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Take control of your week. Use habits and systems to focus on work that actually moves the needle.
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.
Manage your time like your ad budget— get the highest ROI of your time with these tips
Create a trusted task system so you never forget anything and always know what to work on next.
Handle your email like a pro so it doesn’t constantly interrupt your day or hijack your focus.
Remove distractions and control your digital environment so you can do high-quality, focused work.
Change your approach to meetings so they stop wasting time and start driving progress.
Use a weekly firebreak to close open loops, reflect, and reset so you can start next week clear and focused.
Records meetings and writes smart summaries you can search later. Fireflies captures what matters so you can stay present.
Hides your inbox until you’re ready to deal with email. Inbox When Ready protects your focus from notification noise and tab-switch spirals.
Blocks distractions so you can focus on deep work. Freedom helps you create time for the work that actually moves the needle.
Moves low-priority emails out of your inbox automatically. SaneBox learns what matters and keeps you focused on real work.
Captures and organises your tasks with zero friction. Todoist is fast, focused and flexible — great for daily personal execution.
David Allen
Gain control of your tasks, reduce stress, and build a system that helps you work more productively every day.
Cal Newport
Achieve peak productivity by cultivating the ability to focus deeply on meaningful tasks in a distracted world.
James Clear
Build small, actionable habits that lead to significant, lasting personal and professional growth.
Greg McKweon
Simplify your life by focusing on what matters most and eliminating everything that doesn’t contribute to your goals.
Tiago Forte
Organise your knowledge effectively to boost creativity, productivity, and decision-making in your personal and professional life.
Prioritise tasks effectively using the Eisenhower decision-making matrix.
Focused, uninterrupted time for cognitively demanding tasks.
The process of ranking tasks or goals by importance and urgency.
Identify the vital 20 % and scale it for outsized growth.
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.
You’re working hard, but the systems fight back. Data doesn’t match, tools keep breaking, and you’re constantly fixing things instead of growing.
