Guess What: That thing that went wrong again this week? The one that made you want to throw your laptop out the window? That's not just a problem. It's a roadmap.

For years, I heard the advice: "Work ON your business, not IN it." Great in theory. In practice, I had forty-seven orders to fulfill, customer emails piling up, and inventory to manage. When exactly was I supposed to carve out time for strategic thinking? Between packing boxes and answering texts at 9 PM?

Turns out, I didn't need a two-hour strategy session blocked on my calendar. I needed ten minutes and permission to actually pay attention to what was making me crazy.

Your frustrations aren't distractions from running your business. They're clues about what to fix next. And you already have everything you need to start solving them.

When Your Business Is Driving You

Here's what happens when you're running at full speed: you stop noticing what's actually slowing you down.

An error happens during order fulfillment—you fix it and keep moving. A customer texts you at 9 PM with a question—you answer it because that's what good business owners do. Something goes wrong for the third week in a row—you handle it and promise yourself you'll figure out a better system "when things slow down."

Spoiler: things never slow down.

Meanwhile, the same problems keep popping up like whack-a-moles. The same errors cost you time. The same inefficiencies chip away at your energy. You're working harder, but somehow the business isn't getting any easier to run.

You start to feel like you're just trying to keep up instead of actually being in charge.

The Permission You've Been Waiting For

Here's the thing most business advice gets wrong: it tells you to "make time for strategy" without acknowledging that you're drowning in work right now.

So instead, let me tell you something different: you can pause.

You can tell customers that orders placed this week will ship next week because you're upgrading your systems. You can block off tomorrow morning to fix something that's been breaking for months. You can stop answering emails at 9 PM and set up an auto-responder instead.

You're in charge. You get to decide how your business runs.

When you communicate clearly about what you're doing and why, most customers won't be upset. They'll appreciate that you're fixing what's broken instead of letting the same errors keep happening.

Taking time to improve your systems isn't irresponsible. It's the most strategic thing you can do. And it doesn't require a weekend retreat or a business coach. It requires ten minutes and a willingness to write down what's driving you crazy.

The 10-Minute CEO Practice

I developed this practice when I finally stopped waiting for "someday when I have time" to fix the things that were draining me. It's built around four ten-minute sessions you can schedule whenever they fit—weekly, monthly, or somewhere in between. The magic isn't in the timing. It's in actually doing them.

Session 1: Build Your "I Would Love to Solve This" List

Set a timer for ten minutes. Write down everything that frustrated you recently:

• What error happened this week?

• What made you feel most worried or stressed?

• What do you KNOW could work better but you haven't had time to fix?

This isn't about being negative or complaining. It's about noticing what's actually costing you time, energy, or peace of mind.

Don't edit yourself. Don't worry about whether solutions exist yet. Just capture what's real.

For me, this list included things like: printing shipping labels separately from packing slips, then sitting on my living room floor alphabetizing both stacks like I was playing the world's most boring card game, then pairing them up and hoping I didn't mix anything up before packages went out.

Session 2: Prioritize by Relief

Ten minutes. Look at your list from Session 1.

Ask yourself: which ONE of these, if I solved it, would make my life noticeably lighter?

Not the most impressive fix. Not the one that sounds best on Instagram. The one that would give you the biggest sense of relief when you think about not having to deal with it anymore.

That's your target.

Session 3: Search for Solutions

Ten minutes. Now that you know what you're solving for, go looking for answers:

• Google it (if you know what it's called)

• Ask AI to suggest tools or systems

• Post in business owner groups: "How do you handle [X]?"

You're not implementing anything yet. You're just finding out what's possible.

This is where the magic happens. Because once you know what you're looking for, solutions often already exist. You just didn't know what to call them.

Session 4: Make Time by Managing Expectations

This is where people usually get stuck. "Okay, I know what I want to fix and I know how to fix it. But I don't actually have time to implement it."

Here's the shift: you create time by deciding what gets paused and telling people about it.

Need a day to set up a new system? Tell customers: "We're upgrading our fulfillment process this week. Orders placed between [date] and [date] will ship on [date]. Thanks for your patience while we make things even better."

Need to block mornings for two weeks to learn a new tool? Adjust your email response time and let people know you'll be back to them by end of day instead of immediately.

You're not asking permission. You're making a decision and communicating it clearly.

Most customers won't mind. They want you to fix what's broken too.

What Happened When I Actually Did This

My garden kit business started as a true labor of love. Each kit included everything a home gardener needed—seeds, soil, tools, instructions—a dozen or more items that I prepped and packed one by one. When the business started taking off, that meant organizing and packing dozens of individual items into kits, then ensuring that dozens of orders shipped out each night.

Here's what that looked like in practice:

I'd print all the shipping labels. Then I'd print all the packing slips. Then I'd sit on my living room floor and alphabetize both stacks. Then I'd pair each label with its corresponding packing slip, shuffling through papers like a kid playing cards. Then I'd grab the first pair, pack that order, attach the label, stick the packing slip inside, seal it up, and move to the next one.

The whole time, I'd be quietly panicking that I'd mix something up. Because if Label A ended up on Box B, "Katie Moon"  in California was getting the tomato kit she didn't order while "Katie Mooney" in  New York wondered where her basil garden kit went.

It was tedious. It was error-prone. And it ate up hours every single week.

Then I took time to pause. Took time to do the research and find this magical thing called an "integrated label form."

Half of it is regular printer paper. Half of it is adhesive label paper. They're perforated down the middle.

You set up your shipping software to print the packing slip on one half and the shipping label on the other half. One print job. Done. The label and packing slip stay physically attached to each other—literally stuck together—until you're about to close the box. No sorting. No alphabetizing. No praying you grabbed the right pair.

Who knew such a simple, boring things could radically transform my operation?

Not me. Because I was too busy trying to keep up to innovate. 

Once I switched to integrated label forms, my daily fulfillment routine went from three hours of paper shuffling to just packing boxes. Errors dropped to almost zero. And I didn't even have to buy a fancy label printer—these sheets worked in my regular desktop printer.

It sounds small. It's just paper. But it taught me something bigger: I didn't have to stay stuck in systems that weren't working just because I was too busy to change them.

I was in charge. I could pause. I could search for solutions. I could fix things.

And once I realized that, I started fixing everything else that had been quietly draining me for years.

Your Turn

What's on your "I Would Love to Solve This" list right now?

What's the thing that went wrong again this week that made you think, "There has to be a better way"?

You're right. There probably is.

Take ten minutes this week and write it down. You might be surprised what becomes possible when you stop running long enough to notice what's actually in your way.

The frustration you're feeling? That's not a sign you're doing something wrong. It's a sign you're ready to do something different.

And you already know exactly where to start.