1. Introduction: The Productivity Trap
Following traditional productivity advice but still feeling exhausted? You’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs are caught in an endless cycle of to-do lists and hustle, always feeling behind.
The typical advice – work harder, wake up earlier, do more – often leads straight to burnout. This constant busyness creates confusion, exhaustion, and disconnection from your original business purpose.
What if true productivity means doing the right things, not more things? This new approach puts clarity first. With clarity, decisions become easier, focus sharpens naturally, and actions align with your real goals. It’s about making your work matter, not just filling your calendar.
2. Understand Your Core Values
What Are Values and Why Do They Matter?
Values are the principles that guide your decisions and actions. They’re not just nice words on an office wall – they’re the deep beliefs that shape what matters most to you. When you live in alignment with your core values, work feels meaningful and choices become clearer.
Most people haven’t taken time to identify their true values. Instead, they absorb values from family, culture, or business trends without questioning if these actually fit who they are. This disconnect creates an ongoing sense of friction – pushing toward goals that don’t actually bring fulfillment.
Jonathan's Values-Based Approach To Coaching
At Untangled Coaching, Jonathan doesn’t start with tactics or strategies. He begins by helping entrepreneurs uncover their authentic values. This process often reveals surprising insights about what truly drives each person’s decisions and reactions.
“You can follow every productivity system perfectly,” Jonathan explains, “but if your goals conflict with your values, you’ll sabotage yourself without knowing why.”
For example, if your deepest value is family connection but your business demands constant travel, no amount of productivity hacks will resolve that inner conflict. Real progress begins when your business model and daily activities align with your core values.
How Misaligned Values Lead to Overwhelm and Poor Decisions
When your actions don’t match your values, internal resistance builds. This shows up as procrastination, lack of motivation, or making decisions you later regret. The mental effort required to push against your own nature drains the energy you need for real growth.
Many entrepreneurs suffer from what Jonathan calls “successful but miserable syndrome” – achieving external goals while feeling empty inside. The root cause is usually values misalignment. Their business succeeds by traditional measures but fails to fulfill what truly matters to them.
Exercises to Help You Discover and Clarify Your Values
Here are simple exercises Jonathan recommends to start clarifying your values:
- The Peak Experience Inventory: Think about 3-5 moments when you felt most alive and fulfilled. What values were being honored in those moments?
- The Frustration Flipside: Identify what frustrates you most about others. Often, the opposite of these frustrations reveals what you value deeply.
- The Legacy Question: If you could be remembered for embodying just three qualities, what would they be?
These exercises begin the process of untangling your authentic values from expectations you’ve absorbed from others. This clarity becomes the foundation for building a business and life that actually feels right for you
3. Personal Productivity Starts with Self-Awareness
The Myth of Time Management vs. the Reality of Energy Management
Most productivity advice centers on managing time better. But Jonathan’s approach flips this idea: “Time management is actually energy management in disguise.”
We all have the same 24 hours, but our energy fluctuates throughout the day. True productivity comes from matching your most important work to your highest energy periods – not from squeezing more tasks into each hour.
When entrepreneurs understand their natural energy patterns, they stop fighting against their own nature. This awareness alone can dramatically increase both output and satisfaction
Find Your Natural Rhythm: Working With Your Chronotype
Are you a morning person, a night owl, or somewhere in between? Your chronotype – your natural sleep and energy pattern – significantly impacts when you do your best work.
Jonathan helps clients identify their chronotype and restructure their days around these natural patterns. For example:
- Morning types might schedule creative work before 10 AM
- Evening types might handle complex decisions after 4 PM
- Those with afternoon slumps might plan lighter tasks for that time
“The goal isn’t to force yourself into someone else’s ideal schedule,” says Jonathan. “It’s to create a rhythm that works with your unique wiring.”
Identifying What Actually Moves the Needle
Not all tasks have equal impact. Yet many entrepreneurs spend most of their day on low-value activities that keep them busy but don’t drive results.
Through Jonathan’s coaching, business owners learn to identify their true “needle-movers” – the 20% of activities that create 80% of results. This clarity helps them ruthlessly prioritize and delegate everything else.
The process starts with tracking how you actually spend time for a week, then honestly assessing which activities generated real impact. Most people are surprised to discover how little of their busy work actually matters.
How Mental Clutter Blocks Real Progress
Physical clutter has a well-known impact on focus, but mental clutter is even more damaging. Unprocessed emails, half-made decisions, and unresolved conflicts constantly pull at your attention.
“Each open loop in your mind drains cognitive energy,” Jonathan explains. “When these loops multiply, they create a background noise that makes clear thinking impossible.”
The Untangled Method includes specific practices for identifying and closing these mental loops. As clarity increases, entrepreneurs often report feeling like they’ve gained extra hours in their day – not because they’re doing more, but because their mental energy is no longer scattered.
