First step to learn from your past is to record it in a way that is easy to look back and make inferences. Zeroth step is to build a tool to do it

Now, which is hard? First step or the Zeroth step?

On first thought, Step zero sounds hard and on second thought, step zero sounds unnecessary to achieve the first step. Why do we have digital diaries for? Why not use a simple note taking app with feature to search across notes taken everyday?

So I started to record the important things (related to what I wanted to improve on) in a digital note taking app that creates a new page everyday. One month passed, Two months passed, six months passed before I knew it. Awesome I thought to myself and started my half-yearly review process… Hmmm where to start with? I cannot read all the 6 months contents… Well lemme just skim through looking for a specific topic in my notes, here it is, move on, more of it here and more there… great now what do I infer from it? nothing much. May be I should have reviewed it more frequently to realise that I have not made much progress. Hmmmm, but it is not efficient to read through like this multiple times for every topic / theme that is surfacing…

Aaaah… Now I understand the importance of step zero… What will help me to look back pretty much every week for all the topics atleast to realize that I have not done much for some. I went into the cave and meditated for nearly 2 months to come out with this!