The Stratagem’s Archive

Category: Personal growth

  • Chores as a Creative Secret Weapon: How Cleaning Sparks Ideas

    Don’t Avoid Your Chores—Do THEM!!!

    Chores aren’t distractions from creativity — they’re invitations to it. They’re the quiet rhythm between our thoughts, the white noise that lets real ideas sneak through.

    Ever since I started my self-imposed writing schedule while juggling work and life, I thought my best ideas only came when I was busy. Turns out, that’s a lie.

    My best ideas also appear when I’m doing something boring — scrubbing the tub, folding laundry, wiping down the counter.

    Chores, it turns out, are part of my secret creative weapon.

    Work can be chaotic, repetitive, monotonous—sorry, boring as SHIT—at times. I don’t care what industry you’re in, there is no way that someone hasn’t had this thought pass through their head not ONCE in their lifetime. Whether you’re an entry worker, manager, self-employed, or a business owner, this thought makes us human, okay? 

    Chores are the same. Just with less lifting heavy freight or cleaning broken glass, and more laundry detergent and a bag of waste and trash. 

    Stop pretending to be androids in disguise alright? We don’t have that kind of public kind of access. Yet. 

    Anyways, back to the topic at hand.

    Work is mandatory and we’ll get reprimanded by higher ups if we don’t get our work done, right? You know what else will give us backlash if we don’t do them? 

    Our chores.

    Why do we have to villainize our chores that it has to be considered the “elephant in the room?” Or chores are “the frog we have to eat first?” We’re human, our schedules might not allow us to put 5 minutes to meditate, or let us take a walk if your brain is constantly on high alert-no time to wind down and relax.

    The only reason I brought up chores is because they, like majority of our jobs(don’t lie to me here, Janet!) are boring as FUCK!!!.

    I’m not saying there aren’t people who don’t enjoy cleaning, but I’m in the middle majority that does my chores to:

    • Get it out of the way and over with.
    • I have to feel productive for a few minutes on my days off.
    • And I usually get some idea to write down and explore later on.

    Because, from personal experience, I can tell you;

    You can’t invite new ideas into a cluttered head when your place looks like a homicide crime scene.

    What Kind of Ideas Were Born From Auto-Pilot Tasks?

    A lot. A lot of ideas were born from doing nothing but my mundane chores. Most of my best ideas didn’t come from deep focus. They came while I was scrubbing the tub or folding my clean clothes sitting in the basket for 1 week. Boredom is the brain’s open tab — it invites things in when you finally stop forcing them.

    All of the things you’re likely avoiding, or have hired someone to do it for you(sorry, Big Bucks over here can afford help. I’m kidding, that’s a different kind of help people need in their lives too, but I digress), such as having a clean space that you’ll be living in for as long as you possibly can has a HUGE amount of benefits.

    Plus, let’s be real, no one wants to have an unkempt living space if they can help it, right? 

    When A TV Show Is Actually Relatable and Memorable

    There’s a tv series, if someone knows what it’s called let me know, I’m too lazy to go looking for it myself, where a woman takes on a cleaning job with a pregnant woman with 2 young children. Her home is a hoarder’s paradise.

    The reason this was impactful to me, wasn’t the mess, but rather how both of the women was interacting with each other; the pregnant woman isn’t able to pay her help more than she wish she could and she’s afraid to let go of her children’s things. To her, these things were her children’s childhood, memories for all of them to hold onto. But the mom is the only one holding on to tightly.

    The helper, a single mom who’s taking on these cleaning jobs to care for her young daughter, told the other woman something along the lines that, “her and her children need space to grow too.”

    That line — ‘her and her children need space to grow too’ — hit me harder than any productivity hack I’ve tried. It wasn’t just about cleaning a house. It was about what happens when we don’t make room for our own, and the people in our lives, growth.

    This wasn’t in your face, loud, or obnoxious like some people who tell people to get their shit together. This was gentle, like an open and extended hand, and I kept that line in mind since I saw it on a YouTube short.

    We All Need Space To Grow

    Take a look at the people in your life whether or not this is true. Sure, maybe the people in your life aren’t best selling authors, Nobel prize winners, or anything like that.

