Design a personalized, airtight productivity system that unifies your entire life - In just 90 days.
Discover how to build a personalized system durable enough to handle your complex paper-and-digital life — without letting your personal time become just another casualty of productivity.
★★★★★
“This was exactly what I needed to get clarity and move out of overwhelm. I feel empowered. I’m on the path to building a system that flows and to more peace of mind.”
— Tracy A.
You’re here because…
✅ You have a system built from hundreds of hours researching and replicating the experts… but the important things still slip through the cracks.
✅ You are juggling dozens of calendars, planners, notebooks and apps across multiple life areas, and losing hours just trying to keep it all straight.
✅ You’re constantly writing things down… but can never find your best ideas when you need them.
✅ Your personal projects gather dust at the bottom of your to-do list, always “less important” than other obligations.
✅ You know what you want your life to look like. You just can’t get there.
This used to be me, too.
Why I created the System Design Lab
The panic attack hit me on a Tuesday.
I found myself on my bedroom floor, chest heaving, unable to catch my breath. My phone buzzed relentlessly with notifications I couldn’t face. My perfectly organized life had collapsed in an instant.
It was a perfect storm of events: One disastrous week at work, one time-critical YouTube launch, one non-negotiable family trip, all colliding at once.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. I had done everything right. I’d researched the best productivity systems. I’d copied the methods of experts. I thought I was more organized than everyone else.
And yet here I was — watching everything I’d built collapse like a house of cards. But the worst part was retreating in the face of people who’d been so impressed by my accomplishments. I was mortified.
But in that dark place, I had an epiphany: Every system I’d ever tried was designed for someone else’s life. A simpler, more linear life. A life that didn’t involve multiple roles, complex projects, and a relentless stream of curveballs speeding at me from every direction.
I learned the hard way that these ready-made productivity systems, at best, turn you into a fantastic cog in someone else’s machine. So I stopped trying to fit my life into someone else’s system and started designing my own.
I got serious about thinking on paper. Not for the aesthetics, but to gain a better, clearer understanding of my own mind. I figured out how to make my paper thinking work with my digital tools instead of against them. I built a system that could actually hold everything — professional obligations, personal projects, and everything in between.
And for the first time in years, I felt the mental chatter of action items, anxieties, and unchecked boxes fade into silence.
I could hear myself think. And I liked what I heard.
Once I had that breakthrough, my ambitious goals were finally achievable. I got promoted at work and began managing a team. I hit 10 million views on YouTube. And I finally had time to sink back into my lifelong passion of fiction writing.
That mental clarity — the feeling of trusting your system, of knowing that nothing is falling through the cracks, of finally having space for the things that actually light you up — is what I want for you.
You don’t need another framework. You need a system that was actually designed for your life.
Let’s build that together.
What System Clarity Actually Feels Like
★★★★★
“Rachelle helped me cut through the clutter and feel confident in my productivity system, with straightforward, thoughtful advice and practical suggestions that are easily implemented in any notebook.”
– Halsted B.
Why a Personalized System Beats Cookie-Cutter Productivity
Out-of-the-box productivity systems seem perfect in theory. But they’re built for the lowest common denominator, not people with big responsibilities and bigger aspirations.
Getting Things Done: A foundational productivity system — with way too many steps.
Bullet Journaling: A blank notebook is a powerful tool — but creating all of your spreads by hand takes time that you just don’t have.
12-Week-Year: Great for those with one job and priorities that don’t compete — which is no one.
I’ve spent years breaking these systems apart to figure out what actually works and how to implement it without the frills. Once you have a system that’s built for the life you’re actually living, you can…
Take a coffee break without counting the seconds.
Spend time with your loved ones without sacrificing time for yourself.
Open your planner on Monday without dreading what you’ll find.
That’s why I designed the System Design Lab around these core principles:
📝 Good systems are designed, not adopted: A system that wasn’t built for your life will always fight against it. That’s why I want to help you create something that fits.
💪 Systems should bend, not break: A good system survives a hard month without needing to be rebuilt from scratch.
🗓️ Consistency beats perfection: A flawed system you maintain beats a perfect system you’re too afraid to use.
📓 Simplicity wins: A system you have to wrestle with is a system you’ll abandon as soon as life gets hard.
Over the next 90 days, we’ll create a system that reduces overwhelm, supports you during busy times, and creates the mental clarity promised by all those other systems — except this time, it’s built for you.
Here’s exactly how we’ll get there…
Inside the System Design Lab:
The custom system built for your life
The System Design Lab isn’t just a collection of random productivity tips. It’s a comprehensive, program designed to transform how you approach your time, planners, and life. Here’s what’s inside:
Phase 1: Design - Create your system with me.
📝 Step 1: Determine exactly what’s broken.
