I felt so inspired after talking with Cindy! It was such an amazing conversation. No matter what stage of life you are in, choosing JOY for you should be a priority. Cindy helps women realize that just filling our calendar is not the answer to staying active as an Empty Nester, but more about doing activities that intentionally bring you happiness.

Jump to a topic:

00:00 — Welcome + What is Sprint Showcase?
01:37 — Cindy’s story + how The Joyful Empty Nester began
14:43 — Reflected joy vs. self-joy: what actually fills your cup?
22:47 — “Is it worthy of the white space?” + being intentional with your time
23:44 — What Cindy is building next + evolving the Spark Experience
27:35 — Helping women figure out what they want next
28:35 — The messy middle: building when tech isn’t your strength
36:01 — Regret, positivity + lessons that apply at any stage of life
37:51 — The legacy you’re already living
41:35 — Why Cindy chose joy + learning to create it intentionally
50:35 — Small habits that can change how you start your day
52:23 — Behind the scenes: challenges building The Joyful Empty Nester

Thank you , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with !

Cindy shared a link to her new program “The Spark Experience” that she is launching soon to help you along the way.

To find out more, sign up Here! ✨

Subscribe to The Joyful Empty Nester Here! 🤍

What’s a Sprint Showcase? A series about people who are building the thing — and what it actually looks like while they’re building it!

Interested in being featured in a future Sprint Showcase? Leave a comment or DM me!

Earlier this week, I decided to rebrand my Substack.

The Everyday Sprint is now Your Next Sprint. ✨

I had honestly been thinking about this for a while. I just felt like I had outgrown the old name.

Whenever I introduced The Everyday Sprint, I felt like I had to over explain what it meant. A little ambiguity can be intriguing, but at the same time, we have enough going on in our brains. When most of us find someone new, we’re trying to figure out:

1. Who exactly is this person?

2. Is their writing interesting or helpful?

3. What’s in it for me?

   TL;DR:

   I spent five months figuring out what the heck I was building here. 😂

   Turns out, the answer was basically sitting in front of me the whole time. Your Next Sprint is where I'm taking 15 years of project management + Agile experience and making it useful for people building big ideas after hours with very limited time.

   Expect practical articles, quick tools + micro-learning, Agile + AI experiments, Sprint Showcases, Lives and collaborations, and lots of building in public. Basically, you bring the big ideas, and I’ll help you figure out what the heck to work on next. 🥳

Subscribe now

After almost five months here, I realized I wasn’t making the answers to those questions clear enough.

When I first joined Substack in April, my vision was not super clear. I came here thinking I would commit to writing weekly about how I basically project manage my life.

As an overwhelmed mom of a toddler, working full-time and doing allll the things, I initially thought I could help other moms. My content was okay, but it felt a bit all over the place and it was tough to understand, who is she talking to exactly?

Then after almost quitting, I started pivoting back toward what I enjoyed writing about: my life.

I swear I’m not a narcissist, guys. 😂 Maybe I’m just a good candidate for a memoir as another publication one day. (Side note: Michelle Ray’s is an amazing example of this!)

But no matter what I wrote about or who , certain themes kept showing up.

Organization, Projects, Systems, Tools, Prioritization, Reflection.

Coincidentally...that’s also my career experience.

I knew I could write about these things, so why wasn’t I?

Honestly, I was afraid of being too niche. I was afraid people wouldn’t care. And I was afraid of not being relatable. Agile is a common practice in my world, but plenty of people have no idea what I’m talking about.

But then...well hello, couldn’t you teach it??

DING DING DING. 😂

The answer had been in front of me the entire time.

The first five months were basically one giant experiment. I wrote my Retros, posted constantly on Notes, talked about motherhood, planning, career, organization, projects, Agile, AI...and yes, checked my stats and compared my growth to everyone else wayyy too much.

Even with 400 subscribers, I knew my overall message wasn’t as clear as I wanted it to be. Going through all of those iterations helped me figure out what I enjoyed writing about, what people came to me for, and ultimately what I wanted this space to become.

Or, I guess I should say...what I wanted to build.

Okay, But What Exactly Is Your Next Sprint?

Most of us are building something here. For the vast majority of us, it’s something we are focusing on after our 9-5. We have a ton of big ideas, but time is very limited.

For most of you reading this, that thing is Substack. For some of you it’s a business, a product, a creative project, or an idea that’s been sitting in your head forever that you’re finally ready to do something about.

The word “Sprint” has a few different meanings, but for the purposes of this publication, it is a fixed period of time (usually 2-4 weeks) where you focus on specific tasks for the goals you want to reach.

I’m essentially taking the Agile methodology, project management experience, systems and tools I’ve spent years using professionally — and making them practical for what you’re building.

• How do you decide what matters right now?

• What can wait?

• How do you break a giant idea into something you can actually tackle?

• How do you know whether what you’re spending your limited time on is even adding value?

And maybe most importantly... how do you actually FINISH some of these things?

Also, this is supposed to be FUN. One comment I have gotten over my life especially at work is how I bring positivity to the workplace. This is one consistent thing I am known for, and it is honestly because I am very passionate about it. If work is a place you spend a ton of time, it needs to be enjoyable. The same goes for building a business.

My own Substack is one of my projects, so we are literally building in real time baby! I’ll keep sharing the experiments, the pivots, the numbers, the monthly Retros, what’s working, what’s absolutely not working, and probably a few well, THAT seemed like a good idea at the time moments. 😂

That realness isn’t going anywhere. The difference is that now I’ll also explain more of the thinking behind what I’m doing, so you can apply it to whatever you’re building.

What We’re Building Here

One thing I’m learning about myself is that I don’t want to build a giant content machine that requires me to publish 80 different things every week. 😂

I want to spend more time creating things that are actually useful, and doing more of the things I genuinely enjoy.

So here’s what I’m building Your Next Sprint around:

Big Ideas, Made Practical

My Weekly articles will generally fall into three buckets: Agile, Systems + Planning, and AI — all through the lens of building big ideas with limited time.

Less corporate jargon. More okay, but how do I actually use this?

Small Tools. Quick Wins.

I am REALLY excited to experiment with this.

Think quick one-pagers, AI prompts, prioritization exercises, simple Agile concepts, templates, prompts and tiny tools you can consume quickly and actually use.

Less theory. More: here, try this.

Lives + Collabs

I’ve realized I really enjoy connecting with other people, hearing what they’re building, asking questions, and learning from how someone else approaches things.

I really want to lean into that more!

So, expect more Lives, guest conversations, collaborations and opportunities to actually talk about the messy middle of building something — instead of only hearing from people once they’ve figured everything out.

I don’t want this to feel like I’m just publishing at you.

I want it to feel like we’re figuring some of this stuff out together.

PS, If you want to collab, send me a DM!

Sprint Showcase: The Messy Middle

I have only done one of these and it is my favorite thing so far. I am so excited to continue this series!

Think of a Sprint Showcase as an Agile demo for real life: people sharing what they’re building while they’re still building it.

There is a lot more to learn from the messy middle than the perfectly polished success story.

Some of these will be written articles, lives, or a podcast episode!

Building in Public + The Retro

You’ll continue getting the behind-the-scenes of what I’m building, including experiments, lessons, numbers, monthly reflections and the occasional failure.

I’m not interested in pretending I have everything figured out while teaching you how to figure things out. 😂

In fact, I want to get even better about showing you why I made certain decisions, what happened after I made them, and what I’d do differently next time.

Community

My Subscriber Chat is honestly the coolest group. I was hesitant to start it since I figured (oh everyone has too many messages), but to be honest mine is always poppin’!

Right now, I post Mondays & Fridays, and sometimes I’ll throw in another random day. It has been a really cool way to get to know my subscribers. I will continue utilizing this and get creative with it as time goes on!

About That Giant Backlog of Mine… 😂

So, I realized that I had a lot of half baked ideas and tried to rush them: IE, my paid tier. I kept rewriting the offer, making it look right, changing pricing, this and that, when realizing I actually don’t even have a full offering.

I kept thinking to myself I needed to have my entire business plan figured out RIGHT NOW. In 5 months, I just don’t yet, and honestly I think that’s okay.

I want to pay attention to what people are actually struggling with and create things that might help…not just send you a useless PDF you’ll open once and forget about.

I don’t want to create things just because I’m SUPPOSED to have a certain type of offer or because everyone else is doing it.

I want to solve actual problems, put useful things into the world, see what resonates, and keep improving from there.

Sounds suspiciously Agile, doesn’t it? 😂

So paid tier, we are off again…for now. I want to make it worth it, and we need time to build that part of the business out…right?! Right. I may change my mind again next week, but for now, this is the plan.

Let’s just keep doing what we are doing, making connections, having fun growing, and teaching Agile to the Substack Creator world!

The People Who Helped Me Get Here 🤍

I also have to shout out to some people who have really helped me along the way.

• for pushing me to think more intentionally about what I’m actually building here, and for his amazing Velocity Group & Community. Super happy I joined!

• and her Substack Audit, which helped me realize SO much of this and more. I am still working through the changes, but it has been 1000% worth every penny.

• And lastly, The OG subscribers. My Substack Besties. I won’t tag everyone because I would probably miss someone and feel bad about it, but you know who you are. The ones who I vent to over DMs, rambling crazy ideas, and pushing me to try new things…THANK YOU!

The community here on Substack is like nowhere else online. It is a huge reason I am still moving forward!

More Focus for the Future

The whole idea behind Agile is that you don’t need to have every detail of the final product figured out before you start.

You build, you learn, you adjust, you keep going.

And that’s exactly how I want to build Your Next Sprint.

Five months and 400 subscribers later, the vision isn’t as vague anymore.

I’m building this for the person with big ideas and limited time who wants to actually make progress on them.

I’m building my thing right alongside you while you build yours.

So...tell me. What’s your next sprint? 😉

A series about people who are building the thing — and what it actually looks like while they’re building it!

Here is the post where I talk about what it entails!

Subscribe now

Today, I’m VERY excited to introduce you to Lidiya, creator of The 2-Hour Blogger.

If you’re building on Substack, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already come across her- she is truly one of the realest out there, and I am one of her biggest fans!

Lidiya has been blogging for more than a decade, and now she’s bringing everything she’s learned about content, audience growth, monetization, SEO, email marketing, digital products, and building an online business to Substack.

And she’s moving FAST.

In less than five months, she’s crossed 1,000 subscribers, published around 75 posts, built a paid tier and launched a Substack Growth Audit — all while sharing what she’s learning along the way!

What I really love about Lidiya’s story is that we’re not looking at someone’s first attempt at building.

We’re looking at what happens when someone brings 10+ years of experiments, mistakes and lessons into each week as she continues to grow on Substack.

Let’s get into the interview. 👇

🛠️ What are you building?

Thanks for having me, Danielle.

I’m Lidiya, and I run The 2-Hour Blogger - a publication for bloggers and writers looking to monetize their content, grow a newsletter, and turn this into a real writing business.

What I’m building here is a community of people with the same goals, and a practical resource for the writers who want to turn their work into something more. Into a brand, a source of income, a full-time venture, and - ultimately - their legacy.

I do that by testing what works and what doesn’t and sharing my journey, the numbers, the lessons and anything behind the scenes.

After 10+ years in blogging, I’m bringing everything I’ve learned about content, email marketing, SEO, audience growth, and monetization through brand deals and digital products to Substack.

This is exactly why I subscribed to her- she is real about every step of her journey!

She’s not just talking about building a writing business in theory.

She’s actively building one — and showing her work along the way.

The numbers. The experiments. What’s working. What isn’t.

Basically, she is my kind of person. 😂

💭 Why did you start building it?

I was already doing this prior to joining Substack. I started a blog in 2013 which was initially about personal growth (as that was my journey), but then what I share followed the next seasons of my life - freelance writing, becoming a full-time blogger, launching and selling digital products, working with brands, etc.

I believe in having a really, really strong why for why you do what you do. This is what can keep you in business long enough to see results.

My whys were many.

I wanted to write, I wanted to talk about personal growth and later about business, and hopefully inspire at least a few people along the way.

I needed a creative outlet. I needed something that was only mine, and which had nothing to do how others expected me to live.

I never wanted an average life. My vision was always 10x bigger than where I currently was, and being self-employed, doing what I love for a living, and creating content was always part of it.

I also really wanted to leave my home country (Bulgaria) and leave the toxic environment I was in, and I wanted to create life on my own terms.

So that kept me going.

