Time Management - Part 3
In the last two posts, I told you about my idea for a new time management system and some of the nitty-gritty about how I set up my list. The goal is really about attention and energy management, though. So, the key to an effective system for me is that it helps me focus on what is important in a way that helps me keep my energy flowing. So, here's how that works.
Because I've set up my day with the 90-minute time blocks with a 30 minute break, the day is really just a few 2-hour time periods: 8, 10, noon, 2, 4, and 8 (no - I don't actually work all the time - it's just a starting point). I cross off any blocks that have meetings, conference calls, etc. even if they aren't supposed to take the whole time. I also cross off three blocks a week to go to the gym.
In the morning I sit down and look at the contexts (headspace) sorted by importance (ToodleDo actually does a pretty good job of combining any deadlines with your priority ranking to create an overall importance), then I start to plug tasks into sessions for a few days trying to create a little balance in my day and working from the highest importance down. I'll actually think about what I will likely feel like after working on one kind of tasks (say the heads down ones) and follow it with a "tasky" session to give myself a break.
I also try to make sure that I'm spending a little time each day or two on each of my different folders. If I have a few big things that I need to do, I'll try to schedule them out over the week so that I'm not doing three things that require major thinking on the same day - there's only so much brain-juice to go around.
Once I do that, I tag the tasks for a particular session, then bring up my to-do list with only the things that I should be focusing on in the block of time. For some blocks, that might only be one thing. At that point, there is literally nothing else on my to-do list. For other sessions, there might be 4 or 5 little things.
And here is where classifying things by context comes in handy - sometimes I'll get into it and I just really don't have the energy, so I'll just switch the view and see if I have any errands I need to do or any "tasky" stuff to give myself a break.
It's taken me a while to refine the system, but at this point, it really seems to be humming along.
But more about that next time.
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