All-In / All-Out Delineation
Full intensity when working, full disconnection when not — to keep bringing your best.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 88%
After years of round-the-clock, seven-day work, Perkins concluded that sustained flat-out pace harms health and judgment. Her fix is hard delineation: fully all-in while working, fully all-out when not, protected by structural habits (no email or Slack on her phone) so closing the laptop actually means tuning out. Stepping away restores the perspective to notice when you're working hard on the wrong thing.
Origin
Melanie Perkins reflecting on early Canva and Fusion Books working patterns.
Core principles
- 01Perpetual maximum pace is unsustainable for mental health and performance
- 02Delineation beats moderation: be all-in, then all-out, not perpetually half-on
- 03Structural barriers protect rest better than willpower
- 04Constant grinding can hide that you're working hard on the wrong thing — distance restores perspective
How to run it
- 1
Remove work from your off-hours devices
Take email and Slack off your phone so that when the laptop shuts, you genuinely disconnect.
Pro tip Keep an emergency path — Perkins gets a call or page for genuine issues, so nothing urgent is missed.
- 2
Be all-in while working
During work, commit fully — high intensity and focus.
- 3
Be all-out when not working
When off, give yourself real mental space with restorative practices — sleep, walks, yoga, journaling.
Pro tip Journaling and walks help Perkins bring her best to everything she does.
Watch out Working every weekend can feel like the right thing while you miss the forest for the trees and grind on the wrong problem.
In the wild
In early Fusion Books and Canva days Perkins worked seven days a week, all hours — even printing yearbooks in her mom's house. Recognizing the pace was unsustainable, she built habits to delineate work and rest while still working extraordinarily hard.
→ Sustainable intensity and the perspective to avoid grinding on the wrong things, sustained across a decade of scaling.
Common mistakes
Grinding at maximum pace indefinitely
Never stepping back damages health and mental health and degrades the quality you bring, undermining the very output you're sacrificing rest for.
Mistaking weekend grind for progress
Working every weekend feels virtuous but can mask that you're working harder on the wrong thing; without stepping away you never gain the perspective to notice.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and operators sliding into unsustainable always-on work patterns
Not ideal for
Rare genuine crunch moments where short bursts of total focus are warranted
From the transcript
“in the early days I would just work seven days a week round the clock”
“I don't have email or Slack on my phone and so when I shut my laptop, I actually tune out”
“when I'm working, I'm all in. And then when I'm not working, I'm all out”
“sometimes you can miss the forest from the trees when you're just working harder and harder, but maybe you're actually working on the wrong thing”
From the episode
The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing
Melanie Perkins