How to Leverage Audacity and Uncover Your Most Productive Self
"Who does she think she is?!" meets main character energy.
We’ve made productivity a bit sterile and boring over the years, haven’t we?
Productivity is one of the most heavily researched self-improvement topics in 2025, particularly among the entrepreneurial set. We’re a little more than low-key obsessed with productivity and yet, even with decades of research under our collective belts we still haven’t really figured out how to integrate it successfully into our daily lives without becoming miserable or burning out, repeatedly.
In a Forbes article published in June 2024, a well-being study found that around 80% of employees regularly experience ‘productivity anxiety’ - the feeling that no matter how much you get done or how much you work, there’s always more that you should be doing.
Christ that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
“Productivity anxiety” is a global phenomenon and Americans especially are obsessed with productivity and the hustle culture… Our fixation on productivity prioritizes output over well-being, leading to burnout, stress and a diminished quality of life.
In a post-girlboss era and the widespread emergence of female-led solo businesses, it’s easy to generalise and think that as women, we’ve finally found an avenue that allows us to earn an income, do meaningful work, have a family and finally leave all that silliness of the 90’s behind us.
But it’s also left most of us, new to working for ourselves without a team, paid superannuation or any sort of water cooler banter to get us through the day, a little bit bewildered when it comes to how to effectively make anything on our lists happen without working 17 hours a day.
And so our response might be to lean in harder to what we already know - time blocking, batching, discipline, scheduled breaks, getting up earlier, caffeine, timers, to-do lists, new planning systems, apps - all those things that we relied on so heavily in our corporate careers to get us through the day without wanting to metaphorically strangle Pheobe from Finance.
But months later, firmly committed to a gruelling client-led work schedule, the same goals still languishing on our lists and with seemingly less time with our family than ever (or, even if there’s physically more time, it’s definitely not stress-free), we start to wonder when the business-lady freedom everyone posts about on Instagram will show up.
We start to ask ourselves… Who did I think I was?
You Don’t Need To Be More Disciplined To Get What You Want
Discipline has become a bit of a bro-verb, regularly bandied about in the podiverse, with the likes of Stephen Bartlett and Co touting it about like it’s the answer to everything and really, a good sitting down and talking to is all that lies between us and making our goals happen.
There is, of course, always a place for holding yourself accountable to some extend and honestly, without any discipline at all, life would be fairly aimless and you likely end up in a place where the only decision you have to make is the fairly inevitable ‘are you still watching?’ when Netflix rudely asks.
But the reason I don’t like the sudden popularity of discipline as the answer to everything in the productivity arena is because women have always been disciplined.
Women are the masters of quietly doing things we don’t want to do. We push babies out of very small holes in our bodies, people-please our way to safety on a daily basis, and sustain huge amounts of emotional and mental load for long periods of time.
A HR World article stated that “women, as a gender, were often regarded as more disciplined and usually preferred for roles that require hospitality, warmth, and also the desk jobs that carry the reputation of monotony.”
Without diving in and addressing how an author could pack so very many inherent gender biases into a few short lines of text, it does demonstrate that for women who want to make their goals happen but struggle to bring them to life, lack of discipline is likely not the problem.
We don’t need more discipline, we need to stop assuming responsibility for the work that drains our energy. #theaudacity
We don’t need more discipline, we need to do less of the work that can be done by others (but often isn’t) and do more of what energises and supports us to do our most important work, aligned with our strengths and our goals.
We don’t need more discipline. We need less to do.
The next time you or one of those Internet productivity experts challenges you to ‘just do the thing’ ‘stop being a little bitch’ or download a new habit tracker, take a look at what it is you’re actually trying to do on a daily basis.
Are these daily actions that are actually going to get you to where you want to go as the most supported, the most energised, the most main character version of yourself?
Before you try to drill-sergeant your way into doing the actions on your list, make sure they’re the right actions in the first place. Make your own handbook. Choose a nice outfit every day. Eat a breakfast that makes you feel good. Start work at 10am. Go to the gym or go for a walk before you do. Invest time into experimenting with your energy support routine and reverse engineer your focus.
Make this a non-negotiable because investing in the right actions instead of going hard on the wrong ones is a HUGE part of what will allow you to rock up, sit down, smash out the things you want to do in 3 hours instead of 7 and then bloody switch off for the rest of the afternoon.
Have the audacity.
Who does she think she is?
How To Figure Out What Your Main Character Actually Wants
It’s very easy to mistake what it is you actually want when what you want is always located somewhere far off into the future.
Constantly chasing after a future-oriented goal from a place of ‘I will be able to say I have MADE IT when…’ is the fastest way to feeling like you’re constantly on a journey to to somewhere that you never quite reach. And you’re always running late. And you’ve always forgotten something.
Figuring out what you want sounds so simple on paper, but it’s often heavily influenced by a range of factors including what you’re good at, what ‘makes sense’ because of experience, available resources or location, your ‘zone of genius’, what you’ve achieved or those in your family have achieved before, or some other business expert who achieved what she wanted and created a program about it.
It can be helpful, if what you thought you wanted does not in fact seem to actually be the thing you really do want, to start with designing your days in order to design your entire life. Because, what is your life if it’s not the sum of the days you’re living right now?
I know. Profound.
Have the audacity to forget everyone else, and ask yourself: what do I actually want out of my days?
Do you want to write for a living and leverage your work to curate a close-knit community of creatives who you spend time chatting to every day?
Do you want to present to a crowd of thousands every month and spend the rest of your days baking for your kids?
Do you want to quietly design websites from the comfort of your own shed and grow vegetables?
Do you want to start your own comedy YouTube channel and spend your days writing skits?
