Productivity on Og Maciel's Journal

Crawl, Walk, Run—Rest

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday was a day of quiet time and reflection for me—a forced slowdown after my body decided it had had enough of my constant multitasking and ignored warnings. This entire year has been a relentless stretch of challenges and tight deadlines. Every time someone said it would be impossible to complete a project by a certain date, my response was always the same: hold my beer. Yes, the chaos was self-inflicted. I own that. But what can I say—I have an almost reckless amount of belief in what can be achieved when a group of capable, autonomous engineers who trust each other come together around a shared purpose.

Why I’m Trading SMART Goals for HEART Goals

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was having coffee in my kitchen and browsing Substack when I came across a note from Courtney Cunningham, where she declared that she was done with the so-called SMART goals.

SMART, as you probably know, is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound — a framework for structuring professional and personal goals. If you’re in a leadership position and responsible for helping others achieve their aspirations or close knowledge or behavioral gaps, chances are you’ve heard of SMART goals.

The "Don't Break the Chain" App?

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After writing about the “Don’t Break the Chain” technique, the software engineering side of me got thinking: is there a “Don’t Break the Chain” app similar to the “National Novel Writing Month” (NaNoWriMo) website that lets you track goals on your phone?

Exploring Existing Options

A quick ChatGPT session revealed two potential apps:

“Don’t Break the Chain” - a free iOS app with in-app purchases
Streams - a more modern app with Apple Health integration

Both looked promising for tracking daily habits and maintaining motivation through visual chains of completed days.

Don't Break the Chain

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t remember exactly when I first heard of the Don’t Break the Chain method (or technique, if that’s even what it is), but I remember that it was something people said would help me establish a habit that would stick and also keep me motivated to keep going.

The Origin Story

I asked ChatGPT–who still uses search engines these days?–to show me when it was first mentioned anywhere and it claimed that it was in an article by Brad Isaac for Lifehacker from 2007. I can tell you that I definitely did not read that article and it must’ve been in a book or maybe another article online? I don’t remember.