How To Stay Productive Without Pressure: A Guide for Busy-Brained Business Owners

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Hi, if you’re anything like me and running a business with a chaotic brain, you might struggle with organization and routine. Personally, I have an annoying pull where I NEED structure, but I can’t be too limiting with the kind of structure, or else I’ll view it as a demand and rebel by just NOT doing what I meant to do.

Yeah, it’s fun.

A lot of Notion and other project management templates I’ve tried don’t work for me, because they feel too stifling, or else they’re not fun after the initial rush of ‘NEW’ wears off. I’m still working on an ideal system, and TBH, I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but I have found some things over time that work for me.

So here are six things that I’ve found over time that work for me.

If you struggle similarly, I hope these help!

6 things to help me stay productive without pressure

01. Flexible Task Lists

• Task Buffet: Create a list of tasks you need to accomplish, but allow yourself to choose which ones to tackle in any order. This way, you have the freedom to decide what you feel like doing at any given moment.

• Categorize Tasks: Divide tasks into categories (e.g., design, writing, admin) and choose tasks from different categories throughout the day to keep things varied and interesting.

02. Chunking Time with Options

• Big Time Chunks: Allocate large, flexible blocks of time for work. Within those blocks, give yourself a range of tasks to choose from. For example, instead of saying, "Work on my client’s project from 9AM -12PM ," you could say, "Do creative tasks from 9AM-12PM," and then pick specific tasks as you go.

• Alternate Focus: Switch between different types of tasks within a big time chunk to avoid feeling stuck on one thing for too long and to give your brain permission to not feel obligated to work on something.

03. Low-Pressure Planning

• Gentle Reminders: Use gentle, non-demanding reminders instead of strict deadlines. For instance, "It would be great to finish this by the end of the week," rather than "This must be done by Friday." And be gentle with yourself. If you don’t get something done, don’t beat yourself up over it.

• Flexible Goals: Set flexible goals that give you a sense of direction without feeling like rigid demands. Progress not perfection.

04. Interest-Based Tasks

• Follow Your Interests: When possible, try to align your tasks with your current interests and passions. If you’re feeling particularly inspired by content writing one day, focus on tasks related to that.

• Variety: Keep a variety of tasks on your list so you can choose based on your mood and energy levels.

05. Reward System

• Incorporate Rewards: Create a reward system for completing tasks. Rewards can be anything you personally enjoy, like taking a break to watch a favorite show, having a treat, or going for a walk. For me it’s things like: taking 10 minutes to sit on the couch and just zone out, going for a walk or run in my neighborhood, wandering the aisles of my local Grocery Outlet, drinking a bubbly water or eating a snack, leaving a Marco Polo for a friend, or TBH just scrolling Insta or YouTube for a few minutes.

  Celebrate Small Wins: Acknowledge and celebrate all your small achievements to stay motivated. Things like nice words from clients, more engagement than usual on a social post, getting something done even if it wasn’t you originally planned, or getting up and sitting at your desk when you just wanted to work from bed (I speak from experience 😜).

06. Collaborative Work

• Accountability Partner: Work with an accountability partner. You can check in with each other about progress without feeling pressured.

• Shared Tasks: Collaborate on tasks with someone else to make the work feel more social and less demanding.

These can be hard when you’re self-employed. If you don’t have people in mind, join a couple community groups in Facebook, Slack, Discord, Heartbeat, etc and try to find some like-minded people.

Practical Steps

1. Create a Task Buffet

   • List all your tasks for the day/week. Categorize them into broad areas like "Client Work”, “Creative," "Admin," and "Learning." Choose tasks from any category as you feel inclined.

   • BONUS: You can also add energy levels, like if you find something harder or not as enjoyable, you can classify that as ‘high-energy’, and if there’s something you love and you’re good at that doesn’t take a lot of what I call ‘Get Up and Go Juice”, classify that as ‘low-energy’/fun. For me, I really like fiddling around, so Squarespace design practice, creating things in Canva, doing research… those are all low-effort fun things.

2. Big Time Chunks with Flexibility

   • Schedule big time chunks for work, such as "Morning Work Block" from 9 AM to 12 PM. Within that block, list multiple task options so you can switch tasks if you start feeling resistant.

3. Use Visual Aids

   • Use visual aids like a Kanban board (like Trello, or you can use Notion for this too) where you can move tasks around and visually see your progress. This can make task management more dynamic and less rigid.

4. Interest-Based Focus

   • At the beginning of the week, identify which tasks align with your current interests and goals. Plan to focus on those first, ensuring you stay engaged and motivated.

5. Incorporate Rewards & Breaks

   • Plan small rewards and breaks throughout your workday. For example, "After working on X task for a bit, I’ll take a short break to do something I enjoy." You don’t have to be specific with the amount of time if that makes you itchy.

Example Schedule

Morning Block (9 AM - 12 PM)

• Choose from:

  • Design website graphics

  • Write a blog post

  • Organize project files

Afternoon Block (1 PM - 4 PM)

• Choose from:

  • Social media planning

  • Client emails

  • Research new design trends

Rewards and Breaks

• Take a short break after each hour of focused work.

• Reward yourself with a favorite snack or activity after completing a big or hard task.

Note: It’s important to know when you work best.

For me, I like working in the mornings and evenings, and I take the afternoon to rest & recharge, so my schedule would look a little different.

Summary

• Flexible Task Lists: Create a list of tasks and choose what to work on based on your mood.

• Chunking Time: Allocate large, flexible blocks of time with a variety of task options.

• Low-Pressure Planning: Set gentle reminders and flexible goals. And be gentle with yourself.

• Interest-Based Tasks: Align tasks with your current interests and passions whenever possible.

• Reward System: Use rewards and breaks to stay motivated.

• Collaborative Work: Work with an accountability partner or collaborate on tasks.

I hope that these help you to A) not feel alone or frustrated and B) give you some good starting points to stay productive & motivated without feeling pressured or obligated.