Get really detailed about what it is that YOU want your every day Tuesday to feel like and start to implement activities that help you feel closer to bringing that version of your life, to life. Otherwise, I PROMISE you will spend the rest of your days chasing a future that never seems to materialise, no matter how much on-paper success you have or how many goals you tick off your list.
And that’s not the way your main character lives her life.
Who does she think she is?
Behave Like That Partner From That Corporate Firm You Worked At in 2017 And Make More Progress In An Hour Than You Have All Week
In another life, I had a several-year stint supporting various leaders in senior positions as an assistant. Years later, I would start my own business as a virtual-assistant-slash-marketing-person and realise that if I wanted to create the freedom-filled, family-centred, creative, income-rich business I craved, I would need to stop working like 2017 me and, to my surprise and slightly horror, actually start working like 2017 Trevor*.
2017 Trevor (we’ll call him by his pseudo-name and era) was the most senior of a group of very senior partners (his water cooler nickname was Silverback) and possessed several daily habits that both bewildered and highly annoyed me.
Come to think of it, they were all habits that inspired the silent question: ‘who does he think he is’?
2017 Trevor, who had one of the more significant revenue portfolios across the firm and held a very senior leadership role backed by his significant knowledge and skill level, would often spend a large portion of his morning reading the newspaper.
He would also often go for long walks, to god knows where, and during these walks he would be unreachable. No one (except me, and I suppose, his wife) could contact him (I didn’t). Highly annoying for those waiting for approval or some sort of crucial decision before they could leave for the day and highly stressful for the person managing his schedule (me).
He bought a timeshare in a boat and would regularly mark out days in his calendar WFB (work from boat. Yes).
He would answer lengthy, often quite complex emails including various questions on a range of different topics with the word ‘yes’.
And in the ultimate execution of true audacity, eventually he bought a house in a regional area of NSW, relocated completely and conducted most of his work entirely outside of the office. Without actually asking anybody if he could.
Who does he think he is?
Exactly.
Now, while there’s a lot to unlearn from downtown corporate Sydney, and I can’t endorse leaving entire teams of less senior (and less remunerated) staff members stranded waiting on an answer with zero communication outside a brief ‘yes’ from you - BUT it’s the other bit I think women in business need to do more of.
We need to identify what supports us to think at our best, make decisions, be at our most creative and put us into our highest energy - and once we do, we need prioritise doing that above all else.
2017 Trevor knew that he wasn’t going to perform at his peak by spending 10 hours chained to his laptop, poring over his emails and languishing away in a three hour meeting that could have been an email.
And neither will you.
Have the audacity to support yourself to work at your best, so that when you do work, you’re positioned to produce the best result (whether that’s a piece of art, a chunk of writing, a creative project, a Notion workspace or cooking a recipe you love) - AND you’re energised and present while you do it.
Stop taking breaks when you’re already exhausted. I said what I said. #whodoesshethinksheis
Those 5 minute last-minute breaks don’t match your main character era. Go bold and add in big chunks of preparatory rest.
Who does she think she is taking the day off/going for long beach walks/writing for half the morning when she’s got XYZ to do?
Who, indeed.
Set your energy and focus up right and you’ll literally collapse time. Because you’ll be able to work more effectively, do the things you’re good at, better and get where you want to go faster.
#theaudacity
Redefine What Taking Action Looks Like To You
Go through every action on your to do list, in your goal planner, on your vision board - wherever your actions are, review them. Experiment with the scale of the action you take and measure the data on the outcomes you gain as a result. Big actions are often the ones we steer well clear of out of fear. With each action you’re afraid of, ask yourself:
Will doing this move me closer to wear I want to go more quickly than what I’m currently doing?
What is the best possible outcome that could happen as a result of taking this action?
What is the worst possible outcome? Is this worse than staying where I am and not taking the risk associated with this action?
Is there anything I can do to truly prepare or support myself better toward taking this action? (note - this is not your cue to add another big long list of procrasti-actions to your plate)
Does taking this action inspire ‘who does she think she is’ energy? I.e. speaking on stage, leading a masterclass, confidently pitching an IG live? If the answer’s yes, then do it.
On the flipside, if you’ve been stuck in a pickle with a particular goal for a very long time and you’re struggling to work your way out of a particular headspace, small repetitive actions might help propel you forward. For example, instead of your weekly action being ‘write a 1500 word Substack article’ make it smaller, like: ‘write a paragraph of a Substack article’ or ‘write for 10 minutes and then stop’.
Who does she think she is only writing a paragraph and then going on a hot girl walk?
#theaudacity
How Very Dare She? Leverage Audacity and Improve Your Productivity and Your Life
The common underlying theme here is that leveraging audacity does a couple of things if you’re a woman with a business in 2025.
It reinspires your confidence in yourself. People will feel it. You’ll make new connections, and lose some old ones.
It challenges you to take bold action outside your (and, more importantly, others’) comfort zones.
It’s supportive AF for your nervous system when you’re truly taking action in alignment with your main character (I mean, nobody ever said ‘who does she think she is’ about a woman who worked herself to exhaustion every week).
Thinking in this way has also really helped me start to reemerge from the brink, post-partum. I am currently almost 6 years’ post partum (or almost 4, if you count it from the last birth). I can say with complete confidence that sleep deprivation, deprioritising my own needs, starting a business with no idea what that actually entailed, Covid and a mortgage had definitely slowly sapped me of anything resembling who does she think she is energy. But over the last month, I’ve been slowly bringing it back. And, aside from everything else, it just feels good.
Next time you find yourself berating yourself for doing something that feels outside what you ‘should’ be doing, or doing something that you feel would attract the attention of an imaginary audience and have them whispering ‘who does she think she is’… lean into that. And do it more.
The audacity.