My Time, My Projects: What Time Management Strategy Works for Me?

Everything Starts with a Bird’s-eye View. An eagle-eye view!

My cats have finally gone to sleep, and now there’s peace and quiet.

Over a cup of coffee, I jot down in my agenda what I want to achieve for the upcoming day. I use a simple agenda and write with a cheap pen. Filling out the agenda helps me gain a bird’s-eye view of the day’s planning.

I start with a creative phase… a sort of brainstorming with myself. I put down on paper everything that comes to mind without reservation or critical thoughts. Anything goes! Even thoughts or emotions unrelated to the plan. For me, it’s a cleansing moment.

Slowly, a vision forms.

Do you know how three cowboys gather a herd of a thousand scattered cattle in the field? They first collect ten and move them from one side of the field to the other.

This way, they gather 20, 50, 100 cattle. Continuing, they gather them all into one herd.

Thoughts work the same way. My decisions for the day slowly take shape. I don’t rush anything; each thought comes at its own time. Maybe it’s a long list… maybe not. When I don’t know what else to add, I declare the creative phase over and move on to organizing, with a sip of coffee.

How do I organize myself?

I use what I call “mental filters.” I have two main categories of projects: important projects and secondary projects.

I work on a single important project for about 4 hours in the first part of the day. During that time, I don’t answer the phone, I don’t interact on social media, and I don’t get distracted.

Every 15 to 20 minutes, I take short breaks, whether it’s for main or secondary projects.

There’s a book I liked when I read it: “The One Thing” and it proposed a lifestyle, an approach that resonated with me a lot.

Another thing I learned from books is how important it is to say NO. In practice, every YES involves saying many NO’s.

When you’re at a restaurant and you choose a dish, you’re actually saying YES to one thing and NO to all the other offerings.

Apart from the main and secondary projects, there are two more categories of projects: administrative and maintenance, which are outside the allocated project time. Administrative projects involve cleaning, stocking up, or cooking, and maintenance projects are about exercise, socializing, learning, reading fiction or non-fiction books, and so on.

For the human mind, it’s a matter of mental hygiene to set when you start and when you finish something. It’s a small “ritual” that I find useful, if only because it helps with awareness.

Sometimes it’s a cup of coffee or herbal tea, other times I simply say “well done” to myself, and sometimes it’s followed by a session of pampering for my cats.

I’m curious if you were inspired by something I told you here. I’m also curious what your approach is, and what works for you, and please share it here if you feel comfortable with it.