From SQL to Insights - How Juan Tames Information Chaos
Have you ever tried to capture all of your work context in real-time? It's like trying to catch raindrops in a thunderstorm – a few might land in your bucket, but most splash elsewhere and disappear forever.
This is exactly the challenge Juan Ramos faces daily. As a data professional working with complex analytics projects spanning Google Ads, Salesforce data, and custom models, Juan needs to maintain his flow while somehow documenting everything for his future self.
I recently had the chance to chat with Juan about how he's been using reconfigured, and his workflow offers some fascinating insights for anyone who works with data (or just has too many thoughts to keep track of).
P.S. This is a blog series highlighting the amazing people who use reconfigured for their notetaking needs. We always want to promote our people when possible, so if you'd like to be featured please drop me a message.
The Digital Sketchbook
"I use it like a sketchbook where I annotate all the quick stuff that I want to come back to without losing the flow of development," Juan explains as he walks me through his screen.
What immediately stands out is how Juan has transformed the concept of a "quest" into something uniquely suited to his workflow. Rather than just tracking ad-hoc requests, each quest becomes a container for an entire analytical journey.
For example, one of his current quests focuses on modeling cost-per-lead calculations that connect Google Ads with Salesforce data. Within this quest, Juan has accumulated a trail of SQL queries, business logic notes, and reminders to himself – all accessible with just a keyboard shortcut.
From Scattered to Structured (Without the Overhead)
What struck me most was Juan's description of the problem reconfigured solves for him: "Everything is just scattered around and this provides enough of a container where things can keep a bit tidy but at the same time it's not super slow."
This balance – between organization and speed – appears to be the key. As Juan puts it: "It's not like I have to create lots of folders and blah, which for me sucks because I don't know what structure is going to happen. I just want to keep adding stuff."
Let's look at some specific examples of how Juan uses the app in his day-to-day work:
1. Query Development & Documentation
Juan showed me a quest trail filled with SQL queries – each capturing a different angle of investigation for his cost-per-lead model. Unlike queries lost in a SQL editor history or scattered across files, these queries live alongside his notes explaining:
- Why he wrote the query
- What hypothesis it was testing
- What the results showed
- How it connects to the bigger picture
"I'll be adding some queries that answer questions I have had and I think I might resort to them later," he explains. This context-rich approach means when Juan revisits these queries weeks later, he doesn't just see the SQL – he sees the entire thought process that led to it.
2. Audit Trails for Critical Metrics
For particularly important metrics, Juan creates detailed audit trails. He showed me a quest focused on calculating conversion ratios, which was "pretty heavy on auditing because I was changing the underlying logic that was obtaining the conversion ratio."
Inside this quest, Juan had stored:
- Verification queries to confirm results matched expectations
- Edge case tests to ensure reliability
- Documentation explaining why certain decisions were made
- Links to relevant resources
"I can share it with colleagues and I know okay, that's the way I obtained this specific number that was saying things were all right or they weren't," Juan explains. This approach transforms what might otherwise be throwaway validation work into a valuable asset for the entire team.
3. Capturing In-the-Moment Insights
One of the most valuable aspects of Juan's workflow is how he captures ideas that pop up during development. For instance, during our conversation, he showed me a recent note where he'd jotted down: "Make sure or audit that the customer code is unique for every combination of rows."
This observation came to him while working on something entirely different, but rather than interrupting his flow or risking forgetting it, a quick keyboard shortcut allowed him to record the thought and move on.
Juan maintains this practice throughout his workday, creating a continuous record of insights like:
- Potential issues to investigate
- Ideas for tests to run
- Reminders about implementation details
- Links to relevant documentation or articles
4. Managing Next Steps and Focus
Beyond just capturing information, Juan uses reconfigured to maintain focus during complex projects. "I have next steps here," he shows me, pointing to a section of notes that help him narrow the scope of his work.
"Let's focus on adding this stuff because there's so much stuff to do in this first development. So I make the PR smaller because of that," Juan explains. By explicitly documenting these decisions, he creates a clear path forward that keeps his work manageable.
This approach helps Juan avoid the common trap of scope creep while ensuring important tasks don't fall through the cracks. He records tasks that aren't urgent enough to interrupt his current work but shouldn't be forgotten entirely.
The Lightweight Advantage
When I asked Juan why he continues using reconfigured despite experiencing occasional bugs, his answer was illuminating: "The coolest stuff is being able to do shortcuts and having all on the same place. It's just super useful for me. It's really light and it's really fast."
He described trying alternatives when the app wasn't working one day: "I tried to add everything on Google Docs instead and it just sucked. And then I said okay, I could use OneNote but OneNote is super big. It doesn't seem as much of a focus tool."
What makes reconfigured valuable for Juan isn't fancy features or complex functionality – it's the tool's lightness and speed that allow it to fit seamlessly into his workflow.
Beyond Individual Use
While Juan primarily uses reconfigured as a personal productivity tool, he sees the potential for team collaboration. During our conversation, he mentioned how a colleague noticed him using the app during a call and expressed interest.
This points to how the lightweight, flexible approach might benefit entire teams dealing with complex data work:
- Shared context around metric definitions and calculations
- Documented decision-making for future reference
- Accessible audit trails for critical business metrics
- Reduced knowledge silos when team members change roles
The Beauty of Simplicity
What's most striking about Juan's story is how he's getting immense value from reconfigured without using many of its features. He doesn't use the AI chat, voice notes, or even the stash for later function. Instead, he's found incredible utility in the core journaling functionality alone.
"I can see how my workflows go fast when I'm using this," Juan explains. "I love being able to open it and just throw stuff in."
This speaks to a broader truth about productivity tools: sometimes the simplest implementation of a concept, executed well, is more valuable than a feature-rich alternative that creates friction. For Juan, having a lightweight, keyboard-shortcut-driven tool that gets out of his way is worth more than all the bells and whistles other platforms might offer.
Try It Yourself
Juan's workflow offers valuable inspiration for anyone who:
- Works with SQL or other data tools
- Needs to maintain audit trails for important metrics
- Wants to capture thoughts without disrupting focus
- Struggles with scattered information across multiple tools
The beauty of his approach is its simplicity – just start capturing your thoughts, queries, and insights in one place, organized by project or question. No complex folder structures or tagging systems required.
As Juan puts it, reconfigured "provides enough of a container where things can keep a bit tidy" without forcing you into a rigid structure or slowing you down.
In a world of increasingly complex tools, sometimes the most powerful approach is also the simplest: a digital sketchbook that's always ready when inspiration strikes.
Want to see how reconfigured might fit into your workflow? Try it free and discover your own way of taming information chaos.