A few years later, I was able to relocate, and this is when the life I chose began - with the freedom and independence I craved, but also with the challenges, discomfort and struggles that often go with every big choice in life.

My whys haven’t changed, and my content has always been at the center of what I do online.

What changed is the platform - I came to Substack this year because blogging was lonely and the way the Internet works changed a lot in the last years.

What I didn’t expect is what a great fit Substack was for me as a writer, and how it quickly became my main content hub.

Naturally, I started experimenting, growing, and writing about that growth. I was planning to teach blogging again here, but people kept asking me about Substack growth. And because I’m so passionate about it, I focused more on writing about that.

As much as I didn’t want to become ‘yet another Substack writer teaching others how to become Substack writers’, this is where things naturally led me.

I do try to make it unique in a few ways, though:

by using my knowledge and skills from the blogging business;

by being brutally honest, ruthlessly authentic, and only doing what feels aligned;

by not copying others;

by running challenges;

by overdelivering in value;

and by not using AI.

There is SO much in this answer, but the part I keep coming back to is:

“I believe in having a really, really strong why for why you do what you do.”

Lidiya’s platform has changed, her topics have evolved, her business has evolved, and her life has definitely evolved…BUT the reason she is building really hasn’t changed. I LOVE that!

🚧 Where are you in the process right now?

I launched my Substack nearly 5 months ago. It was slow at first, I was learning how the platform works, finding my voice here, connecting with people, and learning from others.

Now, I just crossed 1K free subscribers (and currently have 12 paid ones). I’m happy with how my paid tier is structured and how I’m finding the balance between free and exclusive content (but I learned this the hard way as I was running a paid membership for bloggers 3 years ago, and that was a lot of work and taught me a lot). I also have a paid offer, and many more ideas.

I think my first 100 subs (and maybe even 200-300) were mostly random people - fellow writers wanting to connect with other creators. But as I posted more and more articles (got around 75 already) and daily Notes, the right people started finding me - the ones who genuinely needed my content and put it to work. And that makes me happy. This is what I’m here for, after all.

I also think the algorithm picked up on me and shows me more, but people also engage with my content and share it with their audiences, so the growth continues naturally.

I would say I’m past the initial building phase, and now I can just continue doing what I do.

You guys know I love numbers, and this is an amazing journey, but what I love the most about this is she said the right people are starting to find her.

There is growth, and then there is building an audience of people who genuinely need what you’re creating.

🫠 What’s been harder or messier than you expected?

The timing of it all, I’d say. I became a mom 7 months ago, and am staying home with baby while growing a whole new business, sort of. But it’s a choice, and I know from experience that momentum like this has to be used.

I was very motivated and needed to remain myself in motherhood. I needed something that was mine, and while blogging is always there for me and I still have weekly tasks related to it (and it’s where my income comes from), I wasn’t that excited about it. So I had the time (when baby sleeps, when my partner or a grandma watches her) and I made the most of it.

I invested most of my free time into building Substack, and I enjoyed every second of it. I always believe that freedom is having choices, and the fact that I chose that is a big privilege.

I get to build something meaningful and go towards my big vision with my baby girl next to me. So I’ll never be the mom who gave up on her dreams because of motherhood, and I think that’s one of the biggest gifts I can give to my daughter.

Other things that were messier are the usual - the first weeks were quiet, no one read my first posts, I posted a lot to see what actually provides real value and what I enjoy sharing the most, etc.

But I moved faster and hesitated less simply because I’ve done the hard and messy version of it all in the last 10 years.

I’ve tried platforms that didn’t work, content formats that didn’t feel aligned, I’ve invested 100+ hours in projects that didn’t give me any ROI, I’ve launched things no one bought, I’ve had plenty of low income months, and many reasons to give up, I’ve been all over the place in terms of content strategy and monetization, I’ve been consuming more than creating, I’ve been creating content no one needs, etc.

That teaches a lot. Now, I am more focused, not repeating my previous mistakes, and moving faster.

My favorite part of this:

“I needed to remain myself in motherhood. I needed something that was mine.”

ME TOO LIDIYA, ME TOO. 🥹

Lidiya and I did connect in DMs over our Motherhood experiences, and honestly where I was mentally a few months postpartum was so difficult, so I truly admire her motivation to grow her business. Absolutely inspirational!

💡 What’s one thing you’ve learned so far?

Substack is like no one platform, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised in many ways.

First, who knew you could write public posts and send emails to your audience without actually setting up an email marketing tool?!

Second, I had no idea people would pay me just to support my work or because we formed a connection, and not because of the exclusive content I post!

Third, there’s an algorithm that actually gives the results I deserve after all the hard work I put in? I didn’t know that either.

Also, a platform that has it all in one place? That has simplified my whole business. I don’t like social media and it never worked for me (only Pinterest did in the past), but now that’s integrated here, and in a way that does’t overwhelm me. So that was another surprise.

One thing I learned early on and which I was surprised by but negatively is how much people rely on the sub for sub thing. I decided to never do it.

We want to build a list of people who want to open our emails and read them. Anything else means lower open and click through rates, and in email marketing, that’s actually a pretty bad practice.

I’d say there’s nothing I’d do differently. But that’s probably because I see everything as an experiment and there’s always something to learn.

One thing that might be considered a mistake could be that I started 2 publications in the beginning. A few weeks after being on Substack, I realized I want to write about my journey here and to keep this separate from the blogging content I teach. So I created a second publication. That means my focus was on 2 different thing. And the topics started overlapping so much, that it was time to merge them. Luckily, there weren’t many posts in the second one, so it wasn’t much work.

This is 1000% the advice we all need:

🏃‍♀️ What’s your next sprint?

It mostly has to do with content and monetization.

Currently finishing the Substack SEO challenge I’m running.

I have many more interviews with Substack creators planned (I feature them on my publication).

I’ll keep the Substack Growth Audit as my main offer as I’m getting great feedback on it.

Just had an idea for a small and low-cost product but which can be highly valuable, so I might create it soon, and release it both as a standalone offer and as a bonus for the paid tier (I like doing both to give people different options).

I will also restructure my paid tiers in the near future, add a Founding Member one and move the bonus Substack Growth Audit to it (as it’s very time-consuming and highly valuable). At some point, I might also increase the price for the monthly and annual paid tier too.

That’s what’s on my mind. For the rest, I keep writing, I keep posting Notes, I keep connecting with wonderful people here, I keep answering people’s questions, I keep learning from bigger creators, and I keep having fun as I do all that.

Hope this was helpful, and inspires you to keep going no matter what!

Isn’t she the BEST?!

Also, shameless plug, but I recently upgraded my subscription with her! Mainly because I LOVE her content, but also I wanted her Substack Audit deal. 😃

It was 1000% worth it! I highly recommend her!

Subscribe to the 2-Hour Blogger!

Want to be part of a future Sprint Showcase?

The Sprint Showcase highlights people building something of their own — while they’re still in the messy middle of actually building it.

You don’t need a giant audience.

You don’t need to have it all figured out.

You just need to be building something you are proud of! 🎉

I realized pretty quickly that this “little Substack hobby” I started might actually become something more…which is REALLY fun and exciting.

BUT with that excitement came a little added pressure…that I totally added on myself by the way…

And I realized that if I don’t get strict with my time on here, I will FOR SURE burn myself out.

I actually talked about how I established my own version of success in this article:

Since April, every free moment outside of my 9-5 and life duties started revolving around Substack.

Writing. Thinking about writing. Checking stats. Responding to comments. Checking notifications. Thinking of another Note. Checking notifications again. RINSE. REPEAT.

I even deleted my other social media apps so I could solely focus on this!

All that to say, it has quickly made me realize that this pattern is not sustainable.

We all know that. So why do we keep doing it?

You could go as far as to say we’re addicted, but that sounds a little shameful, so I’m choosing to rebrand it:

We are very PASSIONATE. 😂

Getting on here genuinely excites me.

I brain dump my ideas to my new friends. I get super hyped talking on calls, zooms, lives. Everything feels SO fun, until I realize..oh yeah..I still have a LOT going on outside of this.

This Is Supposed to Be a Side Hustle (For Now)

As much as I wish I had unlimited time to build everything right now, that is not my reality.

And honestly? I don’t think I want it to be at the moment. I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out…

Right now, my goal is for this to be a side hustle.

Of course I want to grow it. I want to grow this community. I want to build products. I want to make money. I want to see if this little corner of the internet could eventually become a legitimate business.

I was joking recently that between AI tools, subscriptions and a coaching program, I am technically running a business that has made approximately...negative dollars.

Very profitable over here. 😂

Will working 20 hours a week on this actually help me build it faster?

Maybeee?

Will spending every available minute on it make me more likely to wake up 6months from now and say F THIS?

Absolutely.

So if throwing more hours at it isn’t the answer...What is?

Start With Capacity, Not Your To-Do List

Every planner, productivity app and time management guru will tell you some version of:

“You need to prioritize.”

And yes this is true, but I think we are missing a step because it is easily to think that “everything is important”.

Before deciding what you’re going to accomplish, you need to know your actual capacity.

Even if you can prioritize 17 things. That doesn’t magically give you 17 hours to do them.

Instead of starting the week just with: What do I want to accomplish?

I’m starting with: How much time do I realistically have?

And maybe even more importantly: How much of that time am I willing to give to Substack?

There’s a difference.

Where Exactly Are These Extra Hours Coming From?

Think about a pretty normal working person’s day.

You work. Maybe you work out.

You get yourself and maybe your kids ready.

There’s school or daycare drop-off.

There are Corporate Meetings.

Actual job things.

Dinner.

Family time.

Bath.

Bedtime.

Then maybe around 8 PM you finally get some time to yourself…

Except you also need to shower, clean something, order groceries, talk to your spouse, maybe watch something that has absolutely nothing to do with personal development...and ideally sleep.

So where exactly is this giant block of time we’re supposed to use to build our side hustles?

Exactly.

Before deciding this, I would check Substack when I woke up and distract myself for at least 30 minutes. I would check it again after dropping my son off, at lunch, at bedtime..basically whenever I had a break. It felt constant.

I don’t want to build a business plan that assumes every available pocket of my life belongs to my business.

Which is how I landed on my number…

7 Hours.

7 hours a week. That’s one hour per calendar day.

Or around 1.5 hours each weekday if I want my weekends back.

That doesn’t sound like a lot I know.

But when I really looked at it, I realized:

7 focused hours is actually a decent amount of time.

The problem isn’t necessarily that I don’t have enough time.

The problem is that I’ve been trying to fit way too much into it.

The Rule: Plan for 7. Flex to 12.

7 hours is my baseline capacity. That’s what I’m going to build my weekly sprint plan around.

Some weeks, I may have more. Maybe I get 10 hours. Maybe even 12.

But here’s the rule: I plan my week as if I only have 7 hours.

Those extra five hours? Bonus capacity.

If I tell myself I have 12 hours, guess what happens? I plan 12 hours of work.

Then life happens and a meeting gets scheduled. My kid gets sick. Something happens at home. I’m tired…the list goes on.

Suddenly I only have 7 hours and now I’m behind because I couldn’t hit 12.

Instead, my actual commitments need to fit inside 7.

If bonus hours magically appear, I can get ahead. Respond to more comments. Work on a product. Take a coffee chat. Chase one of my random ideas..or just REST, because that is OKAY too..🤪

Okay...So What Actually Made the Cut?

This is where things got interesting.

Because when I listed everything I currently do — or want to do — for my Substack, I had:

1. Weekly articles.

2. Daily Notes.

3. Podcasts.

4. Lives.

5. Collaborations.

6. Sprint Showcases.

7. Subscriber chats.

8. Comments.

9. DMs.

10. Coffee chats.

11. Analytics.

12. Publication updates.

13. Digital Product development.

14. Business planning.

And approximately 900 other ideas sitting in my brain.

There is absolutely no universe where all of that fits inside 7 hours. So I had to decide what actually matters right now.

My Non-Negotiables

For this season, I’m prioritizing:

• 1 weekly article (Wednesdays)

• 1 Note per day minimum

• Community engagement (My Subscriber chat, comments, DMs)

• A weekly writing group session

• One flexible connection/content block for things like podcasts, Lives or collaborations

That last one is important.

I am doing podcasts, Lives, Sprint Showcases and collaborations.

I’m just not promising myself that I’m doing all of them every single week.

