The Lisa Galea

If your system needs constant attention just to keep it working, it may not be helping as much as you think.

A useful system should reduce the number of things your brain has to hold onto.

Fewer reminders.
Fewer places to check.

Fewer decisions that don’t actually need you.
That’s what I want technology to do for us.

Not give us another dashboard to maintain, but quietly take repetitive work off our plate.

Because productivity isn’t about how many tools you can manage.

It’s about creating enough space to focus on the work, people, and decisions that genuinely need your brain.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can add to your system is less.

Always be curious, my friend. 🧠
❤️ Lisa G

A good system should make your work feel lighter.

It should remember things so you don’t have to.

It should remove unnecessary decisions.

It should help you find what you need without sending you through five different apps, folders, and dashboards.

But somewhere along the way, we started building systems that need managing themselves.

Another notification to check.

Another workflow to update.

Another place your brain has to remember exists.

That defeats the purpose, my friend.

Before adding another tool or process, I think we need to ask a much simpler question:

What is this taking off my plate?

If the answer is “not much,” perhaps the solution isn’t learning to manage it better.

Perhaps it doesn’t belong in your system at all.

Technology should carry the repetitive work so humans can focus on the thinking, creativity, relationships, and decisions that actually need us.

Less managing the system.

More getting on with the work that matters. 🧠

❤️ Lisa G

For years, we’ve been taught that if a productivity system doesn’t work, we need to try harder.

Be more disciplined.
Keep the inbox cleaner.

Follow the workflow properly.
Use the app consistently.

And when we can’t maintain it all? We assume we’re the problem.

But a system that only works when you constantly remember to maintain it isn’t necessarily helping you.

Especially when your brain is already busy running a business, leading a team, raising a family, or simply getting through a full day.

I’m much more interested in systems that ask less of humans.

Fewer places to check.
Fewer things to remember.

Fewer unnecessary decisions.
Less admin disguised as productivity.

Technology should carry more of the load so our brains can spend their energy where it actually matters.

Maybe we don’t need to get better at managing complicated systems, my friend.

Maybe we need better systems.

❤️ Lisa G

Your best employee may work nothing like you.

And that can be a very good thing.

One of the easiest traps in leadership is assuming that the way we work is the way good work should happen.

We like quick replies, so we expect quick replies.

We think out loud, so silence looks like disengagement.

We love structure, so someone who works more fluidly can look disorganised.

But leadership isn’t about creating smaller versions of ourselves.

It’s about being clear on the outcome, setting expectations, and then getting curious about how different people do their best work.

Of course, accountability still matters.

Deadlines matter.
Communication matters.
Results matter.

But the path someone takes to get there doesn’t always need to look like yours.

Sometimes the person who works completely differently from you is bringing exactly the perspective your team was missing.

Don’t manage the difference out of them, my friend.
❤️ Lisa G

And that’s exactly why one-size-fits-all ways of working rarely work.

What helps one person focus might completely overwhelm someone else.

One person may love a detailed dashboard.
Another may need something simple and visual.

One may think out loud. A
nother may need time and space to process first.

The goal isn’t to decide which way is better.

It’s to understand what helps each person do their best work.

As leaders, the more curious we become about how people actually think and work, the better we can support them without trying to turn them into versions of ourselves.

Different ways of working can still lead to brilliant results.

Always be curious, my friend.
❤️ Lisa G

Why are capable people embarrassed about how they work?

I hear the apology before I even see the screen.

“Sorry, my inbox is a mess.”

“Don’t judge my desktop.”

“My folders are terrible.”

“I know I should be more organised.”

And almost every time, I’m looking at someone who is already doing a lot.

Running a business.
Leading people.
Looking after a family.

Making decisions all day long.

Yet somewhere along the way, they learned to treat the way they organise their work as a reflection of their capability.

I don’t think it is.

Your inbox doesn’t tell me how creative you are.

Your desktop doesn’t tell me how well you solve problems.

And a beautiful folder system doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing meaningful work.

So when someone apologises to me for the way they work, I’m becoming much more interested in one question:

Is it actually stopping you from getting where you need to go?

If it isn’t, perhaps there’s nothing to apologise for, my friend.
❤️ Lisa G

I spent years thinking I needed to become more organised.

More disciplined.
More structured.

Better at keeping up with the inbox, the folders, the lists, the systems.

I thought if I could just get better at all of that, work would feel easier.

But the biggest shift came when I stopped asking, “How do I become more organised?” and started asking, “How do I actually work best?”

That changed everything.

I stopped trying to force myself into methods that looked good on paper but made life harder in practice.

I started paying attention to what helped me think clearly, remember what mattered, and actually get things done.

And little by little, the shame started to disappear.

Because maybe the goal was never to become a more organised version of someone else.

Maybe it was to understand myself well enough to build around the way I already work.

That’s been far more useful than chasing tidy, my friend. 🧠
❤️ Lisa G

“This is unlikely to be a polite corporate portrait” 🤷‍♀️

Chat GPT’s response to ‘create an illustration of me based on our chats’. 😂

I love the inclusion of my Creative Spark Mr Dali 🐾 and the Pot belly stove in my rainforest backdrop.

If you’re curious to know more 👀 look closer, my IP is everywhere 🤩the image is full of clues to who I am and what I do. 🔍

Hello 👋 if you’re new here.

I’m Lisa G,
Maths and science nerd with a creative twist. 🌟 I help leaders get what they want using behavioural experience design with ai amplification.

After 4 years working with AI to do the repeative tasks in my own 5 business entities it seems that Chat GPT has me pegged. 😂

DISRUPTIVE ALCHEMIST
I SEE PATTERNS.
I CONNECT DOTS.
I BUILD SYSTEMS.
I CREATE MAGIC.

I’m curious to see what other people generate from the simple prompt, are we actually training and curating our own ai feeds?

Share result the comments or shot me a dm.

Have the best day on purpose. Go play, press all the buttons.

xL💃🏼