How I actually get things done (when I’m doing too much)
And why it’s not about hustle
Here’s the thing about my life right now: I’m writing this newsletter, running mentorship and coaching for people, managing social media, doing freelance work, and studying full-time in a design programme while raising a kid. It’s a lot. And honestly, if I didn’t have some sort of system in place, I’d be completely drowning. Not the dramatic drowning where you’re still somehow productive. The real kind, where you’re just lying in bed at 3pm wondering how you got here.
I think if you’re a slasher like me, someone doing multiple things at once, or a solopreneur building something from scratch, or even just a student trying to keep your head above water, productivity isn’t optional. It’s survival. But here’s what I’ve learned: it’s not about working harder. It’s about working intentionally, which is a completely different beast.
So let me walk you through what actually works for me. And I’ll be honest with you: some days I follow this religiously, and some days I completely abandon it and just live. Both are fine. The important thing is knowing what the plan is so you know when you’re deviating from it.
1. Plan your goals first (short-term and long-term)
Before I do anything, I sit down and ask myself: what actually matters right now?
This is harder than it sounds, especially when you’ve got a thousand things pulling at you. Your boss wants something, your school has project deadlines, your kid wants attention, your Substack followers want content. Everyone is hungry for your time. But if you don’t get intentional about what you actually want to achieve, you’ll just be reacting to everyone else’s priorities forever.
For me, short-term goals are things I want to accomplish in the next quarter. Long-term is where I want to be in a year (I seldom go over a year because I think a lot would change). I think about my design studies, where I want my mentorship business to go, what I want to explore creatively with my writing. But here’s the key: I try to be realistic. I don’t set myself up to be a superhero. I set goals that feel slightly stretching, like if I do this well and I’m also lucky and things don’t go completely sideways, I can actually pull it off. That small margin of possibility is what keeps you moving instead of defeated.
2. Build your weekly and monthly rhythms
Once I know what I’m aiming for, I need a structure to actually make it happen. So every month, I look at what needs to happen to get closer to those goals, and I break it down into weeks.
Here’s what my rhythm looks like: On the first Monday of every month, I do a financial audit. I sit down with my Notion tracker and I see how much I’ve earned, where the money went, how my assets are growing (or not). It sounds boring as hell, but honestly it keeps me honest. I know exactly what’s working income-wise and what’s not. On every Monday morning, I do my weekly planning. I use time-blocking, which means I literally assign different tasks and focuses to different days of the week. Monday might be mentorship and coaching calls. Tuesday is writing and social media. Wednesday is study, that sort of thing. Then every Friday afternoon, I do a wrap-up. I look at what I actually got done versus what I planned, and I ask myself why. Did I underestimate how long things take? Did something urgent come up? Did I just procrastinate on a task I didn’t actually want to do? That Friday wrap-up is where I learn what to adjust for next week.
The rhythm becomes almost automatic after a while. You stop having to think about “what should I do today?” because you already know. And there’s something weirdly freeing about that.
3. Schedule leisure like it’s a non-negotiable meeting
Looking at the previous section, you might think: oh well, you’ve just designed another 9-5 for yourself, haven’t you? Yes, that’s absolutely true and I once fell into that trap. I was so trapped into this rat race that I could feel my stress coming up again. And that’s when I realised I’d got too obsessed with optimising work that I’d lost balance in life again.
So now I deliberately schedule leisure goals. Not like “try to relax sometime.” I mean actual weekly time blocks where relaxation is the goal. It could be solo movie time, café hopping time, bonding time with friends, whatever feels relaxing to you. During these times I’m explicitly not allowed to work. This sounds counterintuitive, but I’m telling you: those leisure goals are what keep the rest of the plan from collapsing. Almost every time after a relaxing break, I come back rejuvenated with new ideas and new directions. They’re not a reward for being productive. They’re part of productivity.
4. Evaluate and adjust weekly
I don’t set a plan in January and then just follow it robotically for the whole year. Life doesn’t work like that. Things change. You learn things. You discover you hate doing something you thought you’d love. You realise you’ve been overcommitting.
So every Monday morning, before I plan my week, I review the previous week. What worked? What didn’t? Did my goals actually reflect what I care about, or was I just chasing things because they sounded good? This is where I get real with myself. If I planned to write three newsletters but only wrote one, I don’t beat myself up. I ask: why? Was I being unrealistic? Did something genuinely come up? Do I actually not want to write that much? And then I adjust. I set goals that feel more realistic this week. Maybe it’s two newsletters instead of three. Maybe I realise I need to hire help with social media because I’m drowning in it.