Because that’s how we ended up here in the first place. 😂

My Actual 7-Hour Substack Schedule

So here’s what those priorities look like when I put them on an actual calendar:

SAT/SUN · 1 hour → Batch + plan
MON · 1 hour → Write
TUES · 1 hour → Write
WED · 2 hours → Finish + publish
THURS · 30 min → Light engagement
FRI · 1.5 hours → Connect + retro

TOTAL → 7 HOURS

Saturday or Sunday — Batch + Plan: 1 Hour

This is basically my weekly reset.

I schedule 5–7 baseline Notes, prep my Monday and Friday subscriber chats, start the Wednesday article, review my calendar for any Lives or collabs and catch up on comments/DMs.

I still post random Notes when inspiration hits because I love the authentic part of that, but having a baseline scheduled means I’m not starting from zero every day.

Monday + Tuesday — Write: 2 Hours Total

One hour each day is primarily dedicated to the Wednesday article.

Ideally, by Tuesday night most of it is drafted.

Does that happen perfectly every week?

Absolutely not.

Wednesday — Finish + Publish: 2 Hours

Finish the article. Edit it. Format it. Publish it.

Sometimes this happens at 11:30 PM. (like this one…lol)

Don’t judge me. 😂

Thursday — Light Day: 30 Minutes

Thursday is intentionally lighter.

I’ll engage, reply to comments/DMs and handle my basic daily non-negotiables.

That’s it.

Friday — Connect + Retro: 1.5 Hours

Friday is my flexible block.

Maybe it’s a podcast.

Maybe it’s a Live or collaboration.

Then I do a quick personal retro and analytics check:

What worked? What didn’t? What do I want to change next week?

And that’s it.

TOTAL PLANNED CAPACITY: 7 HOURS.

Anything beyond that is bonus capacity — not a commitment.

And Everything Else? Backlog.

A new collaboration when I already have something scheduled that week?

Probably backlog.

Starting another project because I got excited about it on a Tuesday afternoon?

GET IN THE BACKLOG.

This is basically Agile capacity planning, except instead of estimating how much work a development team can realistically pull into a sprint, I’m figuring out how much work one slightly overexcited girl with a job, a family and approximately 900 ideas can realistically take on.

And maybe that’s what I’ve been missing.

More Time Might Not Be the Answer…

Can I continue growing my Substack on 7 intentional hours a week?

• Can I publish consistently?

• Can I build relationships?

• Can I create things I’m proud of?

• Can I start building products?

• Can I eventually make money?

• Can I do all of that...

without giving this every available minute of my life?

Maybe I will realize 7 hours won’t be enough. Maybe I’ll learn that my realistic number is actually 10. That is all useful information too.

But I want that answer to come from actual data — not because I let the work expand into every open pocket of my day.

Because there will always be more I could do.

The goal isn’t to figure out how to do all of it.

The goal is to figure out what deserves to make the cut..

And put the rest in the Backlog.

P.S. “Put it in the backlog” sounds great until your backlog has 500 ideas in it. 😂 So naturally, my next question is: how do we decide what actually deserves to come out? That’s the next part of this little experiment. Stay tuned.

Keep Exploring 🌿

🏡 The Everyday Sprint HQ
Everything in one place—my Start Here guide, free resources, subscriber chat, podcast, and favorite posts.

🎙️ Between the Sprints Podcast
Short conversations about life, work, and building things before you’re ready.

💬 Join the Conversation (Link below)
Leave a comment below or jump into the subscriber chat. I’d love to hear what resonated with you.

Not what you’ve finished. Not the perfectly polished version. The thing that’s still a little messy, still changing, and still very much in progress.

In this episode, I’m introducing The Sprint Showcase — a new series built around one of my favorite parts of Agile: showing the work before it’s “done.”

I’m sharing why I created it, how it’s going to work, and why I think we need more spaces to celebrate progress instead of waiting for the perfect finished product.

Because sometimes the best thing you can do is show the work and keep building.🎉

Here is the article I reference in the episode:

What are YOU building?

You know what I really love about Agile teams? There is no huge waiting period before you show what you did. It’s not 6 months away, hiding behind some major launch. It’s every 2 weeks, iteratively.

We demo it to the stakeholders. We celebrate the progress. We take the feedback on what to change. And then we keep building.

Nobody stands up in a sprint review and apologizes for the thing not being finished. That is literally the whole point.

You’re showing working software, not finished software.

The more I’ve thought about what I want The Everyday Sprint to become, the more I keep landing on one thing:

I don’t want this to only be about what I’m building.

There are so many people here quietly building things of their own. I want to make a lot more room for that….

Introducing: The Sprint Showcase 🎤

The Sprint Showcase is a new recurring series where I hand the floor over to someone else and share what they’re building!

Not what they’ve finished. Not the perfectly polished success story. What they’re working on right now.

We spend so much time waiting until something feels impressive enough to share. Until we hit a certain milestone. Launch the finished product. Get 100s of subscribers. Make enough money. Figure out what the heck we’re doing.

But some of the most interesting parts happen wayyy before that.

The Messy Middle is what I think needs MORE attention.

What counts?

ANYTHING you’re genuinely building. There are no requirements. Some examples could be:

• Maybe you just launched your first Substack.

• Maybe you’re writing a book.

• Maybe you’re building a business alongside your 9–5. (Relatable😉!)

• Maybe you made an app, a course, a community, a podcast, a template, or something I haven’t even thought of….

• Maybe it’s the random idea you finally stopped thinking about and actually started. 😂

All it needs to be is something you are making progress on that you actually care about.

How it works

I’m keeping this as simple as possible, because I know your time is precious.

If you want to be featured, I’ll ask you 6 questions:

🏗️ What are you building?

💡 Why did you start it?

🙌 What are you proud of so far?

🫠 What’s still in the messy middle?

🏃 What’s your next sprint?

🔗 Where can we check it out?

2-3 sentences is plenty, and if you don’t want to answer one that is okay too!

You pick the format

• Written feature. You answer the questions, I turn them into a post here.

• Podcast episode. We record a conversation for Between the Sprints.

• Live demo. You show us the thing in real time, the way you’d demo it to a team.

I feel this will give options if you are not super comfortable going on video as well!

If there is something you’d like feedback on from the community, you can ask for that too. Of course, this is totally optional.

What’s in it for you?

Visibility for something you care about, a link back to your work, new people discovering what you’re building, and — if you want it — real feedback from people building things of their own.

And to be clear: you do not need to be a paid subscriber to be featured.

The Sprint Showcase is about giving people in this community a place to share what they’re building and celebrate their progress.

That part is for everyone. 🤍

Not ready to raise your hand?

Half of you probably just read this and thought, “Oh, that’s cool. I hope someone submits.”

You are someone. 😂

You don’t need a huge audience or a polished project to raise your hand.

But I also know sometimes it’s easier to be nominated than to volunteer. So if you know someone building something cool, nominate them! I’ll reach out and see if they’re interested — zero pressure.

Why I’m doing this

I think we need more places where it’s okay to say:

“Hey. I’m building this. It’s not done yet, but I’m really freaking proud of it.”

I want The Everyday Sprint to be a place where we don’t just celebrate the giant launches and the shiny finished products.

We celebrate the person who finally started. The first subscriber. The rough draft. The beta version. The side project being built after bedtime. The idea that’s slowly becoming something real.

And selfishly? I really want to see what all of you are working on!!

Consider this your invitation to the Sprint Review. 😉

When does this start?

To start out, it will be once a month as part of my normal Wednesday articles.

If it gets more traction, maybe I will add more, but for now we can start there.

I am looking for the first one to drop in the next 2 weeks! More to come on this! 👀

Want in? 🙋🏻‍♀️

Leave one comment below:

What are you building?

Add a link if you’ve got one. That’s it.

Want to nominate someone? Drop their name + what they’re building.

Rather not put it publicly? DM me.

I’ll reach out to whoever’s up next with the 6 questions, and we’ll take it from there.

I can’t wait to see what you’re building. 🤍

Subscribe now

Keep Exploring 🌿

🏡 The Everyday Sprint HQ
Everything in one place—my Start Here guide, free resources, subscriber chat, podcast, and favorite posts.

🎙️ Between the Sprints Podcast
Short conversations about life, work, and building things before you’re ready.

🎤 Want to be featured in Sprint Showcase?
Tell me what you’re building in the comments below—or nominate someone whose work deserves a little spotlight. 🤍

No makeup, no fancy setup, just a little real-time update on where The Everyday Sprint is right now.

I’m talking about what’s been happening behind the scenes, what I’ve learned so far, where I see this going next, and something I’m becoming more and more excited about: building an actual community here.

Because the more this grows, the more I realize I don’t just want to build an audience.

I want to build something we’re all part of. 🚀

Thank you for being here — whether you were subscriber #3 or #300. We’re just getting started.

Living with AI

“AI IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD.”

“AI IS GOING TO DESTROY HUMANITY AS WE KNOW IT. ”

Depending on what you are listening to these days, both of those have been said in many different forms. I am not here to debate whether or not AI is good for us as a society. I think we are still a little too early to know how it is going to affect everything long-term.

What I do know is this:

AI has become one of the most valuable tools I use every single day.

It’s also made me realize something I wasn’t expecting.

If AI is supposed to make life easier...

Why am I more overwhelmed than ever?

When Everything Felt Improvable

I started my journey into AI around late 2024, mainly just using ChatGPT as a better version of Google.

A few months ago, I started hearing more about Claude. I was honestly pretty fascinated.

I started using it for everything: Writing, Brainstorming, Planning…

Eventually, I built an entire Life OS using Claude and Notion.

It is so cool and I LOVE that everything is in one place and has the look of “a system”.

Everything felt “optimized”…

And then, something weird happened. I felt like every time I went to open Claude, I started tensing up. It wasn’t because I didn’t like using it (I LOVE technology and automating anything I can)..but I think it gave my subconscious a message of…

Find the next thing to improve.

The next system to build.

The next workflow to optimize.

A new version of me…

It goes on and on…

I wanted to use AI to reduce my mental load, and here it is creating “work” that wasn’t really there in the first place.

Does That Really Need To Be Optimized?

After sitting with this for a while, I realized..

AI wasn’t actually the problem.

It simply removed the friction.

Before AI, improving something usually required enough time and effort that I’d naturally ask myself

“Is this actually worth doing?”

Now?

Almost anything can be improved with one prompt…

• My calendar could be more organized.

• My workouts could be more effective.

• My parenting could be more intentional.

• My writing could sound more engaging.

• My meals could be healthier.

• My vacation could be planned better.

• My morning routine could be more productive.

When optimization becomes almost effortless...

EVERYTHING starts to feel “improvable”.

Every System Needs Constraints

One of the biggest lessons Agile taught me isn’t actually how to get more done, it is how to decide what NOT to do.

AI removes many of our natural constraints, but humans still need them.

Otherwise optimization has no finish line, and that is a little scary right?

And look, I am ALL about self-improvement. That is essentially part of my brand here, and part of who I am as a person. I think we should always be improving something in our lives. However, like everything else, it can be taken too far.

Life Became One Big Measurement

I’m definitely not anti-AI. In tech, we’re almost forced to learn it. It’s become one of the most valuable tools I use every day.

Like I tell my blue-collar husband—who is a huge Terminator fan and is still pretty convinced AI is eventually going to destroy humanity—it is probably here to stay. 😂

I genuinely believe AI is going to create opportunities we can’t even imagine yet. Medical breakthroughs. Faster research. Less time spent on repetitive work. New careers that don’t even exist today.

I also think we have to learn how to live with it, utilize it to its best abilities, and not de-humanize ourselves in the process.

Everything we do lately is some sort of data point, an app to track, a metric to work against…and while the health data nerd in me LOVES this (yes I have an Oura ring AND a Garmin watch)…it can give us unnecessary information as well.

Somewhere along the way, life feels like one big measurement..

Sleep Scores.

Recovery Scores.

Calories.

Steps.

Screen Time.

AI didn’t create that mindset, but it definitely has helped push the narrative..”hey, we could do that better.”

A few months ago, I wrote about how my Notion Life OS had started becoming a part-time job.

At the time, I thought the problem was that I was tracking too much.

Now I think that was only part of it.

The deeper problem was that AI made almost everything feel improvable—and once something feels improvable, my perfectionist brain has a hard time leaving it alone.

My Rules for Using AI Without Losing My Mind 😂

Use AI to remove friction—not create more.

