If you work in the creative industries, or any field really, you’ll recognise this scenario:
You sit down full of good intentions. You open your notebook, your project management tool, your reminders… and suddenly you’re staring at three enormous to-do lists.
One for work.
One for home.
One for hobbies and “fun” projects (I have this list, I never got to to it though).
Instead of feeling organised, you feel instantly overwhelmed, welcome to task paralysis, the not-so-fun cousin of burnout.
As a designer and studio owner, I’ve always prided myself on being able to juggle multiple projects. But somewhere along the way, my lists stopped being a support system and started becoming a source of stress. No matter how much I wrote down, I felt like I was always falling short.
Eventually, I hit the point where my brain waved the white flag. I had too many tasks and not enough headspace.
Too much is… well, too much
The human brain is brilliant, but it has limits. Endless lists don’t make us more productive—they bury us.
I didn’t need more organisation.
I didn’t need a better app.
I didn’t need a colour-coded calendar with 17 categories.
I needed less.
So I stripped everything back to the essentials and started building a weekly system around what actually matters.
Do less, achieve more
Here’s the counterintuitive truth I discovered:
When you do fewer tasks, you actually achieve more of the ones that matter.
When you remove the pressure, you create space for clarity.
When you focus on the bare minimum, you give yourself permission to succeed without drowning.
Cutting down my weekly expectations didn’t shrink my ambition—it protected it.
That’s the mindset that led me to create what I now call the Bare Minimum Weekly Planner: a simple, low-pressure way to structure your week around what genuinely moves you forward—not what floods your brain with anxiety.
It’s built on one core principle:
If everything is a priority, nothing is.
So instead, choose less. Do less. Achieve more and protect your mental health while you’re at it.
Why this matters (especially for creative people)
Creative work is emotional work. Even the strategic parts. We problem-solve, we absorb complexity, we take on responsibility (and often pressure) for outcomes. Creative work thrives when we’re not overwhelmed.
Our best ideas surface when the noise clears and choosing to do less isn’t a step backwards, it’s a recalibration.
When our personal systems overwhelm us, our creativity is the first thing to suffer.
By embracing a “bare minimum” mindset:
- Your expectations become realistic
- Your workload becomes manageable
- Your wins become visible
- And your brain finally gets to exhale
My productivity hasn’t dropped since adopting this approach. If anything, it’s gone up—because I’m actually finishing the things I start.
My mental health has thanked me for it.
If this resonates, I’d love to hear how you manage (or struggle with) overwhelm. The Bare Minimum Weekly Planner started as a tool for myself, but I’m realising more and more people need permission to slow down, reset, and still achieve great work.
Doing less isn’t being lazy.
Sometimes, it’s the smartest strategy we’ve got.
