If they call you names because you organise, plan and schedule your life and work to the hour, do this.

Take a look at their life and work. There's a 99% chance that you will spot

- randomness

- disorder

- chaos

Life is a complex system and lacks predictability. 

That's why it often becomes so chaotic that it puts you on autopilot / default survival mode.

There's also a universal natural force called entropy, which suggests that any system (including your life and work) will naturally shift to disorder and chaos ⤵️

UNLESS there's energy put into it.

That simple condition has profound implications for how the cosmos works.

Simply put, your life and work will naturally shift to disorder and chaos if you don't act intentionally.

We live in a chaotic universe, no doubt. So...

IS ALL HOPE LOST?

What if I told you there's a way to defy those natural forces to a degree that allows relative predictability in your life?

Consider meteorology, for example.

Recognising that chaotic systems can be predictable over short timescales while remaining unpredictable long-term helps refine the forecasting models.

See for yourself

- You know with very high certainty what the weather will be like tomorrow (1 day)

- You also know the weather forecast with fairly high certainty for the next few days, perhaps up to a week (7 days)

- You can see with relatively high certainty the weather trends for the next month (30 days). 

You may not be able to predict the weather on a Tuesday 3 weeks from now, but you may know it will most probably be colder and wetter than average.

Scientists use systems to make forecasts and trends.

You can do the same to avoid much of life's inherent randomness, disorder and chaos.

BURNOUT, too.

This way, you can organise, plan, and schedule your life and work to the hour, boosting your productivity and overall life and work satisfaction.

You just need a system.

But why do most people fail to organise, plan and schedule their life and work in the first place?

There is a two-way cause-and-effect relationship here. 

Most people (including those who run a one-person business, a.k.a. solopreneurs) are conditioned as people-pleasers and procrastinate selectively.

Because of that, they rarely find the time, energy, and focus to organise, plan, and schedule what matters to THEM most.

However, that works the other way around, too. Because people fail to live and work with order and plan, they fall victim to other people’s needs and desires and selective procrastination.

Let’s delve into those two behaviours in the context of productivity.

Are you a people-pleaser?

If you can’t say no to things outside your scope, goals, or priorities, yes, you are. 

People-pleasers tend to prioritise other people’s needs and desires, often at the expense of their own. That leads to overcommitment, which usually leads to disappointment because they cannot do what they promised and over-apologise.

This unhealthy behaviour originates from psychological factors such as the desire for approval and acceptance, the tendency to avoid conflict (as if every NO should lead to rejection or a fight), perfectionism, or low self-esteem. 

Those factors are often fueled by traumatic past experiences (especially from childhood) and the fear of abandonment or rejection (usually experienced inside the family).

As a result, stress and anxiety come naturally after neglecting your own needs, as well as feelings of resentment towards others (feeling like they manipulate you) and a loss of identity.

Do you selectively procrastinate?

Procrastination is a modern plague. In our tech-driven world, smartphones, social media and other immediate rewards make it even more challenging to stay undistracted.

Many (more so solopreneurs) fail to complete or even start tasks, even though they know that has negative consequences.

If your life and work are disordered and random, completing tasks becomes even more challenging. The more randomness and disorder, the more procrastination.

And the more boring, unpleasant, or overwhelming the tasks are, the more people procrastinate.

Connecting that to people-pleasing, most people say they don’t have time left to do what they must simply because they prioritise other people’s needs and desires by failing to say no. That’s selective procrastination. One can find many excuses for not delivering.

Procrastination is a vast topic, but one thing is for sure: it’s all about discomfort. By postponing or delaying tasks, you try to avoid discomfort. That discomfort originates from unpleasant feelings, like fear (of all sorts, like fear of failure, inadequacy or even success), past trauma, low self-esteem, and perfectionism, to name a few.

And there’s a lot at stake every time you avoid taking action. It’s not only the immediate and direct consequences (for example, missing deadlines or failing to deliver work altogether) but also procrastination’s long-term impact on your health, work, relationships and overall happiness that lead to frequent burnouts and a loss of self-worth.

