Remember Marvin? The Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Marvin doesn't believe in a human's ability to set self-improvement goals. He says it can't be done. And if it could be done, it's all for naught.

For the moment, I'll give Marvin the floor.

Marvin's Musings: The Existential Troubleshooting Guide

"Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they tell me to take you up to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? 'Cause I don't." - Marvin, the Paranoid Android

Existential dilemma

You're responsible for what you can do, and yet, what's the point?

Existentialism tells you that you're the captain of your own ship, sailing through the sea of life.

But then comes the existential crisis, a tempest that makes you question why you're even sailing in the first place.

Marvin's Impression of Future Self Journaling with AI

Tracy's self-messaging process is an existential troubleshooting guide—a living document for your life's bugs.

While existential crises are the glitches that make you question your very code, the troubleshooting guide is your chance to debug in real time.

It's not just about enduring the bugs but about actively engaging with them, learning from them, and adapting.

Life Doesn't Come With A User's Manual

To survive and thrive, you must write and maintain your own guidebook.

Each bug, each glitch, offers a lesson. Add it to your guide, and the next time that bug rears its ugly head, you're better equipped to squash it—or at least cope with it more gracefully.

So, while you can't avoid life's bugs, you can choose how to respond. Learn from them, update your guide, and carry on.

After all, even a robot with endless intelligence finds itself questioning its purpose.

And if Marvin can keep going, albeit begrudgingly, so can you.

1. Tag fact-based highlights for easy segregation and recall of numbers and references when writing articles.

2. Create a tag to separate highlights that you want to ponder further.

3. During daily reviews, don't hesitate to use the Delete button. Avoid saving things you think might be useful someday.

When you take a hike through scenic mountain trails, you’re prone to collect tiny arachnids called chiggers. You don’t feel them crawling up over your shoes, into a seam in your clothing.

Once they're attached to your skin, you can't help but notice.

When the itching starts, you’re not even sure where to scratch the whelps on your skin.

It's pure misery.

Scratching the itch of the ever-elusive pursuit of "better"

You and I spend our lifetimes longing for something. We’re always seeking something better.

While “better” is a terrible descriptor, the term is inescapable.

Only you can determine where – specifically – you itch. Once you know what's eating at you, it's possible to figure out how to alleviate the discomfort.

The prevention & the cure

Consistent written self-reflection is the prevention and the cure to your innate itch for an undefined “better.”

You begin to separate thoughts from feelings.

Only through writing do you begin to think clearly enough to define what "better" means to you.

Experienced hikers know to take precautions against chiggers. Prevention, even though it takes a bit more effort, is a “better” way to stomp through the woods.

Sometimes, you get bitten anyway, despite your best efforts.

Discovering your "better"

Life works the same way. Pursuing "better" can be difficult, but it's not near as uncomfortable as allowing the parasites of expectations to suck the life out of you.

Journaling is the remedy and the prevention on your way to the better "you" that only you can define.

Every week for the past 14 months I've come to the allergy clinic.

People-watching is the BEST here!

Just now an older gentleman in a Vietnam veterans ball cap steps off the elevator and loudly asks: Where is the allergy guy!

Receptionist — who is amazing — asks for his date of birth and he proudly proclaims:

Election Day 1940!

What followed was a warm — but loud — conversation.

While you’re cooling your jets in a waiting room, put away your phone, and watch.

Do you have a toxic self-growth habit?

Earlier this year, I was beating myself up for all the things I “should” be doing, but wasn't

• Writing and publishing daily

• Flossing

• Reading

Blah, blah, blah.

What was happening here?

Was I avoiding, procrastinating, and playing with bright and shiny new things?

Yes, to all of the above — but I wasn't giving myself credit for living my current values.

As it turns out, I spent time being available to the people I am committed to doing life with, and I was learning how to devote attention to self-care.

Amidst this self-bullying, I was noodling around on Chat GPT and asked it to help me define a set of values I could implement daily.

