Needle

May 17, 2025
May 17, 2025

It started with a half-remembered video. It ended with better systems — and a bit more trust in myself.

This morning, I tried to find a specific video. One I vaguely remembered.

To my surprise—and disappointment—I couldn’t easily find it in my notes.

I remembered pieces of it. The vibe. The speaker. A specific quote about paper. But despite having a robust note-taking system, it was nowhere to be found.

So began the search for a needle in a stack of needles.

What I remembered…

When you can’t remember everything, start with what you do remember.

Here’s what I had:

And I had a shortlist of places where this might live:

I checked them all. Nothing.

Time to go hunting.

Searching…

I went in two directions: manual search on YouTube, and prompting ChatGPT for help.

To my surprise, ChatGPT was surprisingly effective at surfacing obscure YouTube videos (at least in the beginning).

Here's a list of messages I sent as we were searching together:

From this, ChatGPT gave me a few decent guesses. But eventually, it stalled — repeating the same videos over and over. I was running in circles.

Time to change tactics.

Switching gears

At this point, ChatGPT had started looping — recommending the same batch of videos even after I asked it not to. That was my cue: we’re going in circles. Time to zoom out.

Maybe I’m not looking for a video anymore. Maybe I should be looking for a person.

One of the names ChatGPT had casually included in a list was Matt Ragland. That triggered something. I’d seen his stuff before — bullet journaling, productivity tips. That felt like the right general direction.

So I pivoted. I began identifying creators with similar vibes. Productivity folks. Thoughtful people with a minimalist aesthetic. Maybe a bit introspective. People who might’ve made a black-and-white-toned video about notebooks and the feel of paper.

I started building a list of names. But instead of just tracking maybes, I kept track of all the “no’s.” A running list of people it wasn’t. That negative space helped carve the search.

This strategy of elimination wasn’t foolproof, but it gave me somewhere to go. I cross-referenced creators with notebook content. Productivity content. Videos between 2022 and 2024. I ran YouTube searches, Google searches, my own notes — anything that might jog the memory.

Eventually, a name clicked.

Nathaniel Drew.

I didn’t even need confirmation. I knew it. This was the guy.

I dove into his YouTube channel, filtering through anything that had “organization,” “notes,” or a notebook in the thumbnail. Then I found a video that looked especially familiar:

“A Simple Way to Organize Your Life.”

Oddly, YouTube didn’t show that I had watched it before. No red bar across the thumbnail. But I was almost certain. It looked right. Felt right. The aesthetic matched. The tone matched.

I didn’t have the patience to watch the whole thing, so I scrubbed. Jumped through sections. Nothing stood out. Then I let a few scenes play.

There — that background. That camera angle. That sweater. It all clicked.

To confirm, I opened the YouTube captions. Searched for “sound.” Scanned the timestamps.

At 1:21 — I found it:

“I like the feel of the paper… the sound of it…”

That was it.

A ten-minute video. A fleeting sentence. A tiny moment.

A guy, sharing some thoughts on productivity… who really liked the feel and sound of notebook paper.

The search was over.

I found the needle.

Noted.

Whenever this happens — when I search endlessly for something I know I’ve seen before — I make sure it never happens again.

I note it down. I keyword-stuff it with every breadcrumb that led me there.

That way, if Future Me ever gets curious about the YouTube guy who liked the sound of notebook paper, I’ll be able to find it in seconds.

Tips

Here are some techniques that helped me track this thing down:

Define your spaces

The internet is huge. But you didn’t find this thing anywhere — you found it somewhere.

Was it YouTube? A blog post? A podcast? Your notes?

Even broad boundaries are helpful. Identifying a possible platform or time range helps shrink the search area.

Sit in the space

As your brain jumps between apps, tabs, and guesses, try listening for quieter signals.

That stray image. A phrase you half-remember. That one person whose name you can’t quite place.

Let your subconscious wander. Sometimes it whispers clues you won’t hear unless you slow down.

Keep a paper trail

Log your searches as you go. Make a list of what it’s not. Even your dead ends can be useful.

A running list of “nopes” helps you avoid doubling back and narrows your field of view. It also reduces fatigue — you won’t keep asking “Wait… did I check that already?”

Go fast and slow

You’ll need both speeds:

Switch gears intentionally. Trust your gut, then double-check it.

Compulsion

It wasn’t that the video was significant. It was just someone talking about paper (no offense Nathaniel!)

What mattered was that I couldn’t find it. And that told me something.

It revealed a gap in my system — a weakness in the way I track, remember, and retrieve. And instead of shrugging it off, I treated it like a bug report.

I paid attention. I took notes on the search itself. I turned a moment of friction into a chance to improve the system. But more than that, it was a practice in patience. Because trying to find something vague, half-remembered, and buried under years of content?

It’s frustrating. It’s chaotic. It can feel impossible. But I stayed with it. I stayed calm. Strategic. Meticulous. I let the mess be part of the process.

And in the end, I didn’t just find the video. I found a way to improve my systems. To improve myself. To prove — to myself — that I can do hard things.

So that next time, when something feels just as messy or impossible, I’ll have a little more confidence. To stick with it. To endure it. To find a way through it.

Other Creators

In this search, I listed mostly guys because I was searching for a guy. But I’ve learned a ton from gals and other folks as well — across writing, note-taking, mindfulness, and productivity.

Here’s a small but mighty list of creators I recommend:

(Name on the left. What I learned on the right.)

  1. Aleks - Note-taking
  2. Dr. Grace Lee - Communication
  3. Elizabeth Filips - Note-taking, organization, Notion, second brain
  4. Elsa Rhae- Bullet journal, minimalism
  5. JaidenAnimation - Storytelling, art, style
  6. Kathleen Spracklen - Zettelkasten
  7. Lefie - Index cards
  8. Mariana Vieira - Note-taking, productivity, organization
  9. Mel Robbins - Mindfulness, productivity
  10. Morgan - Note-taking
  11. Nicole van der Hoeven - Note-taking
  12. Red Gregory- Notion, organization
  13. Rowena Tsai - Mindfulness
  14. Simie Iriarte - Bullet journal, mindfulness
  15. Vicky Zhao - Note-taking, systems thinking
Filed under:
Problem-solving
Productivity
Note-taking
Creativity

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