How I Built Things While Working Full-Time

Systems over hustle

Three projects. Two editing deadlines. One very tired me. I was juggling student essays, my own drafts and a weekly YouTube upload—and it was all catching up.

“I can do this. I’ll just sacrifice sleep,” I thought.

Narrator: lol.

After a few days of the continuous brain strain, I gave up. There was no way I could continue putting in all these extra hours doing my own creative projects while still showing up for my full-time job.

And since I can’t conjure up more hours, I built a system instead.

Key Principles

In order to do more with the same or less time, I turned to productivity tips and experimented with a bunch of them. After many trials and errors, these are the ones that worked for me:

1. Energy Management > Time Management

Time-blocking didn’t work for me (I always ended up ignoring those arbitrary schedules because they “weren’t real”), but matching tasks to my natural energy curve did. I’m sharpest in the morning, so writing with fellow creators at 7AM before work beats squeezing in an 8–9:30PM session when I’m running on fumes.

2. Minimum viable progress

Putting together a polished 10-minute YouTube video is tempting, but unrealistic week after week. But I wanted to keep doing videos, so I tried scoping down until I landed on something that felt doable. Now, I just make 30-second, one-take reels: 30 minutes of scripting, a one-take shot, and another 30 minutes to edit. Only after doing this can I ladder up to more complex projects again later on.

3. Asynchronous creativity

Ideas strike anytime, so I lean on capture over recall. After all, second-brain nerds on the internet (I’m one too) believe that the brain is for having ideas, not capturing them. Before I had a system, I’d rattle off video ideas as soon as the camera was rolling, making the whole process feel more stressful. Now I jot thoughts in my notes app throughout the day, then slot only the strongest into my weekly writing queue.

My Personal System

Building alongside a full-time job is a mix of rigid deadlines and flexible creativity windows. Not everything is set in stone because life happens, but not everything is up in the air too because it’s helpful to have some anchored blocks:

Anchored calendar blocks:

• Essay Deadline: Every Wednesday at 8AM sharp. That fixed goal shapes my writing process throughout the week.

• Morning Pages: Brain-dumping my thoughts in the morning helps me “unclog” my noggin and unearth essay ideas.

• Weekly Writing Calls: A Thursday afternoon co-working brainstorm with writer friends for feedback and accountability. (Note: Retired in March)

• Daily Workouts: An hour of movement before 10 am wakes up my muscles and boosts my energy bank.

Flexible creativity windows:

• Chasing Sunsets: When golden hour’s forecast is clear, I rearrange my afternoon to chase that glow.

• “Me Mondays”: A self-care + side-project evening. Usually Monday, but I’ll swap if friends’ plans roll in.

Tradeoffs and Boundaries

I’ve still got limitations (lmk if you manage to squeeze 8 hours of sleep in 4 hours…), so I often have to trade something off in pursuit of my creativity projects.

1. Saying No

Every “yes” is a “no” to something else. I’ve ducked out of Friday night drinks, skipped lazy Sundays in bed, and left gatherings early because I knew rest and writing time mattered more to me. It felt awkward at first (my friends always asked if I was feeling unwell), but letting my friends know of my goals made it easier.

2. Delegation

When I was releasing weekly videos, I hired an editor from Fiverr so my evenings became for writing and rest. On my podcast with

Bhav Sharma

, she edits the video while I write the copy, aligning with what we each enjoy.

Building sustainable systems

Your free hours are precious. Rigid rituals + lightweight flexibility beat brute-force hustle every time. Find the few rules that remove decision fatigue, guard your energy, and make small, consistent progress inevitable without burning out.

This is part of an essay series called Cheat on Your Job. Share your system tips in the comments, or lemme know what you’d like to read next!

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Update log:

• 💪🏼 Finished my second Hyrox! My friend and I did doubles and we finished… a grand total of 1 minute faster than last year. It was mentally tough for me to push through the race this year. But we’ve got 2 months till our next one…

• ✍🏼 Going through round 3 of book edits! I’ve finished the first two chapters + the intro already. It’s slowly coming together.

• 📖 Completed Moral Ambition by Rutger Bregman. Great book, though unsure if I have any concrete actions to take away that doesn’t involve throwing away my current career. I am at the end of the day a queer capitalist, and financial security is not something I take for granted.

• 👀 Saw two Thai actresses (Emi & Bonnie) IRL because I went to an event and they thought I was a journalist… Maybe I do still have that aura! But wow my heart stopped when I saw them.

• 👩🏻‍💻 Learning how to set up automations with Make. Once I figure this out, it’s over for y’all.

• 😬 jk not really. I only just figured out how to remove the password from my Zoom link. I win some, I lose some…

Book a call: Have a bite-sized creative project? Let’s give you a starting line boost a la Mario Kart - https://www.beckyisj.com/consulting

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