I have a lot of things I need to do in 2026. Too many, if I'm honest. The kind of list that makes you feel behind before you've even started.
So I've been thinking about a framework, something to help me organise not just tasks, but types of work. Because not all work is the same. Some things feed your soul. Some things pay your bills. Some things position you for a future you can't yet see. And if you treat them all the same, you'll optimise for the wrong things. Or you'll just go crazy.
The framework I've landed on is called PCL: Purpose, Cashflow, Leverage.
Layer 1: Purpose
Purpose is the stuff I believe I was created to do.
For me right now, that's speaking, coaching, and teaching. These things don't have a clear path to profitability—at least not in my limited view of how reality works. That doesn't mean they'll never make money or aren't making money now. It means I'm not doing them primarily because they make money. I'm doing them because they're the core of who I am. The money comes second.
My philosophy is simple: honour that first. Before everything else.
So purpose gets my mornings. 8 am to 12 pm. Non-negotiable. This is when I have the most energy, the most clarity, the most me to give. And purpose work, the kind that requires you to be fully present, generative, sharp, deserves that.
The risk with purpose is that it has no external accountability. No client chasing you. No deadline screaming at you. The world doesn't demand that you honor your calling. It will happily let you neglect it forever. So you have to build the structure yourself.
Time-blocking is my protection mechanism. Without it, purpose loses to urgency every time.
Layer 2: Cashflow
Obviously, I need to eat.
Until purpose has fully metamorphosed into something I can put predictable revenue expectations on, I'm going to have to do things that generate cash. These are things I'm good at, things I need to do, but things I may not necessarily enjoy. Like building websites.
The constraints I've put on the cashflow layer:
Time: Only after the purpose is taken care of. Afternoons. 12pm to 4pm, when my energy is beginning to dip anyway, when I'm more distracted, when calls and execution details feel less costly.
Revenue target: Cashflow needs to pay the bills, create a little buffer for living, and fund experiments. That's it. This isn't about maximisation. It's about sufficiency.
Execution: Leverage other people's time as much as possible. Stay out of the messy details. Dedicate as little of me to this layer as I can. The goal is to keep it from metastasising – from consuming the energy that belongs to purpose.
Cashflow is necessary. But it shouldn't cost you yourself.
Layer 3: Leverage
Leverage is the long-term stuff. The bets. The positions that could become something, but don't demand your full attention right now.
For me, that might be Oxegene Venture Labs. The consulting arm. Helping a great company with their fundraise. Building media infrastructure.
These are important. But in terms of urgency and priority, they sit below purpose and cashflow. They get tended to after the other two are handled.
I initially called this layer "ambition," but I think optionality is more accurate. Ambition feels active – like you're pushing. Leverage feels more like planting seeds. You put things in the ground, you water them occasionally, and you wait.
The challenge with leverage is that it's easy to neglect. By 4pm, I'm tired. If leverage only ever gets the dregs of my day, it won't move. And some of these items aren't the kind that advance through fragmented attention. They need real thinking.
So I'm considering giving leverage one protected morning per week. Thursday, maybe. Purpose still owns four mornings. But leverage gets one slot where it has a fighting chance. Enough to move things forward. Not enough to erode the purpose commitment.
The Shuffle
Things don't stay in their layers forever.
When a project starts generating predictable revenue that fits the cashflow constraints, it moves from leverage to cashflow. When speaking gets formalised – when there's a process, a pipeline, a predictable revenue expectation – it might move from purpose to cashflow.
Some things can overlap. The categories aren't rigid. They're just useful.
The trigger for movement is the outcome. What is this thing actually delivering? That determines where it belongs.
Layer 0: Ground
There are things that don't fit neatly into PCL. Family. Soul care. Rest.
I wake up at 5am. From 5 to 8, I work out, pray, do devotions, handle quick chores for the home. Then I walk with my daughter in the evenings, catch up with family, and have dinner.
I was tempted to call this "infrastructure", the foundation on which the framework sits. But infrastructure gets neglected until it breaks. You assume it's fine until it isn't.
So I've started thinking of it differently. It's not infrastructure. It's ground. The condition that makes everything else possible. You don't schedule ground. But you protect it.
The amibitious daily structure
Here's what the actual day looks like:
5am – 8am: Ground. Non-negotiable. Soul, body, family.
8am – 12pm: Purpose. Protected. The work I was made to do.
12pm – 4pm: Cashflow. Delegated, contained. Bills get paid, buffer gets built.
Evenings: Family. Off.
One morning per week (maybe Thursday): Leverage. Strategic, long-horizon work that needs more than tired attention.
I'll admit something: some things sitting in the leverage layer are probably purpose in disguise. Building media that shifts national belief. Creating the Future Fund. These don't sound like "long-term optionality." They sound like calling dressed up in business language. But I can't hold everything at once. And leverage is a dignified waiting room. It lets me keep things alive without feeling like I'm betraying them.
The framework doesn't need to be a perfect map of my soul. It needs to be a usable tool for right now. I can also tell you that this Framework will fail at least 50% of the time. This assumes I have complete control of my time. I don't. Things come up with the fam, some clients in the cashflow block would want to meet, I'm not always ready to head out of the office by 4:00 PM to hang with my daughter, I need to be out some Thursday nights, etc.
But if I try to account for all of those things, I won't attempt any structure at all. Having the structure gives me a home base. A normal I can return to after chaos ensues. The goal is to live this more often than not. Which is a philosophy I'm applying to most things.