---
title: "Boring fundamentals 🧐"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/boring-fundamentals
published: 2020-05-02
summary: "I'm good at sprints and bad at anything that comes round once a month. My fix: a catalog of boring fundamentals, the rituals I've agreed with myself to keep."
---

# Boring fundamentals 🧐

I think I've got it. My problem with personal growth is that I can't do things that need doing regularly.

I can get inspired by an idea and carry it through for a month or two. I'm good at tasks where you have to untangle a problem, find ways to solve it and put changes in place. With daily habits I've made some progress in recent years, too. But things that need doing once a week, a month or a year are a disaster.

> And yet that's the only way any long-term progress is made: small steps over a long distance.

In practically any area of personal growth, one-off efforts won't do. Be it health, weight control, building skills or managing personal finances, everywhere you have to come back to the question after a while, check against your plans and assess progress. It looks like until now I've been doing this terribly. In business I have similar problems, but there at least you can put other people on the process, make them responsible, and it will somehow work.

In other words, I'm not systematic enough. Why?

## Why a nerd isn't nerdy enough

Maybe it has to do with my psyche, my personality, neuroticism or sharp mood swings. I don't understand these things. Maybe everyone's like this. Or the opposite: other people don't need life hacks to exercise every morning and write down their spending. I'm some kind of nerd who has never been nerdy enough.

What's notable is that the rituals that help you keep going over a long distance don't take much time. They take mental energy and a calm mind. I notice I can only get round to things like reviewing my personal finances on days when I haven't worked on business tasks, have slept well and am in a good mood. Maybe until now I've simply been working myself into the ground all the time, so there was no energy left for what matters. Hello to [Maxim Dorofeev](https://mnogosdelal.ru/), a Russian productivity author, who explains this well in his talks and books. I like this explanation better than the previous one, because it suggests a solution and doesn't let me write my problems off as "well, that's just how I am, what can you do". On the subject, see Carol Dweck on fixed vs. growth mindset.

## What helps when you're not systematic enough

Short-term things, like daily habits, are easy to monitor with a self-observation journal (I learned about it from Dorofeev), a [habit checklist](https://medium.com/@stasparshin/personal-daily-checklist-template-4b9768af5602) or a tracker app. For several years I used Habit Loop Tracker, but now I've gone back to paper.

For long-term control I try to do a weekly review of my systems. I call it the Weekly Review. I'm going to try a Monthly and a Quarterly Review, but I'm in no hurry to load myself up. I used to write up "the month's successes", but I managed it three or four times a year at most. Maybe I'll bring it back. Once a year I draw up a list of values (that works).

Another problem: you have to remember all these reviews or set up reminders. I used to change task management systems all the time (Trello, Todoist, Podio, Wunderlist, too many to count), so long-term reminders didn't help much. Now my personal GTD system has more or less settled, and a recurring Weekly Review task with a simple checklist is already working. I hope I don't blow it off.

Now an important discovery that ties all this together. I realized that rituals and decisions need to be cataloged, so I don't forget what I agreed with myself.

## A catalog of nerdiness

![](https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/boring-fundamentals-1.webp)

**Boring fundamentals** are exactly those useful practices, like a plan for building skills, a personal finance system, a reading list, a calendar of loved ones' birthdays, a catalog of online courses and a password manager.

Last fall I came across the blog of [James Stuber](https://jamesstuber.com/about/), which puts what I'm aiming for perfectly:

> First, master boring fundamentals. Then, play infinite games.

That's how "Build boring systems" appeared on my list of values for 2020, along with a "Boring fundamentals" page in Notion, a catalog of the tools and rituals I'm trying to use. By the way, the page is already moving to the divine Roam, which I hope to write about next time.

## Won't you drown in your systems?

![](https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/boring-fundamentals-2.webp)

I understand there's a risk of losing sight of what it's all for: an interesting life. In everyday life I try to stick to minimalism: use fewer resources and own as few things as possible. Same with managing my life. I like getting results with minimal means. Boring systems are like health insurance and a fire alarm: you make the effort once, set it up, and then keep the system going with minimal effort. The effort of keeping it going has to be minimal, or the system won't take root anyway.

Yesterday was the first of the month. My monthly personal finance checklist popped up in my task feed. I went through it in under an hour: entered the balances of my accounts, set budgets for the main spending categories and made sure I'm moving toward my financial goals. It was easy and pleasant: a system that's set up and working gives you satisfaction, and the feeling that today you beat chaos a little. 🤘