10. Time Management

"The secret to doing good research is to always be a little underemployed; you waste years by not being able to waste hours." — Amos Tversky

Opposite of "traction" is "distraction".Making time to make time - weekly reflection on your previous week, be deliberate about your upcoming week.Tracking and awareness is the first step to acknowledging and improving.How I've been using a calendar instead of a todo list for a few weeks.Pomodoro technique – try it for the most challenging tasks!Meetings can be incredibly disruptive – I share a few tips on how to be more careful with meeting time management.Enable "Do Not Disturb" on macOS and iOS.Having Slack and your email inbox open throughout the day can be incredibly distracting. Try to open them at fixed times and batch up this work.

Actions / take aways

Take time each week to reflect, and map your time. Book in 15 minutes this week.Try using a calendar instead of your todo list to plan your tasks.Keep meetings to fixed days in the week – like Mondays and Tuesdays, to free up your other days for deeper work.Wrap up meetings with 5 minute breaks in between to refresh and re-energise.Close your email and only open it at fixed times in the day.Enable "Do Not Disturb" on your devices.Don’t be afraid to pause, and make time for you. You can’t spend every waking hour being productive - you will eventually crash. But we each have different limits – so try to find what works best for you.

Links and further reading

Nir Eyal: https://www.nirandfar.comSuperhuman (email client I use): https://superhuman.comMailman (tool to batch up your emails before they hit your inbox): https://mailman.to/james-8ntrxqRemote meetings (an article I wrote on some tips for better remote meetings): https://www.jamesgill.co/remote-meetings/Lifeline Pomodoro Timer for Mac: https://www.saent.comGood piece on how one CEO spends their time: https://review.firstround.com/an-exact-breakdown-of-how-one-ceo-spent-his-first-two-years-of-company-buildingNew "Focus Mode" coming to iOS soon: https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-focus-mode/

Thanks, and see you next time!

P.S. I'm on Twitter https://twitter.com/jamesjgill

Music: Jakarta by Bonsaye

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