I read 20 to 40 books a year, and at some point, reading and moving on stopped being enough. If a book changed how I thought, I wanted to be able to find that idea again a few years later. So I started keeping notes digitally.
Categorization sounds simple until you try it. Where does discipline belong: resilience, focus, or execution? I’d file the same idea in two places and then find it in neither. MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) gave me a way to question those boundaries and make each category more distinct.
Zettelkasten helped from the other direction: start with small notes and let connections emerge, rather than designing the perfect tree first. After several rounds of migration and re-categorization, and more recently a fair number of tokens spent building my own system, I settled on ten categories.
Some ideas could fit in more than one category. When that happens, I ask what the idea mainly helps me do: think more clearly, make a decision, take action, or work with other people. I place it where I am most likely to look for it later. The categories are guides, not strict rules.
Below is what each one means to me, illustrated by the books and ideas that have most shaped my thinking.
Metacognition is the ability to notice how you think. Before deciding what to do, step back and ask how you reached your view of the situation. What have you assumed? What might you have missed? This is where you examine the thinking behind an answer.
In How Doctors Think, physician Jerome Groopman shows how experienced doctors can settle on an answer too soon, ignore contradictory evidence, or treat a new case like a familiar one. Expertise does not prevent these mistakes; it can make us more certain of our answers. Thinking better starts with accepting that we can be wrong.
Same as Ever by Morgan Housel examines human behaviour that persists as the world changes. Fear, greed, uncertainty, and our need for a convincing story keep shaping decisions. For me, long-term thinking means looking beyond the latest news to understand what stays the same, not just predicting what comes next.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman describes two modes of thinking. System 1 is fast, automatic, and intuitive. System 2 takes deliberate effort, but often accepts the first answer without checking it. These describe thought, not separate parts of the brain. Biases such as anchoring, framing, loss aversion, and overconfidence show why some decisions need a closer look, rather than an immediate response.
Beyond these books, I also find useful ideas in how others approach problems.
Jeff Bezos has suggested asking what will remain unchanged over the next ten years, rather than only what will change. Stable needs can provide a useful basis for a long-term plan.
Charlie Munger emphasized inversion: instead of only asking how to succeed, ask what would lead to failure. Looking at a problem backwards can reveal risks you would otherwise miss.
Elon Musk describes first-principles thinking as starting with basic truths and building an answer from there. Rather than copying an existing solution, ask what you know is true and which assumptions you can question.
The more I read, the more I question my assumptions and resist jumping to conclusions. What works today may not work tomorrow, and a different perspective can change how I understand the same situation. Learning how to think is something I expect to work on for the rest of my life.
Better thinking gives you more options. You can act, try another approach, wait, or walk away, rather than feel that only one outcome will do.
Agency starts with believing your actions can make a difference. Execution takes energy to act on that belief and keep going. Having time is not enough if you are too tired to use it well. That means protecting your energy, making room for rest, and putting your effort into things that matter to you.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy explains how small choices add up over time. A helpful action may seem insignificant today, just as a harmful habit may seem harmless. Agency means taking responsibility for those choices. Execution means continuing with useful actions before their results are easy to see.
Atomic Habits by James Clear turns intentions into consistent action. Make a habit obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying, rather than rely on motivation. Keep a book where you will see it, read at a regular time, and start with a few pages. Make unwanted habits harder to follow and useful routines small enough to survive difficult days. Wanting to read more is a goal; reading every evening is a system.
Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein explains how the way choices are presented affects what people do. Its idea of choice architecture makes helpful choices easier without removing other options. My takeaway is to improve the setup around an action, not just rely on determination. Clearer choices and fewer unnecessary steps can make following through easier.
Steve Jobs described how a calligraphy class later influenced the typography of the Macintosh. An interest that seemed unrelated to his work became useful years later. I take this as a reason to explore what interests you, then look for ways to bring those skills together in work you care about.
My first priority is still to make useful actions easier and manage my energy well. I want to rely less on willpower and set things up so that starting takes less effort.
In short, agency means taking action instead of waiting for permission. Execution means keeping that action going. Both depend on how you use your energy, so protect it and spend it on what matters to you.