Let me be clear: no growth is possible without a sense of self-worth.

What is the (hidden) cost of not organising, planning, and scheduling your life and work?

The costs of ineffective organising skills extend beyond the immediate productivity losses.

They encompass long-term impacts on all the critical aspects of your life.

• Productivity losses. According to research, you may waste more than a whole day every month (more than 24 hours) due to disorganisation or 7 weeks per year (do the maths!) searching for clarification due to poor communication and disorganisation. Or 6 weeks per year searching for misplaced information. Those stats concern only the trackable tasks at work. Multiply that X3 - at least - if you count the productivity and resource losses due to a lack of organising skills in all other areas of life and work (for example, your desk, office, home, daily schedule, trivial errands, essential tasks, to name a few). Simply put, living and working without structure, plan, and schedule can deeply hurt your personal and professional growth, and this is not to be taken lightly.

• Growth losses. Whether an employee, entrepreneur, or solopreneur, disorganisation wastes resources (time, money, energy, and focus). You miss deadlines, underdeliver, procrastinate, and postpone crucial work tasks. Your goals become more complex and challenging to achieve because the necessary action is usually not taken. The worst is that you become unreliable, not only to others but also to yourself, hurting your self-esteem. A lack of organisational and planning skills leads to missed opportunities. And that’s a huge cost most usually underestimate.

• Health issues. There’s a well-researched and documented link between disorganisation and stress. The more disorder and chaos in your life, the more stressed you become, leading to chronic anxiety. Anxiety severely impacts both physical and mental health. The more disorganised you are, the more hours you spend working, ignoring your health (and the daily habits that keep you healthy and balanced, like exercise, mindful eating, rest, to name a few). Furthermore, anxiety and feelings of disappointment, even resentment, impact your mental and psychological health, triggering self-doubt and fear.

• Financial implications. The financial cost is also immense. Lost productivity and missed opportunities hurt your career and work, impacting your financials in the long run. Another—often ignored—aspect is the impact on costs and spending. Disorder and a lack of structure are costly: you fail to budget your life and work effectively, and you spend more (often leading to more debt). Misbudgeting and unhealthy spending habits (usually to cover the implications of not taking the right action or postponing action) can severely impact your financial health as an individual and business.

• Impact on relationships. Disorganised work habits often cause poor communication (internally with stakeholders if you work in an organisation or externally with clients if you work independently). Poor communication leads to frequent misunderstandings and conflicts. On the personal level, your increased stress and anxiety impact your relationship with the people you love and share your life with (whether a partner, spouse, kids, parents or pets). You usually fail to spend time with them; even if you do so, it’s not quality time nor time when you are fully present enjoying the moments. 

The implications of a lack of structure and order in your life and work extend far beyond the immediate and direct task lists; they span your whole life and work, stalling your growth and keeping you back for good.

The good news is that not all hope is lost. Bringing structure and order back into your life is more than achievable. You can train your “muscles” and improve your mindset, thinking patterns, and actions.

If not having and acting on a structured plan and schedule can severely impact your whole life, work, and impact on the world, then becoming organised and planning them can reversely have fantastic positive impacts.

Here is where you should start from.

3+2 fundamentals to start your self-improvement journey from

I’ve mentioned organising, planning and scheduling many times above. Although those terms are usually used interchangeably, they are not the same. Each encompasses a different aspect, and you need to work (for better or worse) on all three of them.

Those terms are interconnected, serving a distinct purpose in achieving your goals.

Organising refers to arranging and grouping resources and tasks in a structured manner. You establish order and allocate roles. It’s about creating a coherent framework within which planning and scheduling can take place.

Planning is about setting the objectives you want to achieve and the necessary steps. It includes identifying what needs to be accomplished and with which resources (see organising). Planning creates a roadmap for action, allowing for flexibility and adaptability.

Scheduling refers to translating the steps into actionable tasks with specific timelines. It includes task sequencing and time allocation.

