The other day, someone warned me about writing about productivity. They said, “Social media loves productivity hacks.” The warning was clear. Don’t chase attention.
If your takeaway from the recent series Designing a Workweek that Works is that I am chasing social media attention, then you missed the point. If your takeaway is that I was writing about productivity hacks, then you missed the point.
I don’t write about productivity or productivity hacks. I write about life, personal and professional, and how people navigate it. Designing a Workweek that Works isn’t about hacking a system. It is about building one. I am drawn to understanding systems and the ways humans leverage systems in daily life.
I help individuals and organizations build systems. I love doing it. Dare I say, I think it’s fun. It is fascinating. It is fulfilling. It is transformative. And yes, it is fun.
It is also hard work. It is work that is never guaranteed to succeed. In fact, it almost always fails in some way. Human systems are imperfect, just like the humans they serve. That is OK. If you can embrace that as a given, you learn to build flexible systems. You learn to iterate. It can sound dangerous in business, but it is not. It is crucial.
Designing a Workweek that Works is about creating a system that fits you and the work you do. The world of work changes, from manufacturing to service industries, from manual labor to knowledge work. Even when the “what” appears the same, the “how” changes. The “who” changes. There is a constant stream of change tugging at the work and the systems that support it.
The series outlined a structure that works for me because it reflects how attention, energy, and responsibility behave across a week. But structure is only the starting point. A workweek becomes durable when it is shaped around your constraints, your role, and the decisions only you can make. Without that customization, even a strong framework drifts back toward urgency and reaction.
The next step is not adopting someone else’s system more faithfully. It is designing your own default week deliberately so the structure holds under the pressure you carry.
Be adaptive. Dare to reconsider your workweek. Be intentional about how you use your time. If you do not, someone else will do it for you.
Illuminate Possibilities 