You can have all the time in the world.

Be the hardest worker.

And still not make progress.

It’s not because you weren’t working hard enough.

Or because you have the wrong productivity system.

It can be as simple, yet damaging, as being misaligned.

When your effort is misaligned from your goals, no amount of effort will change the fact that you’re going in the wrong direction.

You wake up, open your laptop, and start moving.

You update your website.

Design graphics.

Reply to emails.

You end the day exhausted, but still feel behind.

That’s the silent trap most creators fall into:

being busy instead of being effective.

It’s not that you’re lazy.

It’s that your daily actions aren’t connected to your long-term goals.

And until they are, it will always feel like your effort isn’t moving you closer to your goals.

Going the Wrong Way

When I talk about misalignment, think of it as pushing a boulder up a hill.

Only to get to the top and realise it’s the wrong hill.

It’s studying two sections for an exam, only to find out an hour before that those sections didn’t need to be studied.

It’s climbing a ladder, but it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

It’s taking consistent action, but not seeing the progress or results you want.

It’s frustrating putting in so much effort towards a goal but feeling like you’re not getting any closer.

I see this a lot with solopreneurs and creators who start.

They have a clear vision of what they want.

They want freedom, impact, and to do work they love.

They want to live a life on their terms.

So they start working on building a brand and business.

Their days look like:

• Scrolling social media “for inspiration.”

• Updating their Notion dashboard.

• Engaging with others’ content.

• Creating and writing content.

• Watching another YT tutorial.

• Rewriting their offer again.

All these actions are great for their brand, but what about their business?

They feel productive and see some progress, but the needle isn’t moving.

Because 80 to 90% of the things they do aren’t aligned with the long-term goal.

The goal they want to achieve.

The goal that would completely change their life:

Building a business.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth:

And the worst part?

Most of us don’t even realise it.

The actions you take may lead to something, and some progress, but is it progress that aligns to your long-term goal?

You convince yourself that the busy work matters, but you never get to the work that actually moves your business and life forward.

So you end up trapped in a loop of motion without momentum.

It’s like going to the gym and walking on the treadmill for an hour, but being upset that your biceps aren’t growing.

Sure, you did SOMETHING, but it wasn’t THE THING.

The thing that really moves the needle forward.

This is why, no matter how hard you work, you still aren’t seeing results.

The solution isn’t to work harder.

It’s to work on the right things.

Work on The Right Things, Not Everything

Here’s what changes everything:

You need to focus on and build leverage.

Leverage is the difference between effort and impact.

It’s what happens when the small, consistent things you do daily create exponential results.

Think of it like this:

Posting every day without a strategy or a clear message. You put a lot of effort into that, but see little result.

vs.

Posting content that addresses your ideal client’s problem and promoting your offer. This is leverage. That single post could lead to someone DMing you to ask for help and find out more.

Once you understand leverage, everything you do gets filtered through a simple question:

When you start choosing based on that, everything changes.

You get clarity.

You get momentum.

You start to see progress compound.

And most importantly, your effort begins to yield results.

The Balancing Act

This year, I’ve been juggling a full-time job, university, and building my brand and business.

I knew I wouldn’t have time for everything, so I could only focus on a few things.

If I didn’t prioritise the right actions, I wouldn’t see the progress I wanted.

So I only focused on 2 - 3 levers per area.

For my brand and business, this looked like:

• Writing and creating content

• Building my offer

• Daily engagement

That’s it.

This worked well in the beginning, but at some point, progress slowed down again.

This was a crucial lesson:

Change what doesn’t work and double down on what doesn’t.

As useful and important as daily engagement can be for growing your audience, it wasn’t sustainable.

That’s when I focused more on DMs and networking.

Sure, in the beginning, it was awkward and I had a lot of learning to do, but once I got the hang of it, progress picked up again.

This is crucial.

Instead of changing everything, I focused on 1 thing at a time.

This helps you identify where the block is and address it properly. When you change everything at once, you won’t know what wasn’t working.

