Our plans for 2026
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I started writing this email by recapping 2025, but quickly realised: who cares? It’s over! Here’s what we’re doing next.
JDHQ will become your JDex
This is the big one. I currently use Bear and Obsidian for my JDex (personal and business systems, respectively), and they’re fine. But they weren’t built to be ‘JDex apps’, and the more I develop the concept – the more I realise that my JDex is absolutely the centre of my life – the more I feel the pain. I need something specialised, so I’m going to build it.
I’d like to be able to:
- Add my own custom IDs to our pre-built systems; especially the Small Business System, which has a bunch of categories where you need to add your own IDs.
- Add my own notes.
- Properly indicate the ‘location’ of items in my system.
- Create new IDs automatically, without having to look up the next available number.
- Link IDs together in a more meaningful way.
- Manage the state of things, e.g. is a project (see below) ‘active’ or ‘complete’?
- Help you stay focused by limiting the amount of stuff you can be doing at once. (I’d love to help you ADHD folks…)
- …and lots more.
What this means is that JDHQ, which is currently read-only, is becoming a place where you can store your own data. Your own IDs with your own notes. I don’t like having to recommend external software as part of using Johnny.Decimal: if my system needs tools, I should provide those tools. Building JDHQ was a fantastic decision, because now I have the foundation that makes it possible.
(Nerd note: I’m going to build all of this with open APIs so you can hook in with your own tools. Obviously it’ll be privacy-first, you’ll be able to export, all the stuff you’d expect.)
Zoom sessions for SBS; YouTube sessions for LAS
In the next few weeks I’ll be starting open Zoom sessions for Small Business members, and live-with-chat YouTube sessions for Life Admin. The idea is to offer more advice and support, and to show you how we’re using these systems ourselves.
If you have either of these systems, watch out for an email via JDHQ.
Task and Project Management: more to come
Late last year we released our latest course: a 4-hour look at how I use my system to manage my tasks and projects. Honestly I couldn’t be more proud of it. It’s really good.
Tasks are the day-to-day stuff we can’t forget. Feed the chickens. Pay the bills. I’m comfortable that I’ve totally solved that problem.
Projects are the longer-term stuff that makes life better. They’re more complex, by definition. I had the beginnings of a system by the end of the course, but since then I’ve refined the approach. I’ve been using it for a few months now and I think I’ve nailed it. I’ll be adding more to that video series very soon.
Lots more YouTube
Last year we started the ‘Be Better at Computer’ series, but it isn’t quite what I wanted it to be. In hindsight, it was the wrong time: we were still producing the task and project management course and I just didn’t have the mental space to plan it properly.
It has the core of the idea, though: I want to show you how I use the tools and techniques that I use to be better at using my computer. The thing I missed was the focus on Johnny.Decimal. And I’d like the overall story to be more cohesive.
Look out for that in the next few months.
A Small Business focus on ‘creative’ businesses like ours
We’ve realised that we can offer a lot more specialised advice to businesses that are like ours. Being a small ‘creative’ business has quite specific challenges: for example, we create videos, which involves a lot of data, and managing this and backups is a unique challenge. And the shape of our customers and products, and how we manage these, is going to be more similar than, say, a manufacturing business.
It makes sense to share as much of this as possible. We love and support all small business, but we need to recognise that we can only be experts in our own field. We’ll share as much of that expertise as possible.
Any new systems?
I’ve long wanted to create a ‘project management system’, and have the foundations of that system ready. But we take new systems very seriously, which means that they’re an enormous time sink.
We need to spend the first half of 2026 making sure our business is sustainable. That means more marketing (i.e. YouTube) and less new products, at least for now. Because…
The impact of AI
Obviously AI is a concern. If you run your own business (or if you don’t) and you’re not concerned about AI’s impact on your job, you need to be.
I think we’ll be okay. I’m really happy that we spent the last few years building a personal business. That’ll serve us well as the Internet as a whole gets way less personal. Humans are still humans and I know that I crave the personal touch more than ever. That, plus the fact that we have a niche business, gives me confidence that we’ll be okay. But nobody can be complacent, and we are not.
That said, AI enables me to do things I couldn’t do before. I use Claude Code to help me build JDHQ and it’s pretty amazing. I’m experimenting with using it in conjunction with my JDex. Turns out when you hook up an LLM to your business’ knowledge base, it becomes a really powerful pairing.
Lucy put it really well the other day. I was explaining this to her and she said, emphasis mine:
“If you want to work side-by-side with a computer…”
– and I think that’s a really interesting way to think about it. When I’m using Claude to develop JDHQ, hooked up to my JDex, I feel like I’m working with the computer: previously, it felt like I was just watching it happen. The difference is stark, and beyond the scope of this newsletter. More to come through the year. (Don’t worry, I won’t become an ‘AI bro’.)
Personally
We’re still on the road. You don’t hear much about it because I made a decision not to be a travel blogger, but it’s pretty amazing. Challenges, yes. For sure. I miss my home. But I type this having just lived in Saigon (Vietnam) and Morioka (Japan) for three months each. What a unique privilege. We’re currently in Seville after a Christmas in the UK. It’s pretty amazing and we’re very lucky to be able to do it.
Main challenge: it can be hard to focus. We tend to find a place and work like maniacs – 6.5 days a week, basically – for a few months, then move around for a bit while we recuperate. We need to find that next place of focus. Anyone been to Córdoba?…
We build what you need
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: we only know what you need if you tell us what you need! So … tell me what you need. It’s just the two of us, trying to put something useful into the world. Tell us what you like, and what you don’t. You can reply to this email, or find me on the forum or Discord.
With love as always. We couldn’t do this without you.