I learned how to file papers from David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

It might have been better if I had simply become more effective at throwing things away. Then, I wouldn’t have found myself combing through a box filled with ten-year-old notes and supporting information, all meticulously organized.

On the one hand, it was interesting to see a time capsule of where I was in my work a decade ago — how I saw things and what I was hoping for. But whatever had once seemed precious and memorable and worth saving was gone.

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Wow! Eleven. Last year you were double digits, but this year, you’ve got three syllables!

Eleven is a great age. You’re still a kid. You’re still allowed to play on the playground. And at the same time, you’re also very capable. You can play a musical instrument, you can build insanely complex LEGO structures, and you can express sophisticated ideas.

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People are trying to make sense of the passage of time.

Reflecting not only on the past year, they’re attempting to process the past decade, hoping to glean some lessons and understand the trends that shaped the events they’ve just lived through.

If you’re feeling a sense of loss, a fear of missing out, a worry that there’s a party going on without you, let me reassure you: Nobody knows what the heck they’re doing.

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When I first tried to write songs as a teen, I was stuck. I had a few ideas, but nothing seemed complex or interesting enough.

As I built my repertoire of other people’s songs, I had a breakthrough. I realized that most of the songs were built out of simple and familiar patterns. I decided to try writing a song that consisted of only four chords, with two of them repeated extensively to comprise the verses. I finished my first song and was on my way to writing several others.

Was my work notable or groundbreaking? No way! They are cute songs, but they will never make me famous. That’s fine. They showed promise, but they were just like any songs you might expect from a teenage beginner.

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I’m not sure who we have to blame for it. The Puritans? The media? Regardless of where it came from, so many of us have the same problem: We think that doing something worthwhile has to be difficult.

Consider exercise. So many people say that the hate working out. Honestly, if the only way that I could get exercise was to show up at a gym and operate some machinery in a fluorescent-lit room, I would hate working out too. But there are lots of different ways to stay fit. Gardening, building stuff, hiking, playing games…there are a million ways to get some exercise while having fun or accomplishing something meaningful. Why do so many of us assume it has to be miserable?

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I was working with an eighth-grader to solve a challenging math problem.

“I’ve read the solution, but I don’t understand the steps,” he said. “I don’t understand what they did.”

Solving a complex problem is like learning the rules of a complex board game: It’s much easier to understand by playing, not just reading. If you’re not engaging with the problem, the words don’t mean anything.

The answer doesn’t help you much either — the punchline of a joke means little without the setup, and reading the last page of a novel has no resonance if you didn’t spend the time investing in the story.

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