MASTERING TIME MANAGEMENT – 7 ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES TO BETTER MANAGE YOUR TIME

BUSY = OUT OF CONTROL

Derek Sivers

We all want to get better at time management. It’s one of the greatest productivity hacks. 

If you manage your time you have everything under control. But it is easier said than done. 

A lot of things come into play such as motivation, procrastination, productivity, and effort when you’re doing any task. 

Time is the great equalizer. And yet some people are better able to manage a lot of things in the same amount of time. 

I wanted to share a few strategies that helped me get better at time management. I am in no way a master of managing time and I face the same issues as everyone – procrastination, wanting to watch Netflix, lack of focus, and sleeping. But some of these ideas have been working for me for some time now and I thought it would be helpful to share

These strategies have allowed me to better organize, schedule, and prioritize my tasks to focus on things that create an impact. 

FIRST, LET’S GET A FEW THINGS OUT OF THE WAY

1. I have picked up the below ideas from different books, and articles over time. Some of the ideas I found out by trial and error. It is not one size fits all. You need to experiment and see what works out best for you based on your work and personal life. One biggest lessons that I have learned: keep it simple.  

2. Not all hours of the day are the same, stop treating them like that. You are more focused during certain times of the day compared to others. Everyone has their productive hours. I, for example, am focused during the evenings and mornings. Do your most important tasks during that time instead of assigning them to watch Netflix or do mechanical work (like laundry) where you don’t need a lot of your brain cells.

3. The article is not about how to avoid procrastination or form better habits. More on that later. We are not discussing how you have to modify your cue, triggers, response, and rewards to be more productive. Yes, they do help a lot with time management. But if you’re procrastinating, you’re not managing time. You’re spending time. You can read my article on Warren Buffett’s Noah Rule to conquer procrastination.  

4. Time Management is better planning and organizing the given time to work on things that you really want to work on. Time management is prioritizing your energy on the thing that you have planned to do at that particular moment. It could be playing XBOX or it could be making a $50 million deal. Time management means knowing what to do and when. Time management allows you to better prioritize your life

5. The difference between points 3 and 4? Point 4) is when you are assigning 4 hours for work and 2 hours for Netflix. 3) is when you’re assigning 6 hours for work and spending 5 hours watching Netflix and scrolling social media. Point 4) is managing time, and point 3) is spending time. 

Let’s get better at time management.

MEASURE IN ENERGY

I learned this trick from a conference at PwC. We don’t value time properly because we think we have ample of it. 

When you break it down your time by day i.e. it starts to hit you that you only have 24 hours.

And even better is to view it in terms of energy. All of us have limited energy per day. Even though we have 24 hours per day, we don’t have 24 hours’ worth of energy to do focused quality work. 

So per day, what are the tasks that you want to utilize your energy on? It makes a huge difference in your thinking process. 

You schedule your tasks based on your energy. Here is how I have categorized them-

• High Energy Tasks – needs the highest amount of mental energy, needs time of the day when you’re most productive, creates the most impact in your life or work
• Medium Energy Tasks – need a medium to low mental energy, they are time-consuming, and create low impact but some of them are required to be done
• No Energy Tasks – needs low to no energy, and provide entertainment value, you can skip these tasks if you have pending energy in the day

Now if you have already assigned two high-energy tasks in a day, do you think you will have the mental capacity to do 2 more of such high-energy tasks? For most people, the answer is no. So you use the remaining time doing other mechanical or entertaining tasks which are medium or no energy tasks. 

This makes a huge difference because you’re actually allocating your energy, and you get better at assigning your time. 

How to do it? Usually, my day looks like

1. 1-2 high-energy tasks and I do these tasks in the morning right after I wake up or evenings when I am the most productive
2. 2-3 medium energy tasks which I usually complete in the afternoon when I am sleepy and not so productive
3. 1-2 no energy tasks which are usually kept for late at night or in the afternoon when I am feeling lazy

80/20 RULE

I am a huge fan of the 80/20 rule and it’s one of my most used mental models. 

