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 think you will too!

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🗃️ This Week’s Highlights

This week's notes come from 46 new additions to the Zettelkasten—here’s the three that stood out most to share with you:

🟨 The Productivity Habit That’s Mistaken for Progress (But Borders on Insanity)

🟦 The One Variable That Quietly Controls Your Pace

🟥 Think Bigger: The Counterintuitive Trick to Making Massive Leaps

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on growing my Twitter account alongside this newsletter. It’s been going well—I’ve gained nearly 500 new followers! But recently, the strategy that had been working has started to fall flat.

I had settled into a rhythm: schedule content for the month, check in every eight hours to engage with people in communities I thought would enjoy Verstruen.

But when things stopped working, I wasn’t sure what to do so I just pushed harder—same strategy, more effort. Still lack luster results. I wasn’t improving, I was just repeating the same actions and expecting different outcomes, literally the definition of insanity.

The repetition felt productive, but without feedback, it led to stagnation.

What I really needed was iteration. Not just doing the same thing—but doing, learning, adjusting, and improving.

Repetition is habit. Iteration is progress.

So, what have I learned that I can actually apply to my Twitter strategy?

Not all interactions are equal—some lead to far more engagement than others. I’ve started refining which accounts and communities I engage with, so I can make the most of the time and energy I’m putting into growth.

The takeaway?
Don’t mistake motion for progress especially when things stop working. It’s easy to default to more effort but sometimes the smartest move is to pause, reflect, and redirect.

Repetition burns energy. Iteration builds momentum.

—🗃️—

Lately, I’ve been feeling the effects of working at speed. The pace is relentless—timelines move fast, decisions are made on the fly, and deliverables are expected yesterday. In all that urgency, it’s easy to lose sight of quality and default to momentum.

That tension led me to a deceptively simple idea from Untools:
Our level of confidence should shape how we work.

Untools maps the trade-off between speed and quality not to time or talent, but to confidence—in the problem, the solution, or both. And in fast-moving environments, that distinction becomes incredibly useful.

Because it’s not just about moving quickly.
It’s about knowing when to slow down, when to press forward—and why.

🟦 Low confidence in the problem | "Do users really care about this?"
Prioritize speed. Ship quickly, validate early, and focus on learning. You’re not polishing here—you’re testing whether the problem is worth solving.

🟩 High confidence in problem and solution | "We know what matters, and how to solve it."
Prioritize quality. Now’s the time to go deep—build carefully, polish thoroughly, and invest in excellence. This work has lasting value.

🟨 High confidence in the problem, low confidence in the solution | "This is worth solving—but we’re still figuring out how."
Balance speed and quality. Move with care. Seek feedback early, iterate quickly, and focus on learning without sacrificing execution.

Confidence isn’t binary—it’s a spectrum. But making your assumptions explicit helps guide smarter decisions.

The real shift for me? Realizing speed vs. quality isn’t just about urgency.
It’s about clarity: knowing what you’re sure of—and adjusting your pace accordingly.

When your speed matches your certainty, you don’t just move faster.
You move smarter.

Build fast when it’s smart.
Build well when it’s worth it.

—🗃️—

Here’s a paradox worth sitting with:
Making something 10× better can actually be easier than making it 10% better.

Why? Because 10% keeps you close to what already exists. You tweak. You polish. You optimize around constraints that may no longer be relevant.

But 10×? That demands something bolder. It asks you to start over—to question the default, challenge assumptions, and reimagine the entire frame.

You shift from:

• Polishing → Reinventing

• Optimizing → Rethinking

• Incremental fixes → Bold redesigns

10% improvement asks: How can I do this better?
10× thinking asks: What if this were completely different?

For example:

• 10%: How do I get more newsletter signups?
  10×: What would make people share this unprompted?

• 10%: How can I exercise more consistently?
  10×: What would it take to become someone who moves every day without question?

That’s the real unlock:
10× thinking doesn’t just change the outcome. It upgrades the questions.

And if there’s a theme in this edition, it’s this: sometimes real progress requires not just better execution, but better ambition.

So here’s mine:

✨ What would 10x Verstreuen look like?
I’ve been thinking about this myself—how to not just grow, but rethink what this project could be if I aimed for breakthrough, not just better.

So I’d love to hear from you:
If you were building a 10x version of Verstreuen, what would it look like?
Reply to this email—I read every one.

—🗃️—

Closing Thoughts

This week’s notes all circled around growth—but not the polished, optimized kind.
The real kind. The kind that demands something of you.

• Iteration sounds productive—until it means discarding what you’ve spent months perfecting.

• Confidence sounds efficient—until you’re asked to sit with and confront what you don’t know.

• 10x sounds visionary—until you realize it might mean walking away from everything to explore the unknown.

Real growth isn’t just a new strategy.
It’s letting the process shape you.

Because if the work isn’t changing you—it probably isn’t changing anything else either.

Thanks for reading Verstreuen! 👋 Until next week -GH