The Library
Six phases of designing a life on purpose.
Every essay and dispatch is filed under one of six phases: See, Diagnose, Decide, Design, Build, Steward. Pick a phase to read what's inside, or scroll to see everything newest first.
The six phases
01
See
Gain clarity before taking action.
02
Diagnose
Solve the root problem, not just the symptoms.
03
Decide
Make intentional trade-offs instead of reacting to everything.
04
Design
Make the right actions easier to sustain.
05
Build
Turn decisions and designs into meaningful progress.
06
Steward
Maintain, adapt, and strengthen it as your life evolves.
Every essay, newest first.
· 5 min readYou'll Only Stop Feeling Guilty When You Can See What Your Decision Made Possible
03DecideGuilt-free decisions aren't about having no regrets. They're about looking at the right receipts.
· 4 min readFuture You Doesn't Need More Willpower
04DesignWillpower is a terrible long-term strategy. It gets tired, emotional, interrupted. Future You needs better decision systems, not more discipline.
· 3 min readJust Show Up Is Incomplete Advice
04DesignThe mantra to 'just show up' is stopping you from achieving your goals. Most of the time, the problem isn't effort. It's design.
· 4 min readBefore You Fix It, Understand It
02DiagnoseA team in shambles taught me the most important lesson in problem-solving: before you fix it, you have to understand it.
· 7 min readMore Money Was the Wrong Goal
03DecideMy side hustle was thriving way better than I'd dreamed it would in the first year. So, obviously, the next thing to do was to scale, right? Nope. Absolutely wrong.
· 7 min readWhat This Is (And What It Isn't)
01SeeOptimization can only improve the thing you're pointing it at. It cannot tell you whether you're pointing at the right thing. That's the job of design.
· 4 min readWelcome to By Design
01SeeWhy this newsletter exists, who it's for, and what to expect each Sunday.
· 6 min readThe Beginning
01SeeSix years ago, I put pen to paper and wrote down exactly what I wanted February 2025 to look like. Here's what happened when I started designing my life deliberately.