Getting Things Done When You Don't Have a 9-to-5 Kind of Day
for anyone working around naps, life admin, and everything in between
Welcome to Slow Brew Sunday, the newsletter that helps you start your week with a clear mind and full cup. 🍵 From intentional shifts and gentle productivity tips to personal stories and encouragement, I hope our cozy corner of the internet gives you what you need to ease into your week.
It’s no secret that my relationship with productivity has changed since becoming a mom, so I thought it’d be interesting to talk about it today. While I still like to consider myself in the gentle productivity space, what that looks like has changed quite a bit.
My days don’t have a clean shape to them. I mostly work in pockets — nap windows, early mornings, the occasional hour after Keira goes to bed. And between figuring all of that out, there are a few things that have genuinely helped me make the most of it. I want to share them with you in case your days look a little non-linear too.
P.S. I've been thinking a lot about the identity piece of all of this — shedding the "Notion/productivity girlie" label and what that's meant for me as a mom. I think that deserves its own conversation, so I'm planning to dig into it over on Mother, etc. soon. If you're not subscribed yet, come join us over there! 🤍
I think in weeks, not days.
This is actually not all that different than how I operated before. I like to zoom out and think about the week as a whole — what needs to happen, what I’m chipping away at, what can wait. On any given week that might be drafting a newsletter, working on a book chapter, brainstorming partnership ideas, or fine-tuning something in the backend for my digital products — but it might also be ordering groceries on a walk with Keira, chasing down a decision for our house, or just handling the invisible life admin stuff that doesn't stop because you have a deadline. It all goes on the same list.
When I hold it as a week instead of a day, there’s so much less pressure, because a 45-minute nap window doesn’t have to carry the weight of the whole to-do list. It just has to carry today’s piece of it.
❓ Do you tend to think about your work in days or weeks? I’m curious whether zooming out would feel freeing or overwhelming for you.
…and then the night before, I zoom back in.
This one also hasn't changed — before I close out for the day, I look at my weekly list and decide what I'm actually going to focus on tomorrow. When it’s time to sit down and work, I already know what I’m tackling. I’m not spending the first 20 minutes figuring it out, I’m locked in and ready to go.
Side note for my cozy drink connoisseurs: I try to make my matcha before I put Keira down for her nap so it’s sitting at my laptop waiting for me when I come back. It’s a small thing, but I want to make the most of every minute I have, so little things like that just help me slide right into work without any dilly-dallying.
🫶🏼 What’s one thing you could set up ahead of time that your future self would be grateful for?
Match the task to the time of day.
My brain is fresher in the morning, so that’s when I do more of the creative and planning stuff — getting organized, thinking through ideas, letting things brew. Then in the afternoon, Keira’s nap tends to run a little longer, so that’s when I try to execute. Writing a deeper piece, filming something, getting through emails. Matching the task to the energy I actually have in that moment has made a bigger difference than any fancy system. When Keira finally drops to one nap a day, I’ll re-assess, haha.
The tools I still love and use.
Notion is still my catch-all — it’s where I keep the bigger picture and where I stay in sync with my team. It’s still where I dream, plan, and set goals! But day-to-day, I live in my little planner I picked up in Korea 🥹. I like both the digital and the analog.
I still use Google Calendar Tasks, but now I use it more-so for personal to-dos rather than work to-dos.
➡️ a newer tool I’ve been loving: Wispr Flow
If your brain moves faster than your fingers can type, this one is for you. My friend Ashley Brasseaux put me onto this — Wispr Flow is a voice-to-text app, but it’s way smarter than the clunky built-in one on your phone. The difference is that you can talk completely naturally… pauses, filler words, the occasional “um” or “like” and instead of transcribing all of that mumbo jumbo, it just gives you back what you actually meant to say.
I’ll be on a walk with Keira, or my hands are full, and I’ll have an idea for a Substack brewing in my head. Rather than trying to hold it for later, I just talk into Wispr Flow and brain dump the whole thing like a mini podcast. By the time I sit down at my laptop, I already have something solid to work with. It’s also been great for getting through emails faster.
