What's happening: Recovery from hip surgery has completely dismantled my daily systems, forcing me to rethink how I structure my life and what "productivity" even means right now.
What you'll find here: The story of how a sleep schedule crisis taught me that wanting change isn't enough—you need the right infrastructure. Plus, why sometimes you need to completely break your systems to build better ones.
The real talk: Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is admit your current systems aren't serving you—and give yourself permission to start over.
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Hey {{first_name}},
The other day, I woke up and reached for my phone to check the time.
1:30pm.
My first thought was pure panic. How did I sleep this late? What did I miss? I'm so behind already.
But then I paused. Behind on what, exactly?
I'm recovering from hip surgery. I have nowhere I "have to be" right now. The only thing on my actual to-do list was taking my medication. So why did waking up at 1:30pm feel like such a failure?
Because I was judging myself against a system that no longer existed. A structure that made sense in my old life but had absolutely nothing to do with my current reality.
This systems realization didn't start with surgery recovery—it started about a year ago when I read Atomic Habits by James Clear.
The book talks about how habits stick when you have the right systems in place. It's not all about motivation or willpower—it's about setting up your environment and daily structures so that the thing you want to do becomes easier.
I remember putting the book down and thinking: Okay, so what systems do I actually have in place?
I wanted to make more time for my newsletter and brand. I wanted to prioritize myself—my health, my creative work, the things that mattered beyond my day job. But somehow weeks would pass and I'd barely make progress.
So I started asking: What did my days actually look like? Were my daily systems supporting the life I said I wanted—or working against it?
The biggest culprit? My sleep schedule.
Instead of using my evenings for the things I kept saying I wanted to do—working out, writing, playing with my dogs—I'd crash on the couch. Watch more TV because I was too tired to do anything else.
Then the cycle would repeat.
The system I had in place wasn't supporting the life I wanted. At all.
So I made changes. Slowly, imperfectly.
I started going to bed earlier. I prioritized time for myself after work, blocking it in my calendar like a meeting I couldn't miss. It wasn't perfect. Some nights I still stayed up too late. Some evenings I still chose the couch. But the system itself shifted. And with it, so did my daily experience.
I had more energy. I started writing again. I felt like I was actually living my life instead of just surviving it.
And then I had hip surgery.
Suddenly, all those systems I'd carefully built? Gone. Demolished.
My sleep schedule is chaos because pain and discomfort wakes me up at random hours. There's no commute, no work schedule to structure my days around. I can't work out. I can barely move around my own house without help.
I’m learning my old systems don't work for this season of life. And that's okay!
Instead of beating myself up for not having a "normal" schedule, I'm experimenting with something completely different. No rigid daily structure. No pressure to be "productive" in traditional ways.
It's not the system I had before. It's not even the system I'll need next week when I transition to work from home or the one after when I recover. But it's the system that works for where I am right now.
Here's the permission I'm giving myself, and maybe you need it too:
Your systems are supposed to evolve.
What worked last year might not work now. What works during a busy season might not work during recovery. What works when you're single might not work when you're partnered.
That's not failure—that's adaptation. That's life.
I'm learning to let go of the idea that there's one perfect system I need to discover and maintain forever. Instead, I'm building messy, imperfect progress that adjusts to whatever season I'm in.
Some days that looks like waking up at 7am and crushing my to-do list. Other days it looks like waking up at 1:30pm, taking my medicine, and writing half a newsletter from bed.
Both count. Both are me showing up for the life I'm building with the resources I have available right now.
I owe it to myself to build systems that actually serve me. Not systems that look good on paper or that I think I "should" have. Systems that match my actual life, my actual energy, my actual circumstances.
I want to know: What system in your life is ready for an honest audit?
Maybe it's your mornings. Maybe it's how you handle work boundaries. Maybe it's your approach to relationships or creativity or rest.
What have you been wanting to change or prioritize that keeps feeling just out of reach? And what system (or lack of system) might be making it harder than it needs to be?
You don't need to have answers. I barely do. But maybe we can figure this out together.
¿Qué dijo? / What did she say?
con cariño - with kindness