Keynote speaker · Author · London

Between Structure and Chaos.

I started Structured Way to spread a simple message to ambitious, overwhelmed professionals and working parents: we don't need to beat ourselves up to be 100% structured.

While restructures are a necessary part of today's business world, constant changes can cost companies millions in delivery delays and cost you as an individual your mental bandwidth when you try to over-structure your way through the uncertainty.

Follow the 70/30 Principle. Structure the 70% for non-negotiables to keep execution steady, and leave 30% free for chaos, recovery, and unexpected opportunities.

Swathi Kantharaja, keynote speaker and author, holding her book
Swathi Kantharaja
16+ years Software engineer Product & program management leader Woman in tech Author

My speaking events.

Upcoming events
22 October 2026 · Online

Warwick Business School

Between Structure and Chaos, for MBA and MSc students at the University of Warwick.

Past events
Swathi Kantharaja speaking at London Ruby User Group
August 2026 · LRUG · London · In person

Between Structure and Chaos

Delivered talk at London Ruby User Group, a community of Ruby developers.

View event → ▶ Video coming soon
Swathi Kantharaja speaking at Flagstone
July 2026 · Flagstone · London · In person

Between Structure and Chaos

Delivered talk at Flagstone's annual FlagCon conference.

Title slide of Communicating with Humans, the PM Way
June 2020 · Product School · Online

Communicating with Humans, the PM Way

Delivered talk at Product School.

My books.

After 16+ years in corporate, after turning 40, I made a move to become an author. You can check more details about my books below.

Your (Un)Structured Life! book cover

Your (Un)Structured Life!

You had a plan once. And then life laughed at it.

Maybe it was the career that swallowed your calendar. Maybe it was parenthood rewiring everything overnight. Maybe it was just the quiet realisation that the life you're living was mostly designed by someone else, and you never stopped to ask if you would have drawn the blueprints differently.

This book is for anyone who has tried to hold it all together and wondered why the "right" system never quite fits. It isn't another productivity manifesto or morning routine prescription. It's an honest, personal exploration of the space between structure and chaos, and how to stop swinging between the two extremes.

At the heart of the book is the 70/30 Principle: structure about 70% of your life with intention, and protect the other 30% as deliberately, beautifully unstructured. That 30% isn't wasted time. It's the breathing room that makes everything else sustainable.

70%structured
with intention
30%deliberately
unstructured
Read more

And your numbers don't have to match. The point isn't hitting a specific ratio. The point is knowing yours.

Across ten chapters I walk through the rooms of a well lived life, career, time, mind, and growth, before making the case for why unstructured days, intentional procrastination, and finding your own dial matter just as much as any plan. Drawing on thinkers like James Clear, Cal Newport, Brené Brown, and Sheryl Sandberg, and grounded in real stories from my own messy, evolving experience, the book asks the question most frameworks skip:

How much structure do you need to feel free?

If you've been waiting for permission to build a life that doesn't look like anyone else's, where the balance is slightly off by conventional standards and that's exactly the point, this book is for you.

Structure is a choice, and so is chaos. The power is in knowing when to choose which.

Available now View on Amazon →

Also available at Waterstones· Foyles· Hatchards· Barnes & Noble· Amazon US· Amazon India

What readers say about “Your (Un)Structured Life!

A wonderfully refreshing and thought-provoking book. It gently encourages you to slow down, look inward and really reflect on the things that shape your everyday life. … I think this book would resonate with anyone who feels like they're stuck on the hamster wheel of life, constantly busy, but not always taking the time to stop and ask themselves what they actually want.

Your (Un)Structured Life surprised me in the best way. It's not a book that tells you to overhaul your life or chase some perfect routine, it quietly helps you notice the life you already have, and finally make sense of it. … Her idea of protecting space for the unplanned, not as failure but as fuel, genuinely shifted how I look at my days.

Seeing it in the "self-help" category, I was more curious with low expectations, and as it turned out VERY wrong. This is an amazing and rare book because it can be read from many different angles: as a guide, as a story of a modern professional with issues and struggles that I had being a working parent in the London area.

I couldn't put the book down! Would 100% recommend to anyone that leads a chaotic life and needs help with making decisions.

Nobody Has to Read It book cover

Nobody Has to Read It

What if the most important thing you ever wrote was never read by anyone else?

Journaling is one of the few daily practices that costs nothing, takes ten minutes, and has over a hundred studies behind it. It calms anxious thinking. It helps you make clearer decisions. It gets you through grief, career changes, and the ordinary hard days that make up most of a life.

This is a practical guide to how journaling actually works. It covers what happens in your brain when you write, how to keep it going when you feel like stopping, what to do when the writing gets hard, how to journal through grief, how to use it in your career, and how to read your old entries and see who you have been.

It also tells you what journaling cannot do. Because being honest about that is part of the point.

Available now View on Amazon →
Bulk orders for events. Copies can be arranged for attendees, students or leadership teams, signed on request. Mention it in the form below and I will send pricing.

Book me for your next event.

After 16 years in the corporate tech world, working across start-ups and large organisations such as BBC, Expedia, and Maersk, growing from a software engineer into product and program management leadership roles, I'm now an author, speaker, and Founder of Structured Way.

I speak about Between Structure and Chaos, which is much needed in today's overwhelmed corporate world. I shape the talk around your event's theme, so tell me what your audience is dealing with.

People have told me that I am calm and composed on stage, with enough humour to keep the serious subject enjoyable.

To book an engaging, straightforward talk for your next tech conference, corporate event, summit, university guest speaker slot, or internal leadership offsite, fill in the form or write to me at [email protected]

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