As a mom who’s only at her computer for shorter windows, having a way to capture ideas semi-away from a screen has been really, really handy.
The right things get done!
When time is limited, the truly unimportant stuff just falls away on its own. And the things that actually matter, do find a way to get done! Maybe not perfectly, maybe not all in one sitting, but they get there.
I’ve also learned that getting things done isn’t always a solo system. There’s a lot of ping-ponging between Andrew and me, and my mom comes to help a couple of times a week which has been such a gift. Building that kind of support around yourself isn’t a shortcut — it’s just smart, and it’s worth asking for.
Working in small pockets is still working. It’s still moving things forward, and there’s something kind of lovely about how much can happen in those in-between moments when you show up for them with a little more intention.
Okie, friends! I’m actually fired up to talk more about identity so I’m going to go right about that now. Stay tuned xx
Psst… I yap a lot, so if this email gets truncated in Gmail, click “view in browser” to read the entire post.
🍃 say it with me
I don't need a perfect day to make progress on the things that matter.
💭 the challenge
Next time an idea hits you on a walk or in the shower, capture it however feels easy — voice memo, notes app, Wispr Flow — and see what you do with it.
📚 On My Nightstand — I’m on the hunt for my next read, but big news: Andrew agreed to dive into the Throne of Glass series (!!), so I’m tempted to re-read it alongside him. He already *willingly spoiled all of Red Rising for me (I just couldn’t get through it but still wanted to know what happened), so now we’re both ready to cozy up with something new and get some fresh reads on the record!
👀 Watching — There are so many k-dramas I’m excited to watch but until they come out, I am debating getting a free trial to Peacock TV so I can watch Traitors because Eric Nam is in it and I love him!
🏡 Dreaming up our home design — I’ve been using Milanote to map out all the details for our renovation, and it’s the best. We just paid our construction deposit (ahh!) and have a meeting with the project manager next week, so things are officially moving right along. Milanote makes it really easy to see the whole project at a glance — from moodboards to materials to little checklists — in a way that feels super visual and intuitive. I still love Notion for organizing my life and work, but for this kind of creative, visual planning, Milanote just clicks in my brain. Here’s a past video from when I designed our last home!
✨ Snacking on Right Now — I picked up these sprouted nuts from the farmers’ market and oh my gosh… at first I thought they were too expensive, but they are literally the most delicious nuts I’ve ever had and I’m not joking! Buy them, try them, let me know you think.
😴 Sleep without the stress — The worst feeling is when my toddler is actually sleeping but I’m wide awake, looking at the clock and stressing about getting back to sleep. This article explains “sleep anxiety” and shares simple tips to break the cycle for better rest.
I’ve seen lot of baby announcements recently, so I’m resharing my No BS Registry: What We Used from Newborn to 12 Weeks. Reminder: every baby is so different, but this is a list of my personal must-haves & nice-to-haves after being out of the newborn phase!
Meet Allyssa (@allyssagpowers)
age 33 — Akron, Ohio
💡 Workin' as: Therapist + YouTuber
🍵 Sippin' on: Iced lavender latte with oat milk half sweet
🎥 Watching: Mr. Robot
📖 Reading: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
🎉 Exciting about: finally creating my private practice building course for therapists that I hope to launch in 2026!We want to feature you! Nominate yourself for our Reader Spotlight that we share weekly!
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New mom here 🙋🏻♀️ I just recently transitioned to freelance/portfolio work (coming out of the 9-5 marketing agency world) and between my perfectionism and the unconventional schedule, I have felt so unproductive.
You have just offered the encouragement I needed: “I don’t have to have a perfect day to make progress on the things that matter”
So excited to read more of your pieces! 🫶🏼💫
The right tools can help a lot when your days are a bit untypical. Have you tried https://kanbantool.com/ for task and project management? It's a tool based on the Kanban method and can be very helpful when you need to deal with lots of different tasks. It also offers a free trial period so you can test without any risk.