4. Break the Patterns That Hold You Back
How Entrepreneurs Get Tangled in Reactive Behavior
Most business owners start their days with good intentions but quickly fall into reactive patterns. Emails, messages, and “urgent” requests hijack their focus before they’ve accomplished anything meaningful.
Jonathan helps clients recognize these reactive cycles and establish boundaries that protect their most important work. This might mean:
- Not checking email until noon
- Creating “deep work” blocks where notifications are turned off
- Having a clear system for evaluating requests before saying yes
These boundaries create the space needed for proactive rather than reactive work.
Procrastination, Perfectionism, and People-Pleasing as Signals
Jonathan views these common challenges not as character flaws, but as valuable signals. “When you procrastinate, your body is telling you something important,” he explains. “Either the task doesn’t align with your values, or you’re approaching it in a way that creates unnecessary resistance.”
Similarly, perfectionism often signals fear of judgment, while people-pleasing points to unclear boundaries. By treating these patterns as information rather than failures, entrepreneurs can address the root causes instead of just the symptoms.
Jonathan's Untangled Method: Rewiring Thought Patterns
The Untangled Method helps clients identify self-limiting beliefs that create unnecessary struggle. These might include thoughts like:
- “I have to do everything myself to ensure quality”
- “Taking breaks means I’m not committed enough”
- “If I say no, I’ll damage important relationships”
Through targeted exercises and coaching conversations, these thought patterns get untangled and replaced with more accurate and helpful perspectives. As thinking shifts, actions naturally follow.
From Trigger to Transformation: The Power of Reflection
Many entrepreneurs operate in constant reaction mode, moving from one trigger to the next without pausing to reflect. The Untangled Method introduces strategic pauses that interrupt this cycle.
Through structured reflection practices, clients learn to catch themselves before reactions become habits. This creates space to choose responses aligned with their values and goals.
The process is simple but powerful: identify triggers, notice automatic reactions, pause to consider alternatives, and choose a response that moves you toward your true priorities. With practice, this cycle of awareness becomes second nature.
5. Rebuild Structure From the Inside Out
Clarify Your Vision, Then Build Systems to Support It
Many entrepreneurs try to adopt productivity systems without first clarifying their vision. This is like building a house without a blueprint – the structure might be solid, but it won’t serve your needs.
Jonathan reverses this approach. He helps clients first develop crystal clarity about their desired future, then design systems specifically to support that vision.
“Systems should serve your vision, not the other way around,” he explains. “The right structure feels like freedom, not restriction, because it’s built around what truly matters to you.”
This inside-out approach ensures that daily actions naturally align with long-term goals, creating momentum instead of resistance.
Micro-Habits That Lead to Macro-Results
Massive change rarely comes from massive action. Instead, Jonathan focuses clients on tiny, consistent habits that compound over time.
These micro-habits might include:
- A two-minute morning review of top priorities
- A brief end-of-day reflection on what went well
- A simple question before starting any task: “Is this actually important?”
The power lies not in the size of these habits but in their strategic placement at decision points throughout the day. Like small rudders steering large ships, these micro-habits gradually redirect entire businesses.
Daily Rituals That Anchor Clarity and Confidence
Rituals differ from habits in their intentional, almost ceremonial nature. They’re designed not just to accomplish tasks but to shift mental and emotional states.
Jonathan helps clients design personalized rituals that create psychological anchors throughout their day:
- Morning rituals that set intention and energy
- Transition rituals that help switch between different types of work
- Evening rituals that support proper recovery and reflection
These rituals become reliable tools for maintaining clarity even during stressful periods, preventing the slow drift back into old patterns.
Journaling, Tracking, and Course-Correcting
Self-mastery requires self-knowledge, which comes through consistent tracking and reflection. Jonathan’s approach includes simple but powerful tracking methods:
- Daily journaling focused on specific questions
- Weekly reviews to assess progress and obstacles
- Monthly recalibration of goals and strategies
This ongoing feedback loop creates a self-correcting system. Rather than waiting for annual reviews or major failures, entrepreneurs can make tiny adjustments that keep them aligned with their vision.
6. Leadership, Relationships, and Emotional Intelligence
Why Self-Mastery Is the Foundation of Great Leadership
Jonathan believes the greatest leadership challenge isn’t managing others – it’s managing yourself. “You can’t lead others effectively when you’re internally scattered,” he explains. “Your team will feel your confusion even if you think you’re hiding it.”
Self-mastery creates the inner stability leaders need to:
- Make consistent decisions aligned with values
- Stay calm during crises and challenges
- Connect authentically with team members
- Model the behaviors they want to see in others
As entrepreneurs develop self-mastery, their leadership naturally becomes more effective and inspiring.
How Clarity Improves Communication and Boundaries
Clear internal boundaries create the foundation for clear external boundaries. When entrepreneurs understand their own values and priorities, they communicate more directly and set more effective limits with others.
Jonathan teaches specific communication frameworks that help clients:
- Express needs clearly without apology or aggression
- Say no without damaging relationships
- Delegate effectively with proper context and support
- Have difficult conversations with confidence
These skills reduce the relationship friction that often drains entrepreneurs’ energy and focus.
