Playbook for B2B marketers

Personal productivity

Take control of your week. Use habits and systems to focus on work that actually moves the needle.

Personal productivity

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

Chapter
1

Plan your week like a pro

Manage your time like your ad budget— get the highest ROI of your time with these tips

1
Chapter
2

Manage your tasks with clarity

Create a trusted task system so you never forget anything and always know what to work on next.

2
Chapter
3

Stay out of your inbox trap

Handle your email like a pro so it doesn’t constantly interrupt your day or hijack your focus.

3
Chapter
4

Protect your focus

Remove distractions and control your digital environment so you can do high-quality, focused work.

4
Chapter
5

Better meetings

Change your approach to meetings so they stop wasting time and start driving progress.

5
Chapter
6

Close your week with a Firebreak

Use a weekly firebreak to close open loops, reflect, and reset so you can start next week clear and focused.

6
Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai

Records meetings and writes smart summaries you can search later. Fireflies captures what matters so you can stay present.

Inbox When Ready

Inbox When Ready

Hides your inbox until you’re ready to deal with email. Inbox When Ready protects your focus from notification noise and tab-switch spirals.

Freedom

Freedom

Blocks distractions so you can focus on deep work. Freedom helps you create time for the work that actually moves the needle.

SaneBox

SaneBox

Moves low-priority emails out of your inbox automatically. SaneBox learns what matters and keeps you focused on real work.

Todoist

Todoist

Captures and organises your tasks with zero friction. Todoist is fast, focused and flexible — great for daily personal execution.

Getting Things Done
Book summary & review

Getting Things Done

David Allen

Gain control of your tasks, reduce stress, and build a system that helps you work more productively every day.

Deep Work
Book summary & review

Deep Work

Cal Newport

Achieve peak productivity by cultivating the ability to focus deeply on meaningful tasks in a distracted world.

Atomic Habits
Book summary & review

Atomic Habits

James Clear

Build small, actionable habits that lead to significant, lasting personal and professional growth.

Essentialism
Book summary & review

Essentialism

Greg McKweon

Simplify your life by focusing on what matters most and eliminating everything that doesn’t contribute to your goals.

Building a Second Brain
Book summary & review

Building a Second Brain

Tiago Forte

Organise your knowledge effectively to boost creativity, productivity, and decision-making in your personal and professional life.

Wiki articles

Go to wiki
Wiki

Eisenhower Matrix

Prioritise tasks effectively using the Eisenhower decision-making matrix.

Wiki

Deep Work

Focused, uninterrupted time for cognitively demanding tasks.

Wiki

Prioritisation

The process of ranking tasks or goals by importance and urgency.

Wiki

Pareto Principle

Identify the vital 20 % and scale it for outsized growth.

Further 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.

Growth operations

You're ready for growth, but your tool stack isn't.

Growth feels chaotic. You're firefighting because of broken tools and messy data. You need a solid foundation to grow.