    But certainly you’ve noticed that your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, cousins, siblings(older, middle, and younger), children, guardian, friend(s), stranger in the street, your OCD coworker, or even yourself, has their own system of chaos, no?

    How they were able to figure out things that your ADHD ass struggled to figure out, right?

    You don’t have to defend yourself here, I’m not calling you out on anything. I’m inviting you to be more mindful of what people could be doing that might be pushing them ahead of the curve that meditation, nootropics, binaural beats, or walking can’t be complete without.

    You don’t need a meditation app or a Himalayan salt lamp to clear your mind. Sometimes you just need to wash the damn dishes — because when your hands are busy, your brain finally has room to breathe.

    Trust me, it’s why I published this post a lot later than my usual posting times. I’ve been feeling tired, weak, and under the weather, being up for nearly 24 hours in the last 5 days of working, and my chores were glaring at me when I just wanted to stay asleep until the world ends.

    Call to Action: Sit, Clean, Think

    Try it for a day or a week. Do your chores while keeping a small notebook nearby. Capture the ideas that appear while your hands are busy and your mind is quietly wandering.

    Become a Fellow Archivist At Your Pace

    If this post resonated with you, I’d be grateful if you’d like, subscribe, or share it. Doing so helps grow this little corner of the internet of mine.

    Subscribing will allow you all become “Fellow Archivists”, and will join my Newsletters, Letters from the Void Newsletter, directly into your inbox first—reflections, ideas, projects, and thoughts born from the dead of night—before everyone else.

    Thank you for taking the time to sit quietly with me, for carving out a few moments of reflection from your own hectic schedule. Your presence matters here, and your attention is part of this archive too.

    Thank You for Reading to the End

    If you’d like to explore more of the archives, feel free to check out my other works down below.

    Irrelevant, But Impactful Posts

  • Where Do Frameworks and Tools End and Our Thinking Begin?

    Tools Are Supposed to Help Us, Right?

    I’ve tried just about everything in the name of “self-improvement.”

    Apps, challenges, journals, lessons — all promising clarity and control.

    But after all that effort, nothing in my life was actually changing.

    I wasn’t lazy. I wasn’t unmotivated. I was simply outsourcing my thinking.

    The Mighty Network Experiment

    I joined The Daily Stoic’s Mighty Network app for their Spring Forward Challenge 2025 — a two-week program to clean up every part of your life. Room, car, home, phone, even your habits. I was excited to finally join a community, to do something that felt constructive.

    And for a while, I did enjoy it. I joined the “Tame Your Temper” course too because, truthfully, I have one. I wanted to be a good student of Stoicism. Then, like a light switch, I stopped.

    The app just sat there on my home screen. I’d scroll past it daily, but never felt the need to open it again. I wasn’t avoiding it — I was just… done.

    At first, I thought that meant I’d failed. But something deeper was stirring in the background. I wasn’t burned out. I was waking up.

    The Realization

    The challenges and courses weren’t bad. They were designed to guide me — to give me structure and show me a path. The problem wasn’t the tools. The problem was how I used them.

    I was following instructions without questioning whether they fit my life, my habits, or my values. I’d become a student again — memorizing, not learning. Regurgitating, not applying.

    It’s a familiar pattern, isn’t it?

    When Learning Becomes Substituting

    I moved on to other self-improvement apps — like The Alux app, which focuses on the “five pillars” of a good life: finances, emotional health, intellect, relationships, and physical well-being. The lessons were solid, but they all shared one flaw:

    They told me what to do, rarely why, and never how to think for myself.

    Then, one evening during a quiet five-minute meditation — right before my alarm (fittingly called “Thunder Bringer”) went off — it hit me:

    The real work doesn’t happen in an app.

    It doesn’t live inside someone else’s framework.

    It happens here — in the silence, in reflection, in the moments when you ask:

    “Does this even make sense for me anymore?”

    Frameworks can guide, but they can’t think for you. They can’t teach discernment — only experience can. Once you learn enough from a tool, the real challenge begins: knowing when to put it down and trust your own judgment.

