How to Build a Flow That Fits Your Energy & Boosts Productivity
Have you ever spent a Sunday afternoon meticulously planning your week, color-coding your calendar, and setting up the perfect Notion dashboard, only to abandon it by Wednesday? You start the week feeling hopeful and in control, but soon, a client emergency throws things off, a burst of creative energy strikes at the “wrong” time, or you’re just too drained to follow the rigid schedule you set for yourself.
By Friday, the beautiful plan is a distant memory, replaced by a chaotic scramble to put out fires. You look back at the week, and even though you were busy nonstop, you feel like you accomplished nothing of real importance. The worst part is that little voice in your head whispers, “See? You’re just not disciplined enough.”
I’m here to tell you that voice is wrong. You’re not undisciplined or lazy. You’re a smart, capable human who is trying to force a system that was never designed for you. You don’t need a stricter routine; you need a more compassionate, flexible structure. You need a working rhythm.
The Trouble with To-Do Lists
Most productivity advice is built on a foundation of industrial-era thinking: that humans can (and should) operate like machines, with consistent output and predictable energy. This philosophy simply doesn’t account for the reality of human biology, especially for creative entrepreneurs.
From a psychological perspective, rigid systems often fail because of something called "reactance." When we feel our freedom is being overly restricted (even by rules we set for ourselves), our natural inclination is to push back. That beautiful, time-blocked calendar suddenly feels less like a helpful guide and more like a prison, and your brain rebels. You procrastinate, get distracted, and do anything but the thing you’re “supposed” to be doing.
The result? You find yourself running on fumes, and the consequences show up in your day-to-day:
You wake up overwhelmed and unsure where to start
Your calendar looks busy, but nothing feels “done”
You finish the week feeling like you failed, even though you worked nonstop
You resist structure because past ones have felt too rigid or corporate
If you’re nodding along, it’s not because you’re not disciplined. It’s because the system isn’t built for the way you work best.
Furthermore, traditional systems ignore our natural rhythms of high-to-low energy that occur throughout the day. Hustle culture tells us to push through the dips, but neuroscience shows that our best thinking, creativity, and problem-solving happen when we work with these cycles, not against them. Trying to force deep, focused work when your brain is in a recovery phase is like trying to drive a car on an empty tank of gas. It’s inefficient and ultimately leads to burnout. A working rhythm, by contrast, honors these natural cycles, creating a sustainable flow for your week.
How the "Productivity Problem" Cripples Solopreneurs
For professionals who have left the structured corporate world, the pressure to find the "perfect" productivity system is immense. You’re used to having external structures, and in their absence, you seek to replicate them, often with damaging results.
Before you blame yourself for not sticking to a plan, let’s clear up a few common myths that keep so many women stuck in the cycle:
3 Myths About Structuring Your Week
❌ “If I was serious, I’d wake up earlier.”
Wrong. Some of your best work might happen at 11am or 9pm. Early birds and night owls build just as much momentum on their own clocks.
❌ “I need to follow a CEO routine to grow.”
Also wrong. You don’t need a cold plunge or a 5am journal habit. Totally cool if that works for you. What you actually need is a workflow that protects your focus and makes space for recovery, not somebody else’s highlight reel.
❌ “Planning kills creativity.”
Nope. Planning protects your creativity by freeing your brain from chaos and giving it space to play.
Here’s why this hits you so hard:
Shiny System Syndrome: You see another entrepreneur raving about their complex Notion setup or a new project management tool, and you feel a jolt of hope. You think, “This is the one! This will finally fix me.” You spend hours learning and implementing the new system, only to abandon it a few weeks later, feeling like even more of a failure.
The All-or-Nothing Mentality: When you deviate from your strict plan (maybe you wake up with low energy or a sick kid needs you) your entire system collapses. Instead of adjusting, you throw the whole plan out the window, convinced you’ve already failed the day.
Decision Fatigue: Without a flexible rhythm, you wake up every day to a sea of possibilities and a mountain of tasks. You spend precious mental energy just deciding where to start, leaving you too drained to do the actual deep work that moves your business forward.
