Scheduling: the ultimate productivity hack?

The History

Last September, after working on YouPhonics for 9-11 months (depending on where you put the start point), I decided to continue pursuing my Bachelor's degree. Most Some people called me crazy, but I had my reasons.

No, I didn't stop working on my startup; instead, I enrolled in only two courses – both of which could be applied to aspects of my business.

What I wasn't expecting, however, was the workload. Yes, I knew there would be coursework. And yes, I knew that YouPhonics demanded my time and attention. As did Cronyizm (more on that when I talk about coding), and a few other programs/opportunities I was pursuing. Not to mention some volunteer work.

Within a month, I was drowning. There weren't enough hours in the day to do anything. Some nights, I couldn't sleep – there was way too much work that had gotten ahead of me, and none of my systems could deal with it. Only one friend knows about this, but for an hour in the wee hours of some December night/morning, I was thinking about suicide. (Don't worry, I'm okay.)

I had tried GTD. Inbox Zero. Tested Pomodoro. Basecamp. Making a ToDo.txt. Writing this blog. Seriously – nothing was sticking. Somehow, I managed to ride out that wave, but I knew that, come January, I'd need a new solution.

So last night, I tried something new: meticulously scheduling every minute of my day.

And holy shit: today has been my most productive day in well over a year.

The Schedule

Here's a rough sample of what today's schedule looked like:

7AM - 8:30AM // Wake up, shower, leave (bring gym clothes)
8:30AM - 9AM // Transit
9AM - 10AM // Workout + rinse-down (try kettle-bell swings)
10AM - 11AM // Readings for PSY322
11AM - 11:15AM // Chat with Doug re: radio opportunity
11:15AM - 12:15PM // Answer backlog of emails (notable: SR&ED credits)
12:15PM - 12:30PM // Check RSS
12:30PM - 1:30PM // Lunch (Ravisoups?)
1:30PM - 2PM // Play!
2PM - 2:30PM // Write + send Cronyizm email
2:30PM - 4PM // Move sales + recruitment prospects forward. If leftover time, do technical research
4PM - 5PM // Read "Selling to Big Companies" (book)
5PM - 5:30PM // Transit
5:30PM - 6:30PM // Lessons in Rosetta Stone (Japanese)
6:30PM - 7PM // Play!
7PM - 7:15PM // Check RSS
7:15PM - 8PM // Read saved articles + watch TED <-- I read articles on transit, and thus am now blogging
8PM - 10PM // Drive back to campus for dinner + visiting UC Follies rehearsal
10PM - 11:30PM // Carlos' birthday. Leave no later than 11:30.
11:30PM - 11:50PM // Drive home
11:50PM - 12AM // Wash up
12AM - 12:30AM // Chat with friends OR read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
12:30AM - 7:30AM // Sleep

There were a few things in here that got shifted. Notably, because of logistics, the workout ended up only being for 30 minutes, and I had to move my planned "Get pants hemmed" to tomorrow, because the tailor needed to leave before the time I had scheduled for him.

Still, all in all, I made more significant progress towards my goals today than I have... umm... in a single day ever?

Spent 30 more minutes in the gym than all of 2010 combined
Read (and lightly critiqued) two academic papers
Did research for (and will soon say howdy to) the student theatre company that helped turn me into who I am
Took the next step towards getting ~$25K back into my company
Talked with a friend I didn't know well enough for 90 minutes!
Maintained Cronyizm
Improved relations with sales and co-founder prospects (which will hopefully bring in 6-figure contracts and boost morale/productivity)
Am now 3 lessons into my goal of learning a new language (want to broaden my thinking)

The Conclusion

Admittedly, this is the effects from one day, not yet a pattern. And yes, there are definitely improvements to be made; I should have planned the tailor out better, and the transit times were just a bit off (I forgot to factor in walking to AND from the subway stations).

What's important, though: this day has already been more productive (and, surprisingly, more pleasant) than any given day last semester. If these effects can be replicated even once a week – which I'm sure they can – I'm already in way better shape.

I'll check in next week to let y'alls know if the claim held true.

Jan 24, 2011

Sean Johnson said...

You might not have long-term success to the degree you did today, but I've definitely found I get more done when I write out my day. I've been doing it for the last six months (in half-hour chunks.) I still have to push a number of items to the next day -things inevitably take more time than I think. But coupled with my GTD setup, it's helped me clear out a lot of someday/maybes, as well as make sure I get the most important thing done each day. Super helpful.

Aidan Nulman said...

Thanks for commenting, Sean! Been hoping to read more from you for the past while – your piece about candor way back when was super-inspiring (and something I actually remembered while writing the above). Unfortunately, I'm not a very pro-active commenter...

I'm not looking forward to having to push things (my estimates today were actually pretty good; I only broke prescribed times with conscious decisions), but I'm sure it'll happen soon enough.

One tweak I'm definitely going to try next week (assuming the rest of this week's test goes well) is to add in thrice-weekly blocks of 30 minutes to just sit/wander and work through a single problem, defined the night before. Alongside that, I'm probably going to block off at least 2 hours a weekend to go and experience new art.

