Matt Tilmann

Stop confusing a good chart with a good argument. There are so many reviews where 40 perfectly formatted slides often produce zero decisions. Hard truth: your audience came to get their problem solved. The analysis is your evidence.

I don't write about screen time because I think phones are evil. I write about it because at 9:47 most nights, after a full day of eye contact and small talk and pretending the grocery store lights aren't a sensory event, my nervous system files for unemployment. The phone is the cheapest dark corner I can find. What looks like a content strategy is just me mapping my own burnout. If it made you feel less alone in yours, that's the kind of accident I'll take.

After 15 years managing corporate budgets, I got good at one thing: tools that actually earn their keep. Here's my full toolbox — apps, platforms, and resources I use daily as a dad, analyst, and creator. Investing. Email. Podcasting. AI. Note-taking. Something in here works for where you are right now. Link below ⬇️

One of my favorite books on managing information just dropped to $3.99 as an eBook. Building a Second Brain by @fortelabs. Regular price is $14.99. Sale ends May 24. If you've ever felt like your best ideas disappear into the void, this is the book that explains why and what to do about it. Link below 👇

You took the time off. You said no. You slept. And still. That quiet wrongness. The sense your days are pointed somewhere you didn't mean to go. Overexertion responds to doing less. Depletion responds to real rest. Misalignment burnout doesn't respond to either. Less work won't touch it. More rest won't touch it. What it needs is a redesign. You can't rest your way to a better aim.

Click here for more: mittendad.substack.com/p/my-toolbox-t…

1/ You know when you have 47 content ideas scattered across Apple Notes, saved posts, screenshots, and that one Google Doc you keep pretending is organized? Yeah. That’s the mess @edendotso and @thedankoe are trying to clean up.

One idea from Ikigai I keep coming back to: Purpose gets easier when you treat it like a pattern. Look at what you keep returning to. The work you keep caring about. The people you keep showing up for. The problems that keep bothering you. The activities that leave you tired in a good way. That’s useful information. You don’t need a cabin and a leather journal for this. Although sure, the cabin wouldn’t hurt.

You know when you’re trying to build a life with purpose, but the day is mostly emails, snacks, appointments, dishes, and a kid asking where their other shoe went? Same. Ikigai sounds huge until real life gets involved. Then it gets smaller. What did I do today that matched the life I say I care about? That’s the version I can work with. What’s one tiny thing you did today that counts?

Grab it here while the sale's on: amzn.to/3R92kYZ (affiliate link, small cut to me, no extra cost to you) Already read it? Gift it to someone building with Obsidian, Notion, or Claude. They'll thank you.

I don't write about systems because I have it together. I write about them because people keep telling me I seem like I do, and the gap between what they see and what's actually happening in my head is so wide it's almost funny. Almost. Everything on this page is the scaffolding behind a building that looked finished from the street. The blueprint wasn't for you. But you're welcome to it.

The question before the answer: Lead with what your audience is actually worried about, then show what you found. If you want your analysis to move people, answer the question they came in with. Create a room where data is how decisions get made, not how they get avoided.

Specific moment over general trend: "Numbers broke in March" is a story. "Q1 performance declined" is a data point. Decision over description: Every slide should change what someone does or believes. Earn its place or lose it.