Prioritization means deciding what deserves your time. Focus means staying with that choice instead of letting other demands pull you away. You need both: a clear priority and time to work on it.
First Things First uses a jar of big rocks, small stones, and sand to explain priorities. Pour in the sand first, and there is no room for the big rocks. Put the rocks in first, and smaller things fit around them. Important work does not always feel urgent. Reserve time for it before minor demands take its place.
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy turns this into a daily rule: begin with the important task you are most likely to avoid, before messages and minor requests take over. If it is too large, break it into smaller steps and work backwards. Three hundred pages in five days becomes sixty a day. A clear next step makes starting easier.
Getting Things Done by David Allen offers a way to organize commitments: capture what needs attention, clarify the next action, organize it where you can find it, reflect by reviewing your lists, then engage by choosing what to do. Getting tasks out of your head makes it easier to see what you have agreed to and decide what matters now.
Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte applies a similar approach to knowledge. Its CODE method asks you to capture useful information, organize it for your work, distill the main points, and express them through something you create. The purpose is not to collect more, but to find and use ideas when you need to think, decide, or write.
Prioritization, then, is not squeezing more into the day. It is giving the big rocks a place before the sand arrives.
Once the priority is clear, focus is the ability to stay with it.
The One Thing asks: “What is the one thing I can do such that, by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” The answer needs protected time, ideally when your energy is strongest. Treat those hours as seriously as an appointment. Concentrating on the right task can achieve more than a day spent switching between demands.
Deep Work by Cal Newport argues that undistracted concentration is increasingly valuable. It helps you learn difficult things and produce work that scattered attention makes harder. Treat focus as a skill: set aside time, remove distractions, and stay with one demanding task long enough to understand it properly.
The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins offers a way to interrupt hesitation: count backwards from five, then take the first step before talking yourself out of it. The technique does not make the task easier. It gives you something concrete to do when waiting for motivation is not helping.
The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey focuses on managing time, attention, and energy together. Free time does not help much if you are distracted or exhausted. My takeaway is to notice when I work best, give important work my attention, and plan rest before I am worn out.
Four Thousand Weeks puts both priorities and focus in perspective. Live to eighty and you get roughly four thousand weeks. You will never get through everything, and becoming faster simply leaves room for more demands. Choosing is the work. Saying yes to one thing means saying no to another, so choose deliberately and give that choice your attention.
Resilience is the ability to recover from setbacks and keep going. It does not mean you never feel hurt or upset. It means finding a way forward even when things do not go as planned. Mental strength is part of this: managing stress, keeping perspective, and recovering enough to use your other skills.
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb distinguishes things that break under stress, withstand it, or benefit from it. Small setbacks can reveal weaknesses and help a system improve. Strength training, with suitable effort and recovery, is a familiar example. Not all pressure is helpful: learn from manageable difficulties without exposing yourself to damage you cannot recover from.
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl explores how meaning can help people face unavoidable suffering. Suffering is not good in itself, and meaning does not guarantee survival. Preventable suffering should be addressed. When a situation cannot be changed, meaning may still come from how we respond, what we care for, and what we choose to do.
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins applies this to relationships. “Let them” means allowing others to make their own choices and hold their own opinions, rather than trying to manage them. “Let me” brings attention back to what you control: your response, boundaries, and decision to stay or walk away. Acceptance is not passivity; it frees you to take responsibility for your own actions.
Beyond these books, a few other ideas have shaped how I think about resilience.
Bruce Lee’s advice to be like water offers another way to think about resilience. Water changes its shape to fit what it meets. I take this as a reminder to adjust my approach when circumstances change, rather than insist that everything happen as planned. Adapting does not have to mean giving up what matters to me.
Epictetus reminds us to question the meaning we give to events. Someone else’s success does not mean I have failed, and one setback does not mean I cannot improve. For me, resilience includes noticing these thoughts before treating them as facts.
Resilience means finding a way forward after difficult experiences, with time, support, and rest when needed. For me, it also means staying insanely optimistic about what is still possible. Not ignoring problems, but refusing to let a setback decide the rest of my life. I have one life, and I do not want a few setbacks to make me settle for less too early.
