Every Sunday evening, I’d sit down with my notebook and write out this ambitious plan for the week ahead. “Right, this week I’m going to film 3 YouTube videos, work my hospital shifts, go to the gym 4 times, and make progress on that online course I’ve been meaning to build.”
And every single week, I’d get to Friday and realise I’d filmed maybe one video (if I was lucky), hadn’t touched the course, and felt rubbish about the whole thing.
The weird part was that I wasn’t lazy. I was working loads – my days were completely full. But somehow I kept avoiding the stuff that I’d told myself actually mattered.
I tried everything to fix it. Better to-do lists, time-blocking my calendar more strictly, setting alarms, accountability buddies, all the productivity hacks. And occasionally they’d work for a week or two, but then I’d just… stop. The motivation would disappear and I’d be back to square one.
It was properly frustrating because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Why couldn’t I just do the thing?
But then one evening, my friend asked me a question that completely changed how I thought about the whole situation.
We were having coffee and I was telling them (probably complaining, tbh) about how I kept procrastinating on YouTube. And they just looked at me and said: “Okay, but why do you actually want to be a YouTuber? Like, really?”
And I was like “well… because it seems cool? And I enjoy making videos? And it could become a business?”
They just raised their eyebrows at me and said “mate, that’s not an answer.”
And they were right.
The real issue wasn’t that I lacked discipline or time management skills. It was that I’d never actually stopped to think about why making YouTube videos mattered to me in the first place, or where I was actually trying to go with the whole thing.
I had this vague sense that “being a YouTuber would be cool” but I’d never properly thought through what success would look like, how it connected to my values, or what I was genuinely trying to build. And without that clarity, my brain was basically like “well, this seems hard and we don’t really know why we’re doing it, so let’s just… not.”
It turns out that when you’re unclear on your direction or your goals don’t actually align with what matters to you, procrastination isn’t really a willpower problem – it’s your brain trying to tell you something.
And this is where most productivity advice completely misses the point.
We’re told to use better to-do lists, block our time more effectively, build stronger habits, eliminate distractions – basically all the tactical execution stuff. And don’t get me wrong, those things are useful. But they’re only half the picture.
Because here’s the thing: you need two components for productivity to actually work.
The first is Vision – getting genuinely clear on what matters to you, where you’re trying to go, and why it’s meaningful. Not in a corporate mission statement kinda way, but really understanding your values and what you want your life to look like.
The second is Action – having the systems, routines, and frameworks that make consistent progress automatic rather than dependent on motivation.
And the crucial bit is that you need both.
If you’ve got Action without Vision, you might get stuff done but it often feels hollow or you’re constantly second-guessing whether you’re working on the right things. You’re climbing the ladder efficiently but you’ve never checked if it’s leaning against the right wall.
But if you’ve got Vision without Action – which is where I reckon most people actually are – you’ve got all these ideas and intentions about what you want to do, but no practical system to actually make it happen. So nothing changes and you end up feeling stuck and guilty about not making progress.
Once I figured this out for myself, everything shifted. I spent time properly thinking through what I valued (creativity, autonomy, helping people learn stuff), what I wanted to build (a business that gave me flexibility and let me work on interesting projects), and why YouTube mattered in that context (it was the perfect medium for the type of teaching I enjoyed).
Suddenly, filming videos didn’t feel like this vague thing I “should” do – it felt like a clear step towards something I genuinely cared about. And then when I combined that clarity with proper systems for actually getting it done (time-blocking, weekly planning, all that stuff), the procrastination basically disappeared.
This whole philosophy of combining Vision and Action is what LifeOS is built around, and it’s honestly the productivity framework I wish I’d had years earlier.
The course has two main pillars. The Vision pillar helps you get clarity on your values, design a compelling future, and set goals that actually mean something to you. The Action pillar gives you the practical systems to execute – how to structure your days and weeks, build productive routines, and make consistent progress.
And if you’ve been struggling with procrastination or feeling stuck or working hard but not seeing the progress you want, this might be exactly what you need.
But even if you don’t join the course, I’d genuinely encourage you to spend some time this week thinking about both sides. Are you clear on where you’re trying to go and why it matters? And do you have systems that make progress feel manageable rather than overwhelming?
Because often when we think we have a motivation problem, we actually have a clarity problem. And once you fix that, the action part becomes so much easier.
Have a great week!
Ali xx