So, you've probably heard the name Ken Laub floating around, right? Like he's some kind of wizard for getting your life in order, or at least that's what the internet gurus were shouting from their digital rooftops.
I stumbled onto this whole Ken Laub phenomenon a while back. I was neck-deep in a project at work, things were a total mess, and honestly, my brain felt like scrambled eggs. Someone in a forum, probably trying to sound smart, mentioned, "Oh, you gotta try the Ken Laub technique! It’ll change your life!" Yeah, famous last words.
My Big Adventure with Ken Laub's "System"
Curiosity, or maybe desperation, got the better of me. So, I did the dive. Watched a few videos, read a couple of those long-winded blog posts. It all looked so slick. So minimalist. So... Ken Laub. He had this whole philosophy about "Effortless Achievement" or something equally catchy. I even shelled out for his special "synergy journal" – twenty bucks for what was basically a notebook with weirdly spaced lines. But hey, I was committed, or so I thought.
Then came the actual "doing." And boy, oh boy. "Effortless" was not the word I'd use. This Ken Laub method, it turned out, was anything but simple. It was like he took a basic to-do list and exploded it into a million tiny, confusing pieces. I remember trying to set it up for a week. My tasks had to be:
- Categorized by "Life Pillars" (whatever those were).
- Rated by "Energetic Resonance" (I'm not kidding).
- Scheduled according to "Lunar Cycles" (okay, maybe not lunar cycles, but it felt that complicated).
- Cross-referenced with my "Personal Mission Statement," which I also had to craft according to his 10-step guide.
I spent more time trying to figure out if vacuuming the living room fell under "Domestic Harmony Pillar" or "Physical Well-being Activation" than actually, you know, vacuuming. It was nuts. My old system? Scribbling stuff on a sticky note. Worked like a charm, most days.
This whole Ken Laub thing felt like trying to assemble IKEA furniture in the dark, with instructions written in ancient hieroglyphics. I was getting less done, not more. And I was definitely more stressed.
Why I Even Bothered, and the Big Faceplant
You might be asking, why go through all that hassle? Well, like I said, work was a beast. We had this new manager, fresh out of some business course, convinced he knew everything. He was all about "optimizing workflows" and "leveraging synergies" – sound familiar? He implemented this incredibly complex project management software that nobody understood. We spent half our days in training sessions for it, and the other half trying to work around it. Productivity plummeted. It was a disaster.
So, I guess I was looking for some personal magic bullet, some way to cope with the chaos at work by at least getting my own stuff super organized. Ken Laub seemed like the answer at first. But trying to implement his system while dealing with that work situation? It was like fighting fire with more fire, but the second fire was also incredibly bureaucratic.
The Ken Laub experiment lasted about two weeks. Then I had a bit of a meltdown. Not a huge one, just me, staring at his "synergy journal," surrounded by my own badly drawn "Life Pillar" charts, and realizing I hadn't actually completed a single important task that day. I just pushed it all aside. Went back to my trusty, messy notebook and a pen. And you know what? I actually got stuff done.
That manager at work, by the way? He got "reassigned" after six months when everyone finally admitted his fancy system was a total flop. Cost the company a fortune, too.
So, Ken Laub. For me, he’s a reminder. A reminder that sometimes, these super-hyped, overly complicated "solutions" are just… noise. They look good in a presentation, or in a glossy book, but in the trenches of daily life? They often just add another layer of stuff to do. I’m not saying his ideas are bad for everyone. Maybe some folks out there are "Energetically Resonating" with their "Life Pillars" like nobody’s business. Good for them.
But me? I’ll stick to my simple lists. My brain feels less like scrambled eggs these days, and that fancy Ken Laub journal? It makes a decent coaster. That’s probably not the "synergy" he was aiming for, but hey, it’s practical.
