It’s Time to Rethink the To-do List
By Sandy
Our days are typically structured around the number of hours on a clock face. Step one: let’s break it down into one or two hour chunks. Step two: write down as much as we can think of on our to-do list and hope that we’re able to tick the boxes before the end of the day. Step three: uh oh, it’s 11:00 pm and we’ve only managed to accomplish three things on that list. Sound familiar? How many of us can check all the items on our to-do list in one day? How many of us get distracted, tired, or demotivated as the day progresses? I certainly am one of those people who can hardly stick to a routine for more than a day. The rituals are gruesome and I want the flexibility that a fully packed schedule simply cannot provide. So if all hours of our day are not created equal because of natural fluctuations in our physical and mental energies, then perhaps we should be taking a more scientific lens to our day-to-day planning.
I recently came across the article “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time” from Harvard Business Review. It explores this idea well in that our energy levels are a finite resource. The way in which we manage the different types of energies can affect our productivity in drastic ways. Our to-do list is oftentimes jam-packed with activities that require different types of energy (be it emotional, physical or mental energies). For example, cleaning out your wardrobe and completing a term essay require very different mental capacities. While physically cleaning out your wardrobe could be a task for any time of the day, completing a term essay may be a task exclusively planned for the morning if you’re an early riser like me. On the other hand, the same strategies may not be effective if you’re a night owl and like to complete the bulk of your activities in the late evening.
Since adjusting some of my day-to-day activities around my energy levels, I’ve found that I am able to:
- Achieve better academic-work-life balance without feeling (overly) stressed
- Improve my mood during the day
- Focus my energy on where it matters most
The root of this energy level fluctuation is in our circadian rhythms. The body has an internal biological clock that regulates our daily functioning from sleep to wakefulness. This cycle governs much of our energy levels by signalling the body to be alert or to rest and digest. Many things can tip the balance of this rhythm including temperature, social activity, medications, exercise and nutrition.
So now that you’re aware of the science and advantages of planning around your energy levels, what does it look like to actually revamp your regularly scheduled programming?
Before getting started, one caveat is that not all bodies function alike. While the principles mentioned here are generalized, you are ultimately the all-knowing expert in the way your body responds to stressors. One thing that has helped me understand my own physical and mental energies is to keep a journal of my energy throughout the day. Try this for a few days to see where your greatest burst of motivation or lethargy is throughout the day. For myself, a mass slump in energy happens in the afternoon between 2–4 pm, where my time would be best spent on tasks like grocery shopping or laundry.
With a renewed understanding of our daily routines, we can then start to plan our days around these rises and falls in emotional, physical, and mental energies. Sometimes, you may find an incongruence between these energies. For example, I find that while my mental energy is often the most concentrated before noon, my physical energy is actually higher in the later evening. This means that planning for tasks that may require more physical investment, such as meal preparation, snow shovelling, or jogging, might be a better use of my burst in physical energy.
Let’s take a look at the breakdown of my schedule one Sunday:
A great way of organizing a day is through colour-coded activities corresponding to the drain or replenishment of our energy resources. For example, green activities on my agenda generally reflect activities that are typically re-energizing or exciting. While completing online coursework and having lunch with a friend are both one hour in length, they have different impacts on my mood and liveliness. One of my key takeaways is to intersperse these exciting activities throughout the day to help you feel rewarded and motivated rather than burn out early during the day.
One of the most common questions I am asked is, “but Sandy, what about coffee? I can power through any activity any time of the day if I have a cup of coffee.” I feel you. I can also attest to the incredible burst of productivity following my first cup of coffee in the day. However, it’s also important to note that post-caffeine crashes may actually reduce your productivity later on. Caffeine has been shown to raise productivity in the present, but reduce sleep and rest later in the day. Think back to high school physics where we learned “energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred.” The same principle applies to our bodies on caffeine: we’re merely borrowing our energy from the future. Use it wisely.
When you’ve finally cracked the code to a more productive day, don’t forget about taking deep breaths and taking the time to unwind. For myself, this means staying away from the multiple screens I stare at (and staring at a wall instead). And what if you didn’t feel like meeting any of the tasks on the agenda for the day? That’s okay too! Part of my realization as I slowly begin to reflect on my time-management journey is that nobody is perfect. We’re human. That acceptance will take you a long way in making the most of your day and staying happy while you’re doing it.
