Stop rushing through work, and life

The last few months have been a strange mix of overdrive and stuckness. I kept pressuring myself to move faster, do more, be “further ahead”—as if self-employment means working every waking hour.

It’s exhausting. And honestly, it was sucking the joy out of work I love.

One afternoon, when nothing was clicking, I angrily shut my laptop and walked to my favorite bookstore. I left with I Didn’t Do the Thing Today by Madeleine Dore, a book about letting to of productivity guilt. (Felt pretty guilty about being yet another book though, but hey this one’s been worth it.)

Madeleine’s message landed:

Productivity narrows our days. Creativity expands them.

She broke down the four stages of the creative process, and it hit me like a ton of bricks:

1. Preparation

You explore. Collect inputs. Read, research, ask questions. You immerse yourself without expecting clarity yet.

2. Incubation

You step away. Sleep, walk, shower, breathe. You stop actively thinking about the problem, and let your brain do its thing in the background.

3. Illumination / Synthesis

Sudden clarity. An insight drops in. The “aha” moment. It feels spontaneous, but it’s the product of everything that came before.

4. Verification

You test, shape, refine. This is where discipline and iteration matter. Turning ideas into something usable and real.

Seeing it laid out like this made me realize:

No matter the task, project or goal — I don’t need to force myself to get it done in one go. It sounds so obvious now, but for whatever reason, that was the expectation I had put on myself.

Instead, if I look at my work through the creativity lens, I can move fluidly among stages and projects, following the natural rhythm of creativity.

Sure, it’s slower. In our productivity culture, it might even look lazy and unambitious. But it’s how I do my best work. It’s also how my brain is designed to work.

Especially the Incubation phase.

Naps. Breathwork. NSDR. Walks. Stretching. Errands. A coffee date. These aren’t just breaks from work. They are work. They downshift the nervous system, letting the brain process and rewire in the background.

This is neuroplasticity in action. Our brains consolidate learning during rest. The default mode network lights up. New associations form. The brain literally reshapes itself - not while we’re grinding, but while we’re drifting.

Still, it’s ridiculously easy to fall back into the “faster, bigger, more” trap.

So I left a few reminders for future Charlotte on my whiteboard:

→ Days of only Preparation and Incubation are part of the process.

Some days have no visible output. Don’t panic. These days are laying foundations for the work you’ll be proud of.

→ Body > Mind

Your mind will always resist stepping away. It craves stimulation and visible progress. But remember that your body always knows better: standing over sitting, outside over inside, internal clarity over outside pressure. Push through the friction.

→ It’s a non-linear process, spread over days / weeks / months / years.

On any given task or project, you’ll cycle back and forth through these phases. A single video might take days. A newsletter might brew for weeks. A coaching program evolves over months. Building a strong reputation as a breathwork expert? Years. Don’t rush through these processes.

→ Trust your brain. Move fluidly between stages and projects.

When something’s not clicking, step away. Move to another project. Another phase. Some days are for Incubation. Some for Implementation. Move easily and fluidly, no force, no self-punishment. Trust your brain.

I’ve been applying this lens to my work over the last few weeks, and it’s made such a big difference.

I feel like I get about the same amount of work done (if not more), and now I’m enjoying it again.

Here’s what’s becoming clearer and clearer for me:

I don’t want to rush through my life. I don’t want to rush through my work.

Whenever I do, I get stuck.

Whenever I remember to “slow down, trust your brain, trust the process”, everything starts flowing again.

PS. Don’t confuse true Incubation with zoning out on Netflix or falling into a scroll-hole. Creativity needs space: reflection, movement, stillness. That’s why I teach tools like breathwork, NSDR, and daily nervous system resets inside my Nervous System Potential program. If you’re ready to create more clarity (and less hustle), this is where to start.