Towards the end of 2025, I came down with something that left me a little dopey (even more than usual). It wasn’t exactly the flu or COVID, but whatever it was, my concentration and ability to deliver on commitments were shot. For someone like me, this was frightening; even the simplest tasks became major undertakings.
This isn’t to say that I’ve always had it all together. I’ve long struggled with executive function. In recognition of that struggle, I developed various coping mechanisms over the years, such as making meticulous lists and keeping detailed notes. Part of that process included journal writing, which eventually manifested as blogging.
One painful consequence of this lost function was that I stopped all my creative work. I was also in the middle of a big project with friends. I felt embarrassed to lose my capacity to think and work. A major part of my identity is being a slightly misfit nerd. To lose that meant losing a part of myself and disappointing people I care about.
Fortunately, I feel I am back to where I used to be. In a way, this experience provided an opportunity to reset my priorities. When you have specific goals for the future, you can build projects that work toward them. Those projects can be broken down into tasks, ensuring everything works toward a purpose and eliminates the superfluous. I’ve been feeling like my old self again, catching myself in moments of deep concentration. To maintain this intentionality, it became clear that my digital systems needed to support me better to stay on track.
Before jumping back into life as I knew it, I have been streamlining my workflow. For example, I have long had a Google Workspace account that primarily provided email hosting for different domains. Over the years, I’ve used it off and on in conjunction with a standard Gmail account. However, with the introduction of Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, the landscape has changed.
Gemini now has deep access to other Workspace apps. It can pull information from my email, calendar, tasks, and documents. Crucially, I can count on Gemini in Google Workspace to not use my data for training its models. Consequently, I have migrated years of emails from Gmail to my Workspace account. I’m now maxing out these services to provide Gemini with the context it needs to help me stay on task.
Furthermore, Gemini’s other forms, NotebookLM and Gems, can maintain a constant awareness of my five-year goals and the projects required to reach them. They integrate with other Google apps to keep my daily tasks in alignment with those long-term objectives.
The main shortcoming is that I am still a better thinker on paper. But, it is increasingly trivial to scan handwritten notes for transcription. Short notes can even be transcribed directly with Google Keep. Additionally, adding the Google Drive app to my computer makes my desktop a seamless extension of Workspace. Since I have more cloud storage than hard drive space, this allows me to separate productive files from personal ones with simple drag-and-drop ease.
The fact that I can dive into such granular details about Google Workspace and life organization is a very good sign. It seems the Shaine Mata of old is officially back.
