Our Notes

How it works

A week of Our Notes, letter by letter.

One example week: what your coach writes, what comes back, and what happens with it. Nothing here needs an app. You read on your phone and reply like any other email.

Day 0
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No. 0001From Your coachTo Lerato M.

Welcome, Lerato. Before I write anything useful I need three things. Answer in as few words as you like.

What’s your work, in a sentence? What do you want to be different by the end of the quarter?

And what has been getting in the way?

Day 0
21:40

CarbonFrom LeratoKept in the file

Product ops at a logistics company, four years. I want the team-lead role when we move to Pretoria. What’s in the way is me. I don’t ask.

Mon 14 Sep
06:30 · Goal

No. 0412From Your coachTo Lerato M.

Morning, Lerato.

Last Thursday you said the Pretoria move is the moment to ask for the team-lead role, and that you’d raise it with Johan before the quarter closes. The quarter closes on the 30th.

What would you need in hand to walk into that conversation this week?

Mon 14 Sep
21:14

CarbonFrom LeratoKept in the file

Honestly? Numbers. I cut onboarding from six weeks to four in Q2, but I’ve never written that down anywhere Johan would see it.

Mon 14 Sep
21:30 · Reality

No. 0413From Your coachTo Lerato M.

Six weeks to four is the kind of number most people would lead with. You’ve been keeping it to yourself.

Where does Johan already look for numbers like that?

Wed 16 Sep
06:30 · Options

No. 0414From Your coachTo Lerato M.

You named one way in: bring it up in your one-on-one. What else could you try? Give me two before you read on.

Mine, labelled as mine: send the number in writing first, so the meeting starts from the result and not from the ask.

Fri 18 Sep
06:30 · Will

No. 0416From Your coachTo Lerato M.

You wrote it down on Monday night, in two sentences: six weeks to four. That’s the case. The rest is a calendar invite.

Is it in Johan’s calendar yet?

The rules of the coaching

Questions before advice. Your plan, not ours.

  1. Asks firstQuestions before advice. Your coach’s own idea comes only after you’ve given yours, and is labelled as theirs.
  2. What, howNever “why”. “Why didn’t you?” puts you on trial. “What got in the way?” gets an answer.
  3. With datesYou’re quoted back to yourself. “Last Thursday you said…” is how you know it’s remembered.
  4. No verdictsFriday isn’t a report card. Did it or didn’t: the next question is the same, what now.
  5. Five quietThe letters stop. Five letters with no reply and your coach writes once to say they’re pausing, then does.
  6. Steps inSome things aren’t coaching. A crisis, a contract, a severance offer: your coach points you to the right person straight away. When coaching stops →

What it isn’t

  • A chatbot you have to remember to open.
  • A quote-of-the-day feed. A line appears only when it fits your week.
  • Therapy, or a stand-in for a lawyer.
  • A habit tracker that nags. Stop replying and the letters stop.

Terms

R140/ month

Less than a coffee a week · R32
A letter every weekday morning
First 14 days free · no card · cancel any time in your book

Start 14 days free

On day 13 your coach sends what they’ve learned about you. Keep that letter either way.