I Tracked My Days Everyday for 7 Years—Here’s What I Learned

Welcome to Letters of Wonder, where I explore the truths behind clarity, creation, and a wonderful life.

Track Energy, Not Time

For the longest time, I lived life on autopilot.

I would do whatever I felt like doing, and then I wondered why I felt like crap.

It's interesting because doing whatever you want is a beautiful thing—but only once you know what actually energizes you.

Naval talking about freedom and living an unscheduled life is one thing (more on this later).

A miserable, broke person saying that is another.

I like how Sahil Bloom puts it:

Say yes to everything. Then start saying no to things.

Until you say yes to everything, you won't know what energizes you and what doesn't.

In high school and college, I spent a lot of time hanging out with friends, going out, and watching TV.

I also spent time building a business, traveling to places, making new friends and writing.

Because I said yes to all those things, I started slowly noticing what energized me and what didn't.

It took some time, but soon I became more and more clear on what truly fulfilled me vs. what just gave me fun in the moment.

And then I began leaning into what brought me energy.

Energetic Journaling

1) To lose weight, you track your weight on the scale.

2) To make money, you track your money in the bank.

3) To get better test scores, you take practice tests and track your scores.

It's the same way with your energy.

By tracking your energy, you can start to lean into it.

That's where the idea of energetic journaling comes in.

For the last 7 years, I’ve been journaling every single day.

I write down:

• What I did in the day

• The conversations I had

• And finally… how I felt.

The “how I felt” part is energetic journaling.

To make it even more effective, I broke it down into 3 parts:

1. Energizers – things that lift your spirit

2. Neutralizers – things that don’t move the needle

3. Drainers – things that leave you feeling worse

The idea is that you spend a few minutes each day tracking your energy.

At the end of the week, review all three.

Then figure out how to incorporate more energizers into your day.

And soon, your days will start to become very beautiful.

Think of it like your soul’s to-do list.

And here’s the best part.

This to-do list gives you a glimpse into your life’s purpose.

As you keep leaning into that, your life begins to change.

Transforming Your Life

How you live your days is how you live your life.

If you think about it, your life is a long string of days put together.

That’s why it helps to think in decades, but act in days.

You’ll begin to repeat the same daily activities that lead to greatness—over a long period of time.

Every activity you engage in is a trade-off for something else.

That’s where I find an interesting interlink between energy and a beautiful life.

The more you lean into what truly energizes you, the more your life will begin to feel harmonious.

I want to interject with a quote from Naval Ravikant:

I put this here for a reason.

Naval talks about the unstructured life a lot—being able to do whatever you feel like in the moment.

But here’s a quick reminder:

Naval speaks from a place of earned freedom.

If you're still lost in life or feeling unhappy, you need to say YES before you learn what to say NO to.

You need to do everything and slowly audit your energy.

Only then will you be able to shift to crafting a life of unstructured freedom.

Or else, you’ll be spinning your wheels—chasing drainers and neutralizers rather than energizers.

The 4 Stages of Freedom

To illustrate this better, I thought about and came up with a chart portraying different levels of freedom:

1. Chaotic Obligation (Unstructured + No Autonomy)

2. Trapped Discipline (Structured + No Autonomy)

3. Liberated Structure (Structured + Full Autonomy)

4. Earned Freedom (Unstructured + Full Autonomy)

Let me explain.

You start in Chaotic Obligation.

In this phase there is no structure or control.

You’re most likely saying yes to like anything that comes your way.

It’s almost an escape from yourself.

In this stage, drainers, neutralizers and energizers are hard to distinguish.

You’re overstimulated and undernourished.

It feels like freedom—because you don’t have a calendar or routine.

But it’s not freedom.

It’s mostly avoidance.

And you’re also not choosing what to do with your time.

Rather, you’re escaping responsibility.

Eventually, something clicks.

This is where you begin to build some rhythm and get curious about your energy.

You start noticing what gives you a sense of freedom.

This can be things like nature walks, reading books, deep work, and loving conversations.

This is also when you begin structuring your days for peace.

This stage is known as Trapped Discipline.

You have a system now—but it’s still shaky.

You’re still saying yes to things that don’t align because you’re not super sure how to say no.

You haven’t mastered how to hold your boundaries yet.

But you’re on the path.

The next stage is Liberated Structure.

This is when your calendar isn’t a prison anymore.

Instead it’s a mirror of your energy.

You say no more quickly to things that drain your energy.

And you’ve most likely built your days around what actually fuels your life.

Because you’re a lot more clear on what brings you life, you say no a whole lot more to things that don’t.

Some areas probably need refinement.

Things won’t always be perfect in every part of your life.

But the system is yours.

And it’s working.

You are now very much leaning towards energy.

Eventually, if you go deep enough…

You stop tracking altogether.

Not because you’re lazy—but because you’re free.

You wake up and just know what to do.

You’re fully intuitive, present, and spontaneous.

But this doesn’t mean you give away your energy to everything and everyone.

You’re still very clear on where your energy should go.

Yet, you’re still free.

This is called Earned Freedom.

And this is what I believe Naval refers to when he talks about the unstructured life.

Structure falls away because rhythm has become instinct.

You can flow because your roots are strong.

Some points I wanted to add about the stages:

• Stage 1 bleeds into Stage 2 the moment you get tired of floating and begin craving direction. You realize freedom without structure just leads to exhaustion, and so you start experimenting with routines. It’s fine even if they’re all over the place or over-disciplined.

• Stage 2 evolves into Stage 3 when structure no longer feels like something you “have” to do, but something you choose because it protects your energy. You stop doing random things and start designing your calendar around what actually fuels you.

• Stage 3 and Stage 4 both relate. Some days feel fully structured and others feel intuitive. You still track some things, but your self-trust is high enough to know what matters most.

• Stage 4 and Stage 1 seem similar on the surface — but their core energies are very different.
  In Stage 1, lack of structure = avoidance.
  In Stage 4, lack of structure = embodiment.
  In Stage 4, you’re still discerning and being intentional. But the calendar goes away because you’ve figured out your energy and direction.

• It’s also likely you move back and forth from Stage 3 and 4 often.
  You’ll use structure when life feels heavy and flow when it feels light. Both are beautiful.

Your Days Are Your Life

Why is it important to track what lights you up?

Because it leads to a deeper principle: purpose.

Here’s how it unfolds:

1. You start by doing everything

2. You get clear on what feels light

3. You do more of what feels light

4. You start to see the life you want to build

5. You repeat the same actions, every day

I use the terms energy, feeling light, and what you love interchangeably.

Notice I didn’t skip to “life’s calling” immediately.

It doesn’t work like that.

It takes experimentation to figure out what energizes you vs. what just feels good in the moment.

Then comes the “boring” part.

“Boring” is in quotes—because it’s not really boring.

Doing what lights you up is actually the most fun thing ever.

But it sounds boring to repeat the same actions every day.

But that’s what transforms your life.

The Unfolding Test

A test I like to use is the “unfolding” test.

Ask yourself:

Here’s an example:

Lifting weights may energize you.

Will doing it daily unfold into something beautiful?

Absolutely.

You’ll feel better, look better, be stronger, and live longer.

Now take something like gossiping with friends.

It may feel “energizing.”

But if you did that for 5 years?

You’d likely feel cynical, resentful, or be gossiped about yourself.

So it’s not the gossip that energizes you—it’s probably just the connection with people.

The unfolding test helps you distinguish real energizers from false highs.

The Janitor with a Joke