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  • How do you plan your day?

    Elif Duran
    108 replies
    I believe that it's important to remember that we only have 24 hours in a day, and essential to use this time wisely by planning and organizing our activities. What are you doing to plan your day? Do you use any tool or follow specific methodologies?

    Replies

    Pavel Kukhnavets
    Having a reliable online planner at hand, you'll master your scheduling and panning abilities without extra efforts. I tried to work with simple spreadsheets or even to do lists, but the really powerful tool is a Gantt chart. Therefore, I recommend to plan your working days and daily tasks using any Gantt chart-based platform. For example, GanttPRO https://ganttpro.com/.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @pavel_kukhnavets It is very interesting, I never think of using a Gantt chart to plan my day, it is something like time-blocking eventually.
    Brenna Donoghue
    So many great approaches here. I'm such a big fan of time blocking and doing so the night before. Nothing is better than starting Monday morning with a clear plan for the day already in place!
    Dhruvin Patel
    Three key tasks a day, morning 9-12pm focus on these, only then meetings + emails reviewed. Really key for me!
    phprunner
    My usual routine: 1. Get up around 7-8am 2. Breakfast and coffee 3. Routine work till lunch: answering emails, quick meetings with the team 4. Lunch 5. Nap 6. Another coffee and creative work till 6pm 7. Something doing some personal project after dinner If I have something urgent, like sending out a newsletter, I block 1-2 hours of time around 10am-12pm to get it done.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @sergey_kornilov1 Do you use only calendar app for this routine?
    Gökçen Öğütçü
    After trying out several tools & methods, I found out that breaking tasks into pieces that make sense is what matters. Once you do it, even a piece of paper is up to the task. Having said that, I like using @'s for people, #'s for projects/clients, and → 's for pointing directions, to increase readability. I never schedule my daily tasks (I use calendars for already scheduled items such as meetings); instead, I order them during the day. I don't group tasks by day, either. I create todo's for scheduled meetings as well, for a little sense of achievement :) One needs to keep going. I don't mix personal stuff and business stuff. And for those who may ask, since I live and breathe e-mail (Gmail, namely), I use its built-in to-do list for tracking my daily stuff.
    I strongly believe this: if you win the morning, you win the day. - I look at my "Tasks" list and prioritize them - I divide the main tasks into smaller ones. - If I need to delegate a task, I send the task to my "waiting from someone" list and assign it to a suitable person - If I need to do it myself it goes to my calendar - I open my calendar (google calendar) and reserve time for the 3 important tasks - I make sure that I insert the most important one before lunch - I use the Pomodoro technique to complete my tasks - I try not to exceed the reserved time (obey the timebox!) - Then I complete all tasks (hopefully:))
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @noyanidin Great flow Noyan, thanks for sharing! Do you reflect your day at the end: How many hours does a task take, more than you think or less? What happens unfinished tasks, you move them to tomorrow?
    1. Open up my task manager tool (Trello & Notion) 2. Sort as calendar 3. Prioritize due to deadline 4. Time blocking in my calendar 5. Make a large coffee and there you go!
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    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @alara_akcasiz Clean steps 🚀 Do you reflect your day at the end or check yesterday's remaining?
    Maciej Czajkowski
    @alara_akcasiz If you only prioritize due to deadline, you never do tasks, that are strategically important. Those tasks are never time sensitive, so it's very easy to postpone them forever. Unfortunately, that leads to a never ending loop of putting the fires down. How do you deal with that?
    Nithin Jawahar
    I plan on a weekly basis. For example, since we're launching LaunchPedia this week, I and my co-founder got on a call yesterday, created a checklist on taskade to note all the tasks and divided them between each other with deadlines. Now we've started working on them based on the deadlines.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @nithin_jawahar Hey Nithin, congrats for the launch 🚀 The question that I am curious about: There are lots of tasks in a board, and maybe same deadlines but, how do you plan your day? By choosing a task and just start? Do you assign any time for the tasks, for example it will take 3 hours then I will do this...
    Matthew Kuzmin
    Use a pan and notebook to determine what are the plan for today. Determine what are the main 20%. Focus on them and work on 80% if I have time.
    Francesco Impellizzeri
    I like to organise my daily schedule in sprints, 3-4hrs each depending on the day. I write everything down on a notebook right before starting my day. During the sprints it is very important for me to cut all distractions out: so no socials, phone calls (except emergencies), or messages. I realised that you can really achieve 8 hours worth of progress in 3-4 hours if you're really really focused. I usually kick-off with the hardest (often most boring) stuff first and leave more creative/engaging projects for the evening. This might not be ideal for everybody but hey, it seems to work great in controlling my inner procrastinator. :) I also like to do workout, reading and journaling in the middle of the day, between morning and evening sprints. It helps my mind and body to reset before going into the second phase of the day. Talking about tools: I use Notion and Cron. I love them and I probably could not survive or function properly without them aha. Cron has been acquired by Notion later this year, so I can't wait to see how the two will integrate with one another in the future.
    Yang Bai
    Follow the GTD guide. take in from outside, make a plan, then act and feedback. Plan-act-feedback.
    Alan Lee
    Using pen and paper works great for me. Just write the to-do task by the end of the day. And keep it short and simple.
    Mayank Jain
    Setting up the day, before anyone starts, over a cup of coffee! We have our monthly and weekly tasks set out clearly. Just reflecting on both first thing in the morning and planning the day helps a lot.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    Thank you Mayank! I am curious about how do you plan your 8(working) hours, do you estimate which task is gonna take how many hours, do you track your time?
    Marcel Schouwenaar
