Writing
Seventeen years of blog posts — 375 of them, from 2009 on — about attention, personal development, organizational design, and living deliberately. For my current writing, subscribe to The Deliberate.
2026
2025
- 2024 Year in Review: Most of the Stuff I Own
- 2024 Year in Review: Training
- 2024 Year in Review: Entertainment
- 2024 Year in Review: Software
- 2024 Year in Review: Reading
2024
2023
2022
- 2022 State of the Sam
- State of the Software in 2022: A Review of the Tools I Use to Live and Work
- Making Deliberate Decisions about the Evolution of My Career: A Seven Year Retrospective and Looking Ahead to What's Next
- An Experiment in Focus, Space, and Making Progress on Something Difficult
- A Race Report From My First Triathlon
- I never properly mourned the end of my hockey career
- Stop trying to change your habits and start playing with Deliberate Patterns instead
- DAOs and Their Evolving Operating Systems
2021
- 2021 In Review
- An Org Designer in the Land of the DAOs
- 2021 State of the Tools
- On Traveling Lightly
- Lessons and Insights From My Four Month Sabbatical: The Final Review
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 15 and 16
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 13 and 14
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 11 and 12
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 9 and 10
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 7 and 8
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 5 and 6
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 3 and 4
- Sabbatical Retrospective: Weeks 1 and 2
- What I’m Thinking About as I Embark on a Sabbatical
- Why Your New Strategy Will Fail
- Building a Morning Writing Routine in Real Time
- A Goodbye Note to Twitter
2020
- Looking Back At My Year of Writing
- My System and Method for Deliberate Personal Development: An Introduction and Overview
- Experiment # 4: Morning Meditation
- Experiment #3: Sustain the Home Routine
- Experiment #2: Green Tea is the New Coffee
- Experiment #1: Do The Work Before Wallowing
- Trying to understand my resistance to second brains, digital gardens, and other interesting note-taking concepts
- Exploring the hard reset
- Recapping My Second "Month of Write" and Looking Ahead to a "Month of Read"
- Carving Out Your Space to Contribute
- Personal development is an expedition, not an exercise in perfection
- "Month of Sit" Recap & a Look at April
- The End of My First "Month of Write"
- In February I'm Going to Write a Shit Ton
- Introducing Focus Months
- How to Engage With an Overwhelming World
- The Year of Intensity/Simplicity
- Looking Back at a Year of Growth, Grief, and Calm
2019
- Seeking Calm and Stability in Tools
- How I'm Going to Do My Annual Review
- A few quick thoughts on WWDC 2019
- Reflections on My Digital Detox: Week 2 and 3
- It’s Time for a Workism Reformation
- Digital Detox, Week 1: Laying Out the Rules and Capturing Some Early Insights
- Crafting a yearly theme instead of New Year resolutions
- Looking Back at 2018
2018
- State of the Apps: 2018
- Use software that sparks joy
- The power of choosing the right verb in living the life you want
- Things I learned when I stopped writing every day
- Focusing on the how in the quest for great work
- The State of the Apps & Tools: 2018
- My 2017 in Books
2017
- Is Technology Destroying My Intuition?
- You Can’t Hide Mediocrity Behind Quantity
- My One Year Anniversary of Becoming a PhD Drop Out
- Eliminating Everything Does Not Spontaneous Genius Make
- The Gap Between Crushing It And Being Crushed
- #mundanelife: An exercise in boring
- Let Me Help You Not Suck At Email So Much
- The Weekly Review and Self-Management of Attention
- Knowledge Work as Craft Work
- I Just Followed You Again And I Promise I’m Not Crazy
- In Which I Have To Critique One Of My Intellectual Heroes: Or, Why Cal Newport Is Wrong
- Making a Weekly Personal Metrics Spreadsheet
- Is Your Organization Amazon-Proof?
- A Minimalist’s WWDC Desires
- A Subtle Mental Shift Is Kind of Rocking My World Right Now
- I Am What I Re-Read
- Nearly
- The Power Usage of Default Apps
- Your Priorities Are Only as Good as What You De-Prioritize
- A Nifty Tool for Making “Priority” Mean Something Again
- Is It Possible to “Be Hungry” Without Working Insane Hours?
