From My Ideals Journal to Productivity Reset

Since 5th grade, I’ve carried a notebook I called my Ideals Journal. It was my personal place to write down ideas, thoughts, and sparks of inspiration. Over the years, I filled four of these notebooks. But the last one is barely touched.

Why? Because I’ve had fewer raw “big ideas” recently, and because I’ve been trying to go digital. The problem is, I haven’t figured out a smooth way to bring my drawings and handwritten notes into a digital note-taking app. I’ve tried in the past, but I never knew what I was doing, and I gave up.

Core Principles

1. Never Search For Anything

• Every app has a home.
• I keep at least three essentials open at all times:
  1. Terminal → to destroy and rebuild my system as needed.
  2. Web Browser → to consume, test, and overload my memory.
  3. Notes App → to capture thoughts, configs, and system insights.
• These live in workspaces 1–3 in Hyprland. No digging. No hunting. Always there.

Philosophy: If it’s important, it already has a place. I’m not “finding” — I’m jumping.

The definition of productivity (such as time, labor, or materials) is to produce a desired outcome, output, or result. But why do I say it’s snake oil?

It’s unmeasured and undefined. What most people call productivity is really just busywork. We measure it in quantity before quality—and there’s a big difference.

There’s a quote: “Bite off more than you can chew.” That’s what people are doing in the pursuit of productivity. So we end up turning in half-hearted work, which we sometimes have to redo, just to say we got more done. It’s not attainable—there’s always more to do. So we rush, repeat, and burn out.

I have a smart home for a few reasons, but they mainly come down to creativity and being hands-off.

To be honest, I don’t see someone owning an Alexa or another smart speaker as truly having a smart home—that’s just a fancy light switch. And apps aren’t the full answer either.

Being Creative

• I enjoy building cool automation, like having my lights change to random colors or using a web-hook from my notes app to start my kettle.
• It’s fun for me as a consumer to buy interesting gadgets that give me new possibilities for automation.

Being Hands-Off

• Improving efficiency so the human element doesn’t forget: for example, my AC automatically switches from 64°F at night to 72°F when I open the door in the morning.
• Eliminating unnecessary context switching—I don’t have to stop what I’m doing to handle small tasks.
• Improving family living by having lights turn on automatically so people can see where they’re going and avoid touching light switches, which also reduces germ spread.

Conclusion

Do I need a smart home? No—plenty of people live without one.
But as a nerd who values productivity and the ease of walking into a room without doing anything, I’m a power user. I self-host my own system with Home Assistant, which makes my setup both hands-off in daily use and hands-on when it comes to building and maintaining it.