My favourite mode: writing in incognito on a rainy Sunday.
There are days (especially at year-end!!!) when everything feels like it’s happening at once - not really in a dramatic, world-is-ending way, but in that quieter, more exhausting way where your head just won’t shut up.
Work things. Personal things. Half-baked ideas. Decisions you keep postponing. Conversations you’ve already had in your head three times, complete with alternative endings.
If you’re a founder (or honestly, just a high-functioning human), this is familiar territory. Thinking is part of the job. Strategy is something you carry. Which means your brain is often just… full. Not empty. Not stuck. Just cluttered. And whenever I get to that point, there’s one thing that almost always helps. It’s not profound. It’s not new. It’s also not optional, in my experience.
I write it down. Not to share it (unlike this memo). Not to make it aesthetic. Not even to “figure it out” immediately. Just to get it out of my head and onto something that isn’t me.
Something magical happens when thoughts leave your head and land on paper (or Notes, or iPad, or the back of a receipt). Problems shrink. Decisions become choices instead of monsters. A vague feeling turns into an actual sentence you can look at and go, ohhh, that’s what this is.
Your brain is for having ideas. Not for storing them all at once.
I’ve seen this play out personally, and I see it constantly at nuja. Writing is how we think better together. It’s how we avoid misalignment, misinterpretation, and those frustrating “but that’s not what I meant” moments. Tools like Impact Filters aren’t about process for the sake of process - they’re about taking something fuzzy and making it usable for someone else.
And outside of work, it’s the same story. Writing about a situation doesn’t magically fix it, but it usually turns panic into perspective. A big, looming thing suddenly looks… workable. Sometimes even a little boring. Which is a win.
So if today feels noisy, or heavy, or just mentally crowded, here’s a very simple suggestion from someone who’s learned this the hard way:
Open a page. Write badly. Write honestly. Write without trying to sound smart.
You don’t need clarity to start writing. Writing is how clarity shows up.
M.
xx
Manuja
Not for everyone. Never was.
