#5 | The Infrastructure of a Better Life
The infrastructure is finally in place. A rebuilt website, a new task framework, better food, and uninterrupted sleep. Documenting what actually changed.
There’s a moment when systems stop feeling like discipline and start feeling like home.
I think I’m in that moment.
Three months ago, muratesmer.com was a half-finished idea on a shared hosting server. Now it’s a React app with server-side rendering, deployed on Replit, version-controlled on GitHub, routed through Cloudflare. I built it myself.
I didn’t know React six months ago.
I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying it because something important happened in the process. Every time the build failed, I had to figure out why. Every time DNS didn’t resolve, I had to understand the layers between my code and a browser. I didn’t just build a website. I built a working mental model of how the web works.
Learning by shipping is the only learning that sticks.
The same week I relaunched the site, I rebuilt my task system in TickTick.
I’d been using it loosely. The right tool, wrong setup. So I started over. Not with a productivity book or a YouTube tutorial. With a question: what does “done” actually look like for me?
I mapped my projects. I mapped my daily non-negotiables. I built a framework around focus blocks, not to-do lists. The difference: a to-do list is a collection of tasks. A focus block is a commitment to a context.
When I sit down for a focus block, I know exactly what I’m protecting.
The system doesn’t motivate me. It removes the friction that was stopping me from starting.
The other thing I changed: what I put in my body.
I’ve known for years what healthy eating looks like. The knowledge was never the problem. The problem was that convenience always won. A bad meal at the wrong time destroys more than just your energy. It takes your focus, your mood, your willingness to push through hard things.
So I got intentional. Not obsessive. Intentional.
I’m not following a specific protocol. I’m following a principle: eat things that build, not things that cost. Simple filter. Hard to argue with.
The clarity I get from eating well is the same clarity I get from a clean codebase. Everything just runs better.
Sleep is the one I’m most proud of.
Because I was bad at it for a long time. Not dramatically bad. Just chronically mediocre. Late to bed, unrested in the morning, using caffeine to compensate.
Now I sleep well. Consistently. The shift wasn’t one trick. It was a collection of small decisions that compound. Earlier wind-down. Phone off. Same schedule. The body learns patterns faster than the mind does.
What I noticed: when sleep is right, everything else is easier to protect. The eating. The focus blocks. The work. It turns out sleep isn’t a recovery tool. It’s the foundation everything else runs on.
Here’s what I want to document honestly: none of these changes are finished. I’m still figuring out how to add movement to my days in a way that fits my actual life, not a fitness fantasy. I haven’t cracked that yet.
But the infrastructure is there.
The website. The system. The food. The sleep.
Four pillars that weren’t in place before. Four things I can point to and say: this is different now.
That’s what this series is about. Not the finish line. The foundations being laid.
It's really inspiring to see how much intention and care you've poured into building these foundations, not just online, but in your day-to-day life too. The way you describe the shift from discipline to something that feels like home really resonates. Thanks for sharing the real work behind the scenes. It shows.