While organising is more strategic and long-term, scheduling is tactical and short-term. Planning is the linking bridge between the long term and the short term.

This is a top-level framework for bringing structure and order back into your life and work.

To effectively leverage its power, you need to practice the two following principles day in and day out. 

Consistency + adaptability = Success

Consistency is about maintaining a uniform approach or behaviour over time, acting the same way repeatedly, and ensuring that your actions align with your goals, standards, and priorities. It implies reliability and predictability, which are often misunderstood in our times. People frequently perceive them as boring and mundane, doing the same things over and over again. That’s not a bad thing per se. Being consistent with a specific task to help you grow is perfectly normal and healthy - and can lead to significant progress over time. For example, if you start with content marketing or writing, you need to be consistent with writing. Writing content every single day may sound daunting for many, but it brings you closer to high-quality and high-impact content. 

Consistency helps you streamline processes and systems and build habits.

Adaptability is the ability to adjust to changing circumstances in your environment. You must be open to change and flexible enough to adapt your approach or behaviour to unforeseen circumstances or environmental shifts. Nothing is set in stone, and life is not black and white. Although organising and planning things entails a certain high degree of predictability, there are still things you may not be able to predict because you simply can’t control them. The more adaptable you are, the better your decision-making.

Adaptability helps you modify your plans based on new information and become more proactive (and less reactive).

Do consistency and adaptability go hand in hand?

Although they might seem like the opposite, both qualities are compatible with one another.

It’s like the yin and yang of productivity. You need both to achieve balance and harmony. Being consistent helps you stay aligned with your goals while being adaptable helps you refine your actions to optimise results. See?

They are not competing demands or forces. The one does not neutralise the other. Consider them as puzzle pieces.

Let’s say your puzzle has 100 pieces. Consistency may count for 80 of them, while adaptability counts for the rest 20. So, there’s a formula emerging here.

80% consistency + 20% adaptability = success

Leaning more toward the adaptability side of the spectrum can lead to a loss of focus and internal alignment.

Adaptability complements consistency, allowing room for refinements and improvement on the go as life and work unfold.

Your 4 most precious resources

No, money is not one of them. Money is a facilitator that can help you navigate life a bit easier, replenish some of the resources you have spent, and support you in case of immense adversity. 

However, it’s not a resource if we see things from the individual perspective. From a business point of view, money (=capital) and labour (=people) are resources.

As an individual, you need to understand that there are 4 things you can consider your resources due to their finite nature and significant impact on your life and work.

• Time

• Energy

• Attention

• Focus

Each one of them plays a specific crucial role in achieving your vision and goal. It’s critical to keep in mind that they are all scarce. They are not renewable - literally or metaphorically - as they cannot be regained once spent on any given day. You need to put effort into replenishing them - and success is not guaranteed if the conditions are not right.

Let’s highlight what’s important with each one of those 4 resources.

Time

Time is 100% non-renewable. Once time is spent, you can’t get it back. It’s the most finite resource of the four. So, it’s crucial to decide how you spend it consciously. You only have 24 hours a day, and you know what? It makes absolutely no sense when people say they would like to have more hours per day. It’s about how you spend it - and on what things. That makes a real difference and can move the needle.

When it comes to managing your time, keep in mind the following:

• Track your time so you know where and how you spend it

• Prioritise based on both importance and urgency

• Plan and schedule your life and work to make the most of your time

• Set limits for tasks (when they start and when they must finish)

• Allow for buffers to accommodate unforeseen situations

• Take regular breaks and allow for rest time

• Practice unitasking (vs multitasking)

Energy

Energy fluctuates over time. That is a natural phenomenon. Physics also tells us that the amount of energy always remains the same; energy just changes form. Nature always shows us the way, so keep those two laws in mind when managing your energy. In the context of productivity, remember that your energy level will fluctuate during the day (so not all times can and will be very productive or creative) and that when you feel your energy is low, your energy has changed into a form that is not productive. 

