Glass Plates vs Rubber Plates: A Priority System for Busy Creatives

Episode 0005: Elizabeth Maxson (EMax)

Contentful CMO Elizabeth “EMax” Maxson talks leadership, women in tech, motherhood, boundaries, and finding harmony in work and life.

You have too many plates spinning. Work deadlines, creative projects, family obligations, self-care promises you made three months ago. Everything feels urgent. Everything feels like it matters. Here’s the truth: not all your plates are made of glass. Some are rubber. And they will bounce back up.

Why the glass plates metaphor matters

Elizabeth Maxson, CMO of Contentful and mother of four, shared this framework during a conversation about work-life harmony. She doesn’t believe in balance, the idea that work and life will ever be equal. Instead, she talks about harmony, where things are constantly spinning in the air, shifting based on what needs your attention right now.

“Not all of your plates are made of glass,” she explained. “Some are rubber that will bounce back up.”

This simple shift in thinking changes everything. When you realize that not every dropped commitment shatters, you can make clearer decisions about where to focus your limited time and energy.

The problem most creatives face is not that they lack discipline or time management skills. The problem is treating every plate like it’s made of glass. You exhaust yourself trying to keep everything in the air at once, convinced that letting anything drop means failure.

The difference between glass plates and rubber plates

Glass plates break when you drop them. These are the non-negotiables, the things that cannot be delayed or delegated without real consequences. A glass plate might be:

• Your child’s school pickup time
• A client deadline with legal or financial penalties
• Your own physical or mental health needs
• A relationship that’s already strained and needs attention

Rubber plates bounce. They hit the ground, and they come back up. You can pick them up later. A rubber plate might be:

• Organizing your desk
• Responding to non-urgent emails
• That creative side project you’ve been wanting to start
• Social obligations that don’t deeply matter to you

The critical insight is that your plates constantly change which ones are glass. What was rubber last month might be glass this week. The ability to reassess and reprioritize based on current reality is what creates harmony, not rigid systems that claim everything matters equally.

Signs you’re treating rubber plates like glass

You wake up exhausted before the day begins. You feel guilty when you say no, even to things you don’t care about. You apologize constantly for not being available 24/7. You beat yourself up for being “behind” on tasks that have no actual deadline.

These are symptoms of glass plate thinking—the belief that every commitment is fragile and critical.

You check email at 10 PM even though nothing is on fire. You skip lunch to finish a task that could wait until tomorrow. You cancel plans with friends because you “should” be working on something that has no clear deadline or consequence.

The cost of this approach is not just burnout. It’s the inability to recognize what actually matters when something important does show up. If everything is urgent, nothing is urgent.

What to do instead: the glass plate priority system

1. List everything you’re currently juggling

Write down every commitment, project, obligation, and responsibility you’re trying to manage. Work tasks, personal goals, family needs, creative projects, social commitments—all of it. You cannot prioritize what you cannot see.

2. Ask: what breaks if I drop this?

For each item, ask yourself honestly: what actually happens if this doesn’t get done this week? This month? Ever?

If the answer is “someone will be disappointed but nothing actually breaks,” it’s probably a rubber plate. If the answer involves real harm—to your health, your relationships, your livelihood, your integrity—it’s glass.

3. Identify which plates are glass right now

Circle the glass plates. You might be surprised how few there actually are. Elizabeth Maxson talks about showing up for yourself first before you can show up for anyone else. Your physical, mental, and spiritual health are always glass plates, even when they don’t feel urgent.

Other glass plates shift based on context. If you’re launching a product next week, that’s glass. If you’re in a crucial season with your family, their needs might be glass right now. The key is clarity about what’s actually critical in this moment, not what you wish were critical or what someone else thinks should be critical.

4. Let the rubber plates drop (on purpose)

This is the hard part. Deliberately choose to let some rubber plates hit the ground. Not forever—just for now. Watch what happens.

Most of the time? Nothing breaks. The email gets answered later. The project gets done next month. The favor you couldn’t do gets done by someone else or doesn’t get done at all.

“The work will always be there tomorrow waiting for you,” Elizabeth said. “We’re not saving lives in SaaS.”

5. Protect your glass plates fiercely

Once you know what’s glass, protect it. Put boundaries around it. Say no to things that threaten it.

Elizabeth blocks her commute time on her calendar transparently so her team knows when she’s unavailable. School drop-off and pickup are non-negotiable. She wakes up at 4:30 AM to swim with her friend Steve at the YMCA because that morning routine is a glass plate—it sets up her entire day.

“The only person that can set boundaries for you is you,” she said. “100% accountable. Nothing to do with anybody else.”

Example: how this works in practice

Elizabeth carries an extra 30 hours a week of mental load just managing her household—on top of her CMO role. Most people would look at her life and think she’s superhuman. But she’s not doing everything. She’s very deliberately choosing what to do and what to let go.

During the conversation, she talked about trying to slow down, listening to her body, and not booking hours of meetings around big offsites. She recognized she was over-subscribed and needed to say no more often.

This is what the glass plate system looks like in action: constant reassessment, seasonal adjustments, and the permission to let rubber plates bounce while protecting what truly matters.

When summer camp hours changed her kids’ schedules, her boundaries changed. When she knew she wouldn’t survive the holidays without rest, she let her body rest instead of pushing through. When work pressure demanded she move fast, she found micro moments to reset rather than waiting for a vacation months away.

The system is not static. It’s not about perfect planning or achieving some mythical balance. It’s about asking yourself constantly: what’s glass right now? What can bounce?

Takeaway

Not everything that demands your attention deserves it. Some plates are glass, and some will bounce. Your job is not to keep everything in the air perfectly. Your job is to know the difference and protect what truly matters.

Start small. This week, identify three glass plates. Everything else is rubber. Let some of it drop. Watch what happens. You might be surprised how much bounces back up on its own—and how much you didn’t actually need to catch in the first place.