Hey, GenXers. If you’re on your way out of corporate (or already gone), there’s one thing that can trip you up on the outside: running the same routines you built to survive in corporate life. You optimize your calendar and habits for a performance review, a manager’s quirks, or a schedule you never liked.
If you leave your job but keep optimizing for the corporate world, you’ll rebuild the same cage.
My friend, we need to do a little deprogramming. Living and building outside of the business environment means you get to allow for different things. Like being an actual human.
So let’s pause, look clearly at the systems you developed to succeed at work, and ask: what do I want to optimize for now? We’re not talking about comfort or arbitrary preference. This is about aligning your work with your values.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a simple way to build around what matters to you, not some shifting company metric.
Deprogramming takes time
So you get laid off or finally resign, and now you want to figure out the next step. A completely normal move is to park yourself in front of your laptop for many hours a day, because that’s how everyone else defined your productivity.
Back when I was freelancing, I would take a few weeks between contracts to travel and take care of life. It was always a shock to drive around in the middle of the day and see all these other people out in the world.
Who are all these people? Don’t they have jobs?
It opened my eyes to the idea that there are lots of ways to work, lots of ways to structure your life outside of a 9-to-5 schedule.
The mindset that creeps in from the start of our careers is that we are valuable only when we’re producing. But that was always someone else’s evaluation, and it kept changing.
Once you’re on the outside, you can remove the shame, get off the hamster wheel, and put yourself back in charge.
This is where the idea of optimization can help. Think of it as a bridge on the road to reclaiming your worth.
What Do You Actually Need to Work Well?
Very few people operate at full capacity all day long. You might already know that you do your best thinking after a workout, or after midnight. But for years, your work schedule has not aligned with your chronotype. You drag yourself into the office, battle brain fog, and hope that what you give is good enough.
Corporate environments can squash your sparkle in other ways, too. One of my old offices was an open floor plan, and the introvert designers complained that they couldn’t concentrate. When we handed them headphones to block the noise, they looked at us with despair. These artists needed both auditory and visual quiet to do their best work. We couldn’t provide it.
Do you get into a creative groove in silence, with AC/DC blasting, or while in a hammock? What if you could work that way most of the time?
Consider who you actually want to collaborate with, and which spaces bring out your best thinking. If your top collaborators are energetic idea people, design ways to work with them regularly. If you thrive in nature, make outdoor working days a real thing.
One of my artistic clients realized her brain was squishy and open in the late afternoons, so she dedicated that time for ambling walks and art gallery visits. It provided the inspiration she needed for the idea execution in the morning.
It’s not just when you work, but what you do when your energy peaks. Save the deep thinking for your best hours and do admin in your lower-energy times.
What if you don’t know what to optimize for?
Maybe you don’t yet know what you need, because you’re still tuned to your company’s rhythm. No problem – let’s gather some data..
For the next 7 days, notice your work modes, especially when you’re in flow or feeling foggy. Jot down the time and what you were doing right before and who you were working with. At the end of the week, review for patterns.
You’ll see when your brain fires best, and what fuels or drains you. You’ll get a sense for the conditions that produce your most compelling work, and how collaboration shows up.
Then, pick one small change to align more with that aliveness.
Constraints Can Clarify
You might be navigating health issues or caregiving responsibilities. Maybe you have a weekly dance class you love. Your next chapter can honor those realities, not ignore them. Constraints can help narrow your focus.
Let’s start with a big one: your health. Your top asset requires maintenance; if you’re fried and run down, you can’t fully show up for your people or your ideas.
Whatever you build next, bake in your physical and emotional health.
At my previous job, we had a client who was the head of a nonprofit, and she only worked 20 hours a week. She had firm boundaries, allowing her to tend to her other responsibilities. As a result, every meeting with her had a laser focus. We didn’t waste time. We prepared. We respected her rules.
Your next venture doesn’t have to copy traditional office hours. Whether it’s a regular lunch with your college-aged kid or a morning workout with friends, design with your ideal life in mind.
Treat yourself like the time-constrained leader you already are. Name your constraints, see what’s left, and call those your work windows. Some negotiation will be required, but you can make constraints a feature, not a bug.
Name the Saboteurs
You might hear an inner critic say: “Who do you think you are? If you aren’t grinding, you’re an unserious flake.”
Those voices are your saboteurs. None of them represents your calm, confident core. They’re trying to protect you, and to get them out of your way, they need a job.
One of my inner voices is dark and dramatic. She tells me I’m doomed if I don’t work 18 hours a day. Here’s what I tell her: “Hey Emo Girl, thanks for looking out for me. I’m in charge of my business, so you can go back to listening to death metal and reading sad books.”
Thanking your saboteurs and getting them out of your face can help you make room for joy. New ideas grow on fun and novelty, so make that part of the new routine as well.
You Don’t Have to Get It Right Immediately
Start small. Maybe it’s blasting music while you research new ideas. Or scheduling one weekday hike a month. Or simply noticing the times of day your brain turns on.
Treat this like a lab. Each week, you can run an “optimization experiment.” Try changing one variable, like location, schedule, collaborators, tools, and see what changes.
When I launched my business, I told myself I’d take August off every year. Am I there yet? Not fully, but I’m closer than I’ve ever been. And that’s a start.
You don’t have to optimize for optics anymore. You get to optimize for you.
Burn the map. Build what fits.
