I am Brett Bejcek. I live by my top values of Exploration, Iteration, and Connection. Right now, I'm focused on building new things, investing in community, and moving my body.
Why am I receiving this? I recently left my job to take a gap building year. At some point in the last 8 years, you signed up to stay in the loop for my work. I'm making good on that now. You can expect a weekly update from me delivered to your inbox. If that sounds terrible, unsubscribe at the bottom. I'll cry, but I'll do it quietly. 🙃
So…you did what now?
Every builder's first project is a todo list. It's a rite of passage. So when I started my building year, I figured: why fight tradition?
But I wanted a spin. What if mine was public?
Enter unforbrettable.com
I've spent nearly a decade with my stats on the internet. My step count. My mental health score. Even my current location. And it's actually done wonders for bridging my inner and outer self. It's me on the days where I missed a run, and me on the days where I crushed a 6-miler just because I felt like it. It’s not just the Instagram highlight reel: it's the behind-the-scenes DVD extras nobody asked for.
But those were always just physical stats. Where I was, how I slept. Safe stuff. Keeping vulnerability at arm's length.
Because the thing I actually get judged on (the thing I judge myself on) is how I spend my time and what I produce. That's the real barometer. And putting that out in the open felt like a fundamentally different kind of exposure.
So I did it. And here's what I learned in week one:
1. I need to accept the 24-hour day.
I've always had this quiet belief that if I just optimized hard enough, I could squeeze more out of a day than other people. Making my todo list public killed that illusion immediately. When your tasks are visible, you can't hide behind the fantasy of "I'll get to it later." You either did the thing or you didn't, and everyone can see which one it was.
It reminded me of something I already learned from sharing my physical stats: I had to accept my body on the days it didn't perform. Now I'm learning to accept my time the same way. Twenty-four hours. Not stretchable. Not optimizable past a point. Just…finite.
2. It accidentally became a way to stay close to people.
This one surprised me. Within a few days, a handful of friends started manually sharing their own todo lists back with me. No app, no prompt…they just sent them over. And it turned into this weirdly intimate thing.
You learn a lot about someone from their todo list. Not the "pick up dry cleaning" stuff, but the shape of their ambitions and anxieties sitting right next to each other. "Finish investor deck" next to "call mom" next to "figure out if I actually want this." Seeing that from people I care about made me feel closer to them than a hundred "let's catch up soon" texts ever could.
3. The public part makes you question what you put on the list.
I noticed myself editing before I even started. Do I include "therapy at 2pm"? Do I put the embarrassing task I've been avoiding for past five days? The answer, for me, was yes…because the whole point was to close the gap between who I am and who I present. But it was interesting to watch the instinct to curate kick in immediately. The list became a mirror for what I'm comfortable being seen doing, which is its own kind of useful data.
It also forced a harder question: is this task actually moving me toward my goals, or is it just busy work? When no one's watching and you’re only accountable to yourself, it's easy to fill a day with tasks that feel productive but aren't. When your list is public, you start to notice which items are there because they matter and which are there because crossing things off feels good.
I started this thinking it was about getting more done. A week in, I think it's about getting more honest…and learning to be okay with what that honesty shows me. We'll see what week two breaks open.
Asks
Want in on the public todo list? I'm building a lightweight version of this (not fully public) designed to share with friends and actually stay close to them. I think it'd be fun to see where our lives overlap in ways we'd never know otherwise. Reply and I'll put you on the list for an invite code.
Have any Amalfi Coast, Naples, or Rome recs? Hit me up with any suggestions: especially hikes and anything off the tourist track. Headed there in April.
Know someone hiring a program/marketing ops leader? I have a friend who's open to contract or full-time roles: strong B2B SaaS background, great with data and cross-functional execution, and one of those people who walks into a room and immediately makes things better. Happy to intro. Just reply.
What else am I cookin’?
A few other things in various states of doneness: an NYC events project, a guided-reflection app, some AI communication tools, and some SEO experiments I'll write about when they're a bit more baked.
More on all of these in future weeks.
See ya out there,
Brett Bejcek · brettbejcek.com