Personal productivity for growth marketers

Introduction

At the start of my career, I realised that no matter how strong a team or strategy was, things only moved forward when I had my own systems in place. Being productive wasn’t just about getting things done. It was about becoming someone the team could rely on.

This playbook brings together everything I’ve learned about managing myself as a marketer. It’s not about hustle or long hours. It’s about creating habits and structure that make space for real work, not just busywork.

If you often feel scattered or reactive, this will help you take control of your week. It gives you a practical approach to plan, focus, and follow through so you can show up ready and make meaningful progress every day.

Chapters

1 How to plan your week like a pro

Manage your time like your ad budget. Get the highest ROI from your hours with personal audits, ideal-week calendars, and timeboxing.

Read concept

2 How to manage tasks with clarity

Create a trusted task system so you never forget anything. Always know what to work on next with capture, prioritisation, and timeboxing.

Read concept

3 How to escape your inbox trap

Handle email like a pro so it doesn't interrupt your day. Process inbox efficiently without letting it hijack your focus and deep work time.

Read concept

4 How to protect your focus

Remove distractions and control your digital environment. Create conditions for high-quality focused work without constant interruptions.

Read concept

5 How to run better meetings

Change your approach to meetings so they stop wasting time. Drive progress with agendas, preparation, best practices, and clear follow-up.

Read concept

6 How to run weekly Firebreaks

Use a weekly Firebreak to close open loops and reset. Start next week clear and focused by clearing, reflecting, and planning systematically.

Read concept

Personal productivity

tools

Rating

From

€

per month

Notion

Flexible workspace for docs, wikis, and lightweight databases ideal when you need custom systems without heavy project management overhead.

Explore tool

My review

Rating

From

€

per month

Todoist

Personal task app with quick capture, filters and calm design, great for managing work and habits.

Explore tool

My review

Rating

From

€

per month

Freedom

App and site blocker that helps protect focus time by pausing the noise across devices.

Explore tool

My review

Rating

From

€

per month

Inbox When Ready

Email extension that hides your inbox by default so you can send and search without getting pulled into new mail.

Explore tool

My review

Rating

From

€

per month

SaneBox

Email assistant that filters noise and adds reminders so important mail surfaces when needed.

Explore tool

My review

Books

Atomic Habits

James Clear

Rating

Turn habit theory into daily practice for marketers. Simple cues, tiny wins and scorecards that help teams deliver consistently under pressure.

My review

Deep Work

Cal Newport

Rating

A playbook for concentration in modern teams. Set focus blocks, reduce context switching and build a culture that values deep work.

My review

Getting Things Done

David Allen

Rating

Capture, clarify and review without friction. Keep projects moving with weekly reviews and clear next actions.

My review

Essentialism

Greg McKweon

Rating

Rules for choosing fewer, better projects. Protect time, set trade offs and align efforts with clear goals and measures.

My review

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport

Rating

How to reduce low value tools and feeds. Practical steps to tidy notifications, choose channels and free up time for impact.

My review

Buy back your time

Dan Martell

Rating

A straight guide to reclaiming hours. Define your buyback rate, document tasks and build small systems that pay back every week.

My review

The 4-Hour work week

Tim Ferriss

Rating

A pragmatic look at delegation, automation and lifestyle design. Keep the useful parts, skip the hype, ship more value.

My review

The One Thing

Gary Keller

Rating

A method for ruthless focus. Ask the focusing question, block time and protect momentum on the work that matters most.

My review

Slow productivity

Cal Newport

Rating

A humane approach to output. Plan seasons, protect focus and deliver work that matters at a sustainable pace.

My review

Wiki

Inbox zero

Process email to empty daily by deciding whether to act, defer, delegate, or delete each message rather than leaving unread items as false to-do lists.

Read concept

Maker schedule

Protect long uninterrupted blocks for deep work that requires concentration by clustering meetings and separating them from creative and analytical time.

Read concept

Time blocking

Schedule focused work sessions in your calendar to protect concentration and ensure important tasks don't get crowded out by meetings and interruptions.

Read concept

Braindump

Clear mental clutter by transferring all thoughts, tasks, and ideas onto paper or screen, creating space for focused work.

Read concept

Prioritisation

Systematically rank projects and opportunities using objective frameworks, ensuring scarce resources flow to highest-impact work.

Read concept

Pareto Principle

Focus effort on the 20% of activities that drive 80% of results, systematically eliminating low-yield work to maximise output per hour invested.

Read concept

Deep Work

Block extended time for cognitively demanding tasks requiring sustained focus, maximising valuable output whilst minimising shallow distractions.

Read concept

Eisenhower Matrix

Prioritise tasks systematically by sorting them into urgent-important quadrants, focusing effort on high-impact activities.

Read concept

Other playbooks

Marketing automation setup

Manual lead management breaks at scale. Automation captures every lead, scores them by intent, and keeps them warm until they're ready to buy all whilst you sleep.

Read playbook

Lead capture system

Capture mechanisms turn anonymous traffic into known leads you can follow up with. Make it easy for prospects to signal interest at any moment in their journey without creating friction or annoying people.

Read playbook

Keep reading

‍

Working smarter isn’t about squeezing more hours out of already stretched days; it’s the practice of structuring energy, focus, and tools so the right work happens at the right time then stopping. For B2B marketers buried in ad launches, client calls and inbox noise, that structure is the difference between strategic growth and perpetual catch-up.

At its core, working smarter follows three principles. First, boundary clarity: deep-work blocks and inbox windows are non-negotiable, listed in the calendar like revenue meetings. Second, single-hub execution: tasks, priorities, and notes live in one system, cutting context-switch lag. Third, iterative improvement: habits are run like growth tests measure, tweak, repeat so productivity lifts compound exactly like conversion lifts.

Common mistakes that drain output:

1. Inbox autopilot. Starting the day in email lets other people decide your priorities; you spend prime creative energy clearing someone else’s list.

2. Meeting creep. Accepting every invite balloons the calendar and shreds focus. Without a decision-first agenda, 60-minute slots deliver 10-minute value.

3. Tool sprawl. Sticky notes, five apps, and a half-hearted spreadsheet guarantee tasks vanish and mental tabs stay permanently open attention residue at scale.

A smarter workweek flips that script. Deep work happens before reactive work, meetings earn their slot with clear outcomes, and one personal operating system keeps everything visible. The payoff? Consistent delivery of high-impact projects, stress that drops instead of spikes, and weekends spent recharging rather than catching up.

Want the exact time blocks, task triage rules, and inbox-taming rhythms I teach new hires on day one? Dive into the full playbook above.

Personal productivity

Introduction

Chapters

1

How to plan your week like a pro

2

How to manage tasks with clarity

3

How to escape your inbox trap

4

How to protect your focus

5

How to run better meetings

6

How to run weekly Firebreaks

Personal productivity

tools

Notion

Todoist

Freedom

Inbox When Ready

SaneBox

Books

Atomic Habits

Deep Work

Getting Things Done

Essentialism

Digital Minimalism

Buy back your time

The 4-Hour work week

The One Thing

Slow productivity

Wiki

Inbox zero

Maker schedule

Time blocking

Braindump

Prioritisation

Pareto Principle

Deep Work

Eisenhower Matrix

Related topic

Growth infrastructure

Other playbooks

Marketing automation setup

Lead capture system

Keep reading