From the Pages

Blog

Notes from the desks of strategists, teachers, founders and writers using the Purpose Planner as part of their working week.

The strategist who stopped losing ideas.
Founding Partner, Singapore

“I stopped losing the idea I had on Tuesday by Friday.”

Kanu Gupta runs strategy for some of the fastest-growing companies in Asia. His weeks are a mosaic of board decks, client workshops, and late-night thinking. For years, he relied on apps, sticky notes, and the hope that he would remember the spark that arrived halfway through a Tuesday meeting.

How an Olympic athlete plans for the long game.
Olympic Athlete

How an Olympic athlete plans for the long game.

Andrea Proske spent a career optimizing performance down to the millisecond. As an Olympic rower, her days were structured by coaches, training blocks, and recovery windows. But when she stepped away from sport, the structure disappeared — and so did her sense of direction.

The poet who plans in the margins.
Poet, Lupus In Flight

The poet who plans in the margins.

Shaista Tayabali's poetry is born in the gaps between appointments, treatments, and the quiet work of managing chronic illness. As the founder of Lupus In Flight, she has built a life around creativity and advocacy — but neither comes with a clear schedule.

“The strategist who stopped losing ideas.”
Strategy Director, Lagos

Turning Monday chaos into a working system.

Maya Okafor leads brand strategy for a consultancy in Lagos. Her days are split between client calls, creative reviews, and the quiet thinking required to connect them. The problem was never a lack of ideas — it was keeping track of them.

“How a teacher planned her way out of burnout.”
Secondary School Teacher

How a teacher planned her way out of burnout.

Sara Lindqvist teaches history to teenagers in Stockholm. For years, her planning was reactive: lesson plans, grading, emails, meetings, repeat. By March, every system she had tried collapsed under the weight of the term.

“The founder who plans in the margins.”
Founder, Pier & Co.

Building a company without losing the plot.

Iris Thanou founded Pier & Co. after a decade in corporate finance. The transition from employee to founder meant no one else was setting her priorities. Everything felt urgent, and nothing felt finished.

“Sketches and weekly plans, side by side.”
Architect

The architect who draws his weeks.

Daniel Reyes designs buildings by day and furniture by night. His desk is always covered in sketches, material samples, and the loose paper that ideas tend to live on. He needed a planner that could handle both sides of his brain.

“I write better because the system holds the rest.”
Writer

The writer who protects his attention.

Tom Whitfield writes essays and fiction in the early hours before his family wakes up. The challenge is never finding ideas — it is protecting the mental space to develop them. A single forgotten task can derail a morning.

“It's the meeting note that's also a planning tool.”
Product Lead

The product lead who connects every meeting.

Priya Anand runs product for a growing SaaS company. Her calendar is a parade of meetings, each with its own set of notes, decisions, and follow-ups. Before the Purpose Planner, those notes lived in different apps and were forgotten the moment the meeting ended.

“Every chapter has a page number. Every page is findable.”
PhD Candidate

The researcher who indexes her thinking.

Hana Tanaka is writing a dissertation on urban sociology. The work is sprawling: interviews, field notes, readings, drafts, and the constant need to find the thing she wrote down three months ago.