The 80/20 rule states that in most cases, 80% of the results you generate are based on 20% of your effort. The remaining 80% of your effort only creates 20% results.

The 80/20 rule applies to a lot of things

• 80% of work is produced by 20% of the employees
• 80% of the audience is generated by 20% of your posts
• Your 80% of revenue is generated by 20% of clients
• 80% of impact in life is created by 20% of work

So focus your energy on the 20% of work that will create the most impact. Eat that frog! 

Use the 80/20 rule to manage your energy, consequently managing your time. 

How to use it? 

1. List out everything you do and see what you are spending your time on which you should focus more on vs. what you shouldn’t. 
2. Mobile applications are silent-killers in terms of time, so check which apps are you spending your most time on and if using them is necessary. If you’re a social-media marketeer, Instagram/Twitter/Facebook would be important for you but if you’re an auditor, not so much. 
3. Now go through the list and see which things are most important to you and will create the most impact if you spend time on them.
4. Schedule your most productive time of the day for these tasks (usually these are high-energy tasks).

REINVENT YOUR TO-DO LIST

I am a huge to-do list fan. I love creating lists of things I have to accomplish. It makes me feel I have been making progress. 

Now for the longest time, I have been creating the wrong type of to-do list and I see a lot of people do it. A list with a checkbox with things that need to be done.

If you have read Atomic Habits (buy it from Amazon here), you will know the difference between motion and action. Anything that gives you a sense of motion is basically making your brain think you’re making progress but you are, in most cases, procrastinating. Action means you’re actually doing something about the task. Action delivers the outcome.

The to-do list is a good example of things that provide a sense of motion. We create a to-do list and keep adding things while checking off one or two items. The remaining tasks are carried over for the next day. And then the saga continues. Adding items makes us feel we are progressing.

A better way to make a to-do list is to assign time and location (if applicable). You have more accountability when you have been reflective on a task and have assigned it a particular time for completion. 

If you’re measuring your time by energy, you know exactly which tasks will take the most energy and will have the highest impact i.e. 20% of your most impactful tasks. Assign the best time of the day for these tasks. 

Every night, I usually go through my to-do list for the next day and assign time based to the tasks I have to get done. It is a good way to reflect on tasks and where you should be spending your energy. 

I completely understand that we have those unplanned impromptu tasks that are given to us which just fucks up our to-do list and plan for the day. If you can’t decline them, move your timeline around removing some of the medium energy tasks. 

Tools: I have switched a lot of tools over time to create a task list. Google Calendar, Google Keep, and Evernote work really well. I am currently using Notion (love it❤️) to manage all my projects and tasks but it could get a bit complicated if you’re just beginning. Keep it simple. 

TIME BLOCKING

I am shocked so many times when I see someone not blocking time on their calendar for their personal work. It just doesn’t make sense. The same people will block 30 minutes for a meeting with their colleagues but won’t block 2 hours if they know they are going to meet a friend.

I used to not block time as well but was shown this by a friend from PwC who literally blocked huge chunks in her calendar for everything she needs to do over the weekend. I made fun of her back then but it just makes so much sense now! 

Using the time-blocking technique, I avoid overlapping plans and it is super easy for me to decline new invites if I know I have things planned for that particular day. A very simple time management strategy.

Time Blocking should also be done for your daily routines. If you have a morning routine like freshening up, drinking coffee, reading news, meditating, journaling; just block 1 hour every morning. You are planning to read every night before sleeping, and block 30 minutes before your bedtime. 

If it’s in the calendar, planned, and blocked, you will be able to say ‘NO’ to tasks that creep up!

I tend to block time on the calendar as I am making my to-do list the previous night. For recurring tasks, I have a recurring time block.

Tools: Google Calendar is a very useful organizational tool when it comes to managing your time. You could create recurring blocks of time as well. Plus you can add different calendars that could remind you of holidays. I have Premier League and Champions League calendars synced with my Google Calendar, so I know when the games are on most days. You can also create your own separate calendars for work, family, friends, and entertainment to filter your Google Calendar based on that! 