Hustle as a Habit: You default to what you know: being busy. You fill your calendar with meetings and small, reactive tasks because it feels productive. But at the end of the week, you haven’t made any real progress on your big goals.
This cycle leaves you feeling scattered, overwhelmed, and convinced that you’re the problem. But you’re not the problem. The system is.
A 4-Steps to Build Your Own Working Rhythm
It’s time to ditch the rigid routines and create a structure that fits your brain, your energy, and your life. This isn’t about finding a new app or a Joanna Gaines inspired notebook. This is about creating a personal operating system.
What a Working Rhythm Can Do
Imagine this for yourself:
You know what kind of work to do on which days.
You know when to push and when to pause.
You make progress on the right things… without burning out.
You trust that everything has a place, even if not everything gets done today.
That’s the power of a rhythm. It doesn’t demand perfection. It just creates a shape for your week that supports your energy and your goals.
Step 1: Become an Energy Scientist
Before you can create a rhythm, you need to understand your own natural flow. For one week, your only job is to observe your energy levels without judgment. When do you feel sharpest and most focused? When do you feel sluggish and distracted? When do your best creative ideas strike?
Action Step: Get a simple notebook and track your energy on a scale of 1-5 every couple of hours for a full week. Note what you were doing and how you felt. Look for patterns. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Do you get a burst of energy after lunch or a major slump? This data is the foundation of your new rhythm.
Step 2: Theme Your Days
Instead of a minute-by-minute schedule, give each day of the week a general theme. This provides structure without being restrictive. It tells you what kind of work to focus on, giving your brain a clear direction without boxing you in.
Action Step: Based on your energy audit, assign a theme to each workday. Here is a sample structure you can adapt:
Mondays: CEO Day. Use your fresh-week energy for planning, financial review, and setting strategic direction. No client calls.
Tuesdays & Wednesdays: Deep Work Days. Schedule your most mentally demanding tasks (for me, it's things like client work, program creation, or writing) during your peak energy windows.
Thursdays: Connection Day. Group all your meetings, podcast interviews, and networking calls on one day to protect your focus on the others.
Fridays: Flex & Finish Day. Use this day for overflow tasks, admin, creative exploration, and wrapping up the week so you can fully disconnect.
Step 3: Differentiate Your Work "Gears"
Not all work requires the same level of brainpower. Trying to do creative work when you’re mentally fried is a recipe for frustration. A working rhythm involves matching the task to your current energy level.
Action Step: Categorize your tasks into three "gears":
Gear 3 (Deep Work): Strategic planning, content creation, client work. Reserve this for your peak energy times.
Gear 2 (Shallow Work): Answering emails, scheduling social media, administrative tasks. This is perfect for your lower-energy periods.
Gear 1 (Recovery Work): Tidying your digital files, listening to a business podcast, light reading. Use this when you’re truly drained but still want to feel productive.
When you sit down to work, ask yourself: “What gear am I in right now?” Then choose a task that matches.
Step 4: Schedule the White Space First
This is the most radical step from what I was used to. In a hustle-driven world, rest is an afterthought. In a working rhythm, it’s a non-negotiable part of the plan. White space (think of this as time for breaks, walks, hobbies, and doing nothing) is not wasted time. It’s when your brain recovers, integrates information, and generates its best ideas.
Action Step: Before you schedule a single work task, block out your white space in your calendar. This includes your lunch break (a real one, away from your desk), short breaks between tasks, your workout, and a hard stop time at the end of the day. Protect this white space as fiercely as you would a meeting with your most important client.
Your Rhythm Is Your Revolution
Imagine a week where you feel in control but not confined. A week where you make meaningful progress on your goals without feeling exhausted. A week where you end on Friday feeling proud and replenished, not depleted and defeated. That is the power of a working rhythm.
This isn’t about finding the perfect system. It’s about creating a personal practice that you can come back to, week after week. It’s your anchor in the chaotic sea of entrepreneurship.
Your energy is your most valuable business asset. It’s time you started treating it that way.
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