Thanks for the kind words man - you have nothing to catch up on though. Haven't been a very pro-active writer lately :)

Elliott Fienberg said...

good post! i am with you on trying a lot of different systems. the biggest challenge for me is sticking with any of them. pomodoro for example, is great in theory but after one or two rounds it's easy to go back to being lazy.

i did get the idea to do the scheduling thing one weekend but after sleeping in through half the schedule i kind of gave up on the idea. i will give it another shot. i think the good part about doing is that everything has clear intent.

Dan said...

OK, I'm doing this tomorrow. Just wrote up the schedule in half hour increments. Let's see how this goes.

@Sean – I'm aware. Was hoping you'd get back on the wagon (like I'm trying to!).

@Elliott – True that. I'm hoping this one sticks... but I guess I'll have to take it one day at a time! (And yeah, don't give up because of one setback!)

@Dan – Do it, man! Just make sure you stick to it (and that any changes outside of your control have active decisions tied to them, not just "free time").

Jan 25, 2011

Jon Lim said...

I've tried the scheduling every minute of my day thing - doesn't work that great after a while, but it might have just been me getting lazy.

I stick to creating a huuuuuuge list of tasks I will need to do, long-term, mid-term, short-term, and then figuring out which I want to tackle in a day. Taking that list, arranging them from easiest tasks to hardest tasks, and cycling through the day using the list.

Anything left over just spills over to the next day and is arranged accordingly. More flexibility, something I so desire.

@Jon – Definitely one of my worries, but I'm going to keep it up. Also, to manage the "ongoing" list, I'm penciling vague notes into future days (kind of like your huuuuuuuuge list that you arrange!).

The one piece that's already proven to be critical (and awesome) is spending 5-8 minutes before I go to bed at night scheduling the day. And being realistic about it (ex: including "Play!"-time).

Also... have you seen this Reddit post? http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dulh1/iama_person_who_has_kept_statisti...

Max said...

okay dude this post inspired me so much, i have to try it out! maybe not so minute to minute... but at least for hour & half-hours.... i really need to finish lot of small, but still need-to-be-done stuff. also, maybe i'll write you an email or fb message finally, it got stuck in draft forever!

definitely doing this tomorrow, ill bring the list right now.

@Max – Woo! And yeah, I only go down to quarter-hours meself. Looking forward to the message!

@Everybody: – Today was less productive, but still had a nice flow. Flaws: I didn't prescribe myself enough inactive time, so I continuously lost focus towards the end of the day; I had a 3-hour class that probably made today feel less productive than yesterday ("lost" 3 hours!); had to shift a couple of things because of the distractions.

OK, so reporting in - I mostly stuck to it and it was a higher than average productivity day.

If I stuck to it entirely it would of been even better.

Tomorrow is, now, also scheduled.

Jan 26, 2011

for me, i scheduled my day at work yesterday, and i found that in the morning i was having a hard time sticking to the schedule exactly, but overall it was a far more productive morning than usual. by the afternoon i was quite tired and didnt stick to my list as well, but there was certainly an improvement.

i used calvetica on the iphone to help swipe in a nice looking schedule quickly.

Jan 30, 2011

Karen Au said...

Aidan my dear: I will tell you right now that you're definitely on the right track!

I find that I HAVE TO write down when I'm going to do certain tasks; otherwise, I won't get anything done. As a teacher (especially one who is borderline ADHD and stares into space when faced with a massive to-do list), I find it helpful to write down that I'll be marking quizzes during this recess, planning my grade 1 science unit during lunch break, making photocopies during my prep time, calling a parent right after the bell rings, replying to emails around 4pm.. all that stuff.

My day plan is never as meticulous as yours (I can promise that it'll get tedious doing that every day), but having a general outline, structured around natural breaks in your day, works very very well. It's worked for me for over a year, and it hasn't stopped working.

And so we present The Freedom of Structured Time :)

Good luck! Can't wait to see if this system continues to work for you!

Jan 31, 2011

@Dan – I know what you mean. I fail a little every day. The important thing seems to be to just do it, take it seriously, but know that life is inherently unpredictable and that hard/fast boundaries will fuck with you in the long run.

@Elliott – Calvetica, hmm? I might try that out... iCal just doesn't render quarter-hour chunks functionally. And yeah, agreed, it's tough to fully stick with it. But it's not seeming to be about 100% compliance – just the mindful planning of one's available minutes!

@Karen – Yay! Glad we're thinking alike. And honestly, it's not all that tedious. It's a 5-minute reflection before I go to sleep about what the next day should look like. It's actually kind of nice/relaxing :)

@Everyone – I stuck to scheduling all week, with only two exceptions: Thursday morning was unplanned (I went out drinking on Wednesday night, so I wasn't expecting much anyway), and Saturday/Sunday were only loosely scheduled (had a snowboarding day and a few meetings, but left the rest of the time free). Throughout the rest of the week, I scheduled and re-scheduled pretty meticulously.

All in all: still worth it. While only one other day has been so outlandishly awesome as last Monday, all have been significantly more productive (and fun) than most standard days in 2010. Huzzah!

Jun 22, 2011

Carlos said...

Thank you for making an appearance at my birthday back in January. I can't wait to see the next steps you will take to make this world yours.

Journal of a First-Time Entrepreneur

Scheduling: the ultimate productivity hack?

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