--- title: Time Management date: "2022-03-20T05:46:21Z" lastmod: "2025-01-12T04:35:16Z" wp_id: 3333 description: I maximize productivity by accepting limits and creating capacity through sleep, exercise, and meditation. I stay effective by using Markdown idea-lists, strict calendaring, and intentionality logs to manage my mood and focus throughout the day. keywords: [time management, productivity, calendaring, meditation, markdown, journaling] --- ![Time Management](/blog/assets/time-management-2059403_1280.webp) The question people ask me most often is, "How do you manage your time?". Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Time management is about feeling we’ve achieved more with that time. There are 3 parts to this: 1. **Accepting limits**. I'm grateful I'm not bored, learn from the struggle, and calm myself with acceptance. 2. **Creating capacity**. I've tried with sleep, exercise, eating well, meditation, focus time, and family support. I plan to try delegation 3. **Executing effectively**. I've tried idea-lists, mood management, calendaring, commitments, intentionality, journaling. ## Accepting limits **Be grateful**. Until I was 12, I was bored to death with nothing to do. Someday, I'll spend retirement fighting boredom (like my father). But right now, I have more to do, that I **want to do** than I can handle. I'm grateful. **Learn**. I once struggled with 3 meetings a day. Today, I struggle with 10. Next decade, I'll wonder, "What's so hard about 10 a day?" Struggling to manage time proves we're stretching our limits. It's an opportunity to learn. **Accept**. If we're imaginative, there will **always** be more to do than what we can. Accepting it sometimes calms me and gets me into action. ## Creating capacity **Sleep well**. When at school, I slept 8+ hours a day. It didn’t hurt my performance. I was the student leader, best all-rounder, and school topper. At college, I lost that habit. I was an average student. During post-graduation, I slept from 10 PM to 6 AM every day — perhaps the only one who did this. I was the best all-rounder and college topper again. It helped that I could stay attentive and motivated in class, reducing my revision time considerably. I use an alarm/reminder to go to sleep (but not to wake up!). It turns my screen to black-and-white, decreasing digital distractions. **Exercise**. Since 2017, I walk ~10,000 steps (7.5 km) over 90 minutes a day. Earlier, I'd be tired by 6 PM and couldn't work. After I started walking, I was fresh till 9 PM. In the first month, it was hard to see the benefit. But when I stopped for a few days, I could see how lethargic I felt. Since 2024, I switched to cycling to save my ankles. **Eat well**. Hunger and thirst are a distraction. I drink (hot) water regularly - makes me less hungry / distracted when dieting. I used to keep healthy snacks around me (or eat larger meals -- but over-eating made me sleepy). **Meditate**. Since 2020, I meditate for 30 min in the morning. It reduced my irritability. Even at 9 PM, if my daughter asks me to play, I'd readily agree. Bad moods distract us and reduce capacity. Mediation controls them well. When I paused in December 2021 and could feel my increase in bad moods. I resumed in 2025 after Vipassana. **Family support**. I have a supportive family that’s physically, financially, and emotionally stable. I take this for granted. But it’s a huge source of time for me. I don’t have to worry about many things. When tensions grow, it's a major drain on time. **Delegation**. I dislike delegating things I like doing (e.g. researching the cheapest tickets or correcting grammatical mistakes). Also, I believe I can do it better, and need perfect clarity before delegating. I plan to practice delegation intentionally. Since 2024, I've been delegating to LLMs quite well. **Use AI**. Delegating to AI agents is a huge time-saver. They can automate most routine tasks. (It can be addictive and suck your time, too.) **Focus**. Distractions break my chain of thought. That reduces capacity. I wake up early, so I block mornings for myself. My phone is on silent. My notifications are off. I use a new virtual desktop. All interruptions are batched into the afternoon. **Prioritize**. You will _anyway_ drop stuff. Might as well drop some _intentionally_. Habits help (e.g. I don't read news or socialize). Awareness / preferences help (e.g. I only work on AI since 2024). So do TODO lists. Overall, I spend 14 hours a day creating capacity and spend 4 hours of focus time, leaving me 6 hours for other things. ![](/blog/assets/time-management-2.webp) ## Executing Effectively **Idea-list**s. I used to switch between periods of extreme boredom and busyness. When I had time, I didn’t know what to do. Since 1994, I've maintained an ideas list (or a TODO list). Now, I'm never bored. I just pick something from my long list (split across Markdown files for each topic and sync-ed on Dropbox.) **Calendaring**. If something **must** get done, I put them on my calendar. It forces me to plan when to do it and how long it will take. If I can't find time on my calendar, it's easy to say "I can't make it on time." I've practiced sticking to [my calendar](/blog/increasing-calendar-effectiveness-by-2x/) quite diligently. **[Mood management](/blog/time-management/)**. I take up tasks that I'm in the mood for. I accomplish more naturally. When I'm in the mood, things happen in a few minutes rather than days. This is powerful. So I leverage moods and impulses as a source of energy. **Commitments**. I don’t always stick to my calendar for personal commitments. Laziness comes in the way. If it’s important, I commit to clients that "I'll mail it to you by 7:00 pm." Or I schedule a joint session with a friend who forces me to work (or we work together). **Intentionality**. I spend 30 min every morning writing down what I want to accomplish in each of my calendar entries. That way, I enter meetings prepared. I come out knowing that I was successful. I mail the next steps and schedule follow-up calls. That gives closure and I'm fresh & clear for my next meeting. **[Journaling](/blog/zeigarnik-effect-vs-my-procrastination/)**. I pick 1 "must-do" task a day. As I go through the day, I write a log on whether I'm working on it or not, and why. (e.g. "10:30am. Skipped. Distracted by LinkedIn post." The very act of writing why I'm not working on it gets me thinking. Often, I get back to the task. **Prioritization metrics**. My idea-list is ordered by time (latest on top). I plan to order them by priority (most important on top) and work on them in order. But I don't know how to measure priority. I tried [the number of people I impact as a measure](/blog/increasing-calendar-effectiveness-by-2x/). It's not perfect. **Pomodoro**. I try to set a 25-minute timer to focus and take a 5-minute break. The focus usually works, but I tend to miss the break. ## Using these I don't always follow all of these all the time. But all of these are habits that I can switch back to at any time, and I do often use them. This is **not advice**, though. Different things work for different people. The opposite of these work too. Hopefully, these give you **ideas** to experiment with. --- ## Comments - **Ajay Prajapati** _7 Jan 2025 4:48 pm_: Capacity creation is unique idea I got from post. Impact work and idea listing and then scheduling it to calender to get it done is new stuff I will be trying for my self.