Welcome to Verstreuen—meaning “to scatter”—where I unpack the ideas I’ve collected this week in my 🗃️ Zettelkasten, “note box,” personal knowledge management system. Here, I’ll share the highlights, insights, and stories I find interesting—and I think you will too!

This Week’s Highlights

From a LinkedIn article and book The Richest Man in Babylon, these three ideas stood out:

1. The Seven Types of Laziness (and How to Overcome Them)

2. Preparation: The Key to Seizing Opportunity

3. Why Specific Goals Outperform Vague Aspirations

Laziness has been both a blessing and a curse in my life. On the bright side, it has driven me to find efficient, creative ways to achieve my goals with less effort. But chronic procrastination has led to missed opportunities, unnecessary stress, and the lingering regret of “what if.”

This post offered an interesting new way to categorize laziness for me, providing a new lens to identify its causes and possible solutions to better handle the feeling in the future.

**🗃️**

For years, I’ve focused on maximizing opportunities in my decision-making. Moving to New York, taking a corporate job that exposed me to enterprise-level challenges, and building a presence online were all efforts to increase the number of opportunities within my reach—expanding my "luck surface area" (How to Create Luck). My reasoning is simple: the more opportunities you have, the more pathways to success you create.

But this quote reminded me of an important truth: opportunities don’t wait around. They reward those who are ready to act with confidence and decisiveness.

The key insight here is that preparation—not the sheer quantity of opportunities—is what transforms opportunities into results.

For me, the real breakthrough is aligning opportunities with your preparation, which allows for confident and immediate action.

For instance, I recently attended a Notion networking event with the specific goal to talk with others about Tangram.Tools, a collection of tools by founders for founders. Because I had done the groundwork building Notion tools and defining the target audience, I was able to confidently bring it up at the right moments, leading to a new promotion for the website in a prominent founders newsletter.

This experience reinforced the lesson: preparation doesn’t just help you recognize opportunities—it empowers you to capitalize on them effectively. It’s not about chance; it’s about being deliberate and ready when the moment comes.

**🗃️**

Goals are powerless without clarity. Saying you want to “be successful” or “be wealthy” doesn’t provide a clear target. Defining specific, actionable goals gives you something tangible to pursue.

Over the past year, I’ve realized the power of not just thinking about goals but writing them down. Writing forces you to refine your ideas, turning vague aspirations into concrete plans—and ultimately into accomplishments.

One of the most effective approaches I’ve found combines a goal-setting framework with a goal-aligned to-do list, like the GIST framework:

• Goals: What do you want to achieve?

• Ideas: What strategies or approaches can help you?

• Steps: What are the key milestones?

• Tasks: What actionable items need to be completed?

To ensure my goals are both actionable and impactful, I follow a checklist that keeps them structured:

• Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? Define it in detail.

• Measurable: How will you know when you’ve succeeded? Quantify it.

• Attainable: Is it realistic, given your resources and constraints?

• Relevant: Does this goal align with your bigger-picture objectives?

• Time-bound: When will you achieve it? Set clear deadlines.

• Positively stated: Frame it as something you will do, not something to avoid.

• Challenging: Push yourself out of your comfort zone—but don’t overwhelm.

• Recorded: Written goals are far more likely to be achieved than those kept in your head.

For example, instead of vaguely saying, “I want more people to know about Tangram.Tools,” I set a clear, specific goal: “Drive 1,000 monthly views reliably to Tangram.Tools by the end of the next quarter.”

With this target in mind, I broke it down into actionable steps: promoting the site through networking, creating relevant content, and strategically reaching out to my audience. This approach not only helps me track progress but also allows me to stay focused and make adjustments as needed.

By setting tangible goals and aligning my actions, I turned a vague desire into measurable results.

**🗃️**

Closing Thoughts

Reflecting on laziness, opportunity, and goals this week, one theme stood out: progress happens when you stop running on autopilot and take deliberate action.

• Laziness isn’t a fixed trait—it’s a challenge to solve.

• Opportunities aren’t random—they favor preparation.

• Goals don’t work unless they’re made clear and actionable.

The real difference comes from doing, not just thinking. Whether it’s overcoming procrastination, preparing for future opportunities, or setting tangible goals, even the smallest actions move you forward.

Thanks for reading Verstreuen

Thanks for taking the time to explore and reflect on my notes with me. If any ideas particularly resonated or challenged you, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

👋 Until next week.

-GH

Have feedback? Let me know—I'd love to hear from you!