How Hierarchy Planning Beats Balance Every Time
Stop forcing equal balance across unequal weeks. Here's how I used AI to build a red-yellow-green planning system that actually works during chaos.
We’re moving again. At this point, I think we’ve crossed the eight-moves-in-twelve-years threshold, though who’s really counting anymore? You’d think with that kind of track record, it might get easier. Nope: it doesn’t. Utility setups still require precision timing, address changes still hide in every digital corner, and closing companies have their own unforeseen challenges.
The one saving grace this time?
We’re moving locally. And we finally hired movers instead of bribing family with pizza and promises. It’s just the hubs and me now, living minimally enough that the process shouldn’t feel overwhelming—and yet it somehow still does.
December already has its own natural chaos: holidays, year-end projects, and a business (or two) to run. That elusive “pre-retirement enjoyment” everyone talks about? I’m convinced it’s a myth.
Especially when you’re the kind of person who still lights up over tech shifts and the ways even the smallest businesses can be reshaped by what’s coming next. Passion doesn’t clock out just because the calendar says you’re approaching the “easy years.”
But somewhere in the middle of all the lists, the boxes, and the swirling mental tabs, I stumbled across something that shifted everything: an article on the hierarchy of needs. I expected a psychology refresher. I got something closer to a deep breath.
Because, for all the noise around me, one idea hit hard: even in chaos, priorities have an order. And when you honor that order, things stop feeling impossible.
Why Your Schedule Isn’t the Problem (Hierarchy Is)
Most people think the problem with overwhelm is that they need better time blocking, more discipline, or a stricter schedule. So they buy the planner. They try to force every week into the same structure, assuming Monday through Friday will look identical across four weeks of December when, in reality, closing week looks nothing like holiday week.
But here’s what I discovered: the real problem isn’t your schedule. It’s that traditional planning assumes your capacity stays constant when it never actually does.
For me, the math was brutal. Week one (closing): almost zero business time available. Week two (moving week): logistically heavy but slightly more flexible. Week three (early holidays): shifting again. Week four (actual holidays): completely different. A rigid weekly template would fail by day four.
I needed something that adapted by the week. Something that permitted me to say:
“In survival mode, these three things are non-negotiable. Everything else waits.”
Something I could actually reference instead of losing in a Google Doc.
Here’s what costs you if you keep forcing traditional balance:
You abandon momentum on things that matter (content, client relationships, building something new)
You create guilt—either you’re shirking business or sacrificing presence at home
You burn out trying to maintain “equal weight” on unequal weeks
You make reactive decisions instead of strategic ones because you’re constantly behind
If you keep thinking balance means equal distribution, you’ll end up scattered across all of it instead of clear on any of it. You’ll feel like you’re dropping balls everywhere, even when you’re actually just dealing with reality.
So what actually works is permission to rank your chaos. To say: this week, these three things matter most. Next week, that shifts. And having a system that reflects that shift, rather than punishing you for it.
How Three Different AIs Solved My December Chaos—And Why One Got It Right
So I did what I always do when I’m stuck between what I know I need and what I can actually execute: I turned to AI.
Not for motivation. Not for one more productivity hack. I needed my bots to help me translate the hierarchy concept into a real, week-by-week game plan that worked with December chaos rather than against it.
Here’s what I realized immediately: I had no idea what my actual capacity was.
I started with ChatGPT.
I said: here’s December, here’s what’s happening (closing, moving, holidays, business commitments), here’s the framework I want (hierarchy of needs), so let’s build a plan. It came back with a five-tier system, which had good intentions but fell apart on the math. It said I had 10 hours available when I actually had 5.
Perfect logic, completely disconnected from reality.
So I threw everything into Gemini. Same context, same request. This time, it gave me a time-blocking system—very structured, very confident. “High energy times, low energy times, block accordingly.” Clean concept. Totally wrong for me because it assumed every week had the same structure. It didn’t account for my moving days or the logistical chaos underneath the calendar.
