The Quiet Trap of “Fixing Things That Weren’t Broken"
You know that feeling when you suddenly decide your logo is the problem?
Or you’re convinced your whole business would work if your email font was just one size smaller?
Yeah, me too.
We call it “improvement.” But sometimes, it’s just productive avoidance in cute shoes.
The truth is, most of us aren’t short on effort. We’re short on direction. We tinker because fixing something visible feels safer than facing what’s actually slowing us down.
So, let’s talk about what’s really broken — and what happens when you stop polishing what was already fine and finally start fixing what makes you tired.
When the Canva Tweaks Start to Feel Like Progress
Let me confess something mildly embarrassing:
Once, I spent two full evenings redesigning my “thank you” page banner.
Not because it didn’t work. It did.
It was just… beige. Too beige. Surely beige was why people weren’t buying, right?
Spoiler: it wasn’t the beige.
It was the follow-up chaos that came after a client purchased — the back-and-forth messages, unclear boundaries, and me sending files from three different folders because “I’ll organize it later.”
The banner was fine.
The system was broken.
When I stopped decorating the beige and started fixing the mess behind it, everything shifted.
The Hidden Leaks No One Talks About
Every business has leaks — tiny, quiet ones that drain energy faster than caffeine refills it.
They don’t show up in your analytics dashboard. They show up in your mental tabs:
- Rewriting the same client email for the 15th time.
- Searching for “that one link” you swore you saved.
- Saying yes to a revision you didn’t charge for (because “it’s small”).
- Feeling like every project starts from zero again.
Those are your real bottlenecks — not your color palette or your domain name.
And here’s the catch: you can’t scale clutter.
The more clients, customers, or content you add to a messy process, the louder the chaos gets.
The Week My Calendar Imploded
A few months back, I had what I affectionately call “Spreadsheet Monday.”
Five clients. Four time zones. Two half-finished projects.
And a coffee cup that had given up on being refilled.
I was working twelve-hour days, and somehow, nothing was actually moving.
When I finally stopped, I realized half my time wasn’t going to work, it was going to rework.
I rebuilt the same things over and over — client onboarding emails, deliverable folders, follow-ups.
Every client got a slightly different version because I didn’t have one clear system.
That was the week I made the Clients Without Chaos cheat sheet — not as a product at first, but as self-defense.
Now it’s my go-to reset for anyone drowning in their own DMs.
The Fix — Simple Systems > Fancy Platforms
You don’t need a $99/month tool or a 12-step onboarding flow. You need one page that keeps your boundaries, delivery, and sanity in one place.
When I say “system,” I don’t mean automation bots or complicated funnels.
I mean things like:
- A pre-written email that says, “Here’s how I work, here’s what’s included, here’s what’s extra.”
- A repeatable folder setup that you use for every client.
- One delivery link that doesn’t expire, vanish, or confuse people.
That’s it. That’s how you stop “managing” chaos and start selling without apology.
If you want to skip the trial-and-error part, the same one-page template I use is now here:
👉 Clients Without Chaos Cheat Sheet
It’s the same system I built after Spreadsheet Monday — a plug-and-go guide to client sanity that still makes me laugh because it started as a cry for help.
The 20-Minute Audit
Before you fix anything else this week, do this tiny exercise:
Step 1: Write down every “ugh” moment from your last client or customer interaction.
Step 2: Circle the ones you’ve had more than once.
Step 3: Pick one and decide how to stop it from repeating (a template, a boundary, a checklist).
That’s your real work.
Not fonts, not rebrands — just plugging the quiet leaks.
Your Business Isn’t a Bonsai Tree
Here’s the thing: we treat our businesses like bonsai trees — trimming, shaping, obsessing over symmetry — when really, we’re supposed to be growing a forest.
You can’t scale with tweezers.
The time you spend pruning aesthetics could be spent planting systems. The kind that grow without you staring at them every day.
Tiny Moves for This Week
Let’s keep it simple:
- Choose one thing that annoys you every single project.
- Fix it once, properly, instead of “dealing with it again.”
- Watch how much lighter your workday feels by Friday.
That’s the kind of “tiny move” that builds real momentum — and the quiet confidence of someone who knows their behind-the-scenes is clean.
Most creators aren’t lazy. They’re just tired of solving the wrong problems.
You don’t need to work harder — you just need to stop working around your own chaos.
So next time you find yourself tweaking a banner, maybe ask:
“Is this the beige again, or is something deeper calling for attention?”
And if it’s the deeper stuff — start there.
It’s quieter, but it’s where the real momentum hides.
–– Adele @ ClickMuse