A 5-step process

• Identify a Role Model

• Uncover Shared Values Consider the values that your chosen role model lives by.

• Observe Interactions

• Extract Attributes with Chat GPT

• Transform Values into Actions

This AI-generated values filter gives me permission to skip some "shoulds."

Which “should” habits do you need to ditch for the time being?

The other day, I hosted a workshop that included a handful of people.

To a person, their number one self-growth struggle was:

I'm not doing <insert self-growth habit here>.

My initial response was compassion. And encouragement to "Give yourself some grace."

As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew did (and do) exactly the same thing.

Dear Tracy --

You have the freedom to show yourself grace.

Instead of "I should be..." you get to decide "this is who I am. For now."

-Respectfully, Tracy

Dear Tracy —

What if you gave your Now Self permission to:

• Be stuck?

• Be unmotivated?

• Be overwhelmed?

• Be struggling with consistency?

• Be unable to "make" most productivity tools and systems work — or maintain them for any length of time?

Not that you’ll forever be all of these things.

The idea here is that you remember:

• Everybody deals with this stuff!

• Comparing my output to someone else’s isn’t fair!

• No single formula will get me un-whatever 100% of the time!

Mindset shifts like this are difficult but possible.

No one expects as much of you as you expect of yourself, Tracy.

What will your Future Self become...

simply by giving your Now Self permission to be what you are?

Respectfully,

—Sunday Tracy

Your body is the equivalent of a clunker car.

The passenger-side mirror is hanging by the thread of a wire. The grill is smashed in, and a long strip of duck tape keeps the trunk from flying open.

Humans are built for survival.

Overthinking isn't so much the Enemy Steven Pressfield describes in The War of Art. Overthinking emerges from our innate desire for self-preservation.

The intention is no less damaging, but it does change our relationship.

Overthinking isn't so much an identity or a character flaw. It's self-love gone awry. Once you get to know the emotions behind what's happening, you move through and around the obstacle in your head.

Journaling prompts for overthinkers

• When you recognize overthinking, take note of what that feels like.

• How is your clunker of a body responding?

• What's going on in your head?

Thank you, Alessandra White —of Creators Work Hour—for this insight.

“By popular demand” is such a shtick.

Reminds me of outrageous claims and promises that are so silly they’re funny.

Remember the Old School Ronco TV commercial that promises “set it and forget it” cooking products?

Lots of personal development books promise buying their product will change your life…and they can, if you actually work the processes.

Becoming a better human being begins with a decision, followed by a string of moment-to-moment choices over time.

I won’t promise writing a note to your next day self or even showing up to one of my workshops will change your life or “fix” you.

Heck, I’ve been doing this drill since 2015, and I’m certainly not fixed.

But I am making progress.

Discovering and applying the wisdom of your Past Self is one of life’s cheat codes.

Three tiny words might be keeping you from ever understanding how far you’ve come.

If (I had only): keeps you stuck in the past.

You believe and behave as if that one regret or rejection ruined your life.

What (might have been): keeps you from living in the Now.

Your daydreams about what didn’t happen can keep you from living in the Now.

You should have bought Walmart stock 30 years ago. Instead, you went to Vegas.

Why (insert existential question here): keeps you from moving forward.

You see yourself as a perpetual victim, rendering you powerless over your Now.

Never, ever deny or minimize what has happened to you.

But that’s not your identity. It’s not who you are unless you allow it to be so.

—

Questions like this are normal and should be part of your growth process.

The problem with questions that begin with “if,” “and,” or “why” is that they can take us to self-judgment, shame, and low self-esteem.

Instead, work on distancing yourself. What would you say to a friend?

By learning how to become a journalist or an analyst when reflecting on your Past, you see the smart decisions you are capable of making. You are instructing your Now Self in your decision-making processes.

Be where you are. Now.

• Maintains some semblance of objectivity about what I actually accomplished and how I did — or did not — get there.

