A new friend recently asked, “You’ve written a book, you write a blog every day, you work at Figma. How do you do it all?”

I remember that I have also asked questions like this. Here’s my method:

Priority: I try to maintain a clear sense of what is most important that day, and overall. The key is to acknowledge that I don’t get it right all of the time, and I’ve gotten more comfortable with that. During working hours, my work at Figma takes precedence, so my happy place would be making some time before work to get things done—like Peter Yang does. (I’m not there yet.)

Flexibility: While I have ideal and preferred times to write my blog and promote my book, I don’t always get to do them then and there. When that happens, I improvise and keep an eye out for an opening. A meeting may end early, another one gets cancelled, and voila—there is the time. I am also flexible with where I write—sometimes on my phone Notes app, sometimes in Textedit when the internet is sticky, etc.

Priming: I try to follow what my brain has already been thinking about, so I’m more energized and enthusiastic about something. For example, this post came from some notes I took immediately after that conversation.

Practice: I’ll get better at it if I try. I won’t get better if I don’t. For me, sometimes, showing up really is enough, even if it’s just because I keep the habit for tomorrow.

Accountability: I have a group of two friends that I stay accountable with for my book promotion goals. I have showed up maybe half the time. I want to get better, but before this group, it was zero times.

Drive: I believe that if I really want to do something, I will set my mind to doing and delivering it. It’s not always going to work out, and that just means I’ll learn something and give it a better try tomorrow.