How to plan and execute your day

Lets face it, you have an attention problem… well, I have an attention problem.

I'm not talking about ADHD. I'm just talking about my regular day and chances are that you may be suffering from the same: priorities on your day keep changing, you have to study to get a degree, you want to create a Video Game or The New Snapchat(tm), stay up with the latest technologies and yet have time to spend with your partner, go out with friends, exercise your body, watch Netflix, read a book… and get at least 8 hours of sleep.

This article reflects a framework that worked for me in order to cope with all of that and I hope it may help you as well.

But let me be clear on this: There's no magic solution. And maybe there's no solution at all. The world we live on is constantly improving on providing us with new stuff that will get our focus and the more they are, the little time you can focus on them.

You can't fight against that and you can't eliminate every distraction. But you can control it.

The foundation behind these ideas is to get back on track when you are lost.

I personally use a lot of digital tools, partly because I'm a digital guy (does that even mean something?) but mostly because I always have access to a digital medium, being my cellphone or my computer, If I were to use a notepad it would be impossible to take a note on a bus full of people at 8am.

Below you are going to find a framework that works for me. At the end, you may need to make your own adjustments and the final result might be completely different, but I want to focus on the following items:

• Allow your framework to be flexible: Priorities changes. Focus, will, mood changes too. And that's ok, processes (specially on this topic) should be set to help you not to stress you.
• Make sure to get rewarded: Find your motivation, sometimes is hard, sometimes you have to do stuff just because you have to. Even when you are lucky enough of doing your dream job, there are always unpleasant duties or toil. Or maybe you are just not in the mood.
• Track your work, by the end of the day you should be able to identify how many "hours" you've spent on each task or topic

Write up your ideas, dreams or tasks candidates

The first column on your Trello[1] board will be your source of tasks per every day or time frame you want to plan up to. Feel free to fill this column while your day goes on.
On your first day applying this technique or any variation of it, just throw what's on your mind for the rest of the day and move to the second part. While your day continues and you are working on your tasks or doing something else, stuff will arise. If they require an action from you write them here and continue with what you are doing, if you are unsure if they require an action from you, write them as well, part of your job is going to be figure that out later.

Extra points:

• Set an expiration time for your ideas. I use a month. Trello will alert me on due dates. If I haven't done anything with an idea for a month, chances are that I can just discard that card.
• Add context. After a few days, reading "Answer to Peter" might make no sense. Trello allows you to add comments on a note, or even as part of the note itself. Write exactly what's on your mind at that moment and maybe add comments as you go through your day and your mind reminds you to "Answer to Peter".

Identify your "Today" tasks

Here is where planning the day is actually happening. I usually spend from 15 minutes to half an hour here. Take your candidates and identify the tasks to accomplish them. Don't move them from the Ideas column yet. An idea is just an idea until we start taking action on it.
Pick two or three tasks here. You can prioritize them using different criteria: is going to unblock you or someone else for doing other stuff, your sales department has made an strong commitment to a really big customer, you think is important, whatever. Don't be afraid on use your gut for prioritization. Is harder than it sounds but with practice you will get better at it (or at least, suck with confidence).

Try to be realistic and remember, it's ok if you don't get to complete a single task for the day, you may come back to it later.

Extra Points:

• Include at least one task per day that you want to do. There always things that we have to do, find your motivation. Eg. On my day, this is usually something related with game development or make a PoC for something that's in my mind.

Making room on your calendar

Open Google Calendar[2], create an event for every task and assign time to it. You may already have other events for the day: meetings, doctor appointments, etc. Accommodate time for your tasks around that.

Make sure your calendar for today is fully booked with stuff. So you know exactly what's going to be next.

Extra points:

• Leave empty spaces for re adjusting your agenda, if necessary.

Do. Work.

Start working on the first thing you have on your calendar and make sure you have time to breath.

Set fixed time ranges that are long enough to allow yourself to complete tasks but short enough to be flexible. I use 25 minutes. This varies for each individual, but even when you are good on maintaining focus for long periods of time you want to have time to distract your self and most important, give others time to distract to you (Check Slack messages, Whatsapp notifications, etc). Few things on the world can't wait 25 minutes until they get your attention. So try to focus on just one thing for 25 minutes, and let the outside world come to you after that, then you may decide on spending another 25 minutes on the same thing or re accommodate your priorities.

You can use a timer but be careful on using the one on your cellphone. Your cellphone is the enemy of your focus, make sure notifications are turned off and try not to open any other app on the moment you are setting your timer.

Some people recommends to buy a (physical) Pomodoro Timer. But then you have an extra thing to carry with you.

Extra Points:

• Turn off notifications of everything. Never trust on any app you install in your cellphone, never allow an app to push notifications.

Throw everything from the above

So you have your tasks, you have planned your day and you start to work. Fifteen minutes later, Clark, your manager, ask you to immediately join a meeting with Erika from the sales department to discuss a new feature they've sell or Martin goes to your spot to ask for a review on a document he's writing or you get a phone call from uncle Bob.

Whatever happens, is almost impossible to achieve the plan you have made. And this is why we need to keep it flexible.

This framework is not something that controls you, you control it. It allows you to be on track, but you can and, most likely, you will go sideways. The real important part here is to constantly get back on track it doesn't matter if this happens every hour or every day.

Extra points:

• Find what helps you to get back to your zone. Sometimes is music, sometimes is an extreme silence. Experiment, get to know yourself.
• Make sure you are motivated. If you find yourself not convinced on something you have to do, try to get more context, research the alternatives and always understand the outcome.

Alternatives

1. Trello can be replaced by anything that allows you to take notes. Even a physical notebook.
2. Google Calendar can be replaced with a physical agenda or any other Calendar app.