Weekly frameworks on time management, decision-making, and meaningful work. No hustle porn. No 4AM wake-up rituals. Just strategies that work for people with actual responsibilities.
Mental models for faster, better decisions — from daily task triage to career pivots. Thinking tools that compound.
How to design your week around energy, not hours. Calendar structures that protect focus without sacrificing flexibility.
Build personal operating systems that don't require willpower. Lightweight, maintainable, real — not aesthetic productivity theatre.
The gap between what you say matters and what your calendar shows. Monthly exercises to realign time with values.
Beyond Pomodoro. Research-backed attention protocols calibrated to your actual energy cycles and work context.
Long-form pieces deconstructing toxic productivity culture — and replacing it with approaches that sustain over decades, not sprints.
"The time architecture issue changed everything. I stopped blocking my calendar like a CEO and started blocking it like a human with two kids and a commute."
"I've read every productivity book. This newsletter is the first thing that made me stop reading about productivity and start actually doing the work that matters."
"The priority audit exercise made me realise I was spending 40% of my week on tasks I'd rate 2/10 importance. Brutal, but necessary."
"I shared the anti-hustle essay with my leadership team. It articulated exactly what we'd been feeling — that 'more hours' isn't the answer. Ethan's writing is sharp."
Practical frameworks for productivity, time, and meaningful work. Free forever.
Welcome to the lab.
Your first framework lands soon.
The opposite. Simple Strategy Lab is built on the premise that sustainable productivity comes from working smarter within your constraints, not sacrificing sleep or relationships.
Once per week, typically Friday mornings. Each issue is a single focused framework you can implement the same week.
Ethan — a former management consultant turned productivity researcher. He studies how ordinary people (not CEOs) actually get meaningful work done.
None. The frameworks are tool-agnostic. Pen and paper work. A calendar app works. The point is the thinking, not the software.