### Hi, I’m Noah Riggs. Welcome to my notes. (Some of them at least) For most of my life, I couldn’t finish the things that were important to me or much of anything really. Not books. Not projects. Not even the promises I made to myself. I’d start with excitement and always end up in this shame cycle, telling myself stories about why I wasn’t capable of finishing. I blamed it on many things... my ADHD, self-doubt, perfectionism, and a deep fear of being seen... but it all boiled down to standing in my own way. (see: [[Why do I make it so hard on myself to start or finish things I want to do?]]) My life was miserable. But something changed. Slowly, and then all at once. I began tracking my thoughts and daily work inside if a vault of notes much like this one. I started finishing workouts, finishing work, progressing on what mattered to me. I started building deeper relationships, doing more meaningful work, and living a life with more holistic well being. Through that process I built **CreateOS**, my personal operating system, the external brain that finally gave me peace of mind. Now I spend the majority of my time thinking about how I can help people build systems that support the life they want to live. I strive to make systems and technology more accessible, and help others leverage personal data in order to create the lives they want. I want to help people take back control of their lives by building systems, powered by their own ideas and data, that make life simpler, clearer, and truly theirs. I'm currently exploring my curiosities related to this topic through a series of projects meant to serve different people in different ways with the same evergreen principles and philosophies related to system design, leveraging data, and living a life with holistic well being. The notes you're currently reading are a look into more of my upstream thinking on many of these topics. For more polished resources I also create more focused and refined tools and resources through: - [**Create & Go**](https://createandgo.com/) – a business dedicated to helping creators finish what matters and helping them to build sustainable online businesses. - **Busy Living Better** – my personal laboratory and storytelling project where I share the messy, vulnerable, behind-the-scenes journey of discovering how we can use technology to live better, not busier lives, and how I can live this philosophy in real time. ### Current Projects: Building CreateOS Right now, my main focus is on building **CreateOS** into a scalable product. It is the system that turned my own unfinished chaos into clarity and consistency. CreateOS is more than a productivity tool. It’s an external memory, a vault where every idea, task, note, and highlight has a home. It’s built on Obsidian for many reasons, but more than a software, it’s a philosophy and approach that includes ideas like: - Brains aren’t made for storage, so stop using yours that way. - Habits compound when your identity changes first. - Self-image sets the ceiling for your life until you learn to change it. - Memory is unreliable, so you need systems that capture, connect, and retrieve. - What culture calls “normal” is often toxic; building your own systems is an act of healing and resistance. This isn’t just a product. It’s my personal vault, shared openly. You can explore my notes, see my thinking in motion, and follow along as I keep building. --- ### Why Share My Notes? Because I was tired of resources that hid the “real secrets” behind paywalls. Tired of polished experts pretending they never struggled. Tired of starting from scratch every time I wanted to learn something new. So I chose to publish my notes, raw, imperfect, alive. They are a way of me sharing publicly [[the things that I'm thinking about]]. Like Andy Matuschak’s public notes, they’re written first for me, but shared for anyone who might benefit. You’ll find: - My reflections on [[books]] like _Atomic Habits_, _Daring Greatly_, _The Mountain Is You_, and _The Myth of Normal_. - Experiments I’m running in health, business, and creativity. - Systems and templates that help me finish projects, manage ADHD, and live with more intention. --- ### What This Site Is (and Isn’t) This is not a polished blog with 10-step formulas. It’s not a funnel into some hidden upsell. This is my **living vault**, my attempt to think in public, build with the garage door open, and make my work useful to others by being radically transparent. If you want polished products, you’ll find them at Create & Go and with my other brands. If you want to see the work in progress, the scaffolding of how I’m actually living better, this is the place. --- ### An Invitation You’re welcome to wander. Follow a note that sparks curiosity. Peek into the unfinished corners. Borrow what’s useful, ignore what’s not. I believe finishing things is a radical act of self-trust. My hope is that by sharing how I’m doing it, mess, mistakes, and all, you’ll feel a little less alone, and a little more capable of finishing what matters in your own life.