Introducing Volition

Originally published on March 4, 2017.

Since late 2014, I have been listening to a podcast that has become an important part of my life. It’s called The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Hosted by Peter Adamson, it’s a broad exploration of the ideas and people that have shaped how the world has thought and developed since Ancient Greece.

I started listening for a few reasons. For one, I realized that I had gaps in my education that needed filling. I had an inkling that philosophy would be a field of study that would yield many rewards (which it has). I wanted to understand the ideas that the great thinkers of the past have offered and how those ideas had such an impact on the world. Finally, I wanted to apply what I could learn from the history of philosophy toward becoming a better person, a more adept thinker, and a more effective and efficient problem solver, both in business and in life more generally.

Listening to the podcast over the past year and a half has forced me to think about how I spend my time and how I get work done. It has led me to reflect on ways I can better use the limited time I have to make a larger, more positive impact.

There are so many technologies, apps, and tools out there that claim to be the silver bullet of productivity for anyone and everyone. The problem I have found with most productivity software is that it tries to cater to way too many people. It’s not opinionated enough. To my mind, the best productivity software I’ve used is Basecamp. However, it’s much better suited for teams than individuals. I have used, and will continue to use, a personal Basecamp for long term planning and brain dumps, but for day-to-day tasks I wanted something more tactical.

Given the philosophical inspiration the podcast has given me, I decided I would build a tool with a strong opinion on how best (for me, at least) to work. That tool is Volition.

Volition has it’s own philosophy:

Work should be fulfilling, not consuming

I helped start a business so that I could create something new and useful. I also had a vision of a lifestyle I wanted to build; one that didn’t revolve solely around work. Working myself to the bone for years on the off chance that I would have enough money to retire did not seem a likely path to happiness.

Time should be used intentionally

I have had too many days that were figured out as the day went on. For me, that is not a recipe for good work, whether creative or rote. It leads to too many dead ends and allows for too many wasteful diversions.

When I have a plan for the day, on the other hand, I can navigate smoothly from one task to the next. It takes less thought and willpower to get started, to stay on track, and to actually get things done. It’s liberating, both because it relieves the stress created by knowing that things need to get done, but not knowing quite what or how, and also because it leaves more time in my day for things other than work (like philosophy podcasts).

Without reflection, we don’t become better people

In that past, I have often ignored my mistakes so as to not relive the moment. That’s wrong and I regret it. Having the courage to face mistakes allows me to more easily make corrections and improve. Intuitive, yes, but it seems that most of us rarely do it.

Epictetus, a first century Greek philosopher, was well aware of our aversion as humans to acknowledging failure and analyzing what we have done wrong. He asks us in his Discourses to overcome that aversion:

Let sleep not come upon thy languid eyes

Before each daily action thou hast scann’d;

What’s done amiss, what done, what left undone;

From first to last examine all, and then

Blame what is wrong, in what is right rejoice.

What have you done wrong? What have you done right? What wasn’t able to get done?

Users should control their own data

Now more than ever, we have less control over who sees what we do on the internet. For now, Volition is exclusively self-hosted. In the not-so-distant future, I’ll be releasing a hosted version, but I want to first give something useful to the community that has given me so much.

If any of that resonates with you, check out Volition and sign up for the newsletter! If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, you can dive into the code and deploy your self-hosted version.