2016
- 2016 in Review: Podcasts
- The Dueling Forces of Focus and Curiosity: Following Up on a Minimalism Experiment
- How to Prepare for a Vacation in the Digital Age
- How Does a Minimalist Pack? A Quick Retrospective on a 1-Day Business Trip
- Getting to Essential and Creating Space
- Seeking Quiet in a Noisy World: A Personal Experiment
- Today Is My Last Day as a PhD Student
- Consistency Even Over Tinkering
- Google Software & Apple Hardware: Week 2
- Closing Loops, Sleeping, and PhD Failure. A Look at Some Priorities.
- Week 1 in the Google Universe: Thoughts and Observations
- Real Life Loot: Equipping Yourself With the Right Combo of Software and Hardware
- How to Get an Awesome Job With Your Psychology/Evaluation Graduate Degree
2015
- You Aren’t the Parent of Your Team
- Great Work Only Emerges From Doing Lots of Work
- Travel as a Skill
- On Sight, Blindness, and Stretched Metaphors
- Turning Off the Informational Deluge
- The World Is Your Hard Drive
- On Micro-Transitions and a Sense of Momentum
- An Experiment in First Party Apps
- Clarifying and Pursuing Greatness
- Opening the Informational Aperture
- In the Name of Focus, a Hiatus
- The List #24
- I Was Just Laid Off From My Dream Job... After 3 Weeks
- Getting 1% Better
- Rethinking the Growth and Care of Organizations
- On Being Less Persnickety
- The Emotions of Meaningful Productivity #2: Fear
- Workologism #10: Start from a Place of Strength
- Thoughts on my Imminent Vacation
- The List #23
- The Emotions of Meaningful Productivity #1: "I'm Just Not That Type of Person"
- How to Build More Flow Into Your Work Day
- The List #22
- A Relentless Drive Toward Completion
- How to Take Control of Your Indie Work Career
- The List #21
- Less, Better, Consistent
- Rethinking Normal in the New Year
2014
- Workologism #9: Batch
- Workologism #8: Use Your Workspace as a Tool
- On Building Positive Structure and Getting Better Every Day
- The List #20
- Workologism #7: Get Serious About Ubiquitous Capture
- The Recipe for the Perfect Weekly Plan
- Workologism #6: Keep a Shipped List
- Ego, Personal Development, and Being a Beginner
- The List #19
- Workologism #5: Make a Daily Index Card
- Preparing Yourself for the Organization of the Future
- The List #18
- Workologism #4: Write Emails Outside of Your Email Client
- The Key to Self-Leadership: Don't Break Promises
- The List #17
- The Role of the Individual in the Organization of the Future
- The List #16
- Workologism #3: Use an End of Day Shutdown Routine
- Relaxation in Work
- Workologism #2: Use a Morning Start Up Routine
- Learn to Focus to Stand Apart from the Crowd
- Workologism #1: Multiple Types of Work, Multiple Locations
- A Coaching Case Study: The Challenges of Working From Home
- The List #15
- There Are Some Things $100 Million Can't Buy
- Creating a Sense of Progress
- The List #14
- Digital vs. Analog: The Battle of Productivity Systems
- The List #13
- Write an Article About Checklists; Check
- How To Use Technology to Support Who You Want to Be
- The List #12
- The List #11
- Abraham Lincoln and Growth Mindset
- The Psychology of GTD, Part 3: Flow
- Weekend Reading #10
- Two Tweaks That Massively Improved My Weekly Planning
- The Psychology of GTD, Part 2: Implementation Intentions
- More Ideas About Work That Can't be Taken for Granted
- The Psychology of GTD, Part 1: PsyCap
- Weekend Reading #9
- Apps, Tools, and "Jobs to be Done"
- The Hard Work Before the Creative Work
- Weekend Reading #8
- The Art of Deliberate Practice
- The Surprising Benefits of Increased Structure for Indie Workers
- Boring (But Effective) Advice for Better Work
- The Future of...
