Make Before You Manage

The Simple Practice that Reclaims the Day

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There’s a mantra, a maxim, a simple practice that anyone can incorporate, a practice that separates those who perpetually feel bogged down by the to-do’s of the day, from those who consistently move their most important work forward. The maxim is Make Before You Manage.

Make Before You Manage sounds almost too straightforward to be transformative, yet making this practice part of how you operate has become a game-changer for high-achievers across industries. The great news is, Make Before You Manage is beautifully pragmatic. Before diving into email, texts or any type of admin task, create something. Anything.

A paragraph.

A sketch.

A checklist to refine a system.

Please note that the act itself matters more than the particular output.

Tim Ferriss, the entrepreneur behind The 4-Hour Workweek which dominated the NY Times bestseller list for seven years — credits the Make Before You Manage principle as central to his success.

Ferriss writes about how he has kept “Make Before You Manage” at the heart of how he operates, arguing that prioritizing creation and output over busywork and management has made his fulfilling, industry-bending career possible. This isn’t theoretical productivity advice from someone removed from real-world pressures. It’s a tested framework from someone (Ferriss) who built multiple successful businesses while maintaining a lifestyle most people only dream about.

Here’s what Make Before You Manage looks like in practice:

You wake up and rather than checking your phone or diving into logistics, you spend 20 minutes improving one detail witin a project you care about.

Maybe you write 50 words of original content on a topic that matters to you.

Maybe you sketch out an idea or take one small step toward building your business rather than just managing it.

The psychological difference between zero acts of creation and one act of creation — no matter how small — is impossible to overstate. A single creative act transforms your psychology and mine from passive to powerful, and shifts us from Reactors to Initiators.

What Happens When You Make Before You Manage

Image by Zhong Liguo from Unsplash

What happens when you make before you manage?

You’re no longer at the mercy of other people’s agendas because you’ve reclaimed Agency and you’ve reclaimed authorship of your day.

The beauty of this principle lies in its scalability and flexibility. Unless you’re in a most unusual setting or circumstance, almost any task can wait 30 to 60 minutes. Note too that the goal isn’t to produce a masterpiece before breakfast. The goal is to push a millimeter forward in some creative direction and to make that part of how you operate.

To know and feel that you’ve moved ahead, even slightly, sets an emotional tone for your day. Sometimes that rough sentence or quick draft evolves into something bigger and better, perhaps even into something significant. The point is to be able to say to yourself, even for a few minutes, I am a Creator. A single sentence, sketch, or draft is tangible, and it’s PROOF that you’re a Creator, not merely a manager or over-seer.

Make Before You Manage is one of my top Client-tips, and more than a tip, it’s a way of operating and being that we stress in our work with high- achievers across industries. Do yourself a favor and incorporate Make Before You Manage the way you start your day, every day, next week Monday through Friday, and let me know how it goes. You’ve got this friends. Good luck and happy making.