That’s when I realized the problem: neither AI was asking me enough clarifying questions. They were just solving based on assumptions.
I turned to Claude next, but this time I did something different. I uploaded everything from the first two conversations and said, “Tell me where the gaps are.”
And that’s when it actually started thinking.
It said: “Here’s what’s working—you get the life-first hierarchy concept. You understand energy levels matter. But here’s where it’s off the mark: your business baseline is probably 10-12 hours, your actual available time is 20-25 hours this month, the math doesn’t work, and you’re treating this like a rigid time-blocking problem when it’s actually a permission problem.”
That was the breakthrough. Permission problem, not planning problem.
It asked clarifying questions: What’s your energy pattern on specific days? What are your true minimums—what absolutely has to happen weekly? What weeks are actually different? It didn’t assume—it clarified.
Then it built a traffic light system.
Red weeks were survival mode (just keep the business alive, don’t crash anything). Yellow weeks were maintenance (the things you need to do if you have energy, the things that keep momentum). Green weeks were a bonus (and it literally gave me zero green weeks in December, which was refreshing).
That’s when I understood: I wasn’t scattered because I had too many tools or not enough discipline. I was scattered because I was trying to apply a one-size-fits-all framework to a month where no two weeks looked the same.
The system Claude built wasn’t just a plan. It was permission. Permission to survive some weeks instead of thrive in all of them. Permission to keep business alive without burning out, trying to also manage a move and holidays at full capacity.
The Red-Yellow-Green System That Replaced My Rigid Planning
Here’s what changed everything. Instead of fighting December with a rigid schedule, I built three layers: clarity on capacity, permission by week, and one visual system I could actually reference.
Why Traditional Planning Was Costing You:
Forcing “equal balance” across unequal weeks meant you were either lying about your capacity or burning out trying to maintain it. Real cost: momentum loss on what matters, guilt, and decision fatigue. The system wasn’t wrong—your situation was just too variable for it.
Here’s What I Built Instead:
I created a simple framework that asked Claude to do something most planning tools don’t: help me get realistic about what’s actually possible this month, and then build the plan around that reality instead of theory.
Here’s a Claude (or any AI) prompt for you to try:
I’m overwhelmed about [month] and need a realistic game plan. Here’s what’s happening:
[List: major life events, business commitments, energy drains, critical dates]
Here’s what I need:
- Permission to prioritize (not everything gets equal weight)
- Honesty about my actual capacity (not what I wish I had)
- A week-by-week system that adapts (because not every week is the same)
- Clear minimums (what actually has to happen)
Questions for you before we build the plan:
1. What am I getting wrong about my own capacity?
2. What are my real minimums—what can’t be dropped?
3. Which weeks are actually different, and how?
4. What counts as “good enough” vs. what needs to be excellent?
What makes this work for me: Claude doesn’t just build a plan. It asked clarifying questions first. It validated the concept (hierarchy matters) while poking holes in the assumptions (your capacity math is off). Then it built something that actually fit.
Here’s what the system looked like:
Three tiers, color-coded:
RED weeks (survival mode): 3-5 hours of business time. Just keep things alive. Non-negotiables only.
YELLOW weeks (maintenance): 10-15 hours. The things that matter, the momentum keepers. Do these if energy allows.
GREEN weeks (bonus): Everything else. (Pro tip: I had zero green in December, and that was honest.)
Then I automated it into Notion:
Here’s where Claude took it a step further. Instead of building the system myself, I said, “Can you turn this plan into a Notion page I can actually use?”
It created a full Notion page with sections for each week, color-coded headers (red/yellow/green), and checkboxes for every task. Then it delivered it directly to Notion for me.
I didn’t have to build a database. I didn’t have to structure anything. I just opened Notion, and the plan was already there—organized, visual, and ready to use. All I had to do was check boxes as I moved through December.
That’s the difference between a plan that sits in a document and a plan that becomes part of your workflow. Claude didn’t just think through my problem. It solved it in a format I’d actually reference.