- Weekend Reading #7
- How to Trudge Through a Productivity Valley
- Be The Hare, Not the Tortoise
- Weekend Reading #6
- Work-Life Balance vs. Work-Life Integration
- How Your Work Is Like a Chemical Reaction
- Weekend Reading #5
- How To Use a Whiteboard to Stay Organized
- Harnessing Psychological Capital to Make Work Better
- Weekend Reading #4
- The Seven Sins of Independent Work
- How to Make Reflection an Automatic Part of Your Life
- Weekend Reading #3
- A Look Back on My 2013 Summer Productivity Experiment
- Weekend Reading #2
- A Process for Defeating Overwhelm
- Four Ideas We Must Not Take For Granted as Indie Workers
- Weekend Reading #1
- How to Do a Weekly Reset
- Healthy Benefits for the Long Run
- What's Worth Doing Worse?
- Sleep and Exercise Can Not Be Luxuries
- The Uneasy Relationship Between Time and the Indie Worker
- How I Do Email (Sanely)
- Hyperemployment
- On Just Being a Person
- The Builder's High
- The Surprisingly Hopeful Upside of the Milgram Experiments
- Letter Writing as a Tool
- Thoughts on Mindful Sharing
2013
- Chaos Theory, Complexity, and Your Better Life
- Thoughts on a Career Worth Having
- Using the Bi-Weekly Approach to Habit Formation
- How I Use "Things"
- The Process of Boring Work
- Mental State Continuity and Productivity
- Your Life Is Not a Children's Movie
- How to Leverage Success Intelligently
- Death Spirals and Success
- Stoicism and Personal Development
- Stephen King and Starting "Right"
- The Quest to Make Afternoons Not Suck
- Reflecting on Summer Reading
- A Manifesto For Graduate School, Year Three
- Creating Your Productivity Toolbox
- Why Regular Reflection is the Most Important Habit
- Workspace Optimization vs. Workspace Agnosticism
- Stepping Into the Discomfort
- Removing Distractions at the Project Level
- A Glimpse Into My Research on Independent Work
- Time Shift Your Day for Greater Productivity
- Lessons on Work From Sushi, Video Games, and Television
- Achievement Unlocked: Master of Positive Developmental Psychology
- Better Restoration, Better Work
- Bust a Rut By Doing Something Nuts
- You're Probably Thinking About Your Work Too Much
- What's In Your Backpack?
- How to Find More Flow In Your Work
- Making Footprints
- The Anatomy of a Failed Goal
- A Week Without #1: Background Noise
- Learning to Work From a Sandwich Artist
- Deliberately Tiny Steps
- Early 2013 Productivity Tweaks
- "Getting Things Done" and Empowerment
- Mastering the Tools of Knowledge Work: A Craftsman's Approach
- Motivation Isn't Worth It
- On Living With Dignity
- The Practice of Work
- 2012 at SamSpurlin.com
- How To Do an End of Year Review
- State of the Sam: 2012 Edition
2012
- The Space Between What You Want and What They Think
- How to Break Procrastination With Just a Journal
- Utilizing Space to Improve Your Work
- Morning Wins
- The Silent Majority
- Lessons Learned From A Failed Week
- Harnessing Flow to Craft a Meaningful Career
- The Indie Worker In Each of Us
- Sanity, Grad School, And Doing Cool Stuff
- A Letter To The Freshmen
- Time Management or Energy Management
- Video Games Have Flow Figured Out
- A Paradox Of Personal Development: Self Acceptance vs. Self Improvement
- Being Fast Isn't an Advantage Anymore
- Small Changes, Big Effect
- Predictors of Success: Growth Mindset
- Make Yourself Uncomfortable to Unlock Your Subconscious Mind
- 30 Days Will Not Change Your Life
- What Is Positive Psychology?
- Get Out of Your Own Way
- The Role of Curation in a True GTD System
- Sometimes I Do Dumb Things
- The Life Reboot
- Freedom on my Terms
- Putting a Number on the Entirety of Your Existence
- Is Your Passion Making You Unhappy?
