How should you handle time blocking when tasks take longer than allocated, and how do you structure your daily schedule?
Rather than strict time-boxing, structure your schedule by front-loading your highest-ROI, nearest-to-revenue tasks first and taking as long as needed to complete them. For instance, replying to community comments in Maker School directly drives retention, revenue, and goodwill, so it is completed first thing every morning.
To speed up execution over time, record yourself completing a recurring task, review the footage to strip out wasted effort, and establish a realistic 'ideal time' benchmark. Track your time daily as a KPI until you consistently reach that benchmark.
The key to productivity is productizing your daily schedule—repeating the exact same core high-value actions every day so you build speed and mastery, rather than constantly switching between contextually different tasks.
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The simplest hack is to institute a rule: you cannot build or improve a process unless you're already doing that process. For example, many people in Maker School want to create automated systems for sending job applications but have sent zero applications—they're just preparing. I tell them to only optimize a process when they're actually executing it; otherwise they're just masturbating, putting things off, and making it a future issue. You can absolutely optimize processes, but only while you're doing them. In most cases, what feels like optimization is just preparation, not actual execution.
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.
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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.
I minimize friction at every step. I don’t start with the hardest part of my day; I begin with the easiest tasks—right now that’s responding to community questions, which is low effort and wakes me up. After 30‑45 minutes I’ve completed the highest‑ROI part of my day, then I move on to harder tasks and get into flow. I prioritize the most important work in the first couple of hours and keep friction low. I treat it as a daily habit rather than a weekly one, which aligns with the neurobiological basis of habit formation and our circadian rhythms. Doing the same things at the same time each day builds consistency and improves performance over time.