This weekly evaluation keeps my plan alive and responsive instead of turning it into just another thing I’m failing at.
5. Put your phone away (and mean it)
I have a terrible habit. Every time I go to the toilet, I pull out my phone and doom-scroll for at least twenty minutes. It’s not even conscious. It’s just what my body does when it’s not actively working. And it’s a killer because suddenly my fifteen-minute break has turned into forty-five minutes and I’ve read seventeen articles about nothing and I’ve fallen down some rabbit hole about a celebrity I don’t care about.
Social media is designed to keep you there. It’s not a wilful weakness. You’re literally fighting against algorithms built by people whose job is to make you stay. So you have to be aggressive about it. For me, that sometimes means literally putting my phone in another room when I’m trying to work. Not on silent. In another room. Can I get up and get it? Yes. But that friction is enough to break the automatic habit.
Some people use app limiters. That didn’t work for me because I’d just turn them off within an hour. Some people use physical blockers. Whatever works. But if you’re serious about productivity, you have to take social media seriously as something to manage, not as just a personality flaw.
6. Find an environment that makes you want to work
Even with the best plan in the world, sometimes I sit down at my desk at home and I just feel unmotivated. My brain knows it’s supposed to work now, but my body is like, nope.
That’s when I leave. I’ll go to a café I like, or a library, or a co-working space. Sometimes just the change of environment is enough to wake me up. There’s something about being around other people who are also working that makes it easier. It’s not loneliness; it’s accountability. You’re less likely to doomscroll when someone at the next table might notice. You’re more likely to actually focus.
Some people use apps like Focusmate, where you video-call with someone and you both work silently together for 25 minutes. The accountability is the point. Find whatever environment makes you want to show up. For some people that’s coffee shops. For others it’s libraries. For others it’s co-working spaces. For some people it’s actually their dining table. But pay attention to where you naturally work best and then go there more often.
7. Sleep and movement are non-negotiable
I’m going to say something controversial: you cannot out-willpower your way through exhaustion.
Years ago, I made a decision to get serious about my health. I committed to sleeping before 10pm most nights and waking up before 6am, and doing some kind of movement in the morning. Exercise, yoga, a walk, something that gets my blood moving. And honestly, this has been more transformative for my productivity than any app or system.
When I’m well-rested and I’ve moved my body, I come to work with a clear mind. I don’t need coffee to function. I can think. I have patience with people. I can problem-solve. Compare that to days where I’ve stayed up late, slept poorly, skipped my morning routine: I’m foggy, I’m slow, I’m irritable, I make bad decisions, I accomplish half of what I normally would.
And here’s the thing: I’m not rigid about it either. Some weeks I can’t sleep before 10pm because deadlines exist. Some mornings I just need to rest more and I let myself sleep in. But I listen to my body. If I’m exhausted, I don’t try to muscle through. I rest. Because if I don’t, my whole system falls apart and then I’m even less productive anyway.
But wait: don’t use this to stay in the wrong life
Before you start time-blocking and scheduling leisure time, ask yourself the real question: do you actually like what you’re doing right now?
If the answer is no, don’t do any of this. Seriously. This system won’t fix a fundamentally wrong situation. All it’ll do is make you more efficient at something you hate.
I left my corporate job wanting a career break, but honestly I’ve never had more than three days of not working on things. The difference is, I’m working on things I chose. Things I enjoy. When you’re doing work that matters to you, you don’t need productivity hacks to motivate yourself. You’re already hungry for more of it.
So if you’re miserable in your job, don’t optimise it. Quit it. Change it. Do whatever it takes to align your life with what you actually want. Then use these practices to make space for everything you’re trying to build.
Productivity without purpose is just exhaustion with better time management.
Hi, I am Lora, and I write about the difficult conversations and uncomfortable realities of personal growth, childhood trauma, mental health, high-achiever syndrome, social issues, tech & AI. It could be hard to digest or even hard to read, but it’s 100% honest. I have kept them with myself all these years, and this is my practice of speaking up and having my voice heard. Writing these vulnerable pieces takes courage (and lots of coffee). If my words resonated with you, consider buying me a coffee to fuel the next uncomfortable truth. Your support helps me keep writing without filters or facades.