    That’s when growth stops being theoretical — and becomes real.

    Practicing Autonomy with Money

    One framework that truly helped me was Ramit Sethi’s “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”

    It taught me how to manage my money and start building my version of a rich life.

    I’ve been aggressively paying down debt, investing consistently, automating my finances, and slowly rebuilding my emergency fund. I don’t follow Ramit’s percentages to the letter — I adjusted them to fit my situation.

    I prioritize paying off debt first. My “guilt-free spending” comes from simple pleasures: home-cooked meals, protein shakes that don’t wreck my stomach, donating to my local animal sanctuary, or treating family to dinner.

    That’s the key difference now: I learned from the framework, then made it mine.

    When the lessons became habits, I didn’t need the framework anymore.

    And if Ramit ever finds this — thanks. You taught me to stop chasing financial perfection and start living intentionally.

    What’s Next Now?

    Am I saying we should stop learning? Of course not.

    Some lessons take years to reach us, others appear only when we’re ready.

    But I noticed something important after stepping away from all the apps, videos, and podcasts.

    My life was still the same on paper: same full-time job, same debts, same exhaustion. I still hate how draining work feels, I still get angry and worn down, and I still fight with my own thoughts.

    But the difference is — I’m not looking outside myself for permission to change anymore.

    Philosophy and self-improvement didn’t teach me my values or boundaries. I learned them through hurt, betrayal, ghosting, and years of being a placeholder in other people’s lives.

    No course told me to stop drinking — I did that alone in 2018 when I realized alcohol wasn’t numbing anything, only amplifying it. That’s when I started listening, not to experts, but to my own silence.

    So, Are Frameworks Worthless?

    No. They’re not.

    They’re useful — until they’re not.

    Every framework has a shelf life.

    Use it, learn from it, but know when to outgrow it.

    Because if you’re just keeping a daily streak alive, or checking boxes to “stay consistent,” you might be moving — but not necessarily growing.

    Take a Step Back and See What Happens

    The question is: When was the last time you stopped following a system and started thinking for yourself again?

    This is my challenge to you — especially if you’re deep into the world of self-improvement, philosophy, or productivity hacks.

    Take a step back. Pause.

    Put the app down, skip the next lesson, and just think.

    Ask yourself:

    • What have I actually learned from this?
    • What can I apply without guidance?
    • What can I let go of now?

    You might find, like I did, that the noise starts to fade — and your own voice starts to return.

    I still hate parts of my life. I still get angry. But that anger taught me to stop tolerating bullshit. That exhaustion taught me that my effort matters. That loneliness taught me how to stand on my own.

    No app could’ve taught me that.

    Only life, and my willingness to really learn, could.

    Reflection for Readers:

    If you’ve been chasing self-improvement for years but still feel stuck, maybe it’s not because you’re failing — maybe it’s because you’ve learned all you can from your current framework. The next lesson might not be in a course or app. It might be waiting in your own reflection.

    If this resonated with you — or if you know someone who’s caught in the same cycle — share this post with them.

    Like it, subscribe, or pass it on to someone who’s ready to start thinking for themselves again.

    Subscribers get access to my Letters from the Void Newsletter before everyone else, behind-the-scenes looks into reflections and projects and progress, and access to my two manifestos.

    You could check them out here with this link for a preview of what it would be like becoming a Fellow Archivist below:

    Two Manifestos + A Gift (For Fellow Archivists)

    I’m glad you took the time to stop by and sit with me a while. It really means more than I could ever express with words. I’m working hard to provide physical stuff to give as a thank you. It’s going to take time, and I’ll let know when they’re ready.

    Start Here With Other Reflections:

    If you liked this article, then you can check out the first post reflecting how self-improvement imprisons us, and how experience shapes us more than “habits and lessons” ever could empower us, in these posts below:

    Or you could check out the archives by clicking on these links below. I’ll see you all there later. Thank you.

  • It Burns. It’s Bright. It Flashes, then Fades. This Trait of Mine, You Say?

    What’s the trait you value most about yourself?