Judgement is the ability to make sound decisions when you do not have all the answers. Metacognition helps you question your thinking; judgement helps you choose what to do. Weigh the options, consider what could go wrong, and give each choice the care it needs. Some decisions can be changed later; others have consequences you may live with for years.
Error-Free examines the causes of human error and equipment failure to prevent mistakes with serious consequences, rather than only manage crises afterwards. The Checklist Manifesto offers a practical safeguard: even skilled people need reminders of essential steps when work becomes complex or stressful. Together, they suggest a useful loop: understand what went wrong, improve the process, and build in checks to prevent it happening again.
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson examines choices with lasting consequences through mapping, predicting, and deciding. Explore different paths and perspectives, consider several possible futures, then weigh the trade-offs against what matters to you. An answer reached too early may mean you have not explored the problem enough.
Judgment in Managerial Decision Making examines how bias affects our choices. We may rely too much on the first information we receive, seek evidence that supports our view, or define a problem too narrowly. My takeaway is to question the assumptions behind a choice, not just trust that the answer feels right.
Outside these books, I also draw lessons from how others approach important decisions.
Jeff Bezos suggested making most decisions with around 70% of the information you wish you had, rather than waiting for 90%. These are rough guides, not measured thresholds, and his advice depends on recognizing and correcting mistakes quickly. His distinction between reversible and irreversible decisions helps put this into practice. Type 2 decisions can be changed, so test and adjust. Type 1 decisions are difficult to undo and need more care, consultation, and thought about longer-term effects.
Elon Musk has described asking job candidates about difficult problems they worked on and how they solved them. He looks for the details that come from doing the work. For me, the useful lesson is to ask about the constraints, choices, failed attempts, and reasons a solution worked, rather than accept a confident summary. Detail can help assess a claim, but it is not proof on its own.
Judgement is an area I’m still working on. I want to use decision tools more naturally and learn from real situations, including the choices I get wrong. As AI becomes part of everyday work, I see human judgement becoming more important: deciding what matters, checking what we are given, and taking responsibility for the choice.
A few broader principles also help guide difficult decisions:
Good judgement cannot remove all uncertainty. It can help you notice what you have missed and reduce the cost of being wrong. Before committing, ask: What could break? Can I change course? What evidence would change my mind?
Learning agility means learning your way through an unfamiliar situation. It involves taking in new information, changing an old view when needed, and building the skills to act before you feel fully ready.
Mindset by Carol Dweck distinguishes seeing ability as fixed from seeing it as something that can develop. A growth mindset treats difficulty as a sign of what you have not learned yet, not proof that you cannot learn it. Respond with better practice, feedback, or a different approach. Belief in improvement does not replace the work it requires.
Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool explains why experience alone does not guarantee improvement. Strong chess players study positions, review choices, and learn from mistakes, rather than simply play more games. Deliberate practice means choosing a specific weakness, working just beyond your current ability, getting feedback, and making corrections. The aim is better understanding, not just more hours.
Ultralearning by Scott Young treats learning as an active, self-directed process. Practise the skill you want to use, retrieve knowledge instead of only rereading it, and seek feedback before you feel ready. Familiarity is not the test. Can you recall it, explain it, and use it in a new situation?
Mastery by Robert Greene presents expertise as a long period of learning, not simply an inborn gift. Find work that fits your interests, learn from mentors and mistakes, and practise until you can move beyond copying others toward original work. Learning is not always about speed. Curiosity and patience give skills time to develop.
For me, learning also means being willing to let go of an old idea, explain what I understand, and stay patient while checking my progress.
Learning agility keeps you willing to learn, question an old belief, and try again. The goal is to use what you know, not simply remember more.
Interpersonal skill is the ability to understand people, communicate thoughtfully, and build lasting relationships. Work and relationships both affect daily life, so relationships deserve attention before trust is damaged or someone is no longer there.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie begins with a simple idea: people want to feel seen, respected, and important. Listen with genuine interest, remember what matters to someone, and offer appreciation without flattery. These are not tricks for getting your way. They are ways to treat someone as a person, rather than a means to an end.
