Unlearning to Succeed: Francesca Phillips on Finding Your Good Space
Unlearning to Succeed: Francesca Phillips on Finding Your Good Space
When Francesca Phillips moved to Switzerland with her husband, it should have been a dream come true. But instead of feeling excited about this new chapter, she found herself waking up depressed every morning for three months straight.
"The world paints a new fresh start as this glorious, amazing thing," Francesca explains. "So why am I waking up depressed every morning?" She had left behind six and a half years in the music industry, all her belongings were in storage, and she was completely untethered from everything familiar.
That period of disorientation became the catalyst for creating The Good Space—a resource helping ambitious women and creatives consume less, create more, and build lives rooted in purpose rather than productivity.
Why we can't let go of the hustle (and why capitalism needs it that way)
Francesca's insights into our collective addiction to busyness are sharp and uncomfortable. "Capitalism depends on it," she says. "Profit and output and action depends on us being that way. And we've been conditioned to equate our value in society to those actions."
The problem got worse when we shifted from industrial to knowledge work. In factories, productivity was clear—how many units per hour. But when your output is ideas, creativity, and problem-solving, companies defaulted to the only metric they knew: time spent looking busy.
"Because they didn't know a better way of doing it, they just adopted a productivity model that was for a completely different industry," Francesca explains. "And so that's really how we got stuck into this hustle mindset because I have to show that I'm busy."
The European wake-up call most Americans never get
Living in Switzerland gave Francesca a visceral understanding of how different life could be. She watched her husband's work hours get capped at 45 hours per week—a stark contrast to the 60-70 hour weeks he'd worked in the US. She saw people take actual lunch breaks, receive mental health support, and access childcare that didn't bankrupt families.
"When you care for everyone, it actually benefits the individual better," she reflects. "The Swiss are some of the hardest working people you will ever meet, but then there's also a cap... So it's not like a mutually exclusive zero sum game. You can have both."
The difference isn't just policy—it's a fundamental shift in mindset from rugged individualism to collective wellbeing. That safety net allows people to actually rest without the constant fear of financial ruin.
The ADHD diagnosis that changed everything
At age 30-something, Francesca discovered she had ADHD. The diagnosis was simultaneously relieving and devastating. "It was relieving, but also just like a grieving process because you have to remit yourself," she says.
Suddenly, years of self-criticism made sense. The projects that took her ten times longer than others. The inability to fit into traditional corporate structures. The constant feeling that something was wrong with her.
"Undiagnosed ADHD is actually more harmful than diagnosing it because of the self-esteem issues and identity issues it causes," Francesca explains. "Instead of saying, 'it's really hard for me to do this task, you know what, it's my ADHD, so let me tweak this,' it's 'I'm a failure, I'm horrible, I can't do this.'"
The diagnosis didn't just explain her struggles—it revealed her strengths. Clients had always told her they loved her brain, the way she thought, how she could take broad visions and break them into doable steps. That was her ADHD working for her.
The paradox of productive rest
One of Francesca's most powerful insights is about the relationship between rest and creativity. When she started prioritizing nervous system regulation—taking breaks, lying down for 10 minutes when frustrated—something unexpected happened.
"Once I started making nervous system regulation the number one thing, I noticed that as I was laying down or as I was getting water... an idea would pop in my head or this sudden urge to create the thing I wanted to create came with such a soft but powerful clarity."
This isn't just feel-good advice—it's strategic. "When you're regulated, you actually tap a higher source of creativity than if you don't," she explains. "Einstein or like other great writers, they would take long walks or they would go and take vacations... in order to get clarity and refuel and then come back to their work."
Values as your anti-capitalist compass
Francesca's approach to breaking free from hustle culture starts with getting clear on your actual values, not the ones society tells you to have. She keeps four values in her iPhone notes: peace, creative wealth, freedom.
"When I make a decision that doesn't honor any of those values, that's when I feel shame. That's when I feel struggle. That's when I feel discouragement," she says.
This isn't just self-help—it's resistance. "If you're feeling off about work or you're feeling some sort of clash, it's because your personal values are clashing with what the values are of the world," Francesca explains. "Maybe you just don't know explicitly that's what's happening, but I guarantee you that's what it is."
The AI opportunity we're probably going to waste
As AI takes over more routine tasks, Francesca sees both opportunity and danger. The opportunity: finally breaking free from the productivity theater that knowledge work has become. The danger: our conditioned response to fill any freed-up time with more work.
"I'm wondering how that's gonna change the way we work and the way we see productivity," she says. "But we've been conditioned to equate our value in society to those actions... So when that's what you're holding onto, you feel irrelevant. You feel like you don't have value if you're not behaving that way."
Building a life that actually fits your brain
Francesca's daily structure looks nothing like traditional productivity advice. She limits herself to three things per day—sometimes just two. She starts mornings slowly, simmering bone broth while reading. She works out for 15-20 minutes three times a week. She's completely off Instagram and TikTok.
"I refuse to believe that there's only one way to show up and work and be successful," she says. "I am determined to show that I can be the most alive and happy and relaxed human being and still be successful."
Her approach to structure honors her ADHD brain while rejecting the capitalist demand for constant output. "I feel like I only stick to like three things a day that I want to get done no more and I don't beat myself up for not getting more than three done."
The resistance of creating space
Francesca's advice for anyone feeling stuck in hustle culture is deceptively simple: create space. Step away from social media, stop consuming so much information, and see what emerges.
"Give yourself that opportunity and chance to hear the wisdom that your body is trying to gently tell you," she says. "It's not going to force you to listen, but it is talking and it is creating connections that you consciously can't be aware of."
This space-creating isn't selfish—it's subversive. "That is the ultimate act of resistance. That's the ultimate act of rebellion in a world that we have today."
What becomes possible when you stop performing productivity
Francesca's story proves that stepping away from hustle culture doesn't mean stepping away from success. By honoring her actual values, understanding her neurodivergent brain, and creating space for genuine creativity, she's built a business that serves her clients while serving her own wellbeing.
Her work coaching women through career transitions and growing The Good Space newsletter shows what becomes possible when you stop performing productivity and start living intentionally.
"Your body literally takes in a ton of stimuli and your brain decides what's worth making known to you," she explains. "So I feel like because we ignore our body, we ignore our inner instincts and our intuition, we're missing a lot of potential growth and opportunity for ourselves."
The path forward isn't about finding the perfect routine or the right productivity hack. It's about questioning the systems that tell us our worth comes from our output, and having the courage to build something different.
Connect with Francesca's Work:
Website: findyourgoodspace.com
Personal site: francescaphillips.co
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