Leading Without Losing Yourself
Many business owners find themselves consumed by their companies, losing their sense of self in the process. The Untangled Method helps them maintain a clear boundary between their identity and their business.
“Your business should be an expression of who you are, not the definition of who you are,” Jonathan emphasizes. This distinction allows entrepreneurs to lead from a place of wholeness rather than desperation.
Through specific exercises and ongoing coaching, clients rediscover interests and connections outside their business. This broader perspective actually enhances their leadership, bringing fresh energy and insights to their work.
7. From Insight to Impact: Real-Life Outcomes of Coaching
Case Studies of Transformation
While every entrepreneur’s journey is unique, certain patterns emerge among Jonathan’s clients:
One technology founder came to coaching feeling trapped in operations, unable to focus on the visionary work that energized him. Through the Untangled Method, he identified how his fear of delegation kept him stuck. Within six months, he had restructured his leadership team, created clear systems, and reclaimed 15 hours weekly for strategic work. His company’s growth rate doubled, but more importantly, his enjoyment of the business returned.
Another client, a successful consultant, struggled with burnout despite loving her work. Coaching revealed that her inability to set boundaries with clients stemmed from childhood patterns of people-pleasing. As she untangled these patterns, she raised her rates, reduced her client load, and established clear working hours. Her income remained stable while her working hours decreased by 30%.
How Clients Reclaim Energy, Time, and Direction
The most common feedback Jonathan receives isn’t about business metrics – it’s about energy transformation. Clients report:
- Mental clarity that makes decisions easier and faster
- Emotional steadiness during challenges that once would have derailed them
- Physical energy that lasts throughout the day
- Renewed excitement about their business vision
This energy shift happens not through pushing harder, but through removing internal obstacles that were draining their natural vitality.
The Shift from Surviving to Creating
Perhaps the most profound transformation is the shift from reactive survival mode to creative leadership. When entrepreneurs untangle from old patterns and gain clarity, they move from:
- Putting out fires to building fire-resistant systems
- Reacting to market changes to anticipating and leading them
- Managing current problems to creating future opportunities
This shift represents the essence of entrepreneurship – creating something new that serves others while expressing your unique gifts.
8. Why Coaching With Jonathan Is Different
Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur: Jonathan's Unmatched Perspective
Jonathan’s coaching isn’t theoretical – it’s grounded in his 20+ years building and leading Kidorable, a global brand with products in over 5,000 stores across 20 countries. He’s faced the same challenges his clients encounter, from cash flow crises to team conflicts to the personal toll of leadership.
This firsthand experience allows him to speak the language of entrepreneurs and understand the unique pressures they face. He’s walked the path from startup struggles to sustainable success, which gives his guidance practical relevance that academic coaches can’t match.
The Untangled Method: More Than Mindset Coaching
While many coaches focus exclusively on mindset, the Untangled Method integrates three essential elements:
- Internal clarity about values, purpose, and vision
- Strategic clarity about business direction and priorities
- Operational clarity about systems, teams, and execution
This comprehensive approach ensures that inner transformation translates into tangible business results. Clients don’t just feel better – they lead better, decide better, and build better companies.
Ongoing Support for Long-Term Self-Mastery
Jonathan’s coaching isn’t designed as a quick fix but as a foundation for ongoing growth. Whether through one-on-one coaching relationships, group programs, or workshops, he provides support structures that help entrepreneurs maintain clarity even as their businesses and lives evolve.
The tools and frameworks clients learn become part of their permanent toolkit, allowing them to untangle new challenges as they arise. Many continue some form of coaching relationship for years, finding that external perspective remains valuable even as their self-mastery grows.
9. Final Thoughts: Redefining Success on Your Terms
Productivity isn’t about doing more – it’s about becoming more aligned with what truly matters to you. As you gain clarity about your values and vision, your actions naturally become more focused and effective.
The most successful entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily the busiest ones. Often, they’re the ones who have mastered the art of untangling complexity and focusing on what truly moves the needle. Their calendars may have more white space, but their impact is greater.
Self-mastery is the secret path to sustainable success. While tactics and strategies matter, the entrepreneur who knows themself – their values, patterns, strengths, and blind spots – will always have an advantage. This self-knowledge creates a foundation for joy and fulfillment that extends far beyond business metrics.
As Jonathan often tells his clients: “Success without fulfillment isn’t success at all. But when you align your business with who you truly are, success and fulfillment naturally grow together.”
10. Ready to Get Untangled?
If you’re ready to move beyond traditional productivity advice and discover the power of clarity-first entrepreneurship, Untangled Coaching offers several paths:
- Join the Get Clarity group coaching program to learn alongside other entrepreneurs
- Explore one-on-one coaching for personalized support
Whatever path you choose, the journey toward clarity begins with a single step – recognizing that there’s a better way to lead your business and your life.
