Introduction

I have been thinking about processes, habits, and routines after, once again, incinerating hours of my life watching videos online. Two situations account for most of why or when I get offtrack and surrender my attention.

1. Fatigue. I’m tired and sit at the computer in the posture of one at work while not actually doing anything to truly save or savor the world.[1]
2. Lack of clarity. My “next action” for advancing the project I am working on or could work on, is unclear. In other words, I’m stressed about the volume rather than clear about the one specific thing I could be doing in the moment given my location, resources, and state of mind.[2]

My Dad taught me that “you show what’s important by how you spend your time.” He said it a thousand times before I fully embraced this idea, which has two distinct parts. First, decide what’s important. Know your priorities. With clear priorities, we can quickly and clearly say “yes” and “no” to requests and opportunities (which also means we need to know how to say no. Often.) Second, have a strategy for managing your time and energy. As Jim Rohn once said, “either you run the day, or the day runs you.”

Maintain an Inventory of Projects

Planning time depends on tracking obligations. As David Allen says, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” Have a process for maintaining and prioritizing your projects, defined as any effort requiring multiple steps, actions, or to dos. Making a phone call is an action; conducting a phonathon is a project.

I maintain three lists of projects, three queues, for organizing and prioritizing my work. One, I have a list for Writing projects. (Currently, this blog post is atop the list.) Second, I have a Work queue for priority efforts in my role as CEO of Forisk. Third, I maintain a list of priorities for Family & Friends. With these lists, I am positioned to plan my days, weeks, and months.

Plan Each Week on the Calendar

Without structure and priorities, the day devolves with nothing to show. While my approach to managing time is in progress, I follow several strategies to organize my thinking and schedule priorities.

First, every Sunday, I conduct a weekly review, something I learned from Getting Things Done by David Allen. That means I take 60 to 90 minutes (or more) to review my active projects, family obligations, and personal commitments to confirm I’ve got a sense for the week and scheduled my priorities on the calendar.

Second, I use block scheduling, a strategy learned from Cal Newport[3] and his book Deep Work. I assign certain tasks to certain days or times of day. For example, I dedicate Mondays to “administration”, which includes management meetings, contracts, bills, etc. I schedule workouts and time to write each morning. Block scheduling helps me focus by topic and leverage my natural energy levels.

Conclusion

In practice, we tend towards self-indulgence and do the things we like to do, or want to do, in the moment, rather than those things that help us achieve our goals. The passive surrender of our attention to algorithmically targeted videos differs from a deliberate choice to read the news, or watch a movie (like Talladega Nights, which still makes me laugh. Shake and bake!) The primary battle is planning the day and week in an operable way. If we don’t plan our days, and how we use our time and attention, someone else will. Having clear priorities and a sensible approach to managing our time can help.

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[1] The writer of Charlotte’s Web and The Elements of Style, E.B. White, in a 1969 interview in the New York Times, said, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

[2] David Allen’s work, which I cite later in this post, has influenced my thinking and approach, and I am grateful to him.

[3] I first became aware of Cal through a 2008 blog post he wrote on “fixed-schedule productivity.”