One reason I love AI is I am not starting from a blank slate. Some would argue that interferes with creativity, but I actually feel it eliminates the “writer’s block”. I am a brain dump person and AI can usually help me organize my thoughts faster than I can if I am writing them down. This is removing friction.

If I ask AI how to organize one area of my life and suddenly I have 6 new projects...

I’ve completely lost the plot.

Don’t optimize things that already work.

This is tougher because of what I said earlier- everything COULD be improved, and honestly, we should always be striving to do better. BUT maybe we just don’t. The good thing is, they are getting better at noticing the perfectionists (or maybe it’s just mine🤪). Claude will say to me “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to stay consistent.” And maybe that’s the goal, get the models to stop optimizing on their own 🤔.

Decide what “good enough” looks like before you start.

Remember my concept of “Definition of Done”?

This can really apply to any area, but you have to know when to stop iterating. Just publish it and ignore the additional edits from your AI agent, because it will most likely keep editing it. :)

Use AI to support your system, not become your system.

I think we have all talked about this since Substack introduced their partnership with Pangram. Most of us are using AI to support us, but not “become” us. We are still writing from the heart because we have a passion for whatever our niche is. However, we are not all great at everything. AI can do a LOT for you in your business. It is getting better every day, but it still requires YOU.

Closing

AI isn’t going anywhere, and neither is my curiosity for it.

I will keep learning, keep building, and I’ll probably keep asking Claude & Chat too many questions.

But now, before I ask...

I try to ask myself one question first:

Because in a world where everything feels improvable...

Maybe the real skill isn’t learning how to optimize everything.

Maybe it’s learning what deserves your attention...

And what doesn’t.

What have you optimized with AI lately?

Leave a comment

Keep Exploring 🌿

🏡 The Everyday Sprint HQ
Everything in one place—my Start Here guide, free resources, subscriber chat, podcast, and favorite posts.

🎙️ Between the Sprints Podcast
Short conversations about life, work, and building things before you’re ready.

💬 Join the Conversation (Link below)
Leave a comment below or jump into the subscriber chat. I’d love to hear what resonated with you.

We spend so much time thinking about what's next that we rarely stop to notice how far we've come.

In this episode, I'm sharing why monthly retrospectives have become one of the most valuable habits in my life.

Borrowed from the Agile world but adapted for everyday life, a simple retro can help you celebrate wins, learn from challenges, and move into your next month with more intention.✨

My Monthly Retros:

✨ Enjoying the conversation?
Subscribe to The Everyday Sprint on Substack for weekly essays, reflections, and practical ideas to help you make steady progress—one sprint at a time. New posts every Wednesday.

Subscribe now

Welcome to the second edition of “The Retro”!

CHEERS, we made it to the end of July. 🥂 This GIF felt fitting since it was my birthday month (because apparently I now have to open every post with a GIF now, lol.)

I did one of these in May, but we skipped June since the 100 Subscribers milestone post was around the same time and I didn’t want that to get overlooked.

So let’s get into it, shall we?

🌿 Life Lately

July has always felt like my own personal New Year.

But this year felt different….

Instead of recommitting to a MILLION different things, I recommitted to the important things.

In Danielle fashion, I did do a “Chapter 39 post” if you are interested…

As I thought more about what I want this next chapter to look like, I realized almost everything falls into three priorities:

• My Health

• My Family

• My Personal Growth

Those sound simple...but there’s a lot underneath each one.

Priority One

💪 My Health

"If I don't take care of myself first, the other two become much harder."

My health encompasses who I am as a person, but this idea of “getting back to pre-baby Danielle” is slowly changing. I am 39 now, and as I enter my journey into my 40s, things have already started changing. My recovery is slower. My ability to work out as hard is changing. Injuries happen more easily. I have strength trained in some form since I was 14, so what gives? lol.

However, I have always focused on the wrong part. WEIGHT LOSS. I want to see the number go down.

Even when I looked my leanest, I still wanted to lose more.

And now, I am maintaining a weight higher than I would like. I did lose the “initial baby weight”, but for some reason, I am STUCK at the same exact weight since about 10 months postpartum. It’s not that I don’t know what to do, it’s that this is the “harder” weight to lose, and it requires consistency.

So after saying all of that...my goal for the next six months is simple:

Consistency.

Not perfection.

As much as I can. And if I mess up? I start over the next day instead of letting one bad decision turn into a bad week.

Priority Two

🏡 My Family

"Less perfect moments. More present ones."

👦 The Kiddo

My goal as a Mom is to just be present for him as much as possible. I work full time, he is in daycare, and we don’t get a lot of time especially during the week together. Just to comment here since I know this is a huge debate between Working Moms vs. SAHM…there are pros and cons to both of those situations. Being a SAHM was never an option for me, nor did I think I wanted it. I LOVE my son with my whole being, but I am not the DIY craft teacher type mom doing all these super fun and engaging activities alll day. He has friends there, he has thrived with his language skills- I am truly so happy for him. Our daycare is also amazing (and this matters as well).

As we get into the second half of the year, I get MORE excited about holidays and things because of my son for sure. It feels like another opportunity to teach him new things and make memories. He is 2 1/2 and it feels like such a fun age.

We have some fun plans- going to see The Wiggles in a few weeks which I know he will be SO stoked for, visiting my sister in Bar Harbor, and I am hoping to plan a little Disney trip in December before he turns 3.

I just love having things to look forward to- I hear that is always a really good way to stay happy in life.

If I had to summarize this area...

What went well?
Watching him grow into this funny little human. Every month feels more fun than the last.

What could improve?
Being more intentional with the time we do have together instead of worrying about making every moment “perfect.”

❤️ The Hubz

Another thing I want to be more intentional about is my relationship with my husband. I am the first to say- having a child changes EVERYTHING. You can have the strongest relationship, and still question so many things postpartum. My husband and I never argued prior to the past few years. We still don’t fight “a lot’, but the bickering always turns up a notch when stress is involved.

We gave ourselves a lot of grace during those first couple of years because...phew. It was a whirlwind.

But I’m realizing something I write about here all the time also applies to marriage.

The small things matter.

• A date night.

• Watching a show together.

• Putting our phones down.

Small, intentional moments add up just like small habits do.

Priority Three

🌱 My Personal Growth

"The more I create, the clearer the path becomes."

There are a lot of things that fit into this category, but honestly...Substack has taken over this section of my life lately.

August 1st marks four months here.

I came to Substack with a fuzzy idea of what I wanted to write about.

Four months later...

It’s still evolving, but it’s becoming so much clearer.

This month alone I:

• Hit 200 Subscribers 🙌

• Started a podcast (still can’t believe I can say that 😂)

• Joined ‘s Velocity coaching group & Catalyst Club- Super stoked for this!

• Had coffee chats with creators I genuinely admire (one was a super cute July Birthday session with some talented ladies🎂 (Tiffany Soroko, ashley simcox, Alexandra Bianco, Jen Nordhem, ADHD Approved Weekly, )

• Did my first collaboration with and her “Thinking out Loud” series.

Sunrise Scribbles

Episode 1: Thinking Out Loud with Friends

We hit record planning to talk about ideas... and ended up having an honest conversation about what it's really like to start something new…

Listen now

a month ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Alexandra Bianco and Danielle Wright

• Started my subscriber chat:

On paper, it sounds like my best month yet. And it was, but mentally...

“I've also questioned EVERYTHING more times than I can count...while somehow continuing to hit publish anyway.”

One piece of feedback from my coaching group has been stuck in my head since yesterday is…

“What are people actually getting when they subscribe?”

Oof.

It’s such a simple question, but it’s made me think differently about where I want to take The Everyday Sprint.

I don’t have the full answer yet, but I think asking the question is exactly what will help me find it.

For now, I am just continuing to write, iterate, and be myself. I know the answer will reveal itself eventually.

📊Life By The Numbers

THE METRICS.

I’m a numbers girl.

I care about the number on the scale.
I care about countdowns.
I care about my age.
I care about the number of days until...

...all of it.

So naturally, I care about Substack numbers too.

Lately though, I’ve noticed something.

The more the numbers grow...

...the easier it is to forget what they actually represent.

I am going to be honest. Caring about numbers is really getting to me some days though. It reinforces the hustle culture mindset that typically leads me to burnout, so instead of checking this every minute of the day, let’s just reflect on the journey for a minute…

Just a few months ago, the first 100 subscribers felt like such a milestone.

This month, we crossed 200, and we are working our way quickly to 300.

“269 people care enough to read what I’m writing!!!!

That’s kind of incredible when I stop and think about it.”

The numbers keep growing, but I keep asking myself what they actually mean…

Well, a few very talented creators that I truly admire have built tools I have used multiple times to really see my data..

1. Enter: Orbit! I talked about this in my last post, but my friend built such a great tool that I love using. One specific feature has become my favorite recently…It’s called Sunshine.

   Instead of showing me subscriber counts, it shows me something even better:

   

   The comments people have left.

   The encouragement.

   The little reminders that there are actual humans behind every number.

   Whenever I start wondering if I’m making progress...

   I open Sunshine.

   It’s basically become my own little “why” folder.🤍

2. I’ve been experimenting with another one of ‘s tools called Quiet Notes Studio, and it feels very aligned with how my brain works. Instead of guessing what’s working, it gives me data I can actually reflect on.

   I can see which Notes sparked conversations, what themes people seem to enjoy most, and where I might want to spend more time creating.

   It’s a good reminder that reflection isn’t just something we do in life, it can make us better creators, too.

✨ Looking Ahead

If July taught me anything, it’s this: Clarity doesn’t come before action. It comes BECAUSE of action.

4 months ago I had a fuzzy idea. Today it’s a little bit clearer.

Maybe 4 months from now it will look completely different..and I hope it does.

For August, I’m not trying to overhaul my entire life. I’m just focusing on consistency.

Showing up.

Writing.

Planning my business.

Taking care of myself.

Being present with my family.

Making amazing memories.

Building this little corner of the internet one sprint at a time.

I’d call that a pretty good plan. 🤍

If you had to pick your own three priorities for the next few months, what would they be? Let me know in the comments!!

Leave a comment

Keep Exploring 🌿

🏡 The Everyday Sprint HQ
Everything in one place—my Start Here guide, free resources, subscriber chat, podcast, and favorite posts.

🎙️ Between the Sprints Podcast
Short conversations about life, work, and building things before you’re ready.

💬 Join the Conversation (Link below)
Leave a comment below or jump into the subscriber chat. I’d love to hear what resonated with you.

🤍 Thanks for being here. See you next sprint!

Subscribe now

In this first episode, I’m introducing Between the Sprints—a new podcast from The Everyday Sprint about the thoughts, tools, stories, and lessons that happen between all the planning.

I’m sharing why I started this, what the name means to me, and what you can expect: honest conversations about work, motherhood, creativity, productivity, AI, burnout, perfectionism, and the random ideas that might not always fit into an article.

It also feels like another genuine way to connect with my subscribers! 🤍

This first recording is far from perfect, but that’s what it’s all about!!

Welcome to the party!! I’m so glad you’re here. 🎉

I’ll be the first to admit that Substack has quietly become my new addiction, and I think I’ve told myself “that’s ok because it’s healthier than the other apps…but is it?

When you first start out and you don’t have a ton of subscribers, it feels manageable to maintain the relationships. The replies, the DMs, sharing their content..it is great!

Once your audience starts to grow though, it feels super hard to keep up.

Shameless plug for my friend and her amazing tool called “Orbit”. I am a beta tester for it and it has been so amazing to help maintain those relationships, see where you should reach out again, and really keep track of the value of your comments and notes.

When burnout started creeping in

Last week I started feeling burnout creep in.

I was communicating with people in DMs about collaboration posts, talking strategy with through his coaching group, trying to produce my committed content for the week..all while being a mom, working my 9-5, and doing all the other “lifey” things.

I know myself well enough to recognize the pattern. When things start to feel hard, my brain doesn’t tell me to slow down. It tells me to quit and things like..maybe this isn’t for me, or maybe it isn’t the right time.

Instead of completely throwing in the towel, I decided to take the weekend off. I scheduled my Notes, enjoyed my birthday, and thought I’d come back Monday feeling refreshed.

Wrong.

Monday, after missing a lot of posts, my FOMO kicked into overdrive.

Yesterday I felt more anxious than I have in a long time. I know that’s mostly happening inside my own head, but that is typically how my brain works.

So now what? Do I give up on my dreams because things felt hard? Then it hit me…

The problem wasn’t burnout.

The problem wasn’t that I had too much to do.