BATCHING & SCHEDULING

Batching literally means grouping things together. In computing, it is used usually with scheduling to process jobs during low load-times. 

I first read about batching tasks in Tim Ferriss’, The 4-Hour Work Week (buy it on Amazon here). He explains it in this video as well.

Similar tasks should be batched together instead of doing them separately to reduce your mental load and save time. Imagine washing one piece of cloth at a time. 

It helps with focus and reduces task-switching costs. Task-switching cost is the time taken to get your full focus back when you switch from one task to another. Hence, reading emails during work tasks does not help.

Where can you use this in your life? Here are some examples:

Email: Set a 15-minute block twice or thrice a day to read and respond to all your emails. If you have follow-ups to send, you can even schedule emails for a future date/time using Gmail instead of remembering you have to follow up on something.

Social Media: Set aside 10 minutes when you engage on social media instead of picking up your phone and checking again and again

Errands: Do all your errands such as laundry, grocery, and cleaning in one day. Assign a 2-3 hour slot to complete everything

Calls and Messages: Reply to all your messages and calls once every 5-6 hours instead of keeping your phone on loud and doing it as soon as you receive a message

I am currently working on multiple projects that require me to create posts in Photoshop. I tend to batch-create them together on one day and schedule it for the entire week. 6-hour block on the calendar and I am done for the week. I save time on researching, save time on hashtags, and coming up with captions; everything seems to work in a state of flow if you’re working on similar tasks for a longer period.

THE 2-MINUTE RULE

The 2-Minute Rule was made famous by David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done (buy it on Amazon here). 

It states that if any task takes you less than 2 minutes to complete, just do it. Don’t write it down or try to remember it. If it takes you more than 2 minutes, write it down and think if you have to finish it, delay it, delegate it, or ditch it. 

Here is how it works – you just finished working on an Excel file for work and your roommate asks you to pay the electricity bill. Will it take less than 2 minutes to pay the bill? If all your credentials are already in and it is a matter of just hitting the “PAY” button, just do it! If it needs you to go physically to the store and will take more than 2 minutes, delay, ditch, or delegate it. 

It helps with procrastination as well!

One thing you need to be cognizant of is that if you hit 2 minutes but realize it will take more time to finish the task, you need to stop. Otherwise, your to-do list will be affected.

POMODORO TECHNIQUE

The Pomodoro Technique (also called the Tomato Timer technique) is breaking your tasks into smaller chunks and taking a short break between them. This is one of the more famous time management techniques.

Pomodoro helps with focus and flow, especially for bigger tasks. This is because you’re pre-planning your breaks, and you completely focus on the task at hand for the Pomodoro time. 

Here is how it works – 

1. you decide on the task you want to finish
2. set the Pomodoro timer (it’s usually 25-minutes)
3. start working on the task, focused and uninterrupted for that period 
4. take a break as soon as the bell rings
5. Continue the task or start a new one

You can go for a two-minute walk, do breathing exercises, or check social media during the break. But remember it needs to be a short break. 

There are numerous Pomodoro timers online, you can just Google them. 

SUMMARY

These are some of the best strategies for time management

1. MEASURE TIME IN ENERGY: assign tasks as high, medium, or no energy and prioritize energy instead of the time when scheduling tasks
2. 80-20 RULE: focus your energy on the 20% of tasks that create 80% of the impact; schedule them during the most productive time of your day
3. REINVENT YOUR TO-DO LIST: instead of just listing down to-do tasks, plan them, and put down the time and location (if applicable)
4. TIME BLOCKING: based on your new to-do list, schedule chunks of time on your calendar when you want to get your task done
5. BATCHING & SCHEDULING: batch similar tasks together and schedule them in advance; this saves switching-cost and helps with focus
6. THE 2-MINUTE RULE: if it takes less than 2 minutes, just do it. If it takes more than 2-minutes – delay, delegate, or ditch it
7. POMODORO TECHNIQUE: break bigger tasks into smaller tasks and take short breaks between them for better focus