· Originally published in my channel · baselife, journaling, branding

How I Chose the Name for My Product

remarkable

I’ve been journaling every day for the past 11 years.

I started in Evernote, then moved to Griddiary. Along the way, I tried dozens of productivity tools to enhance my practice: Trello, Things 3, Notes, Notion, Obsidian, Kin, Timestripe, Habit, Momentum, How We Feel, Joi Planner, Purpose, Atoms, Lid, Amie, custom Google Sheets plus plenty of paper journals with different frameworks.

Each was good at solving a specific problem. But none of them gave me a clear visual structure that showed how using them actually shaped my life.

That’s when the idea of building my own product began to form in my designer’s mind. Something that would bring different practices together around a life calendar.

I came up with the name Baseline after watching the latest Blade Runner. You might remember the scene where Gosling’s character recalibrates his emotional state in a white room. That image stuck with me. It felt like a perfect metaphor for journaling: a tool to level your emotions in the present moment.

For a couple of years, I lived with that idea, refining the framework and testing practices that could form a more complete journaling experience.

Then, in early January, I finally decided to register a domain name.

As expected, all the good ones were taken. I also discovered two similar products already using the same name. That was my first real collision with reality, and it broke the idea.

I spent two days frustrated. Then I managed to look at the situation differently.

Baseline sounds like a technical term. It lacks emotion and doesn’t fully express the depth of the idea. It would be hard to build a memorable brand on top of it.

So I started exploring alternatives. My shortlist included Holos, Holist, LifeCore, Wholen, and Lifelog.

In the end, I changed just one letter and landed on Baselife.

The word doesn’t exist, but its two parts capture the idea completely. A base for life resonates perfectly with me.

At some point, it clicked: a good brand isn’t about a perfect name. It’s a story you’re willing to tell consistently over time, until people get used to it and stop finding it strange.

Now I say the name out loud regularly and enjoy how it sounds, clear and alive.