Okay, so you guys wanted to know about this TJ Hamilton thing I tried recently. Honestly, it started kinda randomly. Was scrolling through some old notebooks last week, the ones where I scribble ideas that pop into my head. Found this one page where I’d just written “t j hamilton” in big letters – no clue why I wrote it or what it meant back then. Guess past-me was onto something, or maybe it was just caffeine vibes. Figured, eh, why not dig in? See if it actually leads somewhere.
Getting Started Was Weird
First thing? Tried to Google it. Bad move. Got nothing but basketball players and law firms. Totally useless. Scratch that. Decided to treat it like a puzzle. Broke it down: “t”, “j”, and “hamilton”. Started thinking about abbreviations, initials, maybe some kind of code? Felt like I was going in circles.
Then, sitting at the kitchen table staring at the letters, something clicked. Maybe it wasn’t one thing. Maybe it was separate elements? Separated them: T, J, Hamilton. Hamilton felt familiar – Alexander Hamilton, the guy on the ten-dollar bill? Broadway musical? That felt too obvious. J… could be anything. John? James? T? Thomas? Tech? Time?
Pulled out my whiteboard – yes, I have one in the living room, wife hates it – and just started mapping out possibilities:
- TJ: Could be initials for someone? Thomas Jefferson?
- J Hamilton: James Hamilton? The dude’s dad?
- Separate: T could mean something specific, J something else, Hamilton the concept?
Felt stuck again. Was seriously about to chuck the notebook across the room.
The Frustrating Middle Part
Decided to sleep on it. Big mistake. Woke up at 3 AM with “Timing is everything” stuck in my head. Weird. Grabbed the notebook again. T… Timing? J… Journey? Hamilton… maybe the concept of momentum, like in physics? Felt like a stretch. A big one.
Tried applying this shaky idea to my current project planning. My schedule was a mess, always reacting, never actually doing what I planned. So, I pretended “T” stood for “Time Blocking”. Dedicated chunks for specific work. “J” became “Journey” – basically, looking at the whole project path, not just the next step. And “Hamilton”? I forced it to mean “Momentum” – focusing on maintaining progress once I got started, pushing through inertia.
Made a stupidly simple plan for the next day:
- T (Time Block): 9-10 AM: ONLY emails. Nothing else.
- J (Journey): Before starting, reviewed the full week’s project goals.
- Hamilton (Momentum): After finishing the first time block, immediately jumped into the next task on the list without checking my phone or getting distracted.
The first day? Honestly, felt kinda dumb. “Hamilton”? Really? But I powered through.
How It Actually Worked Out
Kept this up for a week. Rigid time blocking felt robotic at first, but it forced me to actually deal with stuff instead of pushing it off. Looking at the “Journey” – the big picture – each morning stopped me from getting lost in tiny unimportant tasks. And that “Hamilton” momentum thing? Man, it sounds cheesy, but forcing myself to start the next task immediately after finishing one… that was the game-changer.
Before, after finishing an email session, I’d wander off, get coffee, check Twitter, lose half an hour. With this “Hamilton” rule, no gap. Finish emails, bam, next task starts. The weirdest part? It started to feel easier. Less friction getting into the flow. Like pushing a boulder, but once it rolled, it kept rolling.
Productivity actually went up. Not some crazy 400% boost, but noticeably smoother days. Fewer things fell through the cracks. I ended the week feeling less frazzled, even though I did more. The weird scribble “t j hamilton” accidentally became a practical framework.
So, Was It Worth It?
Look, is this some profound life-changing philosophy? Nah. Did I crack the real code of “t j hamilton”? Probably not. It could stand for “Tango Juice Hamilton” for all I know. But the point is, I took a random note, wrestled with it, tried a practical interpretation, and somehow ended up with a decent little system that made my days work better. The process itself – the trying, the failing, the adjusting – that’s where the value was.
Would I recommend trying “t j hamilton”? Not specifically. But hey, if you find a random phrase in your notebook that makes no sense, dive in and make it mean something useful for you. Worst case, you waste an hour figuring out it meant “Tasty Jam Hamiltons”. Best case? You accidentally improve your workflow.