The problem was that I had no finish line(aka- Definition of Done).

Read more about the Definition of Done concept here:

Substack is an infinite game. There will always be another post to read, another strategy to test out, another comment to answer, and another creator you want to support. The planner in me loves that. My nervous system...not so much.

So instead of trying to keep up with Substack, I decided let’s run it like a sprint.

Introducing: The Substack Sprint

The irony of my writing is I literally write about creating simple systems for real life...and then find myself needing my own advice…all the time! (Practice what you preach, Danielle. 😂)

Maybe it helps you relate to me a little bit more, or maybe you are judging me for not having it all together…either way, you’re right. 😆

I will always be transparent about how I am building these systems and what works and doesn’t work in my experience, but the reality is life isn’t as predictable as the perfectionists would hope, so we need to “plan” for that.

I’m obviously not a full on Agile team- I am an army of one, but I do have the experience to run this in my own life too, so let’s do it.

This is version 1.0 of what I’m calling The Substack Sprint.

• One week.

• One clear goal.

• Small tasks.

• One realistic definition of done.

That’s it.

The Process for my Substack

These 7 principles can apply to any project in your life, or basically anything that requires you to build out a plan.

I am going to use Substack since that is taking up a significant part of my life at this moment.

🧠 Clear Your Head

Call this the Brain Dump, the Master task list, the backlog…whatever you want. All it means is everything you want to do for this “Project”, it goes on the list.

Some of my backlog is:

• Finish Guest post interview

• Podcast ideas

• Draft Wednesday posts for August

• Connect with new subscribers

• Prepare for Velocity Coaching Program

• Think about digital product offering

• Road to 1000 Subscribers

Some of these are more “visions” than tasks, but that’s ok. That is another step I will need to take to break them down into smaller tasks so they are “doable” in a week sprint.

🎯 Pick This Week’s Win

My non-negotiables for the week:

• 1 Wednesday article

• 1 Note per day

• 20 minutes per day of interaction/DMs/Collaboration

• Stretch Goal: Extra Engagement/Live session/Guest Post

This is doable less than an hour a day and under 10 hours a week. If I can complete all of these, I call it a win.

Secondly, if you want to have a focus around a “win” each week like “Gain 5 subscribers”, “Post one collaboration post”, that works too. It just depends on the time you have to commit every week.

My one clear goal this week is simple: hit my non-negotiables. That’s the win.

📅 Build Your Sprint

This is key. Take the small tasks from your backlog, and put it into your board. I use Notion for this, but pretty much any tool will give you a board or a list view.

I set it up this way to keep myself accountable.

☀️ Daily Reset

This is something new I am doing, because some days just feel SO crazy. If I can start my day with 3 major tasks in mind:

• Post 1 note

• Edit my Wednesday article (or post it if it is Wednesday)

• Answer DMs/Engage with community

Again, this goes back to my non-negotiables. It is small enough to keep the habit consistent, even on crazy days.

🚀 Ship Something

Everything counts. A comment. A note. A message. A planned post. The goal is to have something tangible by the end of my week (aka sprint). Don’t overthink it!

🔄 Reflect & Adjust

Friday I use as a reflection day. I have been doing Monthly retros and changing the format each week, and even though they are numbers focused, it is fun to look back on the progress every week.

I also always ask myself:

• What notes worked?

• What landed and what didn’t?

• What type of people am I attracting to my substack?

It’s a really critical practice to move your publication forward.

✅ Call It Done

Once a note, article, or live video is shipped, move on to the next. I spent wayyy too long going back into old articles adjusting images, making changes.

Honestly, thankfully the new AI tool doesn’t go back in time, because I would go back and make sure it doesn’t say “AI generated” (not to say I am using AI to write!!! But I question the accuracy since it has flagged some of my human writing as AI already and I have had to adjust🙄)

And that’s it. That’s the week. Simple & Sustainable.

Perfect? Not at all, but it’s what we are working with while trying to build this little side hustle. 😉

🙌 The Crew

A weekly corner for the people making this little community what it is.

David Kraase- The Context Engine- David writes about something I think doesn’t get enough attention: the work around the system. His essays explore why AI, automation, and software only create value when they fit real human workflows.

Rebecca Spitzer- What’s Working Right Now?- Rebecca is one amazing human, designing products for creators and “building in public” as they say! Her products help us connect with our community and build genuine relationships with valuable metrics. (I mentioned her Orbit tool above and it is life changing:))

Lidiya Kesarovska- The 2- Hour Blogger- Lidiya’s work is so great for Substack creators. Her background in blogging is so relatable, and I truly love her posts on growth strategies and monetizing your content on Substack. She writes articles in a simplified way, highlighting features and giving valuable tips to grow on the platform.

If any of these sound like your people, go say hi! 👋

Wrap Up

I’m going to keep testing “The Substack Sprint” over the next few weeks and refining it as I go.

If it helps me feel less behind—and maybe helps some of you too, we will keep iterating on it.

Maybe I can start some live sessions or workshops on Sprint Planning. My friend opened me up to the podcast feature in Substack, and now I have some ideas for that as well. 💡

BACKLOG FOR NOW DANIELLE. (practice what we preach😅)

After all...

The goal isn’t to keep up with Substack.

The goal is to build something meaningful without burning yourself out along the way.

➡️If anyone is interested, let me know where you are struggling with your weekly substack commitments. I would love to help!

Leave a comment

🌿 Continue the Sprint

🏡 New here?
Everything I’ve created lives in The Everyday Sprint HQ—featured articles, free resources, and the systems I’m building along the way.

📌 Start Here

Subscribe now

🤝 Let’s Build Together

Have an idea for a future article?

Want to collaborate?

Working on something interesting?

My inbox is always open.

📧 theeverydaysprint@gmail.com.

It is honestly my own version of a “New Year”, so I always like to set some goals for myself, and reflect on things I’ve learned.

I honestly can’t believe I’m at the end of the decade.

I was sooo nervous to turn 30. It felt like I was so behind in life. In reality I had done so much.

But now…as I enter the last year of my 30’s…I feel so much different than 9 years ago.

I have “made it” in terms of what my goals were then.

I have the family, I am a Mom, I have the home, I am successful…all the things that young Danielle would only dream about.

The craziest thing about that vision is, you always think if “I’ve made it", I’ll be satisfied then.

If I could just have this, I’d be happier.

If I could just get this promotion, make more money, have this car, this house…the list never ends.

It’s almost like material items mean..nothing.

After the initial “newness”, the excitement wears off. I am not saying I don’t like owning things, because I definitely appreciate the finer things in life.

But the older you get, the more you realize that vision of your adult life is not what you imagined in your head. It’s not all perfect, and that is okay.

The vision I have now, it’s different.

It’s calm. It’s simple. It’s stress free. ☺️

It’s being surrounded by the best people, family and friends—the ones that lift me up.

It’s building something that’s mine…finally. It’s creating a legacy for myself.

It’s raising my son to be kind-hearted, gentle, smart, and independent in his own way.

It’s prioritizing my marriage even when life feels busy.

It’s making my health a #1 priority, because I can’t be 100% anywhere else without it.

It’s being okay with where I am in my journey of life, because regardless of any plan, I am not behind. I am right where I am supposed to be.

OK I know those “39 things I learned” are cliché AF, BUT I am doing it because I do feel I’ve learned a lot, especially most recently.

✨39 Things I’m Finally Learning✨

On Life🤍

1. Time is your most valuable asset.

2. One bad day is not a bad life.

3. This too shall pass. (I have been using this a lot when something feels heavy, it’s a common phrase, but it works.)

4. You don’t have to have everything figured out to be moving in the right direction.

5. Most things are not what they seem. (Social media definitely shows this)

6. Every season has something to teach you.

On Yourself💁🏻‍♀️

7. You worry far more than you need to.

8. Your brain believes the stories you tell yourself. (Get a little delulu)

9. Trust your gut. (I’ve always followed this one)

10. It’s okay to change your mind.

11. Growth almost always starts with discomfort.

12. You don’t have to earn rest. (Constant reminder for myself!)

On Health🍎

13. Your health is the foundation everything else is built on.

14. Sleep is never a waste of time.

15. Anxiety is part of being human. Learning to manage it changes everything.

16. Nervous system regulation solves more problems than you realize. (Big goal for me this year)

17. Your body keeps score of how you’ve treated it. (Learning this as I get older, and this goes for mental health too)

18. When something feels off, get a second opinion.

On Relationships🤝

19. Not all friendships are meant to last forever. (Learned this so much recently)

20. You can’t change people.

21. Not everyone thinks the way you do.

22. People remember how you made them feel.

23. Surround yourself with people who make you want to become better.

24. Love people for who they are—not who you hope they’ll become.

On Work💼

25. Productivity is often an illusion of control. (SO MUCH THIS)

26. Not every job is going to be your dream job.

27. Financial stability doesn’t automatically create contentment.

28. Hobbies are just as important as careers.

29. Technology should support your life, not consume it. (Get off the phone, lol)

30. Simple systems beat perfect plans.

On Motherhood🤰🏻

31. Motherhood changes everything—including how you define success.

32. You can’t fully understand motherhood until you become a mom.

33. Your children don’t need a perfect parent. They need a present one. (YESSS)

34. Some of the most important work you’ll ever do will never appear on a resumé.

35. The little moments become the memories you treasure most.

On Growing Older🌱

36. Faith gives you something to hold onto when life doesn’t make sense.

37. Happiness isn’t something you find. It’s something you practice.

38. Keep becoming. You’re allowed to outgrow old versions of yourself.

39. Life isn’t built all at once. It’s built one small sprint at a time. 🌿

The best thing I did for myself in Year 38 was start this Substack.

In just over three months, I’ve formed genuine friendships, rediscovered a creative side of myself that had been buried for years, and built something that feels deeply mine. I honestly can’t imagine my life without it now.

If 30–38 was about building the life I dreamed of, maybe 39 is about slowing down enough to truly enjoy it.

So here’s to another year of learning, writing, reflecting, simplifying, and becoming a little more myself.

Thank you for being here and for spending even a tiny part of your day with me. It means more than you know.

Cheers to the last year in my 30’s. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good one. 🥂

This is home base for everything happening around Your Next Sprint—featured posts, current projects, free resources, community updates, and the best place to start if you're new here. Scroll down below to find what you need, or send me a message!

🤍 Xo, Danielle

Last Updated: August 2026

👋 Hi, I’m Danielle.

Tech leader. Agile Project Manager. Toddler mom. Recovering perfectionist.

I’ve spent 15+ years helping big companies plan better—sprints, retros, roadmaps...the whole thing. Then I’d come home and quit another planner by Thursday.

Your Next Sprint exists because I finally asked the obvious question: if these systems work for the million-dollar portfolios I manage, why can’t they work for house projects, navigating motherhood, and building a life I actually love?

Turns out they can—once you strip out the corporate jargon and make them small enough to survive real life.

That’s what Your Next Sprint became.

Stories about motherhood, work, perfectionism, AI, and building a calmer, more intentional life—with practical systems quietly underneath it all. This isn’t all productivity content (although your girl loves a good plan 😉).

Think systems for real life—for overthinkers who are tired of "starting fresh" every Monday.

🌱 What You’ll Find Here

I believe planning shouldn’t feel like a second job. Every post follows the same quiet promise: a real story, an honest insight, and a small system you can actually use — with the Agile framework and mindset underneath.

Around here, we believe progress is built one small sprint at a time.

A Sprint is your time-boxed plan for tasks you can accomplish. I typically do 1 week since it aligns with my life.

Example: Every Sunday starts a “New sprint”, every Saturday I do a mini “retro” which recaps my week, and the weekend gives a little time to breathe. Every last Wednesday I also post my own Retro, including my Substack growth.

Every post has three goals:

• Make you feel less alone.

• Help you think a little differently.

• Give you one small thing you can actually try.

❤️ If This Sounds Like You...

You’re in the right place if...

• 🌿 You’ve bought (and abandoned) more planners than you’d like to admit — and want systems that survive a real week…

• 🌿 “All or nothing” has quietly been running your calendar, and you have about 47 unfinished projects (hi, fellow recovering perfectionist)…

• 🌿 You’re a Mom trying to keep up with literally EVERYTHING in this modern world…

• 🌿 You can plan beautifully for your team at work but overthink every step when it’s your own life

• 🌿 You’re AI-curious, but want ideas that are actually useful, and not ones you need a PhD to figure out…

⭐ Start Here

If you’re feeling overwhelmed...