Before your first call, you’ll complete an in-depth productivity assessment that identifies your specific blockers, your current system’s weak points, and where you’re losing the most time and energy.
You’ll receive an immediate diagnostic profile — a clear picture of exactly what’s working, what isn’t, and why. I’ll also have a copy, so when we sit down together, we can get straight to work.
📚 Step 3: Learn, apply, and actually make it stick.
Over 10 weeks of live group sessions, we’ll go deep into every component of a high-functioning system — capture, project tracking, the digital-paper bridge, and more.
Plus, there’s dedicated Q&A! Bring your actual planner and your actual problems, and we’ll work through them together in real time.
Can’t make it live? No problem. Everything is recorded and hosted online with lifetime access.
🛠️ Step 2: Build your system from scratch — together.
You and I will meet in a 90-minute, one-on-one Design Session, where we’ll use your diagnostic profile to hand-design a custom productivity system built around your actual life — your job, your family, your creative work, your limitations.
You leave with a clear sense of exactly how your ideal system works, and a gameplan for how to tweak and test it against your real life throughout the rest of the program.
Phase 2: Action - Implementation, Accountability, and Community
💬 Step 4: A private community of smart, driven people who actually get it.
You’ll have access to an exclusive online community of people who are as dedicated to their systems as you are.
I’ll be in there answering questions, giving feedback, and responding to your problems as they come up.
It’s a safe space for like-minded people to trade tips, share resources, and celebrate their wins along the way.
🧪 Step 5: Test your system in real life, not just in theory.
Each week, we’ll all work together on small, practical challenges designed to fold core productivity practices into your actual life.
Challenges are designed to work right alongside your day-to-day planning, so you can integrate what you’re learning without adding another block to your calendar.
BONUS: Your Safety Net
🫶 One additional 1-on-1 Realignment Session with me, whenever you need it.
Life happens. Your system needs to adapt. This is why you have an additional Realignment Session with me to redeem at any point during the program. Whether you hit a wall at week five, need to rebuild after a life crisis, or just want expert eyes on what you’ve built so far, we’ll talk it out.
Helping Overwhelmed People Finally Find Stability
★★★★★
“I finally feel like I’m in control, as opposed to the normal chaos and overwhelm I feel when I’m trying to play catch-up in all my planners. Now I know what I need and what’s going to work for me.”
— Heidi
★★★★★
“Having a one-on-one, real, insightful conversation with Rachelle was soothing to my overthinking mind. I’m encouraged to work on the action points she provided from hearing my planner struggles. If this opportunity comes up again, I wouldn’t hesitate to participate.”
— Eileen E.
★★★★★
“I’m so appreciative of Rachelle’s help in figuring out a system that can work for me. She asked fantastic, insightful questions that helped me think through how I’m using my planners and what could make it all work more simply.”
— Chelle B.
★★★★★
“Looking across my desk at 15 different notebooks, I just felt overwhelmed. Talking with Rachelle helped me realize I just need to figure out where I’m going to do things — and more importantly, that there’s some stuff I just don’t need to do at all.”
— Sheila M.
★★★★★
“I feel like I can breathe again when managing my very busy and chaotic schedule and thought process. I have always preferred pen and paper — and I’ve always felt forced into the digital way because that’s the norm. This is helping me reclaim the paper way.”
— Brandy
★★★★★
“I realized I had a lot of repetition and wasted time, and was following planner trends rather than creating a system that worked best for me. This often left me feeling overwhelmed and without direction. I now feel like I have direction, focus, and a better understanding of why and what I’m planning for.”
— Michelle B.
★★★★★
“Such a clear way of thinking that has my brain relaxing rather than feeling overwhelmed. I can’t wait to clear out all my notebooks that have been sitting in my closet for literally years.”
— Yumi W.
★★★★★
“I hadn’t realized how many things were broken in my system until I went through this. From the amount of capture tools I was using that never led anywhere, to not having a thinking book — I’m excited to set things up and fully commit to it.”
— Neide I.
The Complete Roadmap to a Trustworthy System
Personal Productivity System Assessment + Diagnostic Profile
Complete before your first call. Yours to keep.
90-minute 1-on-1 Design Session with me
Your custom system, rebuilt and refined with your exact life in mind.
10 weeks of Live Group Sessions
Deep dives into every component of a high-functioning system, with dedicated Q&A sessions.
Private Online Community
Get feedback, advice, and connection with your peers on a day-to-day basis.
Weekly Implementation Challenges
Small, practical, designed to take only a few minutes. Built to turn lessons into long-term knowledge.
One additional 1-on-1 Realignment Session
Redeem any time during the program, and fix your system’s biggest problems.
Lifetime Access to All Session Recordings
Hosted online. Yours forever.
