What if 20 minutes of writing showed you exactly where your life is headed?
I’ve been sending clients a single document before we meet.
Today, I’m giving it away.
Here's what's inside:
- Mapping your life — how the 3-session build reduces the background anxiety and admin stress most people just live with
- Claude Code workshop — February 12th, limited to 10 spots
- Consumer vs Producer — why producing quietly raises the stakes (and why that’s a good thing)
The Consumer vs Producer section is at the end of this newsletter.
It’s worth getting to.
It features Gordon Ramsay and some mildly inconvenient truths.
Mapping your life is the first step towards a good knowledge management system
Recently, a client going through my 3-session build summed it up perfectly:
There’s a lot of theory on how to design your life.
But it’s almost always tool-agnostic.
You leave inspired, without a concrete way to put it into practice.
Without implementation, the advice slowly fades.
So we keep paddling through life with no clear direction.
At the mercy of whatever tide we happen to be floating in.
And that’s the dangerous part.
You can be the hardest-working person on the planet, but if your effort is pointed in the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter.
It’s like a bright graduate deciding to specialise in Microsoft Word in 2026.
Twenty hours a day mastering it, then trying to sell “Microsoft Word expert services.”
Hard work. Wrong direction.
What I’ve found is a clean intersection between theory and implementation.
A way to speed-run life design and actually build the system that maintains it.
The steps are simple.
KISS, baby.
Session 1: Structure
We start by mapping your entire life.
All responsibilities.
All obligations.
Everything that pulls on your attention.
Before session 1, I send clients an onboarding document to do this before we meet.
👇 I’ve attached it here.
Even if you never book a session, it’s worth 20 minutes of your time. Momentum is often all it takes to shift things in the right direction.
We shortcut the theory by starting with Wheel of Life categories:
- Health
- Wealth
- Career
- Personal Development
- Social
- Leisure
- Environment
Everyone’s wheel looks different, but almost everything fits into one of these buckets.
In session 1, we dissect each area. Responsibilities. Sub-areas. Commitments.
We identify what matters most, what causes the most stress, and what would improve your life fastest if you could get it under control.
By the end of session 1, your life fits onto a single page.
You can see all your responsibilities at once.
You can see how information flows in and out of your life.
And most importantly:
you now have a structure we can actually build.
Session 2: The Build
The hard thinking is done.
Now we pick the single most important area for you right now.
The one that removes the most underlying stress.
We build that area out in Obsidian. Together.
Projects.
Capture flows.
Retrieval structures.
We also build the most important sub-area inside it.
By the end of session 2:
- You have one full life area running inside Obsidian
- You understand exactly how to build the rest yourself
This is why we start with the most important area.
Immediate relief beats theoretical perfection.
Session 3: Refinement
There is no perfect system.
Structure is earned.
You’ll refine your system for the rest of your life.
But now you know how.
In the final session we:
- Refine what needs refining
- Simplify what’s too heavy
- Drill capture and retrieval again
- Work on whatever still feels unclear
Between sessions, you have my support.
If you want help building this in Obsidian, you know where to find me 🙂
Claude Code + Obsidian Workshop
The first Claude Code + Obsidian workshop goes live on 12 February.
Limited to 10 people.
If you want to move faster with this kind of system-building, this is the next step.
This isn’t a theory session. We’ll be inside Obsidian, using Claude Code on real notes and workflows.
€100 gets you:
- A setup guide (video + doc) so you’re ready before the workshop
- A live, hands-on session working through real use-cases
- Follow-up docs to help you apply it immediately
If you’re interested, join the waiting list.
The sign-up email will be sent out in the next day or two. First come, first served.
Workshop outline:
- Intro to Claude Code (10 min) — what it is, when it helps, when it doesn’t
- CLAUDE.md basics (10 min) — creating a useful instruction file
- Live demo (20 min) — logging and working with notes in real time
- Hands-on practice (10 min) — you try it, I help you unblock
- Q&A (10 min)
Side note: if you’re curious, I wrote a short piece on what using Claude Code inside Obsidian actually felt like after two weeks of real use.
My First 14 Days of Claude Code + Obsidian
Consumer vs Producer (and my first 100 subscribers)
About three years ago, I hit 100 subscribers on YouTube.
I briefly considered hiring security.
It was the first time it felt like someone else was on the other side.
I started publishing Obsidian videos for a selfish reason: I wanted to learn faster.
At the time, I thought this was about consumer vs producer.
It took me a while to see what was actually doing the work.
When you choose to become a producer, higher stakes come bundled for free.
As a consumer, nothing is on the line. You can watch another video, skim another article, feel productive, and move on. No pressure. No consequences. No need for real understanding.
As a producer, someone else is suddenly involved.
That’s when things get uncomfortable.
The moment you try to create something for another person, your ignorance becomes painfully obvious.
The gaps you could ignore as a consumer now demand attention.
Take cooking.
Do you learn faster by binge-watching Gordon Ramsay make idiot sandwiches?
Or by convincing a new love interest that you’ll make her the best ribeye she’s ever had on Valentine’s Day?
Same information.
And suddenly, much higher steaks.
In that second scenario, failure isn’t theoretical. You have to figure it out. There’s no hiding behind “I kind of get it.”
You either execute, or you spend another year alone, whispering “it’s about the Maillard reaction” to yourself in the kitchen while using your tears to deglaze the pan.
That’s why producing works.
Not because producing is magical, but because it forces clarity.
If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it yet.
Yes, producing feels harder.
But it’s far easier than consuming endlessly and retaining nothing.
Which reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:
“Sure, the hard way is hard. But not nearly as hard as the easy way.”
— Terry Pratchett
The easy way avoids stakes.
The hard way creates them.
So think in terms of producer vs consumer if you like.
Just know what you’re really choosing.
Higher stakes.
Engaging doesn’t require publishing or shipping anything.
Commenting on something that made you think, adding your two cents, or engaging with content that brought you value is already a shift toward the producer mindset.
The alternative is staying the gluttonous king on the throne.
Endlessly consuming. Feeling busy. Feeling informed.
But never sharpening your thinking, never being challenged, never giving anything back.
You can start small.
With communities you’re already part of.
Like this one.
Reply to this email: did mapping your life surface anything you weren’t expecting?
I read every response.
Until next week,
Strength and Honour,
Dee
Website · YouTube · Substack · Medium · Twitter (X)
Responses