- The Simple Truths of Happiness from the Dalai Lama
- Predictors of Success: Grit
- Distraction is Procrastination
- Developing an Autotelic Personality, or, How to Enjoy Everything
- Attention to Detail vs. The Curse of Perfectionism
- A Year Without Meat
- The Experimenting Self
- Clutter and How It's Ruining Your Life
- Beyond Task Management
- Values Don't Make Your Life Better
- Are You Making an Ass of Yourself With Assumptions?
- 4 Productivity Lessons I've Learned From the Most Intense 4 Months of My Life
2011
- The Power of the Weekly Review (Part Two)
- The Power of the Weekly Review ( Part One )
- Where Have All the Interesting People Gone
- The Power of the Project: A Framework for Finding Passion and Meaning in Your Life
- New Year's Resolutions in October: Getting 2012 Started Right
- Start Where You Are
- How to Maintain Control During Times of Strife
- Three Lessons I Learned from TEDx
- The Many Paths to Happiness
- Values and Living Life Fully
- The Quickest Way to Improve Your Personal Development
- Harnessing the Power of Questions
- Values Drive Motivation
- Introduction to Flow
- Going Pro With Your Personal Development
- The Perks of Clean Lines
- How I Used Minimalism to Jolt Myself Out of Complacency
- My Forthcoming Digital Sabbatical
- Why I Do Weird Things and You Should To
- Future Me Is Awesome
- We've Been Doing Passion Wrong
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
- Living Consciously to Improve the World
- The Root of Laziness
- Developing Your "Personal Development Gospel of Wealth"
- Why I'm Re-opening My Facebook Account
- What Does Productivity Even Mean to You?
- What I've Learned From a Month of Being a Vegetarian
- Why Getting Punched In the Face Was Worth It
- Living Like a Hockey Player: Playoff Edition
- Resetting the Defaults Across Your Life
- Who Decides Whats Good Enough For You
- The Anatomy of a Major Life Change
- Focus vs. Doing Work
- What The Future Holds
- Why I'm Taking a Digital Semi-Sabbatical
- Breaking the Alliance of Perfection and Procrastination
- Adjusting Your Macro-Focus
- How Do You Know What You're Capable Of?
- Obliviousness Is Not a Valid Path to Simplicity
- Old-Fashioned Augmented Humanity
- On Blogging Without The Internet
- It's Not the Tools, It's the Carpenter
- Out of Sight Minimalism
- Living Beyond Books
- Why I'm Deleting My Facebook Account
2010
- Why You Should Focus on Process, Not Results
- This Is What I'm Teaching
- Keep Your Stick On the Ice
- The Power of Deep Practice
- Living In the Midst of Your Mistakes
- Simplifying Isn't Easy
- The Slippery Nature of Planning
- Rethinking Necessity in a World of Abundance
- Three Areas of Your Life You Can Gain More Control Over Today
- Five Tips to Take Your Learning Off Autopilot
- Earning Achievements in You: The Videogame
- Dominate Your Laziness Today
- A Tribute to John Wooden
- Moving Beyond the Low-Hanging Fruit of the Simplicity Movement
- "Bored" Is a Dirty Word
- Are You Too Comfortable?
- Three Ways to Take Control of Information Overload
- Your Most Important Relationship is With Yourself
- Five Tips to Shatter Your Productivity Bottleneck
- How to Use the Path of Least Resistance Productively
- Four Ways to Close the Open Loops that are Driving You Nuts
- How do You Stay Motivated Through Monotony?
- Three Reasons We Like Reading Common Sense Advice
- Paradoxical Simplicity
- The Simplest Task Management System Ever
- The Hierarchy of Simplification
- Stop Worrying About What You Can't Control
- Values "Next Actions"
- Five Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People
- There's No Speed Limit
- How to Leverage Low Energy Into High Returns
- The Essentials of Simplicity, Part 3
- The Essentials of Simplicity, Part 2: Purging
- The Essentials of Simplicity, Part 1: Using All You Have
2009
- The Autotelic Personality in Action
- Getting to the Source of Your Procrastination
- Simplifying Your New Year's Resolutions
- Slay Monsters with Your Self-Discipline
- The Beauty of the Late Night Mind Dump
- Using Your Free Time to Support Your Passions
- Quality Over Quantity is the Core of Simplicity
- The Role of Self-Discipline in Self-Development