Ep 3: Why You’re Not Getting Things Done in Your Business
Episode 3 of the Good Girl Rebellion podcast.
Why You’re Not Getting Things Done in Your Business: How to Create a Way of Working That Actually Supports You
Episode 3 is all about E from our REBEL framework - Everyday Action.
You know what to do, that’s the frustrating part. You’ve had the ideas and made all the plans. And yet…
you’re not doing it. Not consistently. You start… and then stop.
If I’m honest, this was one of the biggest sticking points for me when I started my business because I knew I could get things done. After all I had spent years working for other people, meeting deadlines, delivering work, exceeding expectations.
I was good at it. But when it was just me, I stalled.
“Just do it” doesn’t work
We hear this all the time.
Just do it.
Just be more disciplined.
Just get on with it.
And it sounds simple but if it was that simple, you’d already be doing it. (And so would everyone in the world).
This isn’t about laziness and it’s not that you lack the capability.
This is what’s actually going on
For most of your life, you’ve been operating inside structure - school, work, deadlines and expectations - there was always something external guiding you.
Someone is setting the priorities, checking on progress and waiting for the outcome. And you responded to that, hit the deadlines and went above and beyond.
Then you start a business…
And all of that disappears.
There’s no boss except yourself, no one checking that you’ve met your deadlines and suddenly, you’re expected to create that structure for yourself.
Why good girls struggle with this
If you’ve got that good girl conditioning, this becomes even more obvious because you will never let other people down. You care about doing things well and responding to expectations. But when it’s you, you don’t prioritise yourself in the same way. Not because you don’t want to but because you were never taught to.
So what happens instead?
Instead of moving forward, you:
overthink
procrastinate
keep tweaking things
wait until you feel ready
try to do everything at once
And from the outside, this can look like a discipline problem, but it’s not - it’s a structure problem.
Trying to do everything is the problem
This is the bit that really changed things for me. I realised I wasn’t stuck because I wasn’t working hard enough - I was stuck because I was trying to do too much.
Massive to-do lists. Endless ideas. So many ‘shoulds’.
And because it all felt like too much… I did nothing.
A different way of doing this
Instead of trying to force yourself to do more you need a system that actually supports you. Weirdly, when we have a boss, that external structure is helpful but when we try to impose some order on ourselves, we start to push back. So what we need is structure but not rigid structure. Something that we can live and breathe inside.
The system that works for me
I find the best time to do this is at the end of my working week. I take the last 10 minutes to look ahead at the following week and ask myself,
what time do I actually have next week?
Then for each working day… I choose one thing. Not ten things or even a list of things. One thing that, if I complete it, means the day has been successful.
And it has to be specific.
Not:
“build my website”
But:
write a first draft of the homepage
set up my domain
outline the pages
Something clear and doable. Something I can actually finish in the time.
This is what changes everything
Because when you complete something you build momentum and confidence. You build your self-trust and that is what keeps you moving forward - not pressure, guilt or trying harder.
Momentum comes from finishing things
Not starting more things.
I know it sounds simple but it works. And without this structure, I found that days, weeks and even months passed and nothing got done. I felt paralysed by all the things I thought I should be doing and I couldn’t move forward on anything.
Try this this week
At the end of your week:
look at the time you actually have for your work next week
choose one thing per day
make it specific
And then each day, ask yourself:
What is my one thing today?
That’s it.
Listen to Episode 3
In this episode of the podcast, I talk through:
why getting things done feels harder than it should
how good girl conditioning plays into it
and how to create a simple system that actually works for you
👉 Listen to Episode 3 now
One last thing
You don’t need more discipline, you already know how to work hard.
You need a way of working that actually supports you.
It’s time.