A bit about this site, and me

I'm Ian. This site is where I document the slow, unglamorous work of rebuilding a life and figuring out what actually works — not the highlight reel, the actual process.

Why this exists

A few years ago I was disorganized in almost every sense: financially, mentally, professionally. Not dramatically so, just quietly stuck. The thing that eventually moved me was building systems — small, boring, repeatable ones — for my own life first, and then for other people's businesses.

This website is the record of that. It's part public notebook, part library, part small business. I'd rather it read like a person than a brand.

What I'm building

Three things, at the same time:

• A body of writing about rebuilding, learning, and the systems that make ordinary effort compound.
• A freelance practice helping small businesses design workflows and operating systems that reduce overwhelm — the Systems work.
• A life that I'm not in a hurry to perform. Some of that shows up in the Journal, unpolished on purpose.

What I believe, currently

That most people don't have a motivation problem, they have a systems problem. That documenting things honestly, including the mistakes, is more useful than pretending the mistakes didn't happen. That small, maintained systems beat ambitious ones that collapse after two weeks.

I hold all of this loosely. Part of the point of this site is being able to look back in a year and see what I was wrong about.

What I'm working toward

Financial independence, built slowly and mostly boringly. A freelance practice that doesn't need to become an agency to be worth doing. Fluency in German. And a habit of finishing what I start, which is still the hardest one.

If any of this is useful to you, say hello.