    I'm trying to keep my days as predictable as possible with chunks of focussed time. Cooking and biking are important moments away from the keyboard. It allows for thinking or have a chat with colleagues. No tools but a notebook and calendar. Looks something like this: 8:30 bike to the office, make coffee, check news, list to-do's 9:00 catch up with messages / emails (~ meeting) 10:00 deep / focussed work 12:00 cook / have team lunch 13:00 deep / focussed work (16:00 meetings / calls if absolutely necessary) 17:00 review to-do's + update team (async) -- 17:30 bike home / pick up kids 18:00 - 20:30 family time -- 20:30 - 22:00 reading / deep creative work
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @marcel_schouwenaar Grate schedule Marcel! What about your work sessions, how do you manage your tasks?
    Kunal Rajelli
    Slingshot Design
    Slingshot Design
    Write it down in my dairy or iPad (notes) in morning and assessing all task at night
    JG
    If we talk about tasks at work, I use @Firmbee - just love the design and functionality. but I also love old and simple tools such as a calendar or a notebook, simply clever!
    Urszula Ostrowska
    I write down all my tasks for the day and prioritize them (using Eisenhower model). Then I schedule them with Firmbee!
    Lokesh Joshi
    I think time management is one of the biggest things that everyone wants to manage and along with this consistency, discipline, and psychology are also very important.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @lokeshjoshi31 Could not agree more. Do you have a personal strategy?
    Ramon Williamson
    I practice Review/Preview. How it works: (1) I stop at 4PM* each work day to ask and journal 3 questions: What did I do right today? What did I learn? What will I do differently moving forward? * I set the 4PM time as a constraint to stop overworking. (2) Next, I set priorities for my (next) work day: 1 big thing 3 important things 5 quick things (3) I track all this in a daily/weekly progress journal and, leverage accountability to stay consistent and improve work flow. It’s also important to know that I pre-structure my day by blocking out time for three distinct activities in my calendar. This way I have containers for what matters and a framework for uninterrupted focus and consistent progress. —— Background: I originally developed this approach because I needed a way to self-manage as an entrepreneur. Later, I taught the method to my life coaching clients. I’m building out Zero Resistance Productivity to guide implementation. If you’re curious and want to try it, just ask. I’ll share the work-in-progress beta. Feel free to DM me on Twitter and mention this post.
    Elif Duran
    BeforeSunset AI
    @ramonwilliamson It is amazing Ramon, thank you for sharing your routine. Do you stick with the time interval that you assigned for tasks? Do you track how many hours it takes? I am curious about the reflection at the end of the day, and how to improve tomorrow's session specifically. How to get better at estimating which task will take how many hours and set them clear.
    Brenna Donoghue
    @ramonwilliamson Yes, I am such a big believer in reflecting at the end of the day and planning the next. Starting a day with a plan in place already, makes it such much easier to just get into it. Love you reflection questions.
    Ramon Williamson
    @elifduran It’s all about thinking differently about time and how work works. Then developing the mindset and supporting skills and behaviors. I think about work as purpose (why I’m actually doing this or that), playbooks (learning and optimizing the approach), practices (ongoing activities I do over and over, things that help me be at my best and the fundamentals that are essential in the business), and projects (a set of activities that produce a “product” from my work). Within projects, there are micro tasks connected to specific knowledge and skills I must get good at or outsource to others. These tasks are modular and show up in many different projects. I’m really tracking and improving a series of micro tasks vs 1 big project, and improving thinking and building playbooks. This is how you become the most valuable person in any room. Let’s break this down: I’ve found that there are 7-10 primary projects and maybe 50 micro tasks in my work. I use a timer when I work to track time and also because it helps my focus. The time blocks prefilled in my calendar for “completion” of projects and tasks are 90 minutes. The breakthrough for me was understanding which tasks really matter and documenting the time for the micro tasks, also assigning times to the daily 135 (1= one big thing that takes 60-90mins, 3= three important things that take 25-50mins, 5= five quick things that take 5-15mins). This helps me schedule in tasks efficiently. For bigger projects, I break the project down to 25 minute cycles, there are 3 per 90 minutes. I’ve learned over time that certain tasks take x amount of time so knowing this helps me plan better. I’ve also shifted my thinking from how long an overall project takes to how much time I’m giving the overall project and the micro tasks within the project. That constraint is helpful to me. The end of day reflection is 3+1 questions answered in a project journal shared with a coach. I trained my coach in my method so they know how to coach me. I do the same thing with my coaching clients, and teach entrepreneurs and managers of remote teams. The thing that’s helped me and my clients most is knowing what really matters and what to improve. Mostly I find it’s refining and speeding up completion of micro tasks and paying attention to the flow in my system and checklist. I make a checklist for every project and micro task. This makes me very efficient and I don’t need ti be creative. I wasn’t very good at estimating time. I got better by defining the outcome of a project, overcoming overthinking, perfection, and procrastination, making a checklist for each primary project with all the micro tasks, doing the project and tasks and timing it. Because I break everything down, I’m actually timing tasks within a bigger projects. So I don’t think in terms of how much time to write an essay, I think in terms of how much time for each step. What I discovered is that many of the steps or micro tasks are modular, in other words, they are part of other projects so when I’m doing a new project and that step/task is in the checklist I have a better idea of the time. One final note: Notice I said I don’t need to be creative. It’s important to get you needs met outside the work you do. Most of the nonsense and drama you see in work is people trying to get their emotional and self worth needs met. When you get all that stuff handled outside work, you can focus on what matters and find joy in the process. This is being a craftsman vs whatever you call yourself now. Useful? Let me know.
    Ramon Williamson
    @brenna_donoghue Thank you Brenna. The two most important things I’ve learned about this are (1) put it on your calendar as an appointment and (2) answer the focusing questions in 1 place every time.