How to Stop Trading Your Genius for Busywork

Intentional Iconoclast,

As I sat in my local coffee shop writing this to you, I overheard a conversation between the owner and one of his colleagues.

He had been measuring a wall that was 200cm wide and 80cm tall. His colleague replied, "Great. Let me check the art shop on my way home." I don’t know what they were measuring for, but it sounded exciting.

I know you’re building something great in 2026, and I’m sure it’s exciting.

However, many builders struggle to bring their desires, wants, and needs from their heads into reality.

This is often due to a lack of confidence or the specific skill set required to do so.

In my experience, what breeds confidence is both structure and action.

Let me help you with the structure. Can you promise to help with the action?

Prioritise Before Action (PBA)

Life is a sum’s game.

The more time you spend doing what’s important to you, the more likely you are to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.

The more time you spend doing what’s not important to you, the more likely it is that you’ll end up frustrated, resentful and ultimately not getting what you want out of life.

Having some kind of framework to come back to can be really helpful.

I recently hired a graphic designer called Javed to help me with my tiktok.

I want to reach more people online and know that I have both the ability and confidence to record videos to do that.

What I don’t enjoy doing is editing them and adding graphic elements.

I feel myself getting all irascible when doing this and after a week doing both the video filming and the video editing in canva all on my own, reached a point where I felt too stretched.

Then, using the Eisenhower Matrix, I realised that I could and should just delegate the editing part.

Using this framework, the video editing is both important & urgent because the videos need to be uploaded regularly to appease the algorithm.

However, if I spend all my time doing it, I’ll never have time to do more important things like coming up with content ideas that really resonate with my current and future audience, spending time with friends and running.

Realising this forced me to write out instructions for him in a simple word document.

This is actually a win for everyone.

It makes me more organised, the content improves and he gets paid.

I also feel more confident in my own skills as a result. I know what I’m good at and am spending my time doing it.

The outcome has really been a win.

Javed has already produced my top performing video, and my profile is really starting to grow.

A real case study in the Eisenhower matrix and what’s possible if we use frameworks practically.

The Code

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you have to.

Take the time to really think about what you’re doing.

Your time is precious and needs to be spent doing what’s most important (to you).

Trust yourself to do that. I believe in you.

Ask yourself 2 questions this week:

1. Do I need to really do this?

2. Can this be delegated, scheduled or eliminated

These questions may really change what you spend your time doing.

Dan x