For example, you may work on a task with focus but feel your energy depleted, so you head to your phone to scroll your Instagram. Your energy is still there; it’s just that you redirected it (for various mental and psychological reasons) to a distraction, which will deplete it much faster than working on the initial task.

When it comes to managing your time, keep in mind the following:

• Identify your energy cycles and plan your day based on them for maximum productivity

• Align your daily plan with your energy levels

• Take regular breaks to maintain focus and avoid burnout

• Practice unitasking (vs multitasking)

• Pay attention to your body (nutrition and exercise matter a lot)

• Identify mental fatigue and establish routines that can reduce it (e.g. take a walk)

• Sleep is essential, and rest breaks throughout the day can significantly help you manage your energy

I need to highlight two things here:

• As you may have realised, the tips for managing time and energy are very similar, and in some cases, they are the same. Time and energy are very closely interconnected, and many suggest that their compound effect is attention (see next section on attention below)

• Managing energy is a sensitive and crucial topic for introverted people. As an introvert, I can’t stress enough how crucial it was to understand how my energy cycles work (daily, weekly, monthly) and when and how my energy batteries were out. That can have a big impact on productivity.

Focus & Attention

I grouped those two resources because they are very closely interrelated cognitive processes. Many mistakenly use those words interchangeably. However, they don’t mean the same thing. There’s a slight difference that - if you understand it - can help you make it or break it.

Think of the focus-attention combination as the letter T. That letter’s shape is often used to describe notions with width and breadth. For example, you may hear that X is a T-shaped marketer. That means they are knowledgeable and skilled both in width (many different aspects of marketing) and depth (they know a particular topic or field in great detail and depth).

The same goes for attention and focus. Attention is the width, and focus is the depth. Attention allows you to selectively concentrate on specific stimuli while ignoring others, while focus helps you to put sustained mental effort into one particular task.

Attention works faster as it allows you to allocate your time and energy to the most appropriate external stimuli (ideally serving your goal and vision), while focus works slower through deep analysis.

In my experience, attention is about decision-making, while focus is about problem-solving. 

As a solopreneur, you are bombarded with new shiny objects daily. Which ones can prove helpful, and which ones should you avoid? That’s where attention comes into play. The tricky part is that you will struggle to make the proper decisions if you don’t have clarity, a strong vision, and values. This is where all those distractions bet for their success. 

If you select the right things to investigate further, focus will help you dissect them, break down their parts, determine which skills or knowledge you need to master them, and proceed with the actual work.

Your 4-dimensional Resource Bundle

Time, energy, attention and focus are what I call a 4-dimensional Resource Bundle.

It’s like an energy bar you buy from your local bakery or coffee shop. It contains everything you need to shift from living and working on autopilot or default survival mode to living and working with meaning, purpose, and enjoyment.

The more skilled you become at managing the four resources available, the more empowered you will be to transition to and maintain your new way of life.

Understanding that all four resources are necessary for maximum results is crucial.

However, I have to make a distinction here. Of the four, time is the most difficult to manage because—as stated above—it is 100% non-renewable. You can’t turn back time, and I recommend you avoid spending too much time thinking and planning without taking action. 

To transition, you must take swift action based on a plan. This is where organising, planning, and scheduling things come into play.

Not all hope is lost, however. Despite the challenges, there’s a way to navigate life and work gracefully, allocate, manage and spend your resources wisely, and get the most out of your quests.

You can achieve that by following my FATE 1-7-30 Productivity Method for Solopreneurs (or anyone wanting to bring back structure and order in their life and work and reap the benefits).

FATE is the acronym for the four resources we just analysed. I believe they are the cornerstone of stirring away from the randomness, disorder, and chaos that life inevitably brings and shifting to a structured and ordered lifestyle that allows room for anything that truly matters to you.

It’s based on a combination of daily, weekly, and monthly activities, which makes that shift possible. I’ve spent the last 365 days creating this system, and it has transformed not only my lifestyle and my organising, planning and scheduling skills but also myself as a person and one-person business owner.

