3 Time Management rules to make you superhuman (just a bit)
“You are what you repeatedly do”, a smart man once said. And how often did you catch yourself disappointed with your work week, frustrated with how little you got done, anxious about the next week’s looming deadlines? I repeatedly felt rushed and unaccomplished, and then when I read that quote, I decided it’s time to change what I repeatedly do.
Time Management is basically the system you set up for yourself to be your guide on what you spend your time, and with that, what you (repeatedly) do.
I have 3 rules that guide my schedule, but first I want to explain my mindset about time:
Rule 0: How to think about time
Take a look at this twitter feed: https://twitter.com/progressbar202_
Did you feel surprised by how much of the year already passed? Don’t worry, it’s normal, even for me. The initial shock of “gosh, time passed by so fast” turned into inspiration to use my time as best as I can. It’s ultimately the only thing I really have control over.
Yes, you do have control over your time. Don’t let life happen to you. You are the boss of your own life. Any invitation to a meeting you don’t feel is going to be valuable, ask about it, or decline.
Rule 1: The 1 pm rule
Only accept meetings after 1 pm.
This principle automatically keeps half of your days free to focus on whatever is your priority 1, what you actually want to get done.
It’s a simple but effective way to ensure you get enough time to get done what you want to get done, before dealing with interruptions and being reactive.
But be careful: Start your day with what you actually want to get done, be clear about what is your priority 1 for the day. Avoid starting your day with catching up on emails, chat messages, or other reactive tasks. I reserve for example the time just before lunch for that, after I’ve already made good progress on my priority 1.
Tim Ferris calls this principle “make before you manage”.
Rule 2: Fire & Forget & Focus
Write down your tasks on a proper task list, then allow your mind to let go of them.
Of course you will still need to do the task, but you don’t need to drain your mind’s energy with remembering it. It’s on your list, so you will see it again when you go over the list. You can safely forget it. And then focus on what you want to accomplish.
It’s healthy to go over the list daily briefly, but also weekly to prioritize tasks and to schedule them into your new morning focus time. Having a prioritized task list ready for the start of the next day also makes it easy to not fall into reactive tasks but proactively work on your priority 1.
Rule 3: Manage your attention
“But what if they need me?” you might ask yourself when implementing Rule 1 & 2 into your life. And that worry might steer you towards checking for new emails, chat messages, missed calls a stunning number of times each day. When you’re working on your laptop, how often do you bring the Slack window into focus, just to see if a colleague needs any help? How often do you pick up your phone just to stare at the lock screen, just so see if anyone called to ask for urgent help?
It’s part of being responsible that you need to be reachable, in order to “respond”. That’s fine, but there’s a way that can be done so that it’s less distracting: Set up an emergency protocol for reaching you. It’s basically an SLA (Service Level Agreement) between yourself and your stakeholders and might look something like this:
- I’ll read emails and chat messages usually within 24hrs.
- If you need me urgently, call me on my phone. I’ll answer if I can, but if I’m focussing or in a meeting I might not pick up. It’s my responsibility to get back to you when I’m free.
- If you really need me to help in right that moment, call me again within 3 minutes, and then I will leave any meeting or other task behind and answer or call right back. It might also wake me up at night. But then it better be important and urgent 😉
Having communicated such a plan to my stakeholders gave me an incredible peace of mind that allowed me to focus more and check my inbox less often.
Zooming out
I’ve been living with these rules for more than 6 months now, and I can report that they’ve really helped me to become a lot more focussed, productive, and even satisfied with my own work on busy days. After all, time is the most precious resource you have, and I can only encourage you to take control of it.
After all, you only live once. Make it matter.
Thinking about time, it can become quite philosophical 😉 If you want to get another fun perspective on Time then read Tim Urban’s life calendar or watch this: What Are You Doing With Your Life? The Tail End.
