How to Work With Time When Being Organised Isn’t Enough: Rethinking Productivity, Overwhelm & Rest
- milanwomennetwork
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
For many ambitious women, being organised has become second nature - calendars are full, plans are made, things get done. And yet, despite doing everything “right”,any things they need and want to do often feel heavy. Drawing from lived experience across high-responsibility work, burnout, and expat life, Ekaterina shares with us why our best intentions & approaches can still leave us overwhelmed. She challenges our perception of rest & productivity (and the emotions that come with it) - and introduces a more honest way to think about time-balance when the mantra “just do it” no longer helps.
Written by: Ekaterina Avericheva (Time-Balance Consultant & Coach)
January has a way of arriving with a long list of expectations.
New calendars appear, plans begin to take shape, goals quietly line up in our minds. We tell ourselves that this year will be different - more organised, more focused, more productive.
And yet, for many women, the same feeling returns surprisingly fast: the days are full, the plans look good on paper, but energy is missing.
Time feels tight. Decisions feel heavier than they should.
You might recognise this moment: your calendar looks reasonable, even well thought out - and yet by midweek you already feel behind.
Not because you’re disorganised, but because there’s no space left to breathe, adjust, or simply be human.
By the time Thursday arrives, the plan is still technically intact.
Meetings happened. Tasks moved forward.
And yet there’s a quiet irritation underneath it all - the sense that every decision costs more than it should, that even simple things require effort, that there is no margin left for anything unplanned.
I know this space well.
The one where you’re functioning, delivering, keeping things together - and yet negotiating with yourself about how much longer you can keep going like this.
When Planning Stops Working and You Still Feel Behind
I spent many years in the corporate world (in the pharmaceutical industry) where responsibility, pressure and performance are part of everyday reality. Planning wasn’t optional, it was a survival skill.
Later, life added other challenges: burnout, emotionally draining relationships, relocations across countries and cultures. Each move came with a different pace, different expectations, and the silent question: “How do I keep going without losing myself?”
For many women living international, high-responsibility lives, this experience is familiar.
You’re capable. You adapt quickly. You keep going. And at some point, you realise that efficiency alone doesn’t protect you from exhaustion - it often accelerates it.
What I learned is simple, though not always easy to accept:
Planning alone doesn’t create a life that feels sustainable.
Plans have very little sensitivity to exhaustion, emotional overload, or the subtle shifts that happen when priorities change.
People do.
Rest is usually the first thing we try to earn.
After one more task.
After the next deadline.
After things finally calm down.
For many women I work with, rest is rarely straightforward.
It’s often confused with distraction - scrolling, background noise, busy evenings that leave the body just as tired as before.
Time passes, but recovery doesn’t quite happen.
And then there’s the guilt.
The sense that stopping needs justification, that tiredness alone is somehow not a sufficient reason to pause.
Delegation often falls into the same category.
Not because others are incapable, but because asking feels uncomfortable.
Because explaining takes time.
Because somewhere along the way it became easier to do everything yourself than to trust that someone else will do it well enough.
Over time, this turns competence into a trap.
Looking at Time Differently - Noticing What Really Shapes Our Days
My interest in time-management didn’t disappear.
It deepened.
I began paying attention not only to what I was planning, but from what state. And I started noticing small patterns.
How some weeks felt heavy before they even began.
How Monday mornings arrived with fatigue already present, as if the week had been lived in advance, at least internally.
And how full days didn’t always translate into a sense of progress.
Gradually, it became clear that the problem wasn’t the volume of plans, but the condition in which they were created.
There was a time when I filled my life relentlessly.
Trips, movement, shopping, social plans… All of it looked like reward, but mostly it was a way to stay ahead of exhaustion.
My task list grew faster than any sense of direction, and without clear priorities everything carried the same weight, until I felt lost inside my own busyness.
It took illness and burnout (and a very clear refusal to follow the path of surgeries that were offered to me) to slow everything down enough for real change to begin, and to start learning, step by step, what actually restores, rather than distracts.
Over time, this became the foundation of my work with time-balance - an approach that starts beneath the schedule, not on top of it.
To explain it, I often use a comparison that feels natural to me.
I love good food. Not excess, not trends, but thoughtful, well-prepared meals. In fine dining, value isn’t measured by how much you consume. It’s about balance, timing, and selection. You don’t leave overwhelmed. You leave satisfied.
In a fine dining experience, there’s no rush to clear the plate. Courses arrive with pauses. Attention shifts from speed to taste. You trust the sequence. Sometimes, before a new course arrives, there’s a pause designed on purpose.