Let’s dive in!

What’s the FATE 1-7-30 Productivity Method for Solopreneurs?

Over the past 365 days, I’ve been practising and fine-tuning a system to help me organise, plan, and schedule my life and work as a solopreneur, restoring structure and order.

After a whole year of experimentation and testing, I have finalised the frameworks, steps and details of the new system, which includes:

1. - 4 North Star Principles (hence the F.A.T.E. acronym, folks)

2. - the Daily High-flyer Circle

3. - the Weekly Go-getter Circle

4. - the Monthly Champion Circle

The 4 North Star Principles will help you understand your precious resources and how to allocate them and leverage their power. This is the method's foundation, as without grasping the importance of your scarce resources, no system can help you boost your productivity and organising and planning skills.

After building the foundation, there are 3 distinct frameworks (or circles, as I like to call them), each one with a specific timeframe assigned. 

The FATE 1-7-30 Method works only if you practice all three circles. Focusing on one or two while ignoring the rest will not be effective enough to help you reach a breakthrough. 

There are daily, weekly and monthly circles (hence the 1-7-30 in the method’s name), each focusing on specific tasks that will help you build new healthy habits for organising, planning and scheduling your life and work.

Because of your scarce resources, each circle encompasses all the critical success factors, making it actionable, doable, and effective.

• The Daily High-Flyer Circle is about planning and scheduling your day to the hour. It includes

  • Effective task listing

  • Time and duration allocation

  • Importance & Urgency matrix

  • Allowances for Buffers, Breaks, and Rest

  • Critical Success Factors Checkpoint

  • Daily Reflection Routine

• The Weekly Go-Getter Circle is about planning your week in a way that brings you closer to achieving your goals. It includes

  • Effective project and task listing

  • Day allocation

  • Importance & Urgency matrix (it works well with all timeframes, trust me)

  • Disruptive Event Management

  • SPO Checkpoint (Strategic, Planning, Operational)

  • Personal Life Event Management

  • Critical Success Factors Checkpoint

  • T&M (tracking and measuring your activity and its results)

  • Weekly Reflection Routine (super important)

• The Monthly Champion Circle is about organising and prioritising your life and work to achieve what matters the most. It includes

  • Effective project listing

  • Week allocation

  • Importance & Urgency matrix (again? Yes!)

  • Disruptive Event Management

  • SPO Checkpoint (Strategic, Planning, Operational)

  • Personal Life Event Management

  • Critical Success Factors Checkpoint

  • Status Visualisation

  • Monthly Reflection Routine (that’s so top-level you will be amazed by learning how it works)

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• The various Circles include a few common steps. However, it’s crucial to understand that they are not the same thing. Although their names might be the same, the scope and execution are different, adapted to the specific timeframes at hand.

• All the Circles include preparation and reflection. Simply writing your tasks or projects makes no sense (that’s Planning 101 for small kids). It produces no tangible results if you don’t track and measure your activity and progress, analyse the results, and decide on the next steps for maintaining your strengths and improving your weaknesses.

• The system and its circles are adapted to the specific challenges solopreneurs or wannabe solopreneurs (or people working from home) face.

• I use the term "Circles" because it’s about constant iteration. Every day, week, or month is a process you need to iterate and improve. Otherwise, there’s no system, only simple To-Do lists.

What’s next?

That system works. 100%. I promise you that. That’s why I’ve created a special coaching bundle to help you 

• stop living and working on autopilot (people-pleasing or procrastinating)

• avoid burnout due to stress and anxiety

• restore structure and order in your life and work

This bundle is a one-off, 4-session coaching package with a low investment (given the productivity and growth benefits you will get) for (current or aspiring) solopreneurs / one-person business owners.

Contact me as I describe below, and I will send you the details and questionnaire (to make sure you’re a fit and that you are serious about improving your life and work).

• DM on LinkedIn with the word “FATE”

• Comment “FATE” in my LinkedIn post here