How do you keep track of everything on your own with client projects, students, and promises, and doesn't it get overwhelming?
Yes, it definitely gets overwhelming; I have overwhelming days like anyone else. Even the big business titans I admire have extraordinarily overwhelming days, though they hide it well. The feeling of overwhelm exists on a gradient between no stimulation and overstimulation, with an optimal middle spot where you're optimally stimulated—this is the ancient Greek concept of ESS (optimal performance zone). On a stress‑meter graph, the sweet spot is where stress brings out your best performance; high performers operate there, while being over‑stressed (distress) is too much and harmful. I often feel overwhelmed and admit my project‑management systems aren’t the best, but I’m working on them. The key idea is to treat your limited daily time as a constraint and use it for good—find ways to do the same or more work in the same or less time rather than seeking more time. I appreciate the question and note that many one‑person businesses make more money than I do, so I look to adopt their systems. Simple systems that keep things on track are a big lever; publishing content every day is one of them, letting me answer questions and create content simultaneously—killing two birds with one stone. When a student asks a question, I record a video to answer it and also produce content, always looking for opportunities to combine tasks. This approach yields more creative output, a stronger content strategy, and higher volume—a tactical way to work.
When I feel overwhelmed, I take a minute to list every single task I actually have to do on paper. The overwhelm comes not from the total volume but from my perception of the volume bouncing around in my head. My simple steps: take a deep breath, identify the first thing bouncing around that I need to do and write it out, then identify the next thing and write it out, and keep rinsing and repeating for 10‑20‑30 minutes to get a big list of actionable steps. To push further, write out the first subtask needed to move that forward—for example, after moving provinces I needed to figure out car insurance; the first actionable step was to call a phone number. Knowing the exact step reduces friction and makes it much easier to get done; this is about eliminating akrasia (weakness of will). Reduce the friction and you’ll win.
time managementoverwhelmproductivityactionable steps
I wake up between 5 and 6 a.m., letting nature wake me instead of an alarm to avoid adrenaline spikes. First I check my higher‑ticket community (Make Money with Make) and respond to any recent activity—either writing text posts with Aqua dictation or recording custom Loom videos that solve members’ problems. I repeat the same process for the Maker School community, which usually has more roast requests because it’s larger and full of beginners. After that I take a call—either a community call, a coaching session, or a sales call—usually between 8 and 9 a.m.; if it’s at 8 I sometimes get cut off, but at 9 I can finish my prep work beforehand. Once the call ends I’m warmed up and I record the daily updates video. After the video, if I have content for the main channel I film it, then the rest of the day is agency work: reviewing new LeftClick clients, drafting proposal templates, recording Loom videos for prospects, discussing strategy with my business partner Noah, and working with a developer on our website revamp. I finish the day with lower‑value tasks. I order my workflow this way because I start with the activities that generate the most revenue and move down to those that earn less, ensuring I always hit the high‑impact items first.
It's normal to feel chaotic when you're juggling many things—every startup founder or anyone who's made it big has periods where they're handling countless tasks and feel like everything's about to fall apart. Whether it's a lifestyle business or aiming for $10 million a year, you'll have those phases. My recommendation is to make your availability window much smaller: there's no need to be open for random Q&A for six hours a day. Instead, set a limited window—like my 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. PT slot—where you check and respond to messages, and don't engage outside that time. Many client concerns aren't actually important, and letting them distract you creates an attentional cost: switching attention to a silly message can cost you far more than the five minutes it takes to reply, because it takes you about 20 minutes to refocus on deep work like building systems or lead generation. Protecting that focus is key to staying productive and avoiding burnout.
Yeah, it's cool—I don't play many video games. My League of Legends sessions are just occasional half‑hour meet‑ups with a buddy I rarely see, so it's not a crippling addiction; even if someone like Elon Musk got hooked on Diablo, it wouldn't be a problem. Playing a game or having a vice like Netflix doesn't stop you from making money. Regarding work hours, I put in about 50 to 60 hours per week, roughly eight hours a day, every day of the week. Not all of that is intense brain work; a lot is low‑stakes tasks like community management—I spend at least an hour a day responding to YouTube comments, which is about 12‑15% of my week. I do this because nobody else justifies the time, and it actually scales by boosting engagement. I manage my time as effectively as possible. From a leverage perspective, content is high‑leverage: recording one 8‑minute video that gets 1,000 views turns 15 minutes of effort into 8,000 minutes of watch time—a massive multiplier. It may look like I'm working more than big entrepreneurs, but I'm actually doing a comparable amount; I'm just not working crazy hours. When I was poor and scraping by, I worked far harder and longer, but much of that panicky, sub‑effective activity never produced results. Now I focus on impactful ways, especially the non‑scalable work like comment responses, which improves the likelihood that any subscriber will buy. That's why my channel is now the most monetized in the space—around $2.50 per subscriber at 50k subs—while others with larger audiences aren't achieving that. I credit this shift to people like Matthew Larson, who taught me monetization and a straight‑line approach. Overall, I hope that makes sense.