I thought that if I could just hack my psycology with the right tactics I would gain access to an infinite well of motivation.

I went so far as to spend over one-hundred hours building a custom Notion dashboard that rewarded me experience points and rewards based on task completed and goals achieved.

While It was extremely good at getting me to complete minor and insignificant tasks, it wasn't very effective at reclaiming my time.

In fact, the system I designed gobbled more and more of my free time due to constant updates, bug fixes, pointless add-ons, and an insatiable desire for more optimizations.

I had successully gamified my life but had made myself more miserable and less productive in the process.

Around this time a friend of mine convinced me to play Dungeons & Dragons for the first time.

D&D is the game that inspired the entire role-playing video game genre in the 80's that led to major titles like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest that still exist today. I was shocked to discover that this tabletop game was even more complex than most of those digital games that followed.

But most suprising was that even in 2024, as AI and photorealistic graphics had taken over the world, this fully analog game was still a blast to play.

It got me thinking, "If D&D could work so well analog then why couldn't a personal knowledge system?"

As I pondered that question, I came across a Cal Newport podcast where he was extolling the benefits of using a single-purpose notebook for productivity and focus.

Hearing that podcast was the moment I decided to buy my first pocket notebook and it completely changed my life.

The biggest benefit of the pocket notebook is its portability and adaptability. I could easily bring it with me everywhere. I started carrying it with me at work, on dog walks, to outings with friends, and next to me on my nightstand while I slept.

I used it, and still do, for everything– journaling, notes, content ideas, tracking habits, collecting quotes, recording observations, writing haikus, and drawing sketches.

With each new use case for my pocket notebook, my screen time went down. I was feeling more creative and wasting less time on dumb things that didn't matter.

Seeing the pages of my tiny notebook fill with ideas was more satisfying than any productivity app or gamification system could ever hope to be.

In hindsight it seems silly to have been this dorky about productivity, but I'm grateful that obsession eventually led me to find what really matters when building systems for success.

I didn't need to hack my psychology with gamification tactics to get motivated.

I just needed a place where I could escape distractions and let my mind run free with ideas.

Prompt:

How did you start journaling? What was the moment that made you decide to try it out?