Learn From My Mistakes

Short story of how I break life chaos into small, solvable problems - 2 min read.

I heard the Navy SEALs review missions with just three questions.

Which hit a nerve, because I usually “review” Mondays by reacting to everything and then acting surprised at the results.

Last week was a perfect example.

I was busy in a way that looks impressive from the outside. Calendar full. Messages flying. Lots of motion. Very little progress.

Like a hamster on a wheel - maximum effort, zero distance.

So Friday, instead of installing another app that promises clarity and delivers notifications (plus guilt), I tried their three-question review on my own chaos.

No night-vision goggles. No ocean. Just Slack, email, and my self-esteem doing burpees.

1. What went well, and should be repeated?

Two things. Which is two more than I expected.

• First: the one morning I did my hardest task before checking email. I felt like a different person. A responsible adult. A man with morals. A guy who owns one good sweater and doesn’t “circle back.” I got real work done before the internet had a chance to hand me someone else’s emergency.

• Second: I had one block where I worked with zero context switching. No “just quick” Slack replies. No “I’ll just check something.” I finished. It was almost suspicious.

Note to self: my best days are boring. Same time, same setup, same rules. No heroics. Just… quiet competence. Disgusting.

2. What lessons exist from what didn’t go well?

I noticed a pattern I don’t love.

When a task feels unclear, I treat it like it’s unsafe.

Not physically unsafe. Ego unsafe.

Like if I start and struggle, it means I’m secretly incompetent and everyone will find out and I’ll have to move into the woods.

So I do what any stable genius does.

I avoided the task and did easier things that let me feel competent again. I “just check metrics” and suddenly I’m deep in a spreadsheet autopsy from Q2.

The lesson: discomfort isn’t a red light. It’s just the entrance fee.

Most of my procrastination isn’t laziness. It’s fear of feeling stupid for five minutes. I’m not avoiding work. I’m avoiding the moment where the work doesn’t immediately love me back.

3. How will I modify the process going forward?

Here’s the part that surprised me.

The avoidance doesn’t just waste time. It creates open loops.

Unclear task → I dodge it → it stays half-alive in the background → my brain keeps pinging it like a smoke alarm with feelings.

So my main problem isn’t effort.

It’s “too many things in progress.”

New rule: no more than three active work items at a time.

If a fourth shows up, something else gets finished, paused, or killed.

Not “kept warm.” Not “left open just in case.” Killed. With respect. Like putting down a group chat that should’ve ended in 2021.

And I’m ending days with a 2-minute reset:

Pick tomorrow’s first task. Write the first step. Close the laptop.

Because waking up to chaos is a choice, apparently.

Alright. What now?

Best case, this keeps me from spiraling and turns my weeks into something I can actually steer.

Worst case, I still move into the woods.

Till next time.

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Cool Facts About Jeff Bezos

Silent Study Hall: Amazon and Blue Origin meetings often start with a narratively written six-page memo that everyone reads in the room before discussion, so the debate starts on the same page.

10-Point Font Discipline: Amazon’s six-page memos are deliberately dense (often in 10-point font), so the whole argument, data, and tradeoffs must fit in a tight space. That constraint kills filler and makes it hard to hide sloppy thinking behind bullet points.

No PowerPoint Rule: Bezos explicitly standardized on written narratives over slide decks, because writing exposes weak thinking faster than pretty charts do.

10 A.M. High-IQ Block: He schedules mentally challenging meetings at about 10 a.m., and if something big shows up around 5 p.m., he’d rather sleep on it and hit it at 10 tomorrow.

Three Decisions a Day: Bezos says it’s enough to make about three high-quality decisions in a day, because executives are paid for decision quality, not decision count.

70% Information Rule: He wrote that most decisions should be made with around 70% of the info you wish you had, and waiting for 90% usually means you’re being slow, so you need to course-correct fast.

Two-Way Door Filter: A “two-way door” is reversible, so move fast with a light process and ask, “So what if we’re wrong?” A “one-way door” is hard to reverse, so slow down, get more input, and be deliberate..

Disagree and Commit: When there’s no consensus, he uses “disagree and commit” to stop endless arguing, then genuinely backs the chosen path (even when it wasn’t his pick).

Speed as a Feature: In his Day 1 vs Day 2 framing, he argues big companies can still make high-quality decisions fast, and that decision velocity is something you protect on purpose.

Process Is Not the Thing: He warns against defending bad outcomes with “we followed the process,” and pushes leaders to improve the mechanism instead of worshipping it.

Working Backwards PR/FAQ: Many major initiatives start with writing a press release and FAQ before building anything, to force customer clarity and surface hard questions early.

WBR Metric Gauntlet: Amazon’s Weekly Business Review is described as a weekly ritual that goes through roughly 400-500 metrics in about 60 minutes (90 in holiday season) to keep leaders brutally grounded in reality.

Two-Pizza Team Limit: Bezos popularized the “two-pizza” rule, keeping teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas to cut coordination drag and speed up decisions.

Empty Chair Customer: Bezos used an empty chair in meetings to represent the customer, a physical reminder that the most important voice is the one not in the room.

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It’s about 1 hour 20 minutes of “ohhh that’s why my emails get ignored”. School trained us to write for teachers who are literally paid to read to the end. The real world is not paid, not patient, and not impressed.

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