If you want to see how this unfolded in real time—including the moment I realized Claude’s approach was fundamentally different from ChatGPT and Gemini—here’s the full walkthrough.
When People Stop Measuring Themselves Against the Wrong Week
When people talk about December overwhelm, they’re usually not actually overwhelmed by the tasks. They’re overwhelmed by the gap between what they’re doing and what they think they should be doing. The guilt comes from measuring an unequal week against an equal-week standard.
It’s not “I have too much to do.” It’s “I’m not doing my normal routine while also dealing with [move/holidays/family crisis/business pivot].” And then they feel like they’re failing at everything because they’re comparing survival mode to normal mode.
That’s what the hierarchy of needs actually does: it permits you to measure yourself against this week’s capacity, not last week’s or some hypothetical perfect week. It’s not about being less ambitious. It’s about being realistic about when you have the energy and capacity for ambition.
The shift isn’t magic. It’s just permission. Permission to say: “This week, these three things matter. That’s enough. Everything else waits.” And then actually believing that’s strategic instead of seeing it as a failure.
The universal principle underneath all this: You don’t need better balance. You need permission to be strategic about what deserves full attention in each phase.
Build a Week-by-Week Planning System (That Actually Works)
The Old Way: Rigid weekly templates. “Monday through Friday will look the same all month.” Force every task into time blocks. Treat capacity as constant, even when your life clearly isn’t.
The Smarter Way: Build a framework that adapts by week. Get honest about your real capacity. Create permission tiers (survival, maintenance, bonus) instead of pretending everything is equally important.
Here’s exactly how:
Step 1: Get Real About Capacity (10 minutes) Write down: How many hours do you actually have available this [month]? Not what you wish. What you actually have. Factor in the moving days, the closed office dates, and the holiday disruptions. Ask Claude to poke holes in your math.
Step 2: Define Your True Minimums (5 minutes) What absolutely has to happen every week, no matter what? For me: one Substack article, weekly Substack notes, one YouTube video. Everything else is secondary.
Step 3: Color-Code by Capacity (10 minutes) RED: Survival weeks. Only minimums. Everything else pauses. YELLOW: Maintenance weeks. Minimums plus the momentum keepers. GREEN: Bonus weeks. Everything else if energy allows.
Step 4: Put It Somewhere You’ll Actually Check (10 minutes) Notion database. Google Sheets. Wherever you look, when you’re wondering what to do next. Make it visual so you don’t have to think.
Why this works: You’re not fighting reality anymore. You’re building a plan with reality. Which means you’ll actually follow it because it doesn’t ask more than you have.
Permission Over Perfection: Your December (and Every Month) Game Plan
This whole exercise with the AI comparisons taught me this: the system doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be honest.
Honest about your actual capacity. Honest about which weeks are actually different. Honest about what counts as good enough when you’re in survival mode. That kind of honesty doesn’t feel like failure. It feels like permission.
So here’s the thing: you probably don’t need a new planner or more discipline or a stricter schedule. You need permission to look at December (or April, or August, or whenever your chaos hits) and say: “These are the realities. Here’s what’s actually possible. Here’s what I’m protecting. Here’s what waits.”
That’s not a weakness. That’s strategy.
The real breakthrough wasn’t the red-yellow-green system. It was what Claude did before building it: ask clarifying questions. Instead of assuming my capacity, it asked. Instead of guessing my priorities, it clarified. That conversation—the one where context actually gets named—is what made every decision after it make sense.
That’s why I’m creating the SHIFT Your Context Workshop launching in January.
It’s built on the same principle: get your context clear first, then build your plan around reality instead of theory. Whether you’re managing a chaotic season, scaling a business, or building something new, the conversation works because you’re not making decisions on assumptions anymore.
If you want to be part of that workshop and actually get the clarity piece sorted before 2025 picks up speed, I’ll have details soon. But for now, I want to hear from you.
So here’s what I want to know: What’s one season or phase in your business where you’re forcing traditional “balance” when you actually need survival mode permission?