And yes, when you do this for the first time, you might not identify the correct levers.

But don’t let sunk cost bias get the better of you.

Adapt and iterate until you find them.

Once I identified the 20% of actions that led to 80% of results, my output multiplied.

The stress of balancing everything decreased because I was focused on a few key actions.

And those actions and their results are compounding.

That’s the game.

When you align the daily levers that align with your long-term goals, even 2 focused hours can change everything.

Because it’s not about doing more.

It’s about doing what matters most.

Getting More For Less

Let’s make this practical for you with a 5-step process.

1. Define Your North Star Goal

Clarity is always the first step.

What do you want?

Write down your 5-year or 12-month vision.

Be specific and measurable.

Examples:

• “Earn $10K/month from my solo business.”

• “Have 5 consistent high-ticket clients.”

• “Grow my audience to 50K people.”

This goal is your North Star — the thing every decision points toward.

2. Identify Your Daily Levers

Ask yourself:

“What are the 1–3 daily actions that, if done consistently, would make this goal inevitable?”

These are your levers.

They create progress even if you have limited time or energy.

You can use the 80/20 principle or the Eisenhower Matrix to find them:

• 80/20: What few actions produce most of your results?

• Eisenhower: What’s important but not urgent?

Examples:

• Reaching out to 10 prospects daily (growth)

• Writing and publishing content weekly (authority)

• Practising your core skill daily (mastery)

• Following up with leads (revenue)

Low leverage example:

• Spending 2 hours in your inbox.

• Building another website page.

• Redesigning your logo.

A key sign of a lever:

3. Audit Your Energy

Your energy is a limited resource.

Don’t waste it on low-value tasks.

Look at your last week.

When did you feel the most energised, focused and creative?

For me, it’s the morning.

That’s when my willpower is highest and my mental clarity the sharpest.

Whenever that time is for you, you want to align your levers within that time.

4. Redesign Your Schedule

Now, schedule your daily levers into your energy peak zones.

If your high-focus window is 8–10 a.m., block it for your most important work.

No calls. No notifications. Just deep focus.

If you can’t because of work or something else, then wake up earlier.

If you don’t sacrifice for your goals, your goals become the sacrifice.

Even 90 minutes of pure focus on your leverage actions daily can outperform 8 hours of scattered effort.

Then batch the rest — admin, replies, and maintenance work — into your low-energy times.

Your day becomes designed around impact, not activity.

5. Run a Weekly Alignment Check

Every Sunday, take 15 minutes to review:

“Did my actions this week move me closer to my goal?”

If not, look for the blocks and bottlenecks.

Maybe it wasn’t the right lever. Maybe your priorities drifted.

That’s fine — just go through the process again.

Momentum isn’t about perfection. It’s about consistent course correction.

Bonus: The Leverage Filter

When in doubt, run every task through these questions:

1. Will this matter a year from now?

2. Does this create compounding returns?

3. If I did this every day for a year, what impact would it have?

4. If I could only do 1 thing today aligned with my goal, what is it?

If it passes this filter, it’s a lever.

If not, it’s noise.

When you start working this way, something profound happens.

You stop feeling busy and start feeling in control.

You’ll feel more confident because you know what you’re doing is leading you to your goals.

You second-guess and overthink less.

Your progress compounds — not because you’re doing more, but because you’re doing what matters.

Suddenly:

• You’re making measurable progress every week.

• You feel calm instead of chaotic.

• You wake up with clarity and confidence.

• You end the day knowing you actually moved forward.

That’s the difference between activity and alignment.

Between busyness and business.

Between motion and momentum.

Action Steps (Summary)

1. Define your North Star Goal (your 12-month target).

2. Identify your 1–3 daily levers (what drives that goal).

3. Audit your energy to know when to do your best work.

4. Schedule your levers into your high-energy hours.

5. Run a weekly alignment check to stay on track.

6. Use the Leverage Filter to make faster decisions.

Thanks for reading.

I hope it helped.

I’ll see you in the next one.

— Shana.