Stop Optimising Your Job. Start Building Your Exit.

Why good jobs are a trap - and the minimal viable actions that compound into freedom.

Apr 20, 2026

Welcome to issue #040 of the SovLyfe. Each week, I send one empowering essay to help you take action to build health, mindset and freedom.

One Idea

Every hour you spend getting better at your job is an hour you’re not building your exit.

I had it backwards.

I used to think the the path to freedom was - work harder at my current role, get promoted, earn more, save more, and one day, maybe in my 50s or 60s, I’ll have enough to stop.

I realised, that was never a freedom plan, and rather a hostage negotiation with my own life.

The optimisation trap:

I’d read another productivity book. Install another task manager. Optimise another job process. I’d become the person my boss trusted to get things done. All aimed at becoming a better employee.

Somehow, I was more tired, more stuck, and further from the life I actually wanted than I was three years prior.

And the better I got, the more I was were relied on. The more I was relied on, the harder it became to leave.

The golden handcuffs got tighter with every promotion, and more work was always thrown my way. The spiral continued.

And after walking away from the conventional track entirely and building and exiting a business, I realised - optimising a job you want to leave is the most expensive form of procrastination there is.

The job wasn’t the problem. The belief that optimising it would lead to freedom - that was the problem.

What actually happens:

If you spend 10 hours a week getting better at your job - through extra effort, upskilling, staying late, networking internally - you’ll absolutely earn more. Maybe 10-20% more over a couple of years.

But those same 10 hours, redirected toward building something of your own? Over 2-3 years they can compound into an asset that outlives the job entirely.

A skill you own. An audience you built. A product that earns while you sleep. A side business that eventually replaces the salary.

One path buys you a slightly nicer cage. The other buys you the key.

The design problem:

I never chose the cage. I just never was shown another option that didn’t require quitting tomorrow, risking everything, or becoming a 4am hustle-culture caricature.

You don’t need to quit. You don’t need savings you don’t have. You don’t need permission.

You need to stop pouring your best energy into an asset someone else owns.

What the exit looks like:

The exit doesn’t have to mean leaving your job. For most busy people, it shouldn’t - not at first.

The exit is a parallel build. Something I did with my first business, started small, started immediately. It grows alongside your current income until the two lines cross. Then you choose.

The real shift, from renting your time to owning something.

And the moment you start, everything else changes. The job becomes funding, not identity. The stress of office politics shrinks. The commute feels shorter. You stop needing the job to be something it was never going to be.

Two Ways to Action

1. Run the exit audit.

You can’t build an exit you haven’t defined. Before you change anything, get clear on the gap between where you are and where you’re trying to go.

Block one hour this week. Phone off. Open a blank page and answer four questions honestly:

What do I want my week to look like in 3 years? Not the money. The week. Where do you wake up? What time? Who decides your schedule? Be specific.
What skill, asset or audience would I need to own for that week to be possible? Writing? A product? A service business? AI leverage? Consulting? Pick one - not five.
What am I currently spending my best energy on that has nothing to do with that? Look at last week’s calendar and be honest. Meetings that didn’t need you. Internal politics. Optimising a role you won’t be in for long.
What is the smallest possible first step I could take this week? Something absurdly small - one post, one conversation, one interaction, one connection, one hour with a book, one tool trialled, one product to research.

The point is to stop flying blind. Many people have spent more time planning a two-week holiday than planning the next 20 years of their working life.

One hour. One page. That’s your week one audit.

2. Install the 1-hour build block.

One hour a day, five days a week, on your own thing. That’s it.

It’s more than enough. One hour a day compounds into roughly 250 hours a year - more focused time than most people have ever given to anything outside their job.

The rules:

Same time, every day. Decision fatigue kills this faster than anything else. Whether it’s 5am-6am, before the house wakes up or 9pm-10pm after the kids are down. Pick your slot and protect it.
One project only. Not three. Not a portfolio. The one thing from your Exit Audit. Novelty is the enemy of compounding.
Worst-day minimum. On the days you feel terrible, the rule is still 15 minutes. Open the document. Write one sentence. Send one email. Maintaining the connection matters more than the output on any single day.
Track it. A simple tick on a calendar. Nothing fancy. You’re building evidence that you’re someone who shows up for your own life - not just someone else’s.

One hour a day. Five days a week. Held for a year.

That’s how exits get built. Quietly. Consistently.

One Takeaway

The hours you spend optimising a job you want to leave are the most expensive hours of your life. Spend one of them a day building something you own instead - and watch how quickly the cage door opens.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?