Hey – Jamie here.
Welcome to the first edition of Jamie's Journal!
Table of Contents
- A Question for You
- Articles & Guides
- Stories & Reflections
- Favourite Finds
- The Next Few Newsletters
- Looking To The Future
A year ago today, my life was very different. I was writing a eulogy for my late-father's funeral, figuring out how to telescope together 31-years of love and memories into a ten minute speech.
It's surreal to recall that moment and consider the rocky journey that was 2025. Especially given the hurricane that was 2022/23 and my mum's passing.
Many readers offered their courage and support. Thank you. Your messages were welcome companions to the salves I found in books, from Crying in K-Mart (a beautiful story about maternal love and food) to The Body Keeps the Score (a pioneering book about therapy being an experiment and how there are far more avenues to healing and thriving than previously thought. Think walking, boxing, amateur Shakespeare, and brushing your teeth with your non-dominate hand).
Being an excitable foreager, I'll be sharing the best ideas I've found and invented during my hiatus.
They'll cover the themes of rebuidling after burnout, habit-building, and knowing if you're procrastinating or recharging.
A question for you
No doubt, you found my work because you were navigating a problem. I would love to steer this journal into something you find useful.
So what's your on mind? Or rather, what do you want me to write about?
Please reply to this email with your thoughts.
Articles & Guides
Kicking us off, I wanted to share the framework I used to comeback from grief and burnout.
It's my take on the 'Energy v. Money' prioritisation matrix. It helped me rebuild my habits, allowing me to see what actions were sustaining me, while revealing the parts of life that were draining me without me realising.
The framework also overcomes the shortcomings of the classic 'Urgent v. Important' matrix that President Eisenhower made famous.
The Energy / Money Matrix: A Better Way to Manage Your Life
At a glance
- Based on the question: Is there a sane way to decide what to keep, cut, and delegate when I’m burnt out and everything feels like too much?
- By mapping your life into a simple Energy/Money matrix, you can see which habits and tasks to protect, prioritise, delete, or delegate.
- The framework helps you defend what sustains you, drop what quietly bleeds you dry, and reshape work so your limited capacity is spent where it actually matters.
Introduction
Most advice about productivity quietly assumes you have plenty of energy and not enough time. It shouts ‘swim harder’ when you’ve already swallowed half the pool and it’s blind to the exhaustion you feel after years of standing up only to get knocked down again.
In this state, the issue is not that you’ve mismanaged your time, but that your nervous system is fried and your capacity has been hacked to a stump.
A common misstep during these tough times is to use the classic Important / Urgent prioritisation matrix.
However, during these frayed times, I’ve found it more helpful to think about things in terms of Energy /Money. With this alternative mapping, you’ll be able to see what to prioritise, delete, delegate, automate, and, most crucially, protect.
I’ve used this framework to find a way back into life after burning out. When I’ve stood in a home that smelled like grief and neglect and had barely enough energy to lie down.
During more stable times, the framework’s usefulness persists. It’s helped me to see the tasks that allow me to endure, recharge, and find the faith that if I get bombed again by tragedy, I’ll be able to stand up again.
Stories & Reflections
As for this edition's story, here's a recounting of what should have been a simple journey to my favourite café. You might be able to tell. I had a lot of fun writing this one. Enjoy!
An Icy Start
It was January 7th, 2026 and I’d already dialled 999.
The morning had brought an unnatural cold. The streets were iced and London was taken by surprise. I rushed out, eager to swing into the New Year. I had big plans for 2026, but I didn’t expect to be greeted by tremulous office-dwellers and school kids sliding along the pavement. They looked like new born fawns, arms extended, knees bent, and bottoms ready to cushion any slips.
There’s something admirable and idiotic about the British and the weather. Anything that’s not mild sends us into a spin. We only need two sunny days to declare it a heatwave; only a few flecks of snow to call it a crisis. Though, unless you’re a train, you’ll find that we’ll persevere through the elements as long as we’re allowed to complain about them and stick to our usual habits. That morning, you needed only look at everyone’s feet to realise this foolishness was alive and well...
Favourite finds
The Birthday Paradox (fun website)
I pulled this one from my archive. This is from back in 2018 when the internet was more quirky and not just 3 websites in a trench coat.
This interactive, charming and nerdy experiment reveals something surprising about the chances of someone sharing the same birthday as you.
Give it a go. It takes a few minutes.
Underappreciated Orwell (reading)
People mostly talk about 1984 and Animal Farm, but I’ve been finding a lot of joy in his shorter pieces. Specially, two essays: ‘How the Poor Die’ and ‘Such, Such Were the Joys'. You can find them in collection of his works published in 'Books v. cigarattes'.
The first is quite morbid, recounting his time in a French hospital. The second is relatively more upbeat. Though it is still set in the unique misery of an English prep school in the early 20th century. As someone who wants to work on his writing, Orwell’s eye for stripping back pretense and mixing it with wry humour has been a bucket of fun.
Attack On Titan (anime)
While being bed bound with the flu earlier this month, I had the time to finish the final season of Attack On Titan. I can now say without hesitation that it’s excellent and I would rewatch the whole series in a heartbeat.
Even if you don’t like anime, I still think you’d like it. It avoids a lot of the tired tropes and doesn’t bog you down with days worth of filler.
The Free Association theatre (London comedy)
A niche recommendation. If you are in London and wanting for some comedy, there is a new improv theatre by The Free Association that has a great line-up of comedy acts. At the time of writing, I can recommend Giant Steps, Graham & Steene, and I’ve heard promising things about Mailbox #23, a new show with some special US guest stars.
All The Things She Said – Harrison's cover (music)
A song I can't get out of my head. It's like the original, but if it had been dark roasted.
The next few newsletters
I’ll be carrying on with the theme of re-entering the world of the living after my mum and dad’s passing. There is a terror that grips you when you’ve been bombed out by tragedy. Overcoming that terror and rewiring my brain to not dread the idea of standing up again has been my latest obsession.
I hope by sharing my findings, you will discover ways of being more sensitive to navigating adversity and see more plainly what matters and what doesn’t.
Specifically, I’ll be looking how open loops are likely behind your inability to recharge, why moralising about your chores is poisoning you with needless guilt, and how breaking tasks into half-steps is the antidote to feeling paralysed by the mountain of things you need to get done.
All these realisations have made me feel much lighter and get back on my feet. I’m excited for them to do the same for you.
Looking to the future
Building anything is a process, so I've adopted the attitude of getting started, getting going, and getting smart.
This edition is me getting started and breaking through the fear of building in public again. I'll then get going by building up momentum and ironing out the kinks in my workflow and website. Finally, I'll get smart by seeing how I can make everything smoother, so I can write with less stress and more regularity.
January is coming to a close. I'm sure you have big plans for 2026. Though, if this month didn't quite go as planned, don't fret. You just have to keep going. It'll all come together in the end.
Thanks for being here and sticking with me as I go about creating a corner of the internet that explores and shares finding a better way to think, feel, and live more fully.
Jamie | @JamoeMills
🌤️ From a surprisingly mild London
Find a better way to solve problems that matter
P.S. The New Year's discounts are still live for the next 48 hours in case you wanted to save on Oxford Notes or my other courses. You can see my previous message here for all the details.
