How to Design Your Work Week to Protect Your Energy and Reduce Burnout

Sustainable leadership is about how well you design your reality and that of your business.

BY HEATHER ASIYANBI, FREELANCE WRITER

I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD as a child. Like many Gen X women, I learned to cope instead — sometimes successfully, sometimes decidedly less so.  

I built my identity around pushing through — volunteering for more work projects than I could manage, thinking harder, and tolerating more friction caused by misaligned systems than I should have. I was riding a non-stop roller coaster of emotional dysregulation, bursts of extreme productivity, and constant self-management. 

When I was diagnosed with ADHD in my early 50s, the diagnosis wasn’t devastating or even all that shocking. Instead, it felt like the clouds parted and the sun shone on my face. What changed everything was realizing that many of the coping mechanisms I relied on for decades were keeping success just out of reach. 

Here’s how I run my business now and what changed once I stopped confusing intensity with effectiveness and busyness with productivity. 

How Canva Became the Power Player in the AI Design Wars

When willpower becomes a liability 

For most of my career, I compensated for inconsistent focus with effort. I would put off completing projects until the last possible moment and then pull off a brilliant delivery that left my managers impressed. I’d feel both exhilarated and exhausted. 

It was a cycle I couldn’t break. I also didn’t see how much of my leadership style depended on willpower rather than design. After my diagnosis, I had to dismantle that approach. Willpower is not a system, especially if you have ADHD. For a founder, it’s not a scalable one either. 

Rebuilding my workweek around attention 

The first thing I rebuilt was my workweek. Instead of organizing my time around availability, I began structuring it around energy and attention. 

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