I always tried to optimize my way of organizing tasks.

Back in junior and high school, I used notebooks. Around 2014, during college, I switched to using Google Sheets. In 2018, I turned to Evernote. Then, in 2021, after entering the workforce, I began using Notion.

In late 2022, I took it a step further — I tried to manage everything using tools I built from scratch.

I created a Pomodoro app to record every minute I spent working. A meditation app to log every session. A habit app to check if I kept cultivating my habits every single day. A workout app to record every exercise and every squat I did (weights, reps, and even rest time between sets). Of course, a portfolio app to track my investments. And a spending tracking app connects to our government API to log every transaction. And finally, a master dashboard app to monitor the status of all the other apps.

Everything was under control. Everything was being recorded.

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Until 2024.

I burned out. I was so tired of recording everything. Exhausted.

It started to feel … pointless.

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I began thinking about our ancestors. Maybe they just lived in fields, herding a few cows. To keep track, they invented numbers. Later, with writing, they could log how many days until the cows matured, how much grass they ate, and how to optimize their care.

From there, the concept of “EVERYTHING” grew — knowledge, metrics, maps. It became more and more complex. We created books to preserve information, and libraries to store books. Later came disks, and then the internet, so we could store even more! Our virtual world now expands even faster than our physical one.

The brain has limits. But “EVERYTHING” doesn’t. Some random king did something in some random year, becomes less important as time passes. Time makes the story irrelevant; only principles and rules endure.

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Now, in my 30s. I still keep backup copies of my childhood files — they mean nothing to me anymore, yet I keep them.

Maybe it’s time to let them go.

Began in Feb 2025, Finished in Aug 2025