A small drink.
A light, unexpected bite.
Something that resets the palate before a contrasting flavour is introduced.
In fine dining, this isn’t decoration.
It’s a way of preparing the body for what comes next, so each element can be fully experienced without interference from the previous one.
Time-balance works the same way: when you stop forcing everything into one day, a natural rhythm starts to appear.
Time can work the same way.
4 Subtle Things That Decide How Your Days Feel
In practice, time-balance rests on a few core elements. They’re not rules, they’re conditions that make planning possible in the first place. Let’s look at what holds us back, and then what really matters.
Energy comes first.
When energy is low, planning can feel deceptively productive.
There is often enough focus to organise, list, rearrange.
The sense of control appears, briefly, but what’s missing is the capacity to act. Tasks remain untouched, and attention drifts elsewhere.
Hours disappear into social feeds, not out of pleasure, but out of a need for something easy, immediate, and undemanding.
What often follows is frustration.
You know what needs to be done, and you even know how to do it. And yet the gap between intention and action keeps widening, day after day.
In this state, structure doesn’t support you.
It asks for more than the system can currently give.
But direction matters more than speed.
When energy returns, clarity follows.
What actually deserves your time right now? Not in theory, not ideally - but in real life, at this stage.
Values, fears, habits and expectations all influence where time goes, often without us noticing.
But when we’re clear on the direction, it feels much easier.
Order should support our plans, not control them.
This isn’t about perfect systems.
It’s about reducing unnecessary noise: mental, digital, practical and creating enough structure to make decisions easier, not harder. Balance is felt, not calculated.
It’s the inner sense that work, rest, relationships and personal needs are not competing for survival.
But it’s important to remember that balance changes. It’s not static.
And when it’s present, time stops feeling like something you’re constantly behind on.
It’s possible to cultivate discipline, without exhaustion
Time-balance doesn’t reject discipline. It just refuses to treat it as punishment.
Discipline works when it’s connected to meaning. When you know why something matters, consistency becomes easier. Less force is needed. Less guilt. Less pushing through.
Consistency remains part of the picture, though it begins to sound very different.
It becomes more subtle, more deliberate, and far less dependent on willpower alone.
The goal isn’t to do more.
It’s to choose better.
This way of working with time is what I explore in my workshops.
Not as a system to adopt, but as a conversation to continue - one that allows space for adjustment, contradiction, and real life.
Why January Is a Good Moment to Pause… Before The Year Rushes Past
January is full of pressure: to start strong, to get organised, to make the right decisions immediately.
Especially for women who carry multiple roles (professional, personal, emotional).
January can easily turn into another performance.
Time-balance offers an alternative: not proving your discipline, but restoring your capacity to choose.
But a less manic start can be more effective.
Smaller choices. Fewer priorities. Enough space to adjust when life interferes, because it always does.
Just like a well-designed menu, a year doesn’t need to be overloaded to be rich. What matters is coherence, pacing, and attention.
Choosing Time That Feels Livable
There are countless tools, systems and methods promising better productivity. Many of them work - for a while, for someone, in a specific context.
Time-balance isn’t about finding the perfect system. It’s about building a relationship with time that you can live with - one that adapts as your life changes, without constant self-criticism or burnout.
Time doesn’t need to be conquered or controlled. It responds better to attention, honesty, and care. When you change the way you relate to it, your plans don’t become smaller, they become more real.
Often, the most meaningful shift comes not from adding more, but from noticing when it’s time to stop.
And to notice what actually nourishes you.
If this way of thinking about time resonates, there is room to go further.To look more closely at your own patterns.
To experiment with different rhythms.
To make choices that don’t require constant self-negotiation.
And that work doesn’t start with doing more.
It starts with listening more carefully to how time is already lived.
I still notice how easily I slip back into old habits and how quickly fullness can be mistaken for meaning.
That awareness doesn’t disappear.
It simply becomes something I return to, again and again, when time starts feeling tight.
I hope these insights help you cultivate that honesty, attention and care that you deserve, so that you can shape your days with intention and without overwhelm.
If you’d like to experience all of this in person with our community, please join us for our exclusive time management workshop with Ekaterina on January 21st.
You’ll have the chance to understand your personal rhythm & energy patterns, to identify what deserves your time right now, and to build a calmer, more intentional relationship with time.
Proofread & Edited By: Ché Maria Milani
Ready to dive in & join MWN? Check out our events
With 2 membership options to choose from (including free), connect with us here
Follow us on Instagram
Comments