Small habits, honest days.
Plain, practical writing about planning your day, handling money and getting out of your own head. Written for real life, wherever you are.
How to keep track of money you lend to friends (without the awkwardness)
Small loans to friends and family are easy to forget and awkward to ask about. A simple, friendly way to record who owes what, agree on when it comes back, and follow up without ruining the friendship.
12 Oct 2026 · 6 min readHow to plan your day in 5 minutes (a routine you can repeat)
A simple five-minute planning routine you can do the night before or first thing in the morning. Empty your head, check fixed times, pick three things, give them times and park the rest.
12 Oct 2026 · 6 min readWhy your to-do list is dead by 11 am (and the 3-card fix)
Long to-do lists fail for predictable reasons. Here is why most lists collapse before lunch, and a simple three-card daily method that actually survives a busy workday.
11 Oct 2026 · 5 min read"I will do it tomorrow": why we put things off, and a 2-minute way out
"Tomorrow, I promise" is not laziness. Research says procrastination is mostly about avoiding a bad feeling. Here is what is really going on, and small tricks that get you started today.
11 Oct 2026 · 5 min readSpeak your plans in your own language
Most of us do not think in perfect, formal English, so why type reminders that way? How doMahan reads days, times and amounts in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Hinglish.
11 Oct 2026 · 4 min readTap to pay made spending invisible. Here is how to see it again
Cards, phone wallets and instant payments made paying effortless, which is exactly why money disappears. A simple, private way to track your spending without any app reading your messages.
11 Oct 2026 · 5 min readA 5-line journal for overthinkers (takes 3 minutes)
Overthinking eats hours of the day for a lot of people. Long journaling feels like homework. This five-line method gets the loops out of your head in about three minutes.
11 Oct 2026 · 4 min readThe 50/30/20 budget, with real numbers
How to split your monthly take-home pay with the 50/30/20 rule, with two realistic sample budgets (living with family, and renting) that work in any currency, plus how to start an emergency fund.
11 Oct 2026 · 4 min read