How to Use the 3–3–3 Method to Boost Your Productivity

Stop wasting your time and energy.

I don’t know about you, but in my life and business, there’s always more to do.

I could always continue working to grow my business.

And I could always continue cleaning up and rearranging my apartment to be even more neat.

This typically leads to a common problem: If you don’t define what a productive day looks like, you’ll always think you haven’t done enough.

The even bigger problem is that you end up not acknowledging what you actually do because you’re so focused on more.

Over the last five years, I tried dozens of productivity strategies. From time boxing, David Allen’s GTD method to the Ivy Lee system, and much more.

Some of these methods made sense during specific phases of my life.

The Pomodoro Technique, for example, was my go-to tool during my studies. The Ivy Lee method was useful when I was writing my first book.

And I still use time boxing when working on large projects with different subtasks.

But studying productivity and personal growth for the past five years taught me this: The perfect productivity system doesn’t exist.

Instead, you need to reinvent your systems to fit your current circumstances, lifestyle, and goals.

So much self-help advice centers around the idea that there’s one right way to do things.

The optimum diet.

The perfect morning routine.

The ideal time to spend in a flow state for perfect productivity.

All of this doesn’t acknowledge the fact that we’re all different. Or that life changes.

You graduate, change jobs, start new relationships, get kids, set new priorities, get sick, and even get bored sometimes.

That’s life.

And yet, we need systems that guide us through busy days, so we can get our work done efficiently and have more time to do things we enjoy and be with people we love.

After publishing my first book in 2019 and shifting my business from the physical to the digital world in early 2020, my business model and hence my responsibilities have looked the same:

• I write articles like this on Medium
• I invite readers to join my newsletters and send multiple emails per week
• I improve or sell my digital products (online courses, cohort-based coaching, ebooks, journals)

And I’ve been following the same method for organizing my days for the past three years.

I didn’t have a proper name for it — my system was basically a mix of all the productivity advice I’ve collected over the years.

But I recently discovered that Oliver Burkeman, author of the bestselling book Four Thousand Weeks, has written about the 3–3–3 Method, which is pretty much what I’ve been doing:

• You dedicate 3 hours per day to work on your most important task(s) without distractions
• You take care of 3 urgent and important tasks
• You tackle 3 “maintenance” tasks

This system is most applicable and makes the most sense for creatives and entrepreneurs who’re flexible when designing their schedules.

At the end of this post, I’ll suggest different ways to adapt the system if Burkeman’s original method doesn’t work for you.

Start with 3 Hours of Deep Work

The first pillar of the 3–3–3 Method represents deep work.

This is your most focused time: You get into a flow state and work on the most important and meaningful task(s) of your day.

As a writer, I typically spend my deep work period writing. I write new articles or newsletters.

If I don’t write, my 3-hour block is spent on developing, improving, or selling digital products.

These are the key drivers in my business: I write to get discovered and grow my audience, and I monetize attention by selling digital products via email.

Anything else I do might support these goals, but those are the pillar activities that require the biggest chunk of time and energy.

And yet, I can’t focus on these tasks for much longer than 3 hours per day.

I typically don’t work more than 20–25 hours per week, which leaves me with 2–3 hours of deep work per day max. Burkeman says four hours are the limit you should stick to.

But even if you work 10 hours a day, you have cognitive limits.

You could be working, but you won’t be nearly as productive and creative as you could be if you allowed yourself to rest properly.

For me, three hours is the maximum. If I write straight for three hours, my brain will feel fried up.

“Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”

— Dale Carnegie

Ideally, you’ll dedicate your highest-energy time to your deep work block.

For me, that’s early mornings. I struggle to do deep work if I spend my morning on mundane and repetitive tasks.

I need to write, create, and strategize when my brain is fresh and unbothered, which is when I get to my desk in the morning.

But don’t forget that everyone’s unique, and your ideal time might differ. Just make sure you know which schedule makes the most sense for you.

To follow the 3–3–3 Method, block off your deep work period on your calendar.

This is the pillar of the whole method since it ensures you dedicate a significant amount of time to your most important tasks daily.

Plan your deep work session a day in advance and have a clear goal or task to work on when your session starts.

With a specific task, you’ll waste less time since you can get straight to work.

Sticky Note Items

In the next block, you focus on three shorter but urgent items.

Burkeman calls them “sticky” tasks and considers calls and meetings to be part of this group.

These are typically the annoying tasks you actually don’t want to do. It’s the stuff you’ve been putting off for a while.

Think of doing your accounting or taxes, providing feedback to peers, checking emails, or all the other minor but annoying tasks that require some brainpower and time but aren’t worth your deep work sessions.

Maintenance Items

The last three are your “maintenance tasks,” which help you keep your life and business running smoothly.

In my business, there are a handful of tiny tasks I take care of (almost) daily.

I’m running a Facebook group with over 11k writers, which I check for new posts, interesting conversations, and community insights daily.

I do the same for my membership, Write • Build • Scale to check if our members need support.

On average, these tasks take less than 15 minutes per day, but they’re crucial to ensure community and customer satisfaction.

Even though they’re usually not urgent, you don’t want your maintenance items to pile up.

An extension of this idea is to keep a “Frustration List” with all the small, annoying tasks you need to take care of.

Final thoughts

If your job requires you to create, strategize, or build, and you haven’t yet found a productivity system that fits your needs, give the 3–3–3 Method a try:

• Make time for an extensive deep work session to make progress on your most important task(s).
• Tackle 3 sticky tasks after taking care of your most important to-do.
• And finish up with maintenance tasks to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Properly managing your time and ticking off your important to-dos means you’ll have more brainpower and energy left for creative tasks and new ideas.

Use the 3–3–3 Method to plan your next day each evening and take your blocks seriously.

If a 3-hour deep work session feels overwhelming or is undoable due to your current lifestyle, use 1–3–5 as an iteration.

Do an hour of deep work, take care of three smaller tasks, and finish with five (or fewer) maintenance tasks. This schedule can be more realistic if you’re working a 9–5 but building your business on the side. Or if you have young kids and other responsibilities that just don’t allow you to work on your (side) business for long hours.

Check out my favorite ideas to improve your productivity, health, and relationships.