At the end of 2023, early 2024, I made the commitment to be more consistent with my personal blog-style writing. "In an effort to make my writing more regular, or at least to find an easy format to fall back on, I'm introducing a new series." (PW7, October 10th, 2024) How is that going? Clearly not great considering it's been a little over a year since that entry. I have a few factors to "blame". One, I attacked some of the goals that I laid out in YR1 (Year Review 1) which I'm proud of. Focused on health more. I decided to act with urgency and go after some of my more ambitious goals, (which turned into starting Virlo). These things took time away from less (in my mind) "impactful" actions like personal writing, but realistically I could be finding 30min here and there to continue doing so. I will once again attempt to make it more consistent, no promises this time. Year reviews will be consistent as they're interesting and helpful for me to look back on.
Personal writing, especially public personal writing, felt like a worthwhile muscle to grow (while also being more conscious of physical muscles). Though, here we are, October of 2025 and I essentially haven't written once since January or February of this year (publicly). I have had sporadic posts to myself in my written journal, but nothing I've sat down and written for what was my substack (now my personal site that you're reading this on).
So what's the update? What's with the sudden rush to write a post? It's just time. I'll keep my broader year updates for the YR2, but I will attempt to write more consistently outside of those YR's again. I still think it's a worthwhile muscle to grow, so I'll continue to attempt training it.
I've been thinking a lot about systems recently. Appreciating iteration more. I've come to appreciate the power of teams in a way I never truly did. I've experienced first hand the effects of compounding actions. Also, distributing a digital product is fun (and a bit scary!).
I never realized just how amazing systematizing actions can be in your life. I wouldn't consider myself an efficient person. There's always room for improvement. There's also room to be inefficient; that's often where the fun in life comes from, spontaneity. While true fun comes from spontaneity, there's a certain zeal that comes from the monotony being systematized. As you slowly layer on more (systems), you have more and more room for the new and exhilarating while knowing your bases are covered.
I've found the best flow for developing a new system is as follows: Identify candidates for systemization by living life. Actions you often forget to do but need to do, want to do but forget to do, know are good to do but get busy, and don't often do. Do that task or process a few times while being more intentional. Think about what the "win" moment is for that task. For example, when remembering birthdays, it might be as dumb as if you got an email on the day of a friend's birthday you'd always remember–if that's true for you implement an auto-emailer.
Don't get into the trap of thinking a birthday reminder app is going to be a silver bullet. Systems shouldn't be easy to graft from one person to the next, they should be highly individualized. This was a big unlock for myself, it's ok if your latticework of systems and checks are so unique to you that other people say "What the hell, how does that actually help you". In fact, that may be an indicator it is a good system for you because if it's getting results and looks weird to others it's probably giving you great very personally effective results. In a way, you're basically creating a late 90s Rube Goldberg machine for your life with mini-hacks.
In the last year, especially through building Virlo, I've come to see the direct results of consistent iteration. Changing course, running experiments, finding solutions, and adjusting constantly. Iteration is very daunting at first. It's a sort of feeling in your stomach. It goes against nature. Once you get used to that feeling, get comfortable with attachment being mental, you realize that there's a superpower in being good at experimenting and iterating relentlessly. It's a never ending process. It leads to gold. My current assumption (which may be proven wrong) is that with unlimited capital any idea could become an ultra-successful business with a leader that slants aggressively towards constant relentless iteration.
Teams are incredible. I began 2024 with very little in terms of support. I started my entrepreneurial journey in earnest somewhere in 2022-23. I was alone, fumbling around, and it often felt aimless. I began building teams in late 2024 early 2025 and I would never look back. This is a trivial take, but it's worth noting how powerful it can be. It feels like not only the ultimate form of leverage on time, but a superpower. A team that's 'N Sync feels unstoppable.
I believe the above 3 actions that have become more common in my life as of late lead to another recent appreciation of mine first hand. Compounding actions are truly the 8th wonder of the world. The more you can put your personal compounding machines on autopilot with; systems, teams, and iteration. The more you start to see these things all multiply positive outcomes.
Lastly, before this becomes a pre-YR, all I'll say on digital products is it's been a hell of a ride since we officially launched Virlo last March. It's been a great new challenge and has taught me a lot. I'll be saving that for my YR 2025.
NM