The Reset Was the Work
This season, I didn't need more tools—I needed a new rhythm.
I kept thinking the solution was in the next productivity app, the better project management system, or the more sophisticated automation. But after months of feeling like I was running on a treadmill that kept speeding up, I realized something: the tools weren't the problem. My relationship with work was.
When Optimization Becomes the Problem
As someone who helps people build systems that work with their personality, I should have seen it coming. But like many systems thinkers, I fell into the trap of believing that if I could just optimize hard enough, I could outrun the fundamental misalignment between my values and my daily reality.
I was using my Enneagram 3 tendencies to achieve my way out of a problem that required a completely different approach. I needed to stop doing and start being—with who I actually am, not who I thought I should be to succeed in a digital economy.
The Art of Strategic Slowing
The reset started when I gave myself permission to work at my natural pace instead of the pace demanded by social media algorithms and industry best practices. This meant:
Honoring my personality type's energy patterns. As an INTJ, I do my best strategic thinking in long, uninterrupted blocks. But I was fragmenting my days with constant digital check-ins, meetings, and quick tasks that left me feeling productive but not progressed.
Aligning my daily rhythm with my deeper values. I realized I'd been optimizing for appearance of productivity rather than actual impact. My Align by Design™ framework helped me reconnect with what I actually wanted to create in the world.
Building sustainable systems instead of impressive ones. The most elegant system is the one you'll actually use consistently, not the one that looks good in a case study.
What Reset Actually Means
Reset isn't about starting over. It's about returning to what was always true about how you work best, before you layered on all the shoulds and supposed-tos of digital-age productivity culture.
For me, this meant:
Longer planning cycles that match my personality's need for deep thinking
Fewer but more meaningful client interactions
Systems that support sustainable growth rather than exponential scaling
Technology that serves my natural working style instead of forcing me to adapt to it
The Counterintuitive Result
When I stopped trying to optimize my way to success and started building systems that honored both my personality and my values, something unexpected happened: I became more productive. Not in the frantic, always-on way I'd been operating, but in the deep, sustainable way that actually moves the needle.
The work became the reset. And the reset became the work.
If you're feeling like you're spinning your wheels despite having all the right tools and systems, consider this: maybe you don't need a better system. Maybe you need to remember how you naturally work best, and build everything else around that.