Good Morning {{first_name}}
I left school.
After finishing my GCSEs, I finally had something I’d been looking forward to for a while
Freedom.
No more waking up for school.
No more fixed timetable.
so It’s been enjoyable.
I get to spend my days doing what I love.
Design.
Building my business.
Learning.
Working on projects that interest me
But there’s one thing I underestimated.
Structure.
At school, I had a built-in routine.
Wake up.
Go to school.
Come home.
Work.
Now my days are completely controlled by me
Which sounds amazing…
Until you realise that if you don’t create your own structure, your days can easily start messing up.
My current routine has looked something like this:
Wake up later than I planned.
Go to the gym.
Come home.
Work.
Keep working until late.
Then the next day starts late again.
when I actually sit down to work, I work really well.
I can get into deep work.
I can spend hours designing.
I can focus.
The problem isn’t the work.
It’s everything around it.
I wrote my last newsletter about fixing my sleep.
I had a plan:
10:30 PM - Finish work
11:30 PM - Wind down
12 AM - Sleep
But looking back, I realised the issue wasn’t just sleep.
It was my routine.
My Apple Watch data showed exactly what was happening:
Average sleep: 5h 59m
Average bedtime: 2:45am
Sleep debt: 5h 46m
The biggest reason was late nights.
And one small habit that didn’t help was Coffee.
I enjoy coffee, and having it late became a habit.
But that small habit was pushing everything else back.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned since leaving school is this:
Freedom is great.
But freedom without structure can quickly turn into chaos.
I don’t need to become someone who wakes up at 5am every day.
I just need a routine that works for me.
Maybe that’s 5am.
Maybe it’s 6am.
The time isn’t the important part.
The consistency is.
For me, the next change is being more specific with my tasks.
Not:
“Write newsletter.”
But:
“Write newsletter about leaving school and rebuilding structure. Finish first draft by 2pm.”
Not:
“Work on website.”
But:
“Complete homepage design and send for review by 5pm.”
Because vague goals create vague results.
The next few months are about rebuilding my structure.
Creating a routine.
Taking care of my health.
Doing deep work.
Spending time with family.
Still enjoying the freedom I’ve worked for.
Leaving school gave me freedom.
Now I need to build the structure to use it properly.
Talk soon,
Yousaf