Messy But Making It: How to Turn Your Chaos into a System That Works for You

Has your desk ever looked like a museum of good intentions? 

Post-it notes in three different colours. 

Half-used notebooks stacked precariously beside your keyboard. 

A diary that almost helped you stay organised...until life happened. 

Flagged emails, reminders, voice memos, text messages to yourself… and still, somehow, it feels like things are slipping through. 

It’s exhausting. 

It’s frustrating. 

And we know what this must look like to other people, disorganised, chaotic, reactive. 

But what they don’t see is what we’re holding together behind the scenes. 

They don’t see that the reason we keep bouncing between tools is because we care. 

We’re trying, but we’re busy and juggling everything...well it’s hard. 

Because the world tells us: “You need a system.” 

And the implication is: “If you don’t have one, you’re not doing it right.” 

But here’s what I want you to know and what I need you to hear: 

You are not getting it wrong. You are understanding what you need. 

That pile of notebooks? That makeshift planner? That patched-together way of remembering what needs to be done? 

It’s not being unorganised. It’s the beginning of your system. 

You’re already building something, even if it doesn’t look polished yet. 

The Invisible Weight of “Not Having It Together” 

Let’s get real for a moment. 

Most business owners don’t wake up one day with a colour-coded Notion board and a neatly mapped SOP for every task.  

They all start the same way, doing what they know, doing it well, and trying to hold it all together in their head. 

And then one day… it’s too much. 

The business grows. The team grows. The pressure grows. 

And suddenly, all those little hacks that used to work just aren’t cutting it anymore. 

So what do we do? 

We look for the fix. 

The Lure of the Plug-and-Play Solution 

There’s no shortage of apps, programs, planners, and tools promising to save your sanity. 

ClickUp, Monday, Asana, Trello, Notion… 

Digital whiteboards. Workflow automation. Pre-built templates. 

“Just plug it in,” they say, “and your business will run like clockwork.” 

But here’s the problem with plug-and-play solutions: 

They weren’t designed for you. 

They were designed for the “average” business owner.  

The one who works in a certain way, thinks in a certain way, has a certain kind of team, and a certain level of capacity. 

If you’ve ever tried to install someone else’s “proven system” and found yourself more overwhelmed than before...that’s because you were trying to force-fit your life into a structure that doesn’t reflect how you actually work. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions out there that will help you.  100% yes there are.  But you may find that you have to trial a few before you find one (or a couple linked together with Zapier) that really works for you. 

This isn’t a you problem, it’s just a reflection of where you are on your business journey.   

But The Answer Is Not In Someone Else’s System 

You need your system. 

But more importantly it's about understanding what your system needs. 

This isn’t some special knowledge you need to unlock. 

It just means looking at what’s already happening: the habits, patterns, routines you’ve built organically and using that as your starting point. 

Because here’s the truth most people miss: 

Even if it is messy, your system is already forming. 

The question is, will you shape it with intention, or let it shape you? 

Intentional Systems Start Where You Are 

What if, instead wanting to start building our systems over because it’s not “good enough”, we took a step back and honoured the way they’ve been keeping things afloat?  

What if we said, “Yes, it’s messy… but there is a lot here that has been working. So let me build from that.” 

Systems shouldn’t just look good on paper. 

They should reflect how our brain works, how our energy flows, how our days actually unfold. 

And once you understand your way of working, you can map it in a way that allows you to: 

• Automate the repetitive stuff 
• Delegate what doesn’t need to be yours 
• And simplify the rest so things run smoother 

But you can’t do that unless you see what’s already happening.  So start there. 

A Strong First Step: Create Your Department Notebooks 

Before you jump into software or templates, I want you to do something really simple, and surprisingly powerful. 

Get yourself three notebooks (digital or paper, whichever feels easiest for you right now). 

Label them with the three core departments that exist in every business: 

1. Service Delivery – How you deliver what you sell 
2. Administration – How the business runs behind the scenes 
3. Sales & Marketing – How you attract and convert clients 

Over the next week, start jotting down all your notes, thoughts, ideas, appointment, and to-dos into the relevant departmental notebook. 

Then ask yourself: 

• What tasks or decisions do I make repeatedly here? 
• What information do I regularly need to access for this department? 
• What do I track here? 
• What gaps keep popping up? 

This is not about organising it all perfectly. 

Just observe and collect. 

This is how you start consciously creating the priorities for each department, based on what you actually need, not how you think they should look. 

And suddenly? 

You’re not just reacting to chaos. 

You’re starting to form a system for your business from a place of clarity. 

Let It Be Imperfect 

Here’s what I want you to hold onto: 

You don’t need to get a perfect system. 

You need an evolving one. 

One that grows with you and your business. 

Yes, we want out of survival mode. 

Yes, we want to feel more structured and supported. 

But getting this right happens by building, even imperfectly, from within.  Not through a bolt-on from the outside solution. 

When it comes to systems you are further along than you realize. 

So if you’re reading this with a sigh of recognition, please know: 

You are not alone. 

That overwhelm? It’s not failure. It’s a signal. 

You’ve reached the part of the business journey where it’s time to start building something more solid and that starts by recognising you’ve already done more than you realize. 

You’ve been holding the business together with sheer force of will, instinct, and whatever scraps of systems you could find. And that is no small thing. 

Now it’s time to support yourself with the kind of structure that supports how you work. 

Start with your three notebooks. 

Let them show you what matters most in your business. 

And then turn this curated chaos into calm, confident systems, one intentional step at a time. 

Want some help turning this into something practical? 
 

Join me inside The Listening Room, our free private community, where we’re unpacking this topic and running a simple challenge to help you take the first step. 

You don’t need to have it all together to start. 

You just need to start from where you already are. 

Inside, you’ll find others who are navigating the same messy middle and learning how to lead from it, not despite it. 

Join the Listening Room

#MessyButMighty #YoureNotFailingYoureForming #TeamworksWithCaroline