When you can do it all, so you do nothing at all.

The crippling power of free(ish) time.

The last few months have been an avalanche of deadlines (a good problem to have, no complaints here).

Big projects, big deliverables, very full weeks.

But once the final files were out and things dropped to a more reasonable pace, I’d been itching to get back to the bit I like most: working on the studio.

I also have a very specific weakness: I will always put client work first.

To give myself at least a chance of doing the former when there’s a break in the latter, I keep a running list called “to-do with free time”, a holding pen for everything I don’t have time to do, but want to.

Things like: Start our TikTok. Start the Substack. Do some posts for Instagram. Update the studio decks. Redesign the website. Build out case studies.

You know the list. You probably have the list.

This was supposed to be the week I finally did something about it.

Day one. Sat at my desk. Hot coffee in hand. Laptop open, every possible starting point staring back at me.

Immediate paralysis.

First thought: start the Substack. Okay cool, so what would we actually talk about? What's the POV? What are our content pillars? Do we really need another person talking about "culture" online? We could post work... but who wants to read another case study? Which leads me back to my main point: what would people even want to read from us??

Next thought: TikTok. We've actually had client inquiries from people finding us via other people's TikToks, so the channel clearly works. We're just... not on it. Which is fine. Totally fine. No but is it fine?? What do we even post? Process? A day in the life? Do we have to speak to camera? How do we even TikTok. Someone help.

Alright. Instagram. The one we know best, the one that's always delivered. Except everyone says it's dying, so. Cool.

Fine. I can work on our studio decks. Safe, reliable, no camera required. Except the decks need new case studies… which means the case studies need to exist first… which means maybe case studies are actually the priority?

What about LinkedIn. Feels like a quick win. Except we need work to post there too. Which sends us straight back to case studies.

But we also want a new website to put those case studies on. We designed our current site back in 2021 when we were fresh in the industry game, and a few things about the studio have changed since then… so does the website come first??

By this point, the only real conclusion is the universal one:

I just need more time.

The easiest answer to reach for, especially when you finally have some.

So of course I opened a new tab and started looking at project management tools. Maybe if I automate enough admin, I'll somehow earn my own time back?

Several hours, too many browser tabs, and a few “this could change everything” Notion pages later, I did the only logical thing.

I went back to client work.

I could do it all. So I did nothing at all.

Ahhhhhhhh.

On a positive note, in my spiral of overwhelm, I came across this post on Substack:

I did some lite investigating.

According to studies, brain scans show that when you stop telling yourself “we’re doomed” and start asking a practical question, the amygdala (threat) calms down and the prefrontal cortex (planning, control, decisions) switches on.

Do that often enough and neuroplasticity does its thing: the rational pathways bulk up, the panic loop thins out, and “what’s the first step?” starts winning more often than “this is too much”.

This is now the current experiment. Less “reinvent the entire studio by Thursday.” More catching the spiral mid-sentence, swapping in “what’s the first step?”, and seeing what happens.

A free moment appeared in my calendar. Experiment time.

Step one: write this Substack post. No overthinking, straight to the page (and an agreement with myself to never re-read it once it’s live!!!). No, I don’t want your feedback.

Step two (which is considerably more humble than my ambitions would like): pick one thing from the backlog and give it 20 minutes. Outline a case study. Draft three post ideas. Dump some thoughts about the new site into yet another Notion page. Whatever. One concrete move, set against a timer. If it has legs, keep going. If not, permission granted to crawl back to the warm familiar comfort of client work.

I’m not sure how long I need to run this experiment before I see results (if you’ve cracked it, I’m all ears). But the win right now isn’t a new website or a thriving TikTok.

It’s just doing the first, smallest thing instead of nothing at all.

I’ll report back.

And yes, I’m fully aware my version of “free time” is still… working. On the business. Another post for another day.