I sometimes joke that time-management and motivation is my hobby. In a sense, it is. Improvements in the efficiency won’t repay back the time I spent reading dozens of self-help, personal transformation, time management and motivational books and papers. Most of them are garbage, by the way.

Today, I want to share a few good insights I found that work for me - and how I implement them in practice.

Tips and trick

Inbox. When you realize you have to do something, write it down. Immediately. But not into your ToDo list, no. You should have a separate “Inbox” list that you revisit periodically.

Сonscious avoidance. Look at each task in your Inbox list. Can you… not do it? If the answer is “no, I have to do it, unfortunately” - please find a good reason why. Writing it down is a good practice as well.

Chunking. Again, look at each remaining item in the Inbox. Is it easy, like make a call/jot down an e-mail? If it takes less than a minute - do it right now. Otherwise, you should break it down into very specific, narrow steps (or rewrite the task in a way, if you cannot find a way to break it further). A good criterion: imagine that you have a hardworking, but not very bright secretary. The task should be worded that way your secretary will be able to do it without asking for additional inputs and will do the -right- thing. Also, it should not take more than a couple of hours. Then, you can put them into your ToDo list. If you get Pomodoro vibes from that - you are right; it incorporates this method.

The previous trick comes hand in hand with “Please do something”. Mind has some inertia, and it needs a push to start going. Instead of doing something right away, persuade yourself to do a tiny chunk of it. Instead of cleaning up your room, sort out that heap of clothes on your chair. Instead of writing a paper, write a paragraph. Appetite comes with eating. For example, in “Clockwork muse” one of the methods is setting up a specific schedule for writing; and writing -anything- during specified hours.

Why does it work?

Our brain is an excellent excuse generator. It can explain and rationalize everything. It is also very lazy. Result? If it does not understand clearly why something is needed, it avoids uncertainty and complexity. And of course, it contrives good and reasonable explanations why it should be avoided. Write a paper? I am too tired, so writing today is not a good idea. Also, why rush? The deadline is not near. Read a book? Why spend time now, when I can do it later, during that two-hour commuting.

You can “power through” this, but it takes a lot of energy. You can make our lives easier by properly formulating tasks. The tricks above remove complexity and uncertainty from the task.

Motivation, goal-setting, and task management are intertwined. You can think of “motivation” as a mental fuel, which we spend on doing stuff (by the way, recent papers suggest that the situation is slightly more complicated, but it is a “good enough” approximation). As I mentioned, one of the main sinks of this fuel is the mental block that appears due to a lack of properly formulated tasks. The format is unique for each person - but I’ll show my pipeline that meshes the tricks above.

By the way - you can increase your “fuel capacity” by reflecting on your long-term goals, and looking at how things you do align (or misalign) with your values and shape your future. But I won’t tough motivational stuff here.

My pipeline

Writing

Whenever I realize that I have to do something, or have to remember a piece of information, I immediately write it down into my Inbox list. During the weekends, I dedicate a few hours to finish this list.

First, I go through my mail, read unread messages, and pick out useful information and stuff to do. Then, I just sit down and try to clear my mind. Whenever something comes into mind, I - you guessed it right - immediately write it down. Forgotten tasks, new ideas, and interesting observations - everything.

I have to submit the paper next week? Okay, jotted it down. Oh, I asked my colleague to prepare a presentation last week and haven’t received any updates? Wrote that down. That movie I saw yesterday was pretty cool? Made a note of that. Also, I came up with a storyline that would be cool to incorporate in a book that I will write (someday)? Yep, marked that as well.

After a while, you start repeating yourself. It’s a good time to stop.

The very first time I did that, it took me around two hours, and I made a list of over 100 items.

Reviewing

Next logical step is reviewing this list and transforming it into actionable items, which go to the ToDo list. I do that on weekends as well, as it is a mentally tasking (heh) process, and takes a while. It is quite important to process them all at once.

Go through each item one by one, top to bottom. Classify them:

Idea

It’s a pretty good practice to write down ideas for new projects, or just stuff you want to do someday. Once these ideas leave your head, they free up space, (and stop burning mental fuel), so the new ones can come. I do not know the exact logistics of that, but it works pretty well. “Idea” here is something you want to do eventually (someday), but not needed right away.