→ I Get Paid to Bring Order to Chaos. My Life Is Still a Mess.

→ I Run My Life Like An Agile Team (And It Actually Works)

If you’re a recovering perfectionist...

→ The Thing Keeping You Stuck Isn’t Laziness. It’s Perfectionism.

→ Hold On, Let Me Overthink It.

If you’re a mom in the thick of it...

→ To The Moms

→ The Most Important Project I’ll Ever Manage

If you’re navigating career...

→ The Life Audit Series #1: Career

→ 90 Days Later: The Side Project That Changed Me

If you only read three posts...

🥇 I Run My Life Like An Agile Team (And It Actually Works)

🥈 When Is It Enough?

🥉 Using AI Without Losing Myself

🎙️ Listen to the Podcast

Prefer listening over reading? The Podcast brings these ideas to life through honest conversations about overthinking, personal growth, work, motherhood, and building a life one small sprint at a time. New episodes are short, practical, and feel like we're grabbing coffee together.

🗂️ The Full Archive

Every post, newest first. One line per sprint. 🌿

(🌱 systems · 🧠 perfectionism · ❤️ motherhood · 💼 career · 🤖 AI · 🔄 retros · 📖 life audits · ✨ milestones · 🎙️podcast episodes· 🎉 creator spotlights)

August 2026

• 🌱 My 7 Hour Substack Week

• 🎙️ More on the Sprint Showcase🎤

• 🎉 Introducing: The Sprint Showcase🎤

• 🎙️We hit 300, Now What🤪?

• 🌱 AI Was Supposed To Make My Life Easier, So Why Am I Still So Overwhelmed?

July 2026

• 🎙️Why You Need a Personal Retro✨

• 🔄 Monthly Retro | July 2026

• 🎙️ Welcome to “Between the Sprints”

• 🌱 Substack Has No Finish Line- So I Made One

• 📖 Chapter 39🎂

• 🌱The Everyday Sprint HQ

• 🧠 When Is It Enough?

• ✨ 90 Days Later: The Side Project That Changed Me

June 2026

• 📖 The Life Audit Series #1: Career

• 🧠 Hold On, Let Me Overthink It.

• ❤️ The Most Important Project I’ll Ever Manage

• ✨ 100 Subscribers. Just Getting Started. 🤍

• 🔄 Monthly Retro | May 2026

May 2026

• 🧠 The Version of Me I Had To Let Go

• 🌱 How to Plan The Summer You’ll Remember

• 🤖 Using AI Without Losing Myself

• ❤️ To The Moms

• 🤖 70K Photos and No System: Digital Memories or Tech Debt?

April 2026

• 🤖 I Had 70,000 Photos, 150+ Apple Notes, and Zero System. So I Asked AI to Fix It.

• 🌱 I Run My Life Like An Agile Team (And It Actually Works)

• 🧠 The Thing Keeping You Stuck Isn’t Laziness. It’s Perfectionism.

• ❤️ The Easter Sprint: What Happens When a Type A Mom Meets a 2-Year-Old

• 🌱 I Get Paid to Bring Order to Chaos. My Life Is Still a Mess. — the first post 🤍

🚀 Danielle's Current Sprint

✍🏻 Writing: Building in Public | August 2026

🌱 Building: Community- Sprint Showcase coming soon!

🤖 Experimenting with: Evolving Paid Tier.

📚 Reading: Does Substack count?

☕ Drinking: Iced Coffee most likely

🎯 Working Toward: Building & Connecting with the TES Community!

📌Release Notes

August 2026 (Updated Monthly)

✨ 3 podcast episodes launched

✨ 315 subscribers

✨ Sprint Showcase Announcement!

📊 Sprint Dashboard- August 2026

Publication Age: 141 Days old (born April 1, 2026)

• Subscribers: 384

• Followers: 681

• Articles: 24

• Notes: 255

Current Mission: 400 Subscribers by the end of August!

💌 Ways to Reach Me

I genuinely love hearing from readers on anything you want to learn more about or just to say hello! Open to collaboration too!

• 📬 Email: theeverydaysprint@gmail.com

• 💌 Substack DM:

• 💭 Comments & Notes right on Substack!

• 💬 Come subscribe & Join the Subscriber chat!

🤍 Thanks for Being Here

Whether you’ve been here since my very first post or you just discovered Your Next Sprint today, I’m truly so grateful you’re here.

My hope is that this becomes more than a publication. I hope it feels like a place you can return to whenever you need a fresh perspective, a practical idea, or simply a reminder that progress doesn’t have to be perfect!

We are all figuring this out together, and most likely overthinking it. 😉

🤍 Xo, Danielle

🌱 See You Soon

I hope this becomes a place you come back to whenever you need a fresh perspective, a practical idea, or simply a reminder that progress doesn’t have to be perfect.

Somewhere along the way, “doing your best” quietly became “never feeling finished.” We can always do more. Buy more. Be more. Optimize more.

But where does it end?

This week I want to share the concept that finally gave my perfectionist brain permission to stop: the Definition of Done.

The girl who typed her to-do lists👩🏻‍💻

Perfectionism has been part of me for as long as I can remember.

I loved planners of any kind (still do).

I typed my to-do lists.

I kept journals just to brainstorm.

Through school I rarely procrastinated. I was as Type A as they come. Not because I needed perfect grades, but because my version of “doing my best” meant rewriting, rereading, and overthinking almost everything.

A Perfectionist meets Motherhood 📅👩🏻‍🍼

Before my son, pregnancy was basically my “project.” I still remember everyone joking at my work baby shower that January was my Go Live date.

And that’s on being a planner. 😂

He's an IVF baby, and honestly? One silver lining of IVF is that the process is extremely planned out. Every appointment is scheduled. Every procedure has a timeline. You know the exact day you could get pregnant, and if you choose, even the gender of your embryos. For someone who loves a plan, there were very few surprises.

When I got pregnant on our first transfer, my planning brain spiraled from there. The registry. The nursery. His name. Every decision that had to be made. For 9 months, it quite literally was my life. From the outside, I was prepared.

{Cue all the laughs from my fellow moms.}

I don’t say this to scare anyone — I enjoyed every day of my pregnancy, because I knew it was probably it for me, and I had truly waited 4 years for that moment.

Then, a week before my scheduled c-section, my doctor told me at a pre-op appointment that I was showing early signs of preeclampsia. Long story short: my son was born via c-section at 11:59 PM, weighing 11 lbs 6 oz. (🤯=all the nurses)

He was perfect. I however, was a Hot Mess.🥴

5 days later, I was back in the hospital with postpartum preeclampsia.

I had none of this in my birth plan, obviously.

I planned for an easy recovery.

I planned to be back in the gym 6 weeks postpartum living out the #fitmom lifestyle. My life was anything but that at 6 weeks postpartum.

Here’s what I learned: 2 things can be true. You can be amazingly grateful for where the journey led you, and you can be struggling at the same time because of a massive life change.

At 7 weeks postpartum, I started therapy. This was THE best decision I made. My therapist gave me the sentence that reframed everything:

High-achieving, perfectionist women struggle the most postpartum, because they lose their sense of control.

A baby will humble all your plans reallll quick.

But, here’s the positive side: you learn what’s important very quickly. You will not be able to do it all — and you don’t. You decide, fast, what matters most for that day.

💬 If you’ve lived through a season that humbled all your plans, I’d love to hear it. What did it teach you to let go of?

So how do we manage without burning out?

We’re two and a half years in now, and I’ve let go of a lot of old habits I no longer have time for. But if you’re anything like me, that ambitious sense of self — the personal goals — it doesn’t go away.

So how do you keep chasing goals without chasing perfect?

That’s when I realized I already knew a framework for this.

We use it every day at work.

It’s called the Definition of Done.

What is “good enough”?

Two ideas from my day job, translated for real life:

1. Define your Definition of Done. Small steps and consistency get us somewhere — we all know that. But when do you call it quits on something? How do you know when to stop? I’ll keep going on something until I have to physically stop myself. A Definition of Done is the answer you decide in advance: this is what finished looks like. Not perfect. Finished.

2. Build your Life MVP. A big project — or a big area of life — is rarely “done” immediately. It takes time, multiple iterations, and shifts along the way. In the software world, an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the very first version of something. It doesn’t have everything the user asked for, but what it has is valuable and usable. It ships.

Let’s make it real (Substack edition ✨)

Since we’re all here, let’s use a goal we can all picture:

✨ Goal: Become a Substack Bestseller. (Okay, reaching for the stars.)

We can agree there are a lot of steps to get there:

• Write articles

• Write notes

• Interact

• Get subscribers

• Get paid subscribers

This could take years. And just thinking about that makes people not want to even start. That’s the real problem. It’s not that you don’t have the potential to be a bestseller — it’s that you don’t have the patience for the middle.

So instead, ask: what’s my MVP?

For me, it’s one article a week and 1–2 Notes a day. I interact with others and reply to every comment. That’s it.

Do I need to post more? Send more? Make my About page perfect?

Trust me I already spiraled this week on my Hero Images and Website view (apparently some of you have too)..

Eventually, sure — subtle changes are worth it. But not everything is RIGHT NOW. Posting is good enough. That meets my Definition of Done.

Your turn: This Week’s Sprint 🏃🏻‍♀️

Definition of Done always comes down to one question: what can you actually complete by the end of a sprint?

In real life, that’s your week or your month. So try this:

1. Pick one goal that’s been looming over you.

2. Write its Definition of Done for this week only. One sentence. Realistic.

3. When you hit it — stop. That’s the hard part. That’s also the whole point.

Good enough isn’t settling. It’s giving yourself permission to keep moving.

🔘 If your brain also won’t let you stop until it’s perfect, you’re my people. Subscribe and we’ll figure out “good enough” together — one sprint at a time. 🌿

Subscribe now

🔁 Know a fellow recovering perfectionist? Restack this or send it their way — it might be the permission slip they need this week.

Share

📖 Continue the sprint

If this resonated, you might also enjoy:

→ The Version of Me I Had to Let Go — becoming a mom forced me to redefine success.

🙌 The Crew

A weekly corner for the people making this little community what it is.

• Meredith Cohrs — Lucid Revolt writes about midlife transitions and building a life of intention.

• Maria — Sorting It Out is documenting her next chapter after 33 years in corporate IT — rediscovering what she loves in her retirement era.

• Alexandra — Notes From The In Between writes honestly about motherhood, burnout, identity, and everything in between.

If any of these sound like your people, go say hi! 👋

🌿 Before you go

🎁Freebies for your next sprint:

• • 🧠 The Overthinker's Guide — for when your brain won't stop running
  • 🗓️ The Season Playbook Starter — a simple way to plan what matters next
  • 💌 Reply anytime—I love hearing from readers.

I went back and forth on how to do this 90-day reflection, and even though “Reflections” are absolutely my thing, I decided this one should be less about the numbers and more about what changed me.

(Don’t worry — we’re still going to look at numbers. I always love seeing other people’s progress and what’s possible.)

Maybe you’re just starting. Maybe you’re at month one. Maybe you just haven’t been as consistent as you wanted. I share this as a professional stop-and-start person — the queen of unfinished projects, usually because I want to do everything at once. But this time, I finally committed to something and stuck with it.

I am not a “90-day success story.” I’m not an overnight anything. I’m a normal mom, working a 9-5, still figuring out the future of The Everyday Sprint — because truly, I have learned SO much. So let’s dive in.

The Numbers

I know I said I didn’t want to focus a ton on numbers, but I do love how they tell the story. Plus, if you’re nosy like me and want to see the raw numbers, I got you. Just to put it in perspective...

I technically joined Substack in January, but I never posted anything — I think I only made an account to read someone I followed on another platform. Then I saw someone talking about how Substack was becoming a place for writers again, and something sparked.

I’d been posting random things on LinkedIn, but it never felt like I could totally be myself there. I’d been sitting on this idea of a brand around “project management for real life” for a while — but I wanted it to be different. Not just another productivity newsletter.

So in late March I started digging in, and I decided: April 1st, I post my first article. One article a week. That was the commitment.

And I did it.

My posts have definitely evolved since then. I’ve tried a lot of different styles, but they all come back to the same theme: helping overwhelmed high achievers manage their lives more intentionally — and making it FUN in the process.

One of my Substack friends, , talks about open rates a lot. This wasn’t a metric I even looked at in the beginning, but now I get it: it might matter more than subscriber count. The two work hand in hand, but growth naturally pulls your open rate down — and knowing that changes how you read the number.

