When Your Brain Is the Worst Office Manager in the World
During a business mentoring session with a new client last week, I was reminded of the time my little solo business started to take off. I went from juggling three clients to fifteen. I was getting calls from people who had heard about me — finally, word of mouth! Great, right?
Nope.
I was completely overwhelmed. My kitchen wall turned into a giant blackboard of doom — an earnest attempt to remember everything. The only problem? I kept forgetting to look at it.
One day, I arrived at a friend’s house, exhausted, and confessed:
“I don’t know what’s wrong. This is everything I wanted — good work, good clients, money coming in — but I’m not enjoying it. I feel so stressed and miserable. What am I doing wrong?”
My friend looked at me kindly and asked, “Do you know about GTD?”
I didn’t. But learning about Getting Things Done (GTD) — David Allen’s personal productivity system — changed my life.
This isn’t an ad for GTD (though if you’re into lists and sanity, go have a look). It’s a story about how our minds are not designed to run our businesses.
Your Brain Is Not a Project Manager
How would you describe your mind?
Mine is creative, busy, scattered, curious, inventive, and occasionally — utterly chaotic.
David Allen calls the brain the worst office manager in the world. And he’s right.
What kind of office manager reminds you to buy light bulbs at 2am and then goes completely silent when you’re actually in the shop?
Our minds weren’t built to manage things. They were built to create. They solve problems, dream up new ideas, and invest energy in making life more beautiful, meaningful, and sometimes even magical.
But managing hundreds of tiny details — the emails, the follow-ups, the invoices, the “don’t forget milk” notes — that’s not creative work. That’s mental clutter dressed in urgency.
How a System Saved My Sanity
Back then, I listened to David Allen’s audiobook while walking the dog. Bit by bit, I started applying it — writing things down, sorting tasks, getting them out of my head. Slowly, I became what he calls a black belt in productivity.
The impact was astonishing. My nervous system calmed. I could finally switch off — even meditate (something I’d been trying to do for years with limited success).
Within a year, I was ready to grow from a solo freelancer to a small business with five employees, an office, and a hundred-fold increase in sales.
Was that all GTD? Of course not. It also took good people, messy mistakes, and a lot of learning. But having a practice — a rhythm that kept my brain from running wild — was the foundation for it all.
Your To-Do List as a Practice
Getting Things Done isn’t the only way. You can replace it with any system that helps you capture, process, and release the constant hum of things to do.
What matters is having a practice. Just like yoga, meditation, or journaling — tending to your tasks is not a technical skill; it’s a form of self-care.
Managing your to-dos, emails, files, and busy mind isn’t something your brain should “just know how to do.” It’s something you learn, refine, and, if you’re lucky, one day become a black belt in.
So if your mental office manager is sending you 2am reminders and misplacing your priorities under a pile of digital Post-its — take it as a sign. It’s time to retrain the manager.
Get a system. Give your mind back its real job: to dream, to create, and to make something beautiful of this business (and life) you’re building.
Join Us for the Next Her Circle
Our November Her Circle session will be all about this — getting on top of your to-dos, calming your busy mind, and finding the systems that truly suit you.
And if you’d like more personal support, I have a few spaces open for 1-to-1 clarity coaching — where we can map your workflow, clear the noise, and design a way of working that brings you peace and progress.
Because you deserve more than survival mode — you deserve a rhythm that helps you thrive.