Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

January 13, 2026

Welcome to the Workplace Multiplier newsletter. Published Monday to Friday, equipping you to achieve your professional goals faster and without burnout or overwhelm.

Why You Don’t Finish Important Work This Week (Even When You’re Busy)

Howdy ,

I hope you did the simple thing from my email yesterday.

You identified ONE result you need to deliver this week.

Today, let's talk about why you probably won't finish it; and how to fix that.

Most people at work think they have a time problem. They don't.

Let me explain.

You know that feeling at 6pm when you look at your calendar and realize you were "busy" all day but didn't actually finish the one thing that mattered?

That's not a discipline problem. It's a structure problem.

Years back, a colleague and I had a code word for it. It meant we had just had another “Headless Chicken Day”

You know…running from one thing to another, disorganized and without clear direction or purpose, like a chicken whose head has been cut off.

Don’t laugh. You probably can relate.

The Trap

Here's what happens:

You start your day with good intentions. But then emails start, someone needs "just five minutes," and suddenly it's 11am and you haven't touched your actual work.

So you tell yourself: "I'll do it after lunch."

After lunch, there are meetings. By 4pm, you're finally sitting down to work on what matters; except now your brain is tired, and the work that should take 90 minutes takes three hours.

Here's what most people do next: they wake up earlier. They work later.

And none of it works long-term because they're solving the wrong problem.

The Real Problem

Time isn't your constraint. You can't create more time. Everybody gets 24-hours.

What you can control is where your best focus and energy go.

Think about it: Have you ever had a morning where everything clicked? Where you sat down, worked for 90 minutes, and produced something excellent? Where the thinking was clear and the output was actually good?

Now compare that to the evening where you spent three hours "working" but mostly stared at your screen, rewriting the same paragraph five times.

Same person. Same intelligence. Different state.

That's the constraint. Not time. Focus and energy.

What Changes When You Protect Your Best Hours

Your brain has natural performance windows. Most people have a 2-3 hour stretch where complex thinking feels easier; usually a few hours after waking.

This isn't about "being a morning person." It's biology.

And here's the pattern with most people at work:

They waste their best hours on email, routine meetings, and administrative tasks. Then they try to do strategic work when their brain is running on fumes.

The work gets done eventually. But it takes twice as long and comes out half as good.

The Simple Shift

What if you protected one 90-minute window and used it only for the one task that would make your whole week easier?

Here's how:

Tomorrow morning, before you check email:

Find 90 minutes in your best window this week. Block it on your calendar.

Pick ONE task. Not three. One.

The task that, if you finished it excellently, would make everything else easier or unnecessary.

Then set up the session properly:

Close everything unrelated. Silence notifications. Put your phone somewhere else. Tell your team you're unavailable for 90 minutes.

Work in two 45-minute blocks with a 5-minute break between.

At the end, ask yourself: "What did I ship?"

Not "How long did I work?" Not "Did I make progress?"

What specific output did you complete that you can now hand to someone or act on?

Why This Works

When you work with full focus on high-leverage tasks during your peak hours, you can accomplish in 90 minutes what usually takes half a day of fragmented work.

Not because you're working harder. Because you're working when your brain is optimized for it, and you're protecting that time from interruption.

Most professionals leak their best cognitive hours into reactive tasks. Then they wonder why their careers feel stuck despite working 10-hour days.

The ones who break through? They protect their peak hours for the work that actually moves outcomes.

Your Starting Point

One session. This week.

Ninety minutes in your best window. One high-value task. Zero interruptions.

See what you can produce when you stop trying to manage time and start protecting focus.

Keep wining at work and in life,

Tola Akinsulire

Strategic Workplace Mentor