How I Stumbled Into Joey Gabbay’s Stuff
So I was scrolling through my feed feeling kinda blah yesterday. Work was stalled, couldn’t focus. Saw this post mentioning “Joey Gabbay’s key methods” for making progress. Honestly? Never heard of him before. But the title promised “simple steps,” so I figured, “Eh, what’ve I got to lose? Let’s see what this dude’s about.” Opened a blank note on my phone, ready to just wing it.
The Weird Notebook Routine
The first method was all about dumping your brain onto paper. Every. Single. Morning. Sounded kinda cheesy, honestly. “Morning Pages” some people call it. I grabbed this old, half-used notebook shoved in my drawer. Next morning, before even checking my phone, I started scribbling. Seriously, anything: “Coffee’s brewing… Why is this notebook so ugly?… That meeting today gonna suck…” Didn’t edit, just let it flow. Filled three whole pages. Felt… lighter? Weird. Like decluttering my head before the day even started.
The Ugly Task List Hack
Gabbay said to then make the ugliest task list possible. No fancy apps, no colors. Just pen and paper. Scribbled down the 2-3 biggest things bugging me. Didn’t worry about order or if they made sense. Mine looked like:
- Fix stupid printer error (AGAIN).
- Call Mom back (avoiding her… crap).
- Figure out that confusing invoice thing.
No detail, just raw stuff stressing me. Slapped it down next to my keyboard. Surprisingly, just seeing it written made the huge problems seem smaller. Less scary monster, more annoying chore.
Actually Taking the Step
This was the key part: “Just Do The First Obvious Tiny Thing.” For the printer? Step one wasn’t “fix printer,” it was “google printer model + error code”. That took 30 seconds. For Mom? “Text Mom: Call u after work?” Sent. Done. Didn’t solve everything, but broke the freeze. For the invoice, step one was just opening the damn email it was in. Felt stupidly simple, but each tiny action made the next one easier. Didn’t get everything done, but knocked chunks off each big, scary rock.
My Messy First Day
Honestly? Printer still kinda sucks, but I found the driver update page. Mom’s happy I texted. Invoice is half figured out. The morning pages made me less foggy. The ugly list showed the real monsters. The “first tiny thing” approach got me moving. It wasn’t magic, didn’t finish everything. But I stopped staring at the walls and actually shoved stuff forward. Felt way better than yesterday’s stuck-in-mud feeling. Simple? Yeah. Obvious? Maybe. Did I need reminding? Apparently YES. Gotta try this again tomorrow.
