My New Method for Balancing Full-Time job and Solopreneurship (Without Losing My Mind)

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Photo by sonia jahandari on Unsplash

For the past week, I’ve been using a new system to manage my work as a full-time engineer, a solopreneur, and an antique seller—and let me tell you, it’s working like a charm.

Before this, I struggled with to-do lists. Either they were too simple and led to chaos, or they were overcomplicated and became more of a burden than a tool. But after years of trial and error, I think I’ve finally cracked the code.

The Problem with Traditional To-Do Lists

At first, I tried a basic to-do list. Just a simple list of tasks. Sounds great, right?

  • Day 1: Everything gets done. Perfect.
  • Day 2: Almost everything gets done. Still fine.
  • Day 3 and beyond: Unfinished tasks start accumulating. The backlog grows.

Eventually, the system collapses under the weight of all the unchecked boxes. When that happens, I stop following the list altogether and just start doing whatever pops into my head—which is the opposite of productivity.

Then, learning from this failure, I went in the other direction: making the list more structured.

The Overcomplicated System That Failed

This time, I categorized tasks with different statuses:

  • Today’s Item – Must be done today.
  • Planned Item – Long-term task.
  • Good-To-Do Item – Nice if I can get to it, but not urgent.
  • Pending Review – Needs more thought before action.
  • Priority Shifted – Moved from “Today” to a future date.
  • Someday/Maybe – Vague ideas with no clear deadline.

The problem? I kept focusing only on today’s items and ignored everything else. If I couldn’t finish something, I moved it to another category. At some point, I had so many categories that I didn’t even want to look at my list anymore.

Then, I made it even worse by splitting my list into two separate ones: Personal (groceries, cleaning, etc.) and Work (engineering tasks, antique business). This only added another layer of complexity.

I even used Notion to manage it all—but guess what? The system still didn’t work.

The Simple System That Actually Works

Now, let me introduce the method that’s saving my sanity.

It has only two sections:

  1. Thoughts/Plans – A brain dump of everything I’m thinking about or considering doing.
  2. Actionable Items – Tasks that are ready to be executed.

Here’s how it works:

  • I put all my ideas, plans, and thoughts in the first section.
  • When I’m ready to act on something, I move it to the second section.
  • Every day, I pick a few things from the actionable list and get them done. That’s it.

Why This Works

  • No more overwhelming backlogs. If something stays too long in the “Thoughts/Plans” section and never moves to “Actionable Items,” it probably wasn’t something I needed to do in the first place. So, I delete it.
  • Clear distinction between thinking and doing. Before, my to-do list was cluttered with vague ideas and long-term goals. Now, only things I can actually do are on my to-do list.
  • Forces me to break big ideas into small, doable steps. If something stays in the thought section too long, I have to ask myself, “Can I break this into a smaller action?” If not, it probably belongs somewhere else.

Why I Prefer Writing It Down

I also discovered that physically writing my to-do list works better than using digital tools. When I write things down, I can see everything at once. It’s like having a full view of my life and plans in one place—kind of like how people say reading physical books helps you remember information better than reading on an e-reader.

Final Thoughts

I’m still tracking how well this system works in the long run, but for now, it feels like a game-changer. No more overwhelming lists, no more procrastination by overcomplication—just a simple way to stay focused and get things done.

If you’re struggling with to-do lists, give this method a try. It might just work for you too!