My Wife Ditched Digital Tools for Pen & Paper

In mid-May, I published a blog post about what J Dilla and early hip-hop can teach us about AI and the future of creativity (you might remember it).

A few days later, I sent out a quick poll to folks who clicked on the link to read the article.

I wanted to know if you actually liked it…and most of you did!

Now, here’s the truth: This was the first article that I’ve created fully using Claude. And I was curious to know if you could tell. Most people couldn’t!

What does that mean for the future? Will I rely on AI to write all of my blog posts going forward?

Definitely not! I’m a writer at heart and enjoy the process.

But my team could leverage Claude and the detailed prompt I’ve created to write articles we otherwise wouldn’t have. We will mark those as “AI-assisted” for transparency.

Btw, we’ll be publishing a YouTube video series about how I trained AI to write like me soon. Subscribe to our channel so you’re the first to know when it’s out.

I Replaced My Productivity Apps with 4 Notebooks - Here's What Happened

While I love digital systems, my wife Lauren takes a completely different approach to productivity — one rooted in analog tools and intuitive principles.

Journaling has been her cornerstone for reflection, decision-making, and creativity.

In this video, she'll walk you through her complete analog system that includes:

Morning Pages - Her daily brain dump practice
Bullet Journal - Task management that forces intentionality
Weekly Review Journal - Photo memories + reflection
Moon Ritual Notebook - Monthly intentions & annual planning

Watch on YouTube

Manage Your Time Like an Investment Portfolio

You carefully analyze your financial investments, asking tough questions about risks and returns. But when did you last audit your time the same way?

Start thinking of your time as a portfolio that needs strategic allocation.

Some activities are high-risk, high-reward projects that could transform your career. Others are steady, reliable "dividend" activities that maintain your current position. And some are just low-performing assets eating up valuable space.

If less than 50% of your time goes toward meaningful projects, you're probably over-invested in maintenance activities that could be automated, delegated, or eliminated entirely.

Action step: Track your time for three days according to PARA:

How much time did you spend on projects that move your life forward?
How much time went to maintaining your areas of responsibility?
How much time did you spend learning and gathering new resources?
How much time was wasted on things that should be archived or eliminated?

Reply and tell me what you learned! Which category dominated more than you expected?

How to Take Smart Notes in Obsidian

Sönke Ahrens just launched a companion course to his best-selling book How to Take Smart Notes.

It guides you through applying the principles of the zettelkasten using Obsidian and offers a comprehensive approach to enhancing your digital note-taking process.

The course is designed for writers and thinkers of all sorts: authors, researchers, students, and anyone managing extensive information. (Check out this testimonial.)

Right now, you can get it for $249 before the price increases in July to $329.

Check out the course

Business News You’ll Actually Enjoy

4M+ professionals start their day with Morning Brew—a free daily newsletter that makes business, tech, and finance news genuinely enjoyable to read and hard to forget.

Each morning, it breaks down complex stories in plain English—cutting through the noise with sharp insights and just enough wit to keep you engaged.

In under 5 minutes, you’ll be up to speed on what matters most to your career and the world around you—all before you’ve finished your morning coffee.

Try it for free

Thanks to Morning Brew for sponsoring this newsletter.