I don't usually write about this kind of thing, but it's been on my mind all wee
By Mansour Norouzi · September 23, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
I don't usually write about this kind of thing, but it's been on my mind all week.
I'd finish the day with everything checked off.
Busy all day. Felt productive.
Then I'd look back at the week and realize... nothing had actually moved.
▪️ Same product research still "in progress."
▪️ Same launch still not launched.
▪️ Same important projects sitting where they were on Monday.
So I tried to figure out why.
The way I think about it now is a car.
🔧 Service is the oil change, tires, gas, maintenance. Skip it long enough and the car breaks down.
🚗 Mileage is the distance you actually covered. It's what gets you somewhere new.
I realized I'd been fully servicing the car every day...
and driving zero miles.
The funny part is, I know this trap.
It's basically the classic "working in the business vs. on the business" idea I've probably told a dozen people about.
And I still fell right into it.
I think it's because service protects itself.
An unpaid bill starts shouting at you.
An unanswered email gets followed up on.
A deadline starts flashing red.
But nobody shouts at you for not building the thing.
The answer isn't to ignore the service work either.
Skip service and the car breaks.
Skip mileage and you're maintaining a car that never leaves the driveway.
So now my day has two headers:
🚗 Mileage: 2–3 things that genuinely move something forward. That's it.
🔧 Service: whatever needs to happen so nothing breaks. Batched instead of scattered across the whole day.
They don't get to compete for the same time anymore.
I've only been doing this for a few days, so we'll see if it sticks.
But the first thing I noticed was uncomfortable:
A lot of what I called a "productive week" was really just maintenance.
Anyone else fallen into this?
How do you stop maintenance from eating the whole day?