The road to Braindrop
I spent the majority of 2024 considering my next chapter.
Alongside the team at Good Work I’d spent the previous 10 years starting, running and optimizing the company into a well oiled machine. For the last few years, it simply ‘just worked’.
There’s a lot of chatter about how chaotic life can be at a digital agency, but that’s not Good Work. We grow steadily each year, we work sensible hours, and excel at things most similar companies struggle with—like clear communication and smooth project execution. It’s a truly great company, and I’m incredibly proud of what we built there.
But it no longer needed my particular skillset on a day-to-day basis. The business required roughly 5 hours a week of my time which is great and also not fulfilling.
I’m a jump off the cliff with the idea of building a parachute and make sure it’s finished before I hit the ground kind of guy, and I get antsy once the parachute is complete. For Good Work, the parachute is complete, and it was time for the company to soar with it.
And for me, it was time to find another cliff.
As I mentioned in “Hello, world!”, I considered all sorts of stuff and eventually landed on building this little software company. It’s a perfect match for my skillset and what I want to do with my time. Knowing what I know now (which only took 18 years of working) this is the thing that I was made to make (forever).
Something I’ve always been curious and intentional about is the ability to focus, and I knew that I wanted my first app to have something to do with this.
There are a few ways to process the stuff that flies at you throughout your day:
- Take action on things as they pop into your head (interrupting flow)
- Keep everything floating around in your head while trying to focus (mental gymnastics, anxiety, etc.)
- Prioritize one thing at a time while quickly capturing other thoughts for later processing.
It’s easy to let the firehose of life rule your day; it takes intentionality and discipline to take control of it yourself. I see this all over the place: parents, business owners and everyone in between.
Life is hard if you don’t have a system for processing it.
My focus strategy is straightforward: capture everything in one place, process it later. Texts, emails with important attachments, words coming out of people’s mouths, random ideas—all get forwarded to myself while I continue whatever I’m currently doing. I regularly sort this collection into to-dos, someday lists, blog ideas, and files. This system keeps my mind clear and my days structured.
Braindrop is built to help you prioritize one thing at a time while quickly capturing other thoughts for later processing. From a high level, we’re creating two superpowers…
The ability to quickly:
- Capture your thoughts and move on.
- Process your thoughts later.
Yes, there are already ways to do this. There are todo lists galore, and notes, and Siri and calendars and GTD, etc. But Braindrop is for the people who, even with all of those other options, still feel like everything is a bit chaotic.
There will be no learning curve, no complicated features, no AI. We’re developing simple tools to help you organize your thoughts and get things done. You’ll be able to capture your thoughts, free up your headspace, and take action when you’re ready.
Simplicity will be your superpower.
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