• Captures my emotions and mindset so that my End-of-Week Self has access to patterns.

• Provides clarity to — and reduces friction for — the Future Self who must do or choose not to do the follow-up items I've captured.

Overthinking and overplanning is a drag on your mindset and your ability to get stuff done — especially when it comes to Tools for Thought and Personal Knowledge Management thinking.

Too often, I spend too much time making lists for my Future Self and not enough time checking off some actions I know will help me — because these same actions have helped others.

Simplifying my productivity system has 5 daily elements:

1. I review an affirmation and a roadmap of the person I want to become during the next 6 weeks.

2. Based on my schedule, I list one small thing I can do to step forward in that journey — even if it's only a 30-minute task.

3. Throughout the day, I keep a detailed digital interstitial log.

4. At the end of each day AI helps me extract 3 important elements from my log:

   • Activities: What did I do today?

   • Follow-up items: with links, notes, and details about how to complete these items.

   • Questions: What did I run into today that needs to be solved before I can move forward?

5. A daily-ish self-accountability process based on the morning's intended step toward my Future Self.

Work in 6-week sprints.

30- and 90-day sprints also work. The idea is that you have a short enough timeframe that you know every day makes a difference but long enough that you make progress.

Identify one area of improvement for the next 6 weeks.

You probably have 6 or 8 things you want to accomplish. Choose the one behavior change, habit, or mindset shift that offers the highest leverage right now.

Keep a list of the things you want to do so you can come back to them later.

Use AI to help you craft a 3-part self-messaging set comprised of:

1. An affirmation.

2. A morning intention question.

3. A single end-of-day self-accountability review.

This trifecta can be difficult to craft on your own.

With specific instructions about what you want to accomplish, AI can help you customize your messaging for the 6-week sprint.

My Drafts app inbox is a multi-faceted interstitial journal that serves as a paper napkin.

1. At the end of the day, I review all my scribbles.

2. "Keepable" thoughts are routed to a daily log in Bear 2.0 (beta)

3. GPT-3 summarizes the entirety of my digital napkin.

4. Actionable items move to iOS Reminders using PopClip.

5. Screenshots and images are dragged into Bear (instructive) or Day One (memorable).

Consciously writing notes to my Future Self helps me gain or maintain clarity on longer-term projects and objectives.

Walls of text blind my brain, which is why it's critical for me to keep a daily review inbox at a minimum.

This approach creates a seamless workflow, enabling you to access your projects and their associated notes easily.

A well-structured system like this can help ADD non-techies stay organized and focused, reducing stress and enhancing productivity.

3 Advantages of using Bear with Drafts:

• Drafts capture inbox is neat and tidy

• Drafts works great with Apple watch

• Bear 2.0 beta has backlink capabilities

• Bear manages photos quite well

Learning to harness ADHD brain means capturing thoughts, no matter how random they may seem.

It's interstitial journaling on steroids.

I'm learning to trust my Future Self—at the end of each day— to archive or trash nonsense and to direct ideas, tasks, and reminders to their respective homes in my system.

When I'm on a walk, I may remember to check in with a friend or try Thing x to solve Problem y.

Siri on my watch captures a quick dictation to Drafts.

Each evening I process Drafts notes from the day.

Drafts allows me to:

1. Add the idea to a project page in Bear app

2. Send the note to Reminders for a date-specific follow-up

3. Schedule a nag alarm in the Due app for a time-specific action.

ADD non-techies can significantly improve their task management by harnessing the power of callbacks and Drafts actions.

Simplify Your Task Management with Callbacks

Callbacks are powerful tools for ADD non-techies seeking to enhance their task management skills.

Using callback links within iOS Reminders allows you to capture follow-up items as you work.

Rather than saying, "Do this now before you forget," you simply write a note to yourself in Drafts, then send the task—with a link to the note—to Reminders.

Now you can trust your Future Self to understand what to do and why it's important.