Article Recap + Metrics

April: Posting into the void + Finding my voice (Most views were my own😂)

May: Started using notes + Gained real subscribers (notice open rate dropped⬇️)

June: Posts are more me, more views, but open rate drops even more⬇️!

All that to say: this metric was an eye-opener. Yes, I want subscribers — but more than that, I want the people who subscribe to actually read. That's what I'll be working on in the coming months.

Notes: My Growth Engine

Notes were not something I understood until about a month in. I didn’t post my first Note until May 5th. I started with one every other day, then one a day. Then I posted one that took off.

I’ve talked about this viral Note before, but I keep coming back to it because it wasn’t planned. It was just how I was feeling at the time — and for whatever reason, it clicked. It brought in over half my subscribers, and I’m still seeing interaction on it a month later.

My strategy with Notes now is to range across topics but always tie back to my lane: systems, insight, overthinking. Honestly, almost anything in life ties back to that.

Defining my Niche

I’ve heard both sides of this. “You don’t need a niche — just be yourself.” And also: “You absolutely need to know who you’re writing for.” Confusing, right?! But after three months, I think I’m finally figuring out my own lane.

I have a lot of roles: Working Mom, Millennial, Tech Leader, Planner, Perfectionist, Overthinker, Wife, Dog mom... the list goes on. And a lot of interests: Health and Wellness, Organization, AI tools, Writing, Home Decor, travel. I could honestly write about all of it.

And I think that’s okay — as long as it ties back to the main thing.

For example, take the goal of weight loss. One of my number one goals after having my son (which seems to be taking forever, but I digress..)

Health and wellness is a huge space, but at its core it’s about going after a goal: consistency, small steps, planning, reflection, continuous improvement. This is not a health and wellness Substack. But I can teach you how to plan a health goal with a systems approach.

That's the lens I want to bring to everything I write. At the end of the day, I’m personal, I’m transparent, and I love a good story. The people who want to find me will.

Building Community

If you had told me 90 days ago that I'd have actual Substack friends, I would have said you were crazy. I've been telling my husband about all my Substack peeps and everything I'm learning from them. From people in completely different niches to writers exploring similar ideas, there's a sense of community here I haven't seen on any other platform.

Shoutout to My Earliest Supporters

In project world, “Sprint Zero” is the foundation for everything — where requirements begin, working agreements form, and the team starts figuring out how to work together. My first subscribers were exactly that: the people who believed in me before I had any clarity. I want to share a few of them here.

Riza connected with me very early on when I had around 30 subscribers. He taught me about recommendations, and honestly saw more about my brand than I knew for myself at the time. His writing is amazing and very thoughtful. His ability to deep dive and give research on success stories is truly one of a kind.

Yuvika and I found each other pretty early on. Her publication “Quiet Happy” is inspiring, and she is sharing so many helpful ideas about her growth on Substack. It feels like I am chatting with a friend when I see her posts. Love that we are cheering each other on!

Kristina is amazing & inspiring all in one. We have very similar thought processes as working moms in project management. Her publication looks deep into the teachings of positive psychology and how we can just live a better life. She has also written a book called “Happy Pregnancy!”

Dave has been a subscriber since the early days as well, and I really enjoy reading about his perspectives as an entrepreneur with a family first mentality. He also has a really cool story of how he ended up living in Romania!

Illira’s work is so healing and inspirational. Her publication is all about inner transformation, intentional living, and radiant wellness. I love being part of her community!

Susie has some awesome insights on working in corporate- not just the good and bad, but the real feelings we have all experienced at some point.

David is someone I look up to in this Substack world. He is also the 1st paid subscription I decided on, and mainly it is because of how genuine he is. He is also from Ireland🇮🇪 which is my family heritage, so I just happen to find that cool as well. :) I know I can learn so much from him and I am so happy we connected.

So, What’s Next?

After 90 days I wish I could tell you I had it all figured out, but maybe that is the beauty of it. I don’t. I have been very transparent about building in public, and I think that’s a gift to admit that. However, I am feeling a pull to start making things more “official” and start to grow the brand a bit more.

In project world, Sprint Zero is the foundation phase — before the polish, before the process, when the team is still figuring out how they work together. That is exactly where we are. So here’s my commitment: everyone who subscribes before I hit 500 is part of the Sprint Zero Crew. My founding members. The people who were here before I had it figured out.

I don't know exactly what Sprint Zero will become yet, but I do know this: I want the people who believed early to always feel like they helped build this.

I’ve decided to keep my paid tier off until I hit around 1,000 subscribers. I’m a numbers girl and I LOVE a good goal, so that’s the target: 1,000 by the end of this year (manifesting it!🙌). Still figuring out what a paid tier even looks like, and I’m in no rush. I’ll just keep staying consistent to get there.

Thank you to my 146 subscribers and 248 followers for coming along for the ride.

Let’s keep going!

If this publication has helped you — or even just made you feel a little less alone in the overthinking — share it with one person who needs a system for their chaos. Every share gets us closer to closing out Sprint Zero, and I'd love for your people to be founding members too!

2026 felt like the right year to do a Life Audit.

You know—actually stop, look around, and ask:

• How did I get here?

• What’s working?

• What needs to change?

I introduced this series in my last post about how the most important project we will ever manage is ourselves. Since we all have so many areas of focus, each week I’ll deep dive into a specific area to keep it simple.

Career Reflections

We spend thousands of hours building a CAREER.

But how often do we stop and ask what it’s actually building in us?

Maybe you’re wondering...

• Have I outgrown this job?

• Is this a season to slow down or climb?

• Do I need to learn something new?

• Am I choosing comfort because life is simply full right now?

I’ve experienced ALL of these things.

I’ve gone through a lot of career seasons, but this current one might be the most interesting.

I’m a Project Manager in tech, at a time when many people believe AI is going to replace huge parts of the work.

That forces you to ask some uncomfortable questions.

A little scary? Absolutely. So my questions became:

• How can AI help me be a better PM and eliminate administrative work?

• How can I diversify my skillset? (Hello Portfolio career)

• How can I make something for me in case things go south? (Heyy Substack!)

But we’ll come back to that…

For now, though, let's start the audit by going back to 2001—where my working life began.

Every Career Starts Somewhere

My first job ever was a weekend parking attendant at a place my mom worked. I just turned 14. People paid $1 to park in a lot during season and I was the one collecting it and giving them a ticket. It wasn't complicated work, but it taught me how to talk to people...which I desperately needed at that awkward young teenager age.

Once I turned 17, my high school “Travel & Tourism” class required us to have a job. Ideally, they want it in hospitality. Since I was only 17, I found it difficult to find something. Most places wanted someone at least 18 years old.

So, when I noticed a Dunkin’ Donuts being built near my house, I ended up applying. It wasn’t quite hospitality, but it was retail food and it was convenient. The crazy part is, I ended up staying in that role for 7½ years.

During those years, I was also earning my business degree. I completed my first two years locally before joining the University of Florida's very first online business program in 2008. That sounds normal now, but back then online degrees were still new. Lectures were recorded, exams were taken at local colleges, and nobody quite knew what online education would become. It let me work full-time, graduate debt-conscious, and keep moving toward the life I wanted.

Once that degree was official, I was beyond done with my early donut shifts.

The Jobs That Teach You More Than the Paycheck

It took 6 to 8 months of really looking, but I networked with someone in the UF program who had a lead at a small software company in Jacksonville, FL. I had literally NO idea what a “Product Support Specialist” was, but I always enjoyed technology and I figured this could be a fit. Either way, it was my ticket out of the food industry. I was thrilled just to land an interview — and Jacksonville was exactly where I wanted to end up. I had a few friends there, and it was different from the town I grew up around.

I got the job and left my hometown for the first time in October 2011.

Jacksonville was my home for the next 2½ years, and it is where I truly grew up as a person. I lived on my own, had my first office job, and even met my husband. I always say it was life-changing, because it genuinely changed the trajectory of everything.

Finding My Language

As much as I loved my small company and life in Jacksonville, I felt stagnant. This job did not have health insurance, and I was close to turning 26 which meant I had to get off my Mom’s plan. I needed something more stable that provided more growth.

In July 2014, I moved back to my hometown for an opportunity at a bigger company. I wanted the “corporate” experience. I started there as a Business Analyst, and I truly grew professionally at this company.

This is where I learned how much I loved project management — specifically the Agile framework. I’d always been a planner by nature, and I realized that as an actual job, this fit me almost perfectly. Agile is always focused on continuous improvement, flexibility, and spending time on things that add value. It wasn't just a framework for work—it was how I already saw the world.

Being a PM in software comes with its own set of challenges, but you learn so much along the way.

In 2022, I once again left my comfort zone after 8½ years and started over. I was still in Corporate at a large company, but this time I had the experience to back me up. I spent a lot of that role teaching Agile concepts to other people. I realized this is truly what I enjoyed.

And finally, after landing “the most important job in the world” in 2024 — aka, Mom — I realized my priorities and my needs had shifted. I wanted away from the corporate chaos, the climb-the-ladder pressure. I wanted a chance to grow differently.

Building Something That's Mine

In 2025, I decided to change companies once again. This time, I became an IT Director, but at a much smaller company. I wanted a different experience, and an opportunity to really utilize the skills I had learned over the last 14 years.

One goal I had this year was to do something for me. I didn’t really care if it made money — I wanted to create something meaningful. Writing, planning, and systems thinking all come naturally to me, and I genuinely believe that planning your life with enough built-in flexibility is the key to making it work. I also know how many of us struggle under the weight of “all the things.”

Enter:

Even though this publication is still small, starting it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. It’s given me something to work hard for that is 100% mine.

What The Audit Actually Showed Me

Here’s the thing I couldn’t see while I was living it.

It was never a ladder.

It was a series of “I’ve outgrown this” moments.

Dunkin’.

Jacksonville.

Corporate.

Every chapter stretched until it no longer fit.

Then I moved on.

Looking back, my gut knew I’d outgrown those chapters long before my brain admitted it.

Every time I finally listened, I ended up exactly where I needed to be.

And underneath every single chapter was the same theme: Planner.

The teenager organizing a parking lot.

The Business Analyst who fell in love with Agile.

The Project Manager building systems.

The writer helping people design systems for real life.

Same person.

Different season.

Different title.

Same thread.

The other thing the audit surfaced: the biggest career decision I ever made wasn’t a promotion.

It was becoming a mom and letting that reorder what I was actually optimizing for.

The “right” path stopped being the impressive one and started being the true one.

Before You Go: Your Turn.

You can’t see the journey from inside the story. So take 20 honest minutes this week and lay your chapters out flat — every job, every “I’ve outgrown this” moment. Then look for the thing that was running the whole time underneath them.

Mine was Planner. Yours is in there too.

When you find it, finish this sentence:

“Every chapter of my career has secretly been about __________ — and the next one needs to let me do more of it.”

That’s your Career Thesis. Hit reply—I genuinely want to know what yours turned out to be.

This past week, I’ve been talking a lot in my notes about overthinking, perfectionism, burnout — and from your replies, I don’t think I’m the only one living it.

I think we’re all in some version of chaos right now. I usually want to blame the modern world for that, but honestly? I’m sure our ancestors had their own version of it. Their priorities and worries were just different. I don’t think overthinking has actually gotten worse — I think it’s just more visible, more named, more out loud than it used to be.

But here’s the modern twist: we live in a world where you can quite frankly do anything.

As a millennial, I grew up being told I could be anything I wanted. An actress. A marine biologist. An astronaut. A CEO. (Okay, maybe only one of those is still on the table 👀.) And there’s real truth to it — you genuinely can study and train for any of those. But “you can” and “you should” are different sentences. Sometimes a thing is just a fun idea, a passing interest. Being able to do anything doesn’t mean you have to act on every impulse that crosses your mind.

I learned that one the hard way.

The fitness trainer detour

A few years ago, I branched out into being a personal trainer as a side business. I got my NASM certification, started teaching group fitness classes at my old job, the whole thing. And I liked it — the coaching, the interacting, the motivating people part.

But the second it started to feel like work — planning every workout, constantly posting about fitness, feeling like I was never quite in “perfect shape” or good enough to be the one teaching…I slowly started to resent it. I realized I’m deeply passionate about fitness for myself. Making it a job? Not for me.

So I kept the parts I actually loved — the coaching, the teaching, the motivating — and let the rest go.

It was never a waste. It was just me figuring out what I actually wanted.