I add a description and move these items to a special folder (mine is uncreatively called “Ideas”). I revisit this list from time to time to check whether it is a good time to implement it, incorporate it into what you are doing now, or just to draw inspiration. Or just sometimes develop it a bit for fun.

Observation

Just a piece of some information. Unlike the previous point, you do not want to take any active action based on that.

Move items of that type into special folders (for instance, I keep track of the read papers and watched movies), as they might come in handy someday. Otherwise, just delete the item.

Task

Something you have to do. A solid chunk of your inbox items is of that type.

I first reflect on whether I really have to do an item of that task. Then, I rewrite it into something specific and narrow, as I mentioned in the “Trick” section. Most of the time, there is no point in breaking down the whole task into small components. It is a tedious process. Often, there are a lot of unknowns, so plans may change as you work, and the new information comes in. So, it’s enough to “chip away” several specific next actions. I also mark that not completely broken down the task as well.

This way, “Write a paper” becomes:

Compose a list of relevant conferences
Write down the nearest conferences along with their formats and call-for-papers deadlines.
Draft a list of key findings for the paper
Write the advisor an e-mail to schedule a meeting
Write a paper (X)

It’s important to be very precise in the language. It’s not “schedule a meeting with an advisor”, it is “write an e-mail”. Make your secretary happy. I also specify the deadlines for each, estimate completion time in hours and tag them into one of a few big “megaprojects” for convenience (like work/Ph.D./social/chores). Once this happens, the task becomes worthy of entering the ToDo list.

This is a very challenging process that takes a while. No wonder - at this step, you take a lot of important and hard decisions, like how and when you are going to do your task. Your brain may try to convince you that you do not need all these specifics. Do not fall for its tricks.

Planning

We have a ToDo list, and we have to assign dates for all tasks. So, I open up my calendar and decide which items of the ToDo list I will do next week (all steps above happen in a big session, as you guessed).

I roughly block up time for tasks each day and assign dates for each task. Here, I take care of the deadlines and dependencies between tasks.

It is very tempting to shove a lot of stuff into one day. I find that realistically I have around 5 hours of productive work each day, so I do not plan more than that.

Doing

Once everything is set up, “doing” stuff is trivial (that’s the whole point of the procedure above).

Look at the daily to-do list. Read the first thing. Do it. Check the mark. Read the second thing, and so on. Do it until they all are checked.

There are several caveats:

Emergency tasks. Once someone approaches you with one, do a short reviewing-planning cycle. Do not forget the “should I really do it” part!
There are marked “unbroken” tasks in your list. Again, do a short reviewing-planning cycle to chip away a few more “specific” tasks (Pomodoro, hello again)
New inputs may appear. For instance, something took way more time than you planned for. Or to do a task you need something from another person, and he has not responded yet. You guessed it - reschedule or review and plan the task.

Disclaimer

Stuff in “Tips and Tricks” works for almost everyone. Our brains are similar and work in a similar fashion. My specific implementation of these tricks into my pipeline/framework relies on several assumptions.

I do most of my work myself, and “time” and “mental power” are my only “materials”. I am also not limited by location. I believe these assumptions are correct for any generic IT work.

“Getting things done” operate under a slightly different set of assumptions, so the processing sequence looks different. (Also, GTD is relatively old, and assumes your task planner a physical cartotheque). “Jedi’s Techniques” is closer to me, but it leans heavily into management.

How these assumptions affect the pipeline?

For example, I am rarely blocked by someone else’s status of tasks, or delegate big chunks of functionality. If I do, I create tasks to delegate the task, to check status several times (pings), and then to evaluate that person’s work. This is a bit clumsy, as I do not explicitly write down dependencies between tasks. For instance, if I would coordinate a big team, this would not work well. I would need better tools to track down dependencies - for example, add proper dependency tracking and drawing Gantt charts into the pipeline.

Similarly, if I would rely on physical materials or location to do, I would need to track these materials and write down tasks’ optimal location to minimize time spent commuting.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this framework is designed to be “the one to rule them all”. It is a personal task management system. The whole point of it is having everything in one place. Because of that, a task list is a blend of work tasks, shopping lists, ideas, house chores, and happy birthday reminders. There is a reason for that: having everything in one place removes lets you check “the next thing to do” in one place, and greatly reduces cognitive load and anxiety. The drawback is that you cannot share that with other people. You have to “copy” updates and the status of your tasks into your corporate system. In my experience, it is the lesser evil.