BONUS: PaperOS
The workshop built to get you thinking on paper
Every participant gets full access to PaperOS, my foundational paper productivity workshop. If you’re looking to move your digital life into a paper ecosystem, this is the launchpad you’ve been looking for.
Your Chance to Become a Founding Member
A new approach.
This is the first launch of the System Design Lab. The formulas, resources, and tips I share here will be yours to play around with, troubleshoot, and master before the System Design Lab is open to anyone else.
A tailored experience.
As a founding member, you’ll help define the System Design Lab for years to come. I’ll be tailoring the program to your needs, your experiences, your problems, and your solutions.
An exclusive community.
Spots are limited. I’m keeping this founding group intentionally small, so I can work closely with each member. If you’re interested in a highly tailored, personalized program with lots of one-on-one support, now’s the time.
The chance to build something that lasts.
With this initial launch, we’re not just building your system. We’re building a community of planning enthusiasts to share their insights with each other and future generations of students to come. Gain a community, perfect your system, and chart the path that will help others follow in your footsteps.
The System Design Lab isn’t for everyone.
The System Design Lab is perfect for you if: 👍
You have a life you love across work, home, family and personal passions — but you struggle to hold it all together.
You’ve tried Bullet Journaling, Getting Things Done, and other productivity systems, only to find they don’t adapt to your commitments and aspirations.
You like the idea of thinking on paper, but struggle to implement on-paper productivity in a way that synchronizes well with digital tools.
You have a system – but you still end the week feeling like something slipped through the cracks.
You’re ready to perfect your system and build the skills you need to solve this once and for all.
The System Design Lab is not for you if: 👎
You’re a productivity beginner looking for basic solutions.
You’re interested in an entirely digital productivity system.
You’re not interested in the cognitive benefits of thinking on paper.
You only want prerecorded material and aren’t interested in live, one-on-one and group learning environments.
For High Achievers Who’ve Tried Everything Else.
★★★★★
“Rachelle has come the closest of anyone to addressing the challenges of managing in a corporate environment — which is why I keep sticking with her. A lot of her stuff can be adapted.”
— Eric R.
★★★★★
“As a longtime paper planner person, I wasn’t sure I would get much new information. I am so glad I took the chance. This is a framework I have not seen presented anywhere else in such a clear, practical, and motivating way. It explained why my current system works — and gave me plenty of ideas to address my pain points. I watched it twice.”
— Kay
★★★★★
“I went in a little worried that, as someone who’s been trying variants of the bullet journal, it might be too simple. I’m glad I took the chance. This might be the set of practices I’ve needed to make the progress I want in my research, art, and teaching — without it being a ‘choose any two.’”
— Clarissa L.
★★★★★
“I have read many books on productivity and thinking, and not made much headway on my own. The training from Rachelle was great — and the contributions from others in the group were super helpful too.”
— Sibyl Y.
★★★★★
“Rachelle said something that I write in my planner every month: ’Plan for the life you have and not the life you want.’ That quote made me change my whole perspective on what my life actually is.”
— Eileen E.
★★★★★
“The conversation was reassuring. Hearing my own ideas reflected back by someone who knows what they’re doing makes me feel like I know what I’m doing.”
— Randi N.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Plan for a few focused hours upfront — that’s your Productivity Diagnostic and your 90-minute Design Session with me, where you’ll actually build your system. After that, the main time commitment is the weekly 60-minute group session, which you can join live or submit questions and watch afterward. Everything else — the weekly challenges, the online community, the implementation work — is designed to integrate into your normal life.
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That’s fine — this program is built for people with full lives. Every session is recorded and hosted online with lifetime access. You can also submit questions ahead of time, and Rachelle will address them on the call. You don’t have to be there live 100% of the time to still get the personalized support you need.
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Yes — especially if you’re ready to take what you learned and build a full system around it. PaperOS teaches you how to think on paper. This program takes that foundation and designs a complete, personalized system around your actual life.
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They will. That’s not a problem — it’s actually the point. This program runs for 90 days specifically because real life will intervene. A busy season at work, a family crisis, a week where your system collapses. Learning how to recover from those moments — without starting over from scratch — is one of the most important skills we’ll build together. You’ll practice it here, with support.
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Not at all! Paper thinking is one of my core practices, but hybrid systems are totally welcome. If you’re curious about paper, already use it occasionally, or have tried it and want to make it actually work, you’re in the right place.
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The first cohort kicks off in early May. Group sessions will take place starting mid-May, after Design Sessions have concluded.
You already know the cost of staying stuck. Now you know the solution.
The question isn’t whether your system needs to change. You already know it does. The question is whether you’re going to keep trying to figure it out on your own — one more book, one more hack, one more planner that works for three weeks — or whether you’re ready to leverage expert guidance and build something that actually sticks.
The System Design Lab is for people who are done starting over.
If that’s you, the application takes five minutes. Your system starts from there.