The password reset rule that saved me $237/month

_{Day 44/100}

Estimated read time: 2 minutes 11 seconds.

Hey - It's Tim.

It's 9:13am.

Your Twitter feed explodes with that new AI tool. "GAME CHANGER" they say.

Your Slack floods with "have you tried X yet?" messages.

Your inbox screams about "revolutionary" software that will "10x your workflow."

And suddenly your perfectly functioning system feels... prehistoric.

I've been there. Downloaded everything. Tried everything. Wasted days I'll never get back.

Here's the unspoken truth: Most new tools are solutions desperately hunting for your problems.

3 brutal filters that save me from tool hell:

1. Calculate your "Integration Tax"

New tool math:

Advertised benefit × 0.5
÷
(Migration pain × Learning curve × Data loss risk)

If the result is < 1, stick with what you have.

I watched a founder waste 6 weeks moving his team to a "better" project management tool. Six. Weeks.

That's not a tool change. That's a sabbatical.

2. The "Genuine Pain" test

Simple: Have you sworn at your current tool this week?

Not mild annoyance. Not "this could be better."

Actual, audible, expletive-laden frustration.

No? Then you don't have a real problem yet.

Tools should solve bleeding wounds, not mild itches.

3. The "3-month wait" rule

Best advice I ever got:

"Tim, if I showed you this exact same tool 3 months from now, would you still care?"

99% of tools fail this test spectacularly.

The ones that pass? They're the ones worth considering.

The subscription graveyard no one talks about

Ever check your credit card statement and find a $49 charge for a tool you used once?

Welcome to subscription hell.

The modern professional is a reluctant collector of abandoned SaaS trials and forgotten login credentials.

I audited my subscriptions last month:

• 7 tools I barely use

• 4 I forgot I had

• 3 with overlapping features

• $237/month down the drain

The real cost isn't just financial. It's the mental tax of:

• Password recovery emails

• "Your trial is ending" anxiety

• "Which account did I use?" confusion

• The shame of knowing you've been paying for digital ghosts

My new rule: If I need to reset the password, I don't need the tool.

The Truth No One Tells You:

Your most impressive work was never about your tools.

Hemingway wrote with a pencil.
Picasso painted with $5 brushes.
Your best marketing campaign? Probably came from a Google Doc.

Every minute spent tool-switching is a minute not spent being good at your actual job.

The most successful people I know use boring tools exceptionally well.

Thanks for reading. +100 subscribers this week. That's a small theater full of people who trust me in their inbox. I don't take it lightly.

✌️Tim "shiny object syndrome recovery coach" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. - Need that Tech Guide again? Got you covered.

P.P.S. — I made a new free tool that might actually be worth switching to. Irony acknowledged.