No Clock, Just Flow: How I Rebuilt My Work Life Around Energy
From burnout to business-building fueled by energy, not hours
I used to treat time like currency—every hour budgeted, every minute tracked. But I was still burning out. It wasn’t until I started working with my energy, instead of against it, that everything changed.
Leonard Cohen wrote late into the night on Hydra, guided not by deadlines but by desire—by energy.
I’ve come to realize I’m doing something similar.
No songs or poems, but businesses, offerings, ideas.
This chapter of my life is wildly creative.
And none of it runs on a clock.
The Unexpected Creative
I never imagined that writing blog articles and developing service offerings would count as creative work. I’ve never thought of myself as particularly creative—in fact, quite the opposite. I’m pragmatic, strategic, and deeply tactical.
That mindset is what drives the vision behind Beyond Aligned Books: using those skills to help small business owners get organized and work more efficiently so that they have the space to tap into their creativity.
As for my own writing? Ironically, it’s my lack of traditional creativity that led me to use ChatGPT as a collaborator. Align & Thrive readers aren’t looking for instruction manuals—you’re looking for real, lived experiences you can connect with. So I lean on AI as a writing coach to help shape my thoughts into something that feels human, useful, and worth reading.
But here’s what I’m beginning to understand: creativity is showing up in my work. It’s in every article I write, every new offering I develop, every idea I test and refine—whether it’s for Align & Thrive, Healthy Experiments, or Beyond Aligned Books.
It’s just a kind of creativity that looks like art only to people who, like me, tend to see the world in frameworks and flowcharts.
Creativity Doesn’t Have a Clock
I might feel inspired to write at 7 a.m. on a weekday, or at noon on a slow Sunday. Sometimes I’m drafting ideas with the TV on in the background as I wind down in the evening. I’ve learned that when I hit a wall midafternoon, closing the laptop isn’t a failure—it’s a strategy. That pause is what allows me to show up for the rest of my life: for my health, my home, and for what I want to create next.
It’s taken time to shift my mindset. Working off-hours doesn’t block work-life balance, but rather, it’s the path to it. Closing up shop at 2 p.m. on a Friday isn’t selling my business short. It’s how I renew my energy so creativity has room to find its way back to me.
When I honor my body’s energy signals, the work flows—energy and inspiration moving together. When I don’t, everything feels harder, and the results reflect that.
This past week has been especially inspiring, and I’m excited about what I am building creating—and how it will help others while deepening my connection to those I serve.
It’s a blessing for the work to be inspired, aligned with passion and purpose, and rooted in meaningful relationships. That was never my experience in corporate America—so this shift feels not just welcome, but profound.
What “Creativity” Looks Like in My World
Like Cohen on Hydra, I’m creating work that’s shaped by energy, not expectation.
These days, I’m writing a lot—across three different platforms and three different topics. It’s a lot to manage, but writing has always been something I’ve loved. And now, I have tools that help me improve each article and grow in my craft along the way.
Even the business-y “Insights” for Beyond Aligned Books are creative—just in a different way, for a different kind of audience.
What I love most is having both the vision and the time to build tools that help others. From the Align & Spend Calculator to the Viral Content Coach—each one was inspired by a spark of vision, and brought to life with care. I’m starting to understand how a master carpenter feels: when the work is purposeful, you want to keep creating more.
There was one inspired idea I sat on for a while. Something I felt pulled to make. But I wasn’t sure anyone would need it. My career coach encouraged me to pursue it, but still I hesitated.
Then one day, after a networking event, someone I had just met sent me an email asking if I had exactly the thing I’d been sitting on.
Two weeks later…
I do.
What Excites Me Today!
Two things, really…
First, the incremental changes I’ve been making to the Beyond Aligned Books website. I started with a pretty shell, but now—thanks to the direction of my marketing strategist—I’m layering in meaning. Crafting the story across each page and service offering has fueled my passion even more. It’s helping me see the impact I can have on the lives of my clients, and it’s showing me a path to deeper connection and purpose in my work.
Disclaimer: This article is really about honoring energy to create more in the mission to Align & Thrive in life. I’m sharing what I’ve been creating—which is secondary.
If you’re a small business owner, you may find it useful, and I’d love for you to check it out if so. But this isn’t meant to be one big sales pitch.
I’ve read articles like that before and cringed. I hope this doesn’t land that way for you.
Now for the second thing I’m excited about:
I’m thrilled to announce the Thrive Hive Coaching & Accountability Circle for small business owners who are just starting out.
The idea began during my business kickoff webinar. It was such a great conversation—an intimate group of business owners discussing the challenge of letting go of self-reliance and finding ways to streamline or offload work that needs to get done, but doesn’t necessarily fuel their passion. I left that session wishing we could keep the conversation going—or at least create a regular opportunity to reconnect.
And I kept thinking: new small business owners need this most.
One person in the webinar said, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And one of the best ways to combat that is to talk to others. I firmly believe that the more solopreneurs and small business owners connect, the more we’ll learn from each other—and the more our businesses will benefit.
We just need a platform.
That, plus my background in setting up businesses and years of project management experience, make me the perfect tactical coach for folks getting started.
Here’s the question I received two weeks ago:
“What are the first 20 steps I need to take to start my own Sales or Life Coaching business? I want to offer prepaid coaching sessions—15, 30, or 60 minutes—and have someone else handle the logistics. Ideally, I’d trust a partner to manage everything behind the scenes and just receive a check every two weeks or monthly based on the results.”
That question lit a fire under me.
I created the 21 Steps to Start Your Small Business PDF and began building the service offering. In short, I provide coaching to help small business owners identify and plan the specific steps they need to get started—and I serve as their accountability partner along the way.
The Hive is a community of all members, with a WhatsApp group and a monthly Swarm Roundtable to share wins, challenges, and ideas.
If you're a small business owner trying to build sustainably without burning out, I’d love for you to check out Thrive Hive. We’re building something meaningful
An Invitation to Tune Into Your Energy Too
Just like Cohen on Hydra, creating not by deadline but by desire, I’ve learned that honoring my energy is how the best work begins.
Whether you’re building a business, writing a book, or navigating your next chapter, the same is true for you: energy knows the way.
What is one small shift you can make today to honor your energy? Or, what has worked for you?
Please share in the comments so we can all learn new ways to Align & Thrive.
Or join the Subscriber chat.
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This Substack is about all the ways I’m working to grow, learn, Align & Thrive.
There will be missteps.
There will be wins.
And life will keep throwing curveballs.
I used the Viral Content Coach to help get this out of my head and into the world. It didn’t save time—but it did help me write a sharper, more focused piece for you.