In this section, we are going to give ourselves deadlines for our tasks. A study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology claims that when you repeat to yourself “I will partake in X habit at Y place at Z time”, you will exponentially increase the likelihood of doing it.  This is why scheduling your task very precisely can help you get through your to-do-list.

WHY SCHEDULE

I remember thinking that scheduling and planning was pointless. I thought to myself that “I wouldn’t follow through anyway”, making the whole process useless. Until, one day, Randy Pausch replied to that with “You can’t change the plan if you don’t have one to start with”.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. – Randy Pausch 2008

Plan each day, each week, each semester. Set deadlines for everything. Schedule when they should begin and end. Don’t let tasks go on indefinitely, especially for intense of stressful activities.

If you can, trick yourself into earlier deadlines or set a personal consequence for being late. It is important to take 30min to schedule time. Pinpoint what your desired result is for each task and to then take another 5min to see if you managed.

As Helena Segura (2016) clearly stated, we cannot have “so much structured that one little change will throw us out of hand”. On the other hand “we cannot be like my surfer friends in LA who have no ambition or drive”. We need to have that balance in the middle, that flow.

HOW TO SCHEDULE

They will be filled with the important tasks that will help you reach the top of your pyramid. You can also use them to finish other important tasks you made out of your to-do-list.

Each block of time is designated to one task alone. It is crucial that you do not attempt multitasking, and instead focus on one task at a time.

If you do not pay attention to what has your attention you will give it more attention than it deserves. – David Allen

LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF

The “when” depends on your peak creative time. Your creative time is the time in the day where you feel the most inspired and productive. It is quite important to find your creative time… and defend it as much as possible. Once you’ve figured out what time of the day your creative juices are the most present within you, pinpoint what time of the day you feel less productive.

From there you can schedule the very important tasks during your creative time. Similarly, you can schedule your fun activities / breaks during the less productive time of the day. Separate brainless and strategic tasks to become more productive.

To sum up, pinpoint the times of the day where you feel the most proactive and creative. Secondly, define the times of the day where you are barely functioning right. Then allocate your important tasks to your “productive time” and your social breaks during the times of the day in which you feel less productive.

WARNING

The important part of planning is that you don’t pack your time table super tight. You need to schedule time for social events, self-care and space in between tasks in case anything happens or if you need to commute.

Meticulously planning every hour of the day doesn’t allow for the unexpected to happen. This can throw a wrench into the entire day. Instead, plan for 5h of real work daily and remember to schedule time for interruption.

EXTRA TIPS

• group both meetings and communication (email or phone) together to create blocks of uninterrupted work. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon.
• leave time for fun to cut off when you need to.
• don’t work all day every day: according to the New York Times, for every 10h of break, performance improves by 8%.
• don’t bring it home: when you are home, you relax. When you come back to your work, your mind will be refreshed.
• you should schedule are check-ins with yourself throughout the day to go back to your early priorities, ambitions and goals. Ask yourself if they’re lining up with that reduced to-do-list and if you need to adjust.

NET (NO EXTRA TIME)

MY SOLUTION TO READING

I am sure I am not the first person who has said that reading books is extremely important. If you are like me, you don’t really prioritize reading time in your daily routine, and that’s sad because I know I am missing out on a whole world of practical solutions and/or fantastic stories.

But then, I walked in to the beautiful world of audio books and I soon realized that I ended up “reading” one book a week!! How?! Think of all the dead time in your timetable, i.e. mindless activities that you have to do such as driving to uni or going on public transport. If you are in London, for instance, you’ll probably commute minimum 30 minutes there and back.

You can find some recommended great audio-books that are 5 or 6 hour long. And just like that, you make the most of your wasted time. If you don’t want to spend money on audio books, there are plenty of podcasts out there that are pure gold such as Pat Flynn’s podcast. And podcasts are free.

In conclusion, take the time to calculate how much NET exactly you have. Determine how many hours a week that adds up to and chose an audio book you’d like to listen to during that time. Pro-tip: pick an audio book that is directly in line with your pyramid.