    Simple—It’s My Stubborn Rage

    It hates when something tries to hurt me,

    Screaming to not let things be.

    It yanks, it pulls, it won’t let me rest,

    Not until I do more than “my best.”

    Oh, how stubborn you are, My Rage,

    Knowing how far goes our cage.

    Remembering time pressing down—

    Never letting us play our sound.

    It knows I’m so, so tired,

    Yet Stubborn Rage keeps me wired.

    It won’t ever let me expire,

    Not until this world feels my fire.

    Burn, burn, burn it all to the ground.

    Flash, flash, flash my proof all around.

    Proof that I did not go down.

    “It flashes, then fades — a rhythm I’ve reflected on before in Burning the Candle at Both Ends… For What? and Have You Fully Met Yourself in the Silence?

    If this struck a chord with you, take a moment to explore these reflections, or leave a thought below — your perspective matters here.”

  • The 24-Hour Challenge Aftermath—Something Unexpected Happened in Just One Night

    “I took a 29-hour break from writing to rest and recharge. In this reflection, I explore how stepping away helped me find clarity, face uncertainty, and rethink creativity sustainably.”

    The Mental Reset Hit Me Hard

    A day ago, I finally followed through on a challenge I had written about in three previous posts:

    I was to take 24 hours away from writing and let my mind and body rest. I had ignored my own advice before, rushing back to my blog the second I posted, thinking every second offline was wasted.

    This time, I made it work. I rested. I spent time with my family. I cleaned, I laughed, I ate a proper meal, I even napped. And yes, I went 29 hours instead of 24. But that extra five hours didn’t just extend the challenge — it shifted something in me.

    After publishing my reflection, I found myself staring at my iPad while eating leftovers and thinking:

    “I have no idea what I want to talk about now…”

    Facing the Blank Space

    “But Archivist,” you might ask, “didn’t you already write a reflection?”

    Yes, I did, my pantomiming reader that’s not speaking in my voice. But that was the short-term reflection. Today, in the quiet aftermath, I’m staring at the long-term questions: What comes next? Tomorrow? This week? Next month? Later in the future?

    It’s disorienting. I could keep looking at the next post like a ticking clock, but I don’t want to. I want to feel my way into what matters next — without forcing it.

    Something Unexpected Happened

    What I realized is that rest isn’t just about stepping away. It’s about creating space to notice what you haven’t been seeing. In those 29 hours, I:

    Rediscovered the pleasure of cleaning my own space. Ate without distraction. Spent uninterrupted time with family. Fixed small hazards I’d been ignoring, like moldy shower curtains.

    And in doing all of that, I noticed something bigger: stepping away recharges more than your body. It clears the mental fog that makes even your own words feel heavy.

    The Long-Term Challenge

    So now I’m staring at the future — at the blank screen of tomorrow. And that’s okay. The uncertainty isn’t failure; it’s possibility. It’s permission to explore, experiment, and figure out what resonates, both for me and for the people who quietly follow this corner of the internet.

    I don’t need to have the answers today. I just need to keep showing up — sometimes writing, sometimes resting, sometimes reflecting — and trusting that both the quiet readers and the new ones will find value in the journey.

    Reflection & Call to Action

    Maybe you’ve felt the same way: the fatigue, the pressure to produce, the moment where even your own passion feels foreign. You’re not alone. Rest isn’t giving up. Uncertainty isn’t failure. Both are part of creating sustainably.

    If this resonates with you, drop a comment, share your own experiences, or subscribe to follow along. Every interaction helps others find this little corner of the internet, and reminds us that creativity, rest, and reflection can coexist.

    Keep showing up. Keep exploring. Keep letting the blank pages teach you what matters next.

    My Thanks to All Who Found Themselves Here at the End

    Thank you for taking the time to read this post from the beginning to end. You could have spent your time doing anything else, but you chose to spend it here in this little pocket of the internet with me.

    I’d like to share with all you readers a few things that I’ve made that you can check out at anytime curiosity strikes.

    No pressure, no guilt, just for whenever you feel like looking into the gifts I’ve prepared here.

    Other Posts You Could Check Out