alana's blog

Before jumping into the main topic and getting into the details of it, I want to acknowledge my journey in writing this.

As someone really huge on setting up my productivity systems and workflows, I’ve been procrastinating and incapable of writing and publishing about them. Upon reflection, I figured that this mental block comes from a fear that my system is not good enough to be shared. There are many great articles out there, how would mine be any valuable out there?

Again, the pattern of perfectionism and setting the bar too high for myself that it causes inaction.

It’s strange that I haven’t been writing about it because it is a pet topic of mine, and I love talking about it with friends who are also interested to hear about this. In the spirit of overcoming perfectionism and learning in public, I’ve convinced myself that I can share my journey even as I find them “not there yet”. Even as I write, I am uncovering holes to fill, and that has been incredibly helpful in this iteration of my processes.

So here I am, this will be the first essay about setting up my personal knowledge system. Starting with the origin story of how I came to enjoy diving deep into this topic, and the obstacles that got in my way, and how my thinking has evolved over the years.

In subsequent posts, I’ll dive into specific parts of the system like Weekly Reviews, and my reading/note-taking workflow.

Here we go!

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January was such a roller coaster ride. The first day I came back online from year end break, received news of being laid off on a call with the directors while I was in my KL airbnb apartment. I was given garden leave, so I could drop everything to let my emotions slowly sink in. I felt it physically at first, a sinking feeling in my stomach trying to process the fact that I’m no longer stably employed. My mind was racing with a hundred and one things to do next. Reaching out to impacted team mates, telling close friends and family, trying to lean in to my support system as much as I could.

It was a shift in how I handled sudden life changes. I was surprised my reaction was not to cry first, as it has usually been growing up with big intense emotions.

The change may be due to my open-ended-ness and learnings I accumulated about myself over the years. I no longer attach my self worth and identity to a single thing like work.

I’m starting to see my life like a book without an ending, a choose-my-own-adventure. Or to take a gaming analogy, since this main quest I’ve been playing has came to an abrupt end, I can go on other side quests to keep myself occupied. Farm for exp while I find another main quest to embark on. A pretty fun game to play, I think!

Of course, being laid off comes with many feelings, not all of them pleasant.

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I seem to always post my year in reviews a few days late because the draft of this post usually starts somewhat like a thought dump of what I did in the past year, and it becomes too much of a task to get it distilled into concise and readable document. It still isn’t much of a polished thing now, but I need to move on from the previous year and focus on the now.

Word of the year: Courage

I’ve continued to dive into experiences that I’ve not done before. This year holds many firsts for me. Performing in a dance recital. Living out of my suitcase and trialing the nomadic life. Riding a scooter. Saying no to things and people that aren’t good for my mental/emotional energy.

For the past few months I’ve repeatedly had people tell me, “you’re so brave for doing what you do”. Maybe I am starting to believe this, and will continue taking chances and taking brave steps. I feel truly alive from having agency to make these choices and thriving in the unknown.

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