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene explores how insecurity, pride, envy, fear, and the need for recognition shape behaviour, often without our awareness. Look for patterns and examine your own reactions before deciding what someone meant. Understanding a motive does not excuse harmful behaviour, but it can help you choose how to respond.
Give and Take by Adam Grant explores how people give and receive. Generosity can build strong relationships, but giving without boundaries can lead to exhaustion or exploitation. Contribute in ways you can sustain, without keeping score over every favour. A relationship should not depend on one person continually giving trust, effort, and attention while the other only takes.
Good relationships need generosity and boundaries, confidence and humility. You cannot make everyone approve of you. You can listen, treat people fairly, and protect the trust that allows a relationship to continue.
A good relationship does not always lead to agreement. Influence is helping people see a worthwhile direction and choose to move toward it with you. It means earning support for an idea or action, without relying on formal authority.
Impact Players by Liz Wiseman distinguishes dependable execution from higher-impact contribution. Impact players deliver assigned work, but also identify what the team needs and step into important tasks without waiting to be asked. Initiative means solving the right problem for shared goals, not simply doing more.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene examines strategies involving status, reputation, timing, and power. Read critically, it can help you recognize how influence operates. I see it as a way to understand people and situations, not an instruction manual to follow.
At work, I pay attention to people who earn trust, gain support, and move things forward. Their influence comes through what they do, not just their position. For me, the ongoing challenge is to stop waiting for direction, notice where I can contribute, and take initiative.
Influence grows when people trust your judgement and find your contribution useful. Taking initiative, respecting their time, and making work easier give them reasons to support a shared goal.
Negotiation is working toward an agreement on terms both sides can accept. Influence helps gain support for a direction; negotiation works out what each side will give, receive, or commit to. It begins before terms are discussed, because how you explain the opportunity and respond to the other person shapes the deal. Make the value clear while staying willing to walk away.
Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff examines how a proposal is received. Frame control shapes how someone sees the deal; status and prizing position you as a valuable partner, not someone seeking approval. STRONG means Set the frame, Tell the story, Reveal the intrigue, Offer the prize, Nail the hookpoint, and Get a decision. My takeaway is to value what I bring without pressuring others or avoiding reasonable questions.
The 3-Minute Rule by Brant Pinvidic makes a proposal easier to understand through WHAC: What is it? How does it work? Are you sure? Can you do it? Explain the offer and how it works, then provide evidence and show you can deliver. Three minutes limits the opening explanation, not the whole negotiation. Keep what helps someone understand, assess, and act on the proposal.
A clear proposal starts the discussion. A worthwhile agreement depends on the terms, not just getting a yes.
Storytelling helps another person follow an idea through what happens. Choose what they need to know, how the events connect, and why they matter. Even an answer given without preparation can benefit from a clear beginning and a point to carry away.
Think Faster, Talk Smarter by Matt Abrahams addresses speaking without preparation. Manage anxiety, let go of the demand for a perfect answer, and listen to what is actually being asked. A simple structure helps you organize the response and leave out what the listener does not need. You do not need to speak faster; you need to make your thinking easier to follow.
Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz focuses on respecting the reader’s time. Lead with the most important point, explain why it matters, and let people choose whether to read more. Clear headings and fewer unnecessary details help readers find what they need. Brevity is not about making everything short; it is about keeping the point easy to find.
Clear communication matters in both writing and conversation. I’m learning to give ideas a clearer structure and explain them in ways that others can follow. Everyday conversations and writing give me opportunities to practise, and I increasingly see this as part of making my work useful.
These structures help organize a message. To tell a story, show what happened and what changed.
Before you speak or write:
For me, the test is whether someone can carry the idea away and explain it to another person. A memorable phrase helps, but it cannot rescue a message whose point was never clear.
I call these “The Ten Foundational Competencies,” but ten is simply the number I ended up with after years of reading and reorganizing my notes. These categories make sense to me and help me find what I need. Someone else might group the same ideas differently, and I may change them as I keep learning.
These categories are not meant to cover everything. Engineering principles and sales techniques belong with the knowledge of those fields. I wanted a simpler way to decide where an idea belongs and find it again when I need it for writing or making a decision.
That is how I judge this system: does it make saving and finding ideas easier? So far, it does.