OP #300: 4 Routines That Work (and the Community Behind Them)

Author

Darren Herman
June 24, 2025

It’s been a journey.

Happy #300 to everyone who’s been along for the ride — whether you’ve been reading since the blog days, joined last week, or landed somewhere in between. I’m deeply grateful for the time and attention you give to the OP. It means more than you know.

One of my favorite (and most humbling) moments is when I hop on a work call and — before we even get to intros — someone says, “I’ve been an OP subscriber since…”
I always blush. I always smile. And I always feel incredibly lucky.

This community has taught me so much. From Knicks debates with Jon, Dave, and Lawrence… to Waseem and Ace challenging my book list… to Pat pushing my thinking on LLM search (AIO!)… to Gretchen and Meg keeping me motivated… to Ryan catching every grammar miss… to Jasper pushing deeper on CRO strategy. You all keep me sharp. You keep me honest. And you keep me going.

So let’s dive in — #300 is a special one.

Congrats to my brother Kenny and his company, Tennr, a health tech startup who just raised $101M.

McKinsey just released their 2025 State of the Consumer Report. A great read even if you are not in the b2c space. BCG just released theirs too but it’s not posted online as of me writing this, so I will share in the coming weeks when it is.

Software is Changing Again… a [video] talk given by former Tesla AI lead, Andrej Karpathy at the Y Combinator Startup School. If you have 39 minutes, this is a great video to watch. Enter Software 3.0.

We recently released tickets for the Silicon Alley Tennis Invitational on July 23. Come and join me and the Silicon Alley Sports community. It’s a fun afternoon and evening of tennis, conversation, and fun.

I’m in the middle of taking a course called AI Accelerator: Live AI Training for Ad and Marketing Professionals by Shiv and the team at U of Digital. I just finished Week #1 and it’s been useful. I look forward to this weeks content.

Thank you for subscribing to the Operating Partner letter. It’s free. It’s a labor of love. And I really do love it. I hope that comes through. Happy 300.

Darren

Routines, Distractions, and Success

Many of you have been riding with me since the early OPs, back when I thought a weekly rhythm would last maybe 30 editions, tops. I’ve written from boardrooms, airport lounges, beach vacations, and once (memorably) while stuck in a hotel hallway with no Wi-Fi. And through all of it, one theme has come up again and again: systems beat willpower. The right routines let me show up — for work, for family, for myself.

So for OP #300, I want to share three routines that have endured. That still work for me today. Plus one I’m just now experimenting with. And even better, I’m not the only one. A handful of smart, generous OP subscribers — Brynne, Gretchen, Meg, Jasper, Ben — also sent in the systems that keep them focused, sane, and moving forward.

You don’t need to adopt them all. But I promise there’s at least one thing below that could shift how you work and live — even if just a few degrees.

📒 1. Week Planning — Ink+Volt > Kanban Everything

I’ve tried Trello. I’ve tried Notion. I’ve downloaded every productivity app people post about on LinkedIn. None of them stick. I always come back to pen and paper.

The one exception — and the system I’ve stuck with for years — is the Ink+Volt Spiral Dashboard. If something’s important? It goes here. Otherwise, it probably doesn’t happen. Simple as that.

It’s become my analog operations center. And here’s the trick: spend a few minutes Sunday night or Monday morning setting intentions. Not just tasks, but priorities. That small investment? It 10x’s your clarity for the week.

🔕 2. Ditch the Rings and Buzzes

Well over a decade ago, I turned off the ringer and vibrations on my phone. Never turned it back on. No, really.

More recently, I stopped wearing my Apple Watch outside the gym. I was getting phantom vibrations before texts even came in. It was messing with my nervous system.

Now? I wear an analog watch and rely on my Oura Ring for sleep and health data. It’s been a gamechanger for clarity. My phone is silent 24/7, except for the alarm in the morning. And you know what? My wife still loves me. My kids still call me dad. My portfolio companies are still running.

One line I’ll never forget — skiing as a kid, scared at the top of a trail, my late friend Josh turned to me and said:
“Don’t let the mountain ski you. You ski the mountain.”

Same goes for your tech.

💪 3. Gym Time — Strength Over Cardio

This has become sacred. For the last 7 months, I’ve been locked in — gym almost every day. It’s not about six-pack abs. It’s about starting the day with a win.
Music on. Brain working. Body moving.

In the past, I was 80% cardio, 20% strength. Now I’m flipped. I want to hit my late 40s strong — and build a foundation that’ll carry into the next few decades.
A lot of OP ideas get worked out under the barbell or on the treadmill. Big shoutout to Liraz and Ryan for the accountability.

And if the gym’s not your thing? Just move. Walk the dog. Shoot hoops. Get some sunlight.

🆕 4. The Wildcard: Digital Note-Taking with Remarkable

I’ve resisted this for years. I'm a Moleskin + Pentel Energel guy. Always will be. But as the world turns AI-native, I'm realizing: my insights shouldn’t live in analog prison.

So I’m testing out the Remarkable Paper Pro. It lets me handwrite like usual — but with digital sync, text conversion, and better searchability. (Hat tip to Waseem, Ace, Becky, and Kevin for nudging me here.)

Will it stick? Too soon to tell. But if it unlocks even 10% more insight from the 50+ notebooks I’ve filled at Bain, it’ll be worth it.

🧠 OP Community Systems Worth Stealing

I asked, you answered. Here’s what a few fellow readers swear by:

Brynne Thompson
→ “I defang news and social media by taking breaks for months at a time. It helps me reset my filter for signal vs. noise.”
→ She also reads newspapers from the ‘80s and ‘90s for perspective. Boring = better.

Gretchen Sword
→ “Daily meditation gives me a radar for distraction. I can catch myself doom-scrolling in real time.”

Ben Young
→ Obsessed note-taker. Uses a weekly “MTD” (Monday To Do) doc to center himself.
→ “Play the best game you can with the minutes you’ve got. That’s the job.”

Meg Brossy
→ Old school: handwrite to-do’s the night before. Move your phone away in the AM. Block 15–30 minutes a day for strategic thinking.
→ Keeps two files: “Now” and “Important.”

Jasper Kuria
→ Lives by Hormozi’s rule: What one thing, if done this week, would make everything else easier or irrelevant?
→ Runs “seasons of no” — full blackout of non-priority requests until a milestone is hit.

This is what I love about the OP community. It’s not just frameworks and earnings calls. It’s how people actually work. What makes them tick. What they drop when life gets messy. What they cling to when it matters most.

If you’ve got a system that works for you, hit reply. I’d love to include more in OP #301.

Below are a few articles I came across this past week that I found interesting. While I may not agree with everything in each one, I think they're worth a read. If you stumble upon an article you think I or the Operating Partner community would enjoy, feel free to share it with me. Of course, I reserve the right to decide what gets featured in the OP.

Stream On (No Mercy No Malice / Prof Galloway)

Thank you again for subscribing to the Operating Partner letter. I appreciate you.

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