Why most people suck at managing their time
We always blame time, we say:
“If only I had more time” “It didn’t give me time” and “I need more time to achieve it”. What if I told you that the reason you don’t reach your goals isn’t because of poor time management? We all have the same 24 hours, Elon Musk can run multiple companies, so why can’t you even run your life?
The reality is this, Elon doesn’t have to do the dishes, cook, walk his dog, call the gardener, do laundry, or take his kids to school.
Of course, you can outsource these tasks and buy time.
However, there is an external force that prevents you from working.
Energies
Depending on what phase of the day you are in, your brain will react in different ways.
Unfortunately, we can’t work 20-hour days as Musk does. The good news is that if possible you can enjoy your day fulfilling all your tasks. You can achieve this by recognizing which times of the day your brain has more energy.
To attack each task with motivation, and emotion and in an intelligent way.
Instead of doing tasks at times of the day when your brain is stupid, bored, and irritated.
Find your period of maximum productivity
“You win at the beginning and the rest is extra” — Ryan Holiday
Phase 1 of the day (0–8 hours)
My period of maximum energy is in the morning. I choose the most demanding tasks with the greatest resistance.
Phase 2 of the day (9–15 hours)
During this period I know that my brain slows down and does not like doing demanding activities.
For these hours I have challenging tasks, which do not need a lot of mental energy. This part of the day is where I experience the greatest resistance.
Phase 3 of the day (16–24 hours)
To keep the brain at peak performance, sleep the next day is critical. By then, the only thing left to do is to get a good night’s sleep after a productive day.
If you want advice on how to sleep better you can see my article: 12 incredible useful tips for better sleep every entrepreneur needs
How much energy a task needs
Your best chance for a productive day is to put the most energy into the fewest tasks on your list.
In general, 20% of your tasks generate 80% of the results that will move your projects forward. Distribute your tasks by energy levels. For example, for me the ones that require greater resistance and energy are:
With that in mind you can divide them by context
Productive rest blocks
Find the activities that recover your energy between your tasks.
No one can work 10 hours straight at maximum productivity. You can relax by listening to an audiobook, eating, reading, going for a walk, or doing some kind of exercise. Productive rest blocks are the perfect opportunity for you to incorporate new habits into your day.
Make a flexible to-do list
The perfect millionaire routine does not exist.
We each have different opportunities, responsibilities, and goals. Every day is a mystery, you can struggle from emergencies to commitments. My strategy for getting tasks done is to allocate 1–2 hour blocks of time where I know I won’t be interrupted.
Leaving open slots on your calendar helps you cater to those unexpected moments.
Activities that drain your energy
Overload tasks
The biggest problem with to-do lists is filling them with unnecessary tasks.
You know that you will not complete 40 tasks in the day. If you reduce it to 20 tasks, you could complete them, but none of them will be well done. As Cal Newport said on his Podcast “It is better to spend 30 hours on a project than spend 5 hours on 6 projects”.
Of course, it seems more productive to do more projects.
The idea of this phrase is that you are less effective if you spread your energy over 6 activities.
Zoom Meetings
I hate with all my soul to have zoom meetings.
It’s okay to have calls and respond by mail to get updates on your projects. The problem is that having meetings all day is not synonymous with productivity. Meeting means that you don’t have a system for you and your team to know how to do your tasks.
For example in a marketing agency, onboarding a new client.
- The easy way “Let’s have a meeting to see how we will work”
- The hard but effective way “That the whole team knows in advance what they have to do and deadlines”
Meetings are the easiest and most annoying thing in the world.
Most productivity techniques are useful. But there is no hack or tool that will do the job for you. The whole system is useless if you don’t adjust it in relation to your energy during the day.
The point of this article is that you get to align with your brain to attack the most important tasks of the day.
In the end, those are the ones that move your projects forward.
Because doing it when you have no energy is a direct path to procrastination.
