Do less every day. Do more over time .
I have been running a solo consulting business for almost 10 years now.
I have checklists and to-do notes written in journals, typed into apps, scribbled on Post-its, drawn on whiteboards, and a few scratched into my desk.
It took me way too long to realise that there is no point in packing my calendar with things to do. I was exhausted at the end of the day, and I hadn’t done half the things.
Then I read a Substack article by Emily M Austen that changed how I manage my day.
Manage energy, not time.
I spent a week studying how my energy ebbed and flowed during the day. Nothing fancy, just a notepad on my desk on which I noted how alert or tired I felt, and what I was working on at that moment.
This simple log helped me spot the pattern. My brain felt like Superman between 10 and 2. No task was too big, and no idea too complex.
Other times that same day, my brain felt like the villain who got thulped by Superman. I would struggle to spell banana without autocorrect.
Once I noticed the pattern, the next step was a no-brainer.
Do the important things that can take my business to the next level when I am full of energy.
Do the admin work that keeps my business running when I am low on mental energy.
In the article, the author calls it the 3-3-3 method.
This is my version: Every day, I break my work into three parts—a big project that gets three hours of focus, three tasks that need attention, and three simple chores to keep things running.
3 hours on something big
I usually have one BIG job to do for the day.
It’ll be a project that I think will lead to either fame or fortune or both. Maybe it’s the final deck for a brand name project, or a content strategy outline, or the first draft of a framework to develop websites for the AI age.
I keep that job aside for when I am feeling my brightest and sharpest. Once I start, I focus on that one thing for 3 hours.
3 tasks
Every solo business comes with tasks you wish you didn’t have to do.
Replying to messages, following up on invoices, spying on your competition’s Insta page, catching up on a few newsletters, and so on.
I try to finish at least 3 of these tasks when I have energy left, but I am just feeling lazy. That’s usually right after lunch.
3 chores
And then there are the daily chores that keep the lights on.
Checking whether you have paid the bills, making sure subscriptions you have cancelled are really cancelled, bulk-deleting random emails.
These things don’t take up much energy, but need to be done. I keep them for when I don’t feel like thinking too much.
Plan your 3-3-3 the night before
I make a note of what I will focus on for 3 hours.
I also make a list of 3 tasks and 3 chores.
Of course, things will not go according to plan most days. A client will need something urgent, or the wifi will stop working.
When that happens, I sacrifice the chores for that day and use that time to put out the fire. That’s life.
But some days the plan goes according to plan, and I remember to give myself a high-five.
Rise. Repeat.