Time management

The last view days I had a lot of time to think about time management and todo lists.

I had an accident during a ski mountaineering tour, and so I had to stay in the hospital. I am still there, but I am ok and happy to be still alive.

The problem statement

There are certain resolutions that we make, like:

• doing more sport, maybe twice a week
• spending more time with the family
• meet the friends
• relax

as you can imagine the list can go on.

On the other hand we also have todo lists, and somehow the todolist does always grow and does not really shrink. So there is enough work todo that we can work all time long. And there is another problem with the todo list, what task item would you pick next from the list, if you always just do the jerry pick, the unwanted and unloved items will stay forever.

How to solve the problem?

I read about the calendar management, that means that you plan your todos in you calendar, with a specific time and also timeboxed.

This has multiple positive effects.

• we plan our day, and therefore we have to prioritize our todos
• the timeboxing helps to keep track that we do not go crazy on a task
• it helps to close the day, because a todo list probably is never finished, and this gives an excuse to not go for a walk, a training or do something with the family.

How I wanna solve the problem?

I am already very disciplined and I already have a sub todolist with items I wanna achieve on a day to day basis. So I need something different.

Everything that is not work related and I wanna to do this week, I add to the calendar. So there is a time box I am not available for others to be booked for meetings and so on.

On the other hand I have my master todo list, and my daily todo list, so I know on which tasks I need to focus today. The daily todo list, I prepare either as the last thing I work on a day, or as the first thing (after reading my mails).

To have the time to work on the items I block some time in my calendar as project related work.