Different Name, Same Problem

Overthinking is something I’ve dealt with forever. I’ve gone by a few other names over the years:

• Worry wart

• Perfectionist

• Type A

• The Anxious Girlie

Same family. Different outfits.

And I want to say clearly: this isn’t all bad. I think overthinkers kind of make the world go round. We’re the ones who think through every scenario, who catch the thing nobody else caught, who plan for the version of the trip where everything goes wrong. Sometimes you need those people. Honestly, you need them most of the time. ;)

Buuut… there’s a cost for us. And it’s usually framed as burnout — the exhaustion, the wired-but-tired, the nervous system stuck in fight or flight. That part is real, and nervous-system regulation is everywhere right now for a reason.

But that’s the part everyone already talks about. Here’s the part I don’t think we say enough:

That’s the trap.

When I’m researching the perfect planner, or comparing two apps that do the exact same thing, or mentally rehearsing every possible version of how a week could go — it feels productive. It has all the sensations of progress. I’m busy! I’m thinking hard! I have seventeen tabs open!

But I haven’t actually done anything. I’ve just… thought about doing it. Very thoroughly.

And here’s the cruel little twist for those of us who are good at things: the more capable you are, the more options you can see. The more options you can see, the harder it is to just pick one. Your competence becomes the thing keeping you stuck. You’re not procrastinating because you’re lazy — you’re procrastinating because you can picture 10 good versions and can’t bear to choose the wrong one.

So the optimizing becomes the procrastination. The planning quietly replaces the doing. And you end up, somehow, both exhausted and behind.

I know this because I do it constantly. Just last week, I was contemplating leaving my ToDoist app and going back to Apple Reminders. A few years ago, I did the opposite. I also bought a notebook because sometimes I need a good old pen and paper. I am finally realizing that even if my system is not perfect, has multiple tools, and is full of random good ideas, it still doesn’t mean I’m not “ready” to start.

The Annoyingly Simple Way Out

So okay, Danielle, this is great. We can all relate. But how do we fix it?

I don’t think “stop overthinking” actually works. Telling an overthinker not to think just makes it worse.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think the perfectionism, burnout, endless search for the perfect system, and obsession with nervous-system regulation are all connected. Underneath it is the same thing: we want to feel safe enough to move forward.

The problem is that overthinking feels like progress. It gives us the illusion that we’re doing something when really we’re just delaying the first step.

What has helped me most isn’t finding the perfect planner, app, or system. It’s creating small wins. Small actions that move a project forward. Small proof that I’m making progress.

That’s really the idea behind The Overthinker’s Shortcut. I intentionally kept it simple because most of us don’t need another complicated framework right now. We need one next step.

Simple isn’t flashy. It isn’t revolutionary. But when you’re stuck in analysis mode, simple beats perfect every time.

If you want the simple version, already done for you:

I made The Overthinker’s Shortcut — 8 decisions about your week, already made. No framework to learn, no system to build. You steal the ones you want and close the tab. Takes about 90 seconds.

Grab it free here →

What’s one area of life you continuously overthink? Or tell me a success you have had recently with just moving forward? I would love to hear it!

See you next week!🌿

A Minimalist Millennial..Imagine That

A few years ago, when Marie Kondo came on the scene, I really loved the idea of her work. Minimalism wasn’t something I ever thought about much, but I realized I’ve always naturally liked the idea of “simple”.

Modern, Clean, Aesthetic..that’s my vibe, but also just how I live my life. You know how the older generation is notorious for keeping things? Maybe it’s because they didn’t have as much access to things as we do now, and I respect that too. I just tend to enjoy life with less physical clutter. My anxious brain doesn’t want the extra mental load of anything, so the less “stuff” the better.

Thankfully, my Mom does not fit this stereotype—she is ruthless about throwing things away, although she loved to “pass things on” to me. Like wait, you are getting rid of this and giving it to me, but why do I need to keep it?

She did this with a family set of dishes. They stayed in my garage for many years because I had no room for them. When I moved, we finally both agreed to just keep a few and we sold the rest. I think we all attach emotion to things that maybe spark a memory, but if it’s not something we will use or really value, why not give it to someone who will.

Like everything else, it’s easy to go all in and then ask, well where do we draw the line? I’ll admit, I love a clutter free house, but I have been told my style is boring. We all know millennial gray is a dying fad, but I am honestly not sure I want to change right now. It’s not that I don’t like color, but something about life being so busy, having my house be simple and easy to look at feels peaceful.

Enter: Motherhood

Alright, so maybe my mindset is slightly different when it comes to my son. We still follow a simple mindset with him and make sure to rotate toys, donate & sell as soon as he grows out of things. I will say I am different when it comes to him—we have the colorful toys and character shirts—he’s only young once…and he doesn’t give a crap about my aesthetic. I’d be lying if I initially was like 😬, but now I love it. My house stays modern, and he brings the color and chaos. I think that works.

The Life Audit

Once you start a “Decluttering” mindset, you start to want to do it to every area of your life…or at least I did. This has been ongoing for me for years, but one thing I realized is how quickly you can get overwhelmed. I remember last year before the New Year, everyone was doing vision boards and making plans to do “something” to improve every area of their life. I did that too, and once you overcommit with no plan, you have every reason in the world to give up.

So, here’s our plan, friends. You don’t need a Monday, a new week, or a new year. We love fresh starts, but that’s what holds us up from starting in the first place.

Over the next few months, I’ll deep dive into each “life” category and talk about the tools I’m using, what I’m learning, and how I’m planning it so we don’t get overwhelmed and give up.

We live in a world right now where you can literally optimize everything. With AI, this can actually become even more crazy because it will analyze anything you want to “improve”. I’ve learned first hand, it can immediately get to be a bit overwhelming. I asked Claude to do a LOT recently. It has created my entire Notion structure (and it continues to update). It has given me macros, meal plans, grocery lists, a capsule wardrobe…but like, ok that’s great, NOW what do I do with all this information. So, instead of just giving up completely…I created my own system on how I’m doing this for each big “focus area” of my life and how we will do this by sprint.

My 2026 Focus Areas

I won’t bore you with all 13 of my “Life focus areas”, so we will focus on a few that I think most of the world can relate to.

• Home—the endless projects, one sprint at a time

• Career— the day job, the side project, and figuring out what’s next

• Health— macros, gym goals, data I track to always improve

• Motherhood— toddler mom life, managing the mental load, and growth as a mom

• Finance— my “mint.com” replacement, budgeting, saving

• Personal Growth— hobbies, things I want to improve

We will deep dive into my methods, the tools I use, the goals, the tasks, and metrics to keep ourselves accountable. It is impossible to focus on each one of these at FULL capacity all the time (trust me I’ve tried), but each bucket is meant to be focused on at certain times of the week or month. We will work toward these and my goals in each of these specifically for 2026.

I think implementing a system to do this in small steps puts us on a continuous improvement path. Having a base system makes it easy to implement new changes or when things don’t go as planned. That has been my goal—life on autopilot as much as possible, and making time for the real memories.

I’m excited to start this series and build this in real time. I’ve done this at work for 15 years, but I finally realized the most meaningful project I’ll ever manage is my own life.

One more thing, these projects never truly end—we just continue iterating as life changes. That’s what makes it fun. :)

Let’s do this.

If you follow me, you will learn that I love to look back and “reflect”. It’s part of me, it’s part of my system, and I honestly feel it is therapeutic. It gives you the ability to see what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve. So, this week, we are doing just that. We are officially two months into this Substack experiment. I hit 100 Subscribers which is WILD. I am taking a minute to just appreciate the last 9 weeks, and give you a little more insight on what started all this, what I’ve learned, and what is to come…

The Back Story

On March 31st, 2026, I logged into Substack. I had actually signed up in January, but just as an occasional reader. I kept feeling this pull to write again…but, I had been here before.

I had a personal blog for a while to write about my fertility journey. I posted maybe 2 posts, and then it fell off. I loved the idea of it, but could literally never commit to writing regularly.

I have had on and off variations of journaling throughout my life, but nothing was ever more than a hobby. Bullet Journaling, Scrapbooking…all different concepts that I never really worked in my daily life— they were all just for fun.

In the 90’s, I had a Summer Journal I brought with me every Summer. It was a Tweety Bird Notebook that I insisted on writing in every night. They say to find a hobby you should go back to what you did as a child…and here we are! 😀

Taking it WAY back, at school we had Slam books we would trade off (way better than texting in some ways— you would have to wait until you saw your friend after class to get it back for the latest updates.) What a life!

Then when the internet exploded in the early 2000’s, I had a Live Journal, Blogger..and I think even Myspace had blogs.

I think you get the point but, I have always been a writer.

In modern day, I always say that social media is my way of “digital scrapbooking”, which it definitely is. I decided recently that I wanted more though. I wanted something I could build and grow, that still let me be myself, but also helped people along the way.

I found myself trying every productivity system, template, book…you name it…but never quite clicking with anything. Then Motherhood took over and any system I had before completely had to change.

I had gone back and forth about this idea for months before I did anything. In my day job, I literally train companies on systematic thinking using Agile methods, Productivity Tools, Process Standardization, and Organizing Backlogs. Ummm..hello— why can’t I do this in my own life? And boom, I created my first post on “The Everyday Sprint”.

So, here we are. 2 months in officially. 100 subscribers. 100 people that chose to tune into my little corner of the internet.

That may seem like nothing to some, but to me, it’s a huge milestone. Especially since the majority of it came from a note where I was vulnerable. Throughout my life, I’ve always been honest and transparent. It is who I am at my core, and my writing is no different. I’m so happy so many resonated.

What I’ve learned

I am first to admit I am still very much figuring this out. I always had this “idea”, but it has evolved at least 20 times in the last few months. I’ve scrapped ideas, tried some, and even adjusted my plans moving forward. I expect I'll continue this process forever. 😅

I will say there are a few things I am doing to keep growing in this space. Again, I am not an expert at Substack(yet😏) by any means, but I have learned a couple of key things that I will continue doing:

• Notes: I did not post a note until May 3rd, which is a month after I launched. I had NO one looking at my articles, except maybe my 2 friends. Notes are really the reason I have 90% of my Subscribers. Once I saw how it attracted community, I started posting daily. It is really a great way to build the community here!

• Communication: I think one of the biggest issues we have on Social Media is not really knowing our followers. Here, you can have more of that personal relationship vs. just some likes. Seeing the work people put into their writing is a different form of social media. I honestly feel like I am becoming a more well rounded person from just being here. Also, anyone that comments, I reply. It just helps the connection even more.

• Consistency: Everyone will tell you this..and I swear consistency is really the answer to many problems in life, lol. My one promise to myself here was to show up every Wednesday. Some Wednesdays, I had no idea what I was writing. I just wrote from the heart at 11pm at my kitchen table after my son and husband went to bed. I was determined not to miss a week.

• Changing to a Business Mindset: Ok, so this is definitely part of my growth, but I feel it is very important in the world we live in. People love visually aesthetic pages. They want to know what they are getting. This has actually been my goal this week to focus on this more, because I definitely don’t have all the Substack settings figured out. A fellow writer actually introduced me to “Recommendations” (Shoutout to !) which is a phenomenal tool. I always thought treating it like a business meant to have every single thing figured out, and no that’s not it…but just the little things like- what’s the purpose? Why should I subscribe? The community will help you form your “niche”. Just start.

So what is next?

As much as I wish I could work on this full time, I also have a day job, a toddler, a house, and about a million other priorities. I do tend to go ALL IN on a new project and fully immerse myself in every aspect of it. This would be great with infinite time, but the main purpose of this publication is truly that— establishing priorities & doing things in small increments that add value. I have dedicated multiple windows of time to work on The Everyday Sprint. My ideas are always flowing, and I feel like the strategy is coming together. But here, I always say to start before you’re ready…so we will be doing that too. My goal for this is for me to document my systems and processes, and help people along the way.

If you are also like, she sounds kind of interesting but like what does this all mean— this is probably a good post to reference:

I want to make your life easier by following some basic concepts, using digital tools to help, and help you live your best life—and capture it all too! :)

In my soul I feel like this has been the right move for me. I love the community on Substack and learning from others. This has been a great outlet for me, and a way to communicate my ideas and processes to others.

Somewhere along the way, this stopped feeling like a writing project and started feeling like a community.

Thank you again to my followers & subscribers. Excited to grow this thing with you all.

Let’s do this— one sprint at a time🌿