Our always-on and always busy times are filled with goals, projects, to do lists, notifications… We want to get more done in shorter time, we don’t want to miss on any opportunity and not be behind any news. Improving productivity is a desire of many and there is a huge productivity industry to cater to our needs.
Make Time is not another productivity framework to get more done. Make Time is about being intentional and focused how to spend your time and energy to achieve what really matters to you, instead of spending the whole day reacting to other people´s priorities.
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky created a battle-tested framework to escape what they call the Busy Bandwagon (Get more done. Be more efficient. Set more goals.) and to stay out of Infinity Pools (Get sucked into always new sources of content. Be always available). It’s not a fixed one fits all plan, but a collection of tactics around four simple steps:
Choose your HIGHLIGHT of the day
Instead of spending all day reacting to other people´s priorities choose a highlight that is important to you. Choosing a highlight helps you to focus and making time to achieving your goal.
Consider three criterias when choosing the highlight of the day
- What is the most pressing I have to do today?
- Which highlight will bring me the most satisfaction?
- In retrospect what will bring me the most joy when I reflect on today?
The beauty of the concept is that you can change your highlight every day or even during the day. Don’t overthink, it’s not a long term goal, it´s “only” the highlight for the day.
Once you know your highlight, it’s important to make time in your probably full calendar to achieve it. The tactics in the book help to create more time in a day (#14 Become a morning person) and designing the day (#13 Design your day) to squeeze in smaller and bigger tasks to make progress.
The goal is to find some additional time, manage the existing time to create and maintain momentum for your highlight.
Beat distractions and find LASER mode.
After choosing a highlight and making time for it, it’s important to beat the constant distraction we face during the day, to focus and get into laser mode. Everyone reacts to different infinity pools that take away a lot of time that is not spent intentionally and making progress, like social media, apps or TV. These infinity pools are created and optimized to consume as much time as possible and that makes them hard to resist.
Being aware of this and intentional about the personal use is the first step. Depending on the Infinity Pools you react there are many tactics to get control over your technology, stay out of infinity pools and and to find flow and stay in the zone. Many are about creating barriers and making it harder to react.
“From distracted to focused, from reactive to intentional, from overwhelmed to control.”
Energize your body and your brain
We are more likely to get distracted by infinity pools when batteries are empty and we feel exhausted and depressed. When batteries are full and body feels rested and mind is sharp we are ready to take a project and it’s easier to maintain focus and priorities.
“If you want energy for your brain, you need to take care of your body.”
The authors refer to our prehistoric ancestors to live a healthier life. The tactics sound simple, but it is not at all easy to create habits to move more (#61 Exercise every day or #64 Squeeze in a super short workout), eat healthy (#66 Central Park your plate) and sleep well (#83 Make your bedroom a bed room).
Reflect on your tactics and results and improve your system
Changing habits is not always easy, it’s important to stay on track and improving step by step. Tailoring the system to your personal needs and tracking your progress helps to keep momentum.
“If you reduce a few distractions, increase your physical and mental energy just a bit, and focus your attention on one bright spot, a blah day can be extraordinary.”
Every day reflect about how you were able to make time and focus on your highlight. Then tweak your approach with different tactics until you find what works best for you.
Changing defaults isn´t always easy, so it’s helpful to look back on the day through a grateful lens.
My Takeaways
My key takeaway from Make Time is to think about and challenge defaults and be more intentional about what I do, why and how.
I like the approach of having actionable tactics to test and create tailored habits and routines for my personal requirements and different situations.
Tactics I am trying right now…
… to choose a HIGHLIGHT …
#3 Stack Rank your life
Make a list of the big important (!) things, prioritize and focus on the most important. Use this list to choose the highlights of the day.
For me it’s easier said than done weighing different projects against each other and focus on only one.
#4 Batch the little stuff
Bundle smaller tasks and plan a bigger time block to work on them.
Instead of losing time switching between different tasks, it makes sense to schedule clean up sessions to work on these.
#5 Might-do list
Separate concrete To Dos from all the other ideas and projects.
Using the To Do list as a brain dump and backlog of all different ideas and someday tasks creates a lot of pressure and makes it hard to make progress visible (current state of Wunderlist 1047 tasks). Separating what has to be done from passion projects and ideas could help reducing this. The might-do list I will check from time to time when the important stuff is done.
… to make time for the highlight …
Calendars are full and life itself is running fast, kids grow up and in between important projects get lost and stay on someday.
#8 Schedule your highlight and #9 Block time
Scheduling and blocking time for your highlight makes you think about how much time you plan and when you want to do it.
#13 Design your day
Structuring the whole day in the calendar frees yourself from thinking about what to do and focus on the how.
#10 Bulldoze your calendar
To achieve the tactics above it might be neccessary to throw out existing meetings and time blocks.
This is a good tactic anyway to check if planned meetings are still necessary and re-think defaults.
… to get into LASER mode …
The books is a lot about creating barriers to make it harder accessing Infinity Pools and supporting your discipline. I am not a fan of making things more uncomfortable, so I focus on other tactics (at least for a start).
#19 Nix notifications
Turn off notifications except for important apps, like messengers and calendars.
Gives you some control over your phone / technology and limits distractions and switching costs.
#23 Skip the morning check in
Instead of jumping right into news, email, social media, and other content traps, just use the rest from the night and stay out of Infinity Pools for a while.
Also not easy to do, but makes total sense to use my most productive time to make progress and not to get distracted.
#35 Schedule email time
Block time in your calendar for answering emails and when time is over move on to other tasks.
We all get too many emails, messages and default expectation is a fast response and being always available. I like being responsive, so I don’t want to empty emails once a week or be slow to respond. Scheduling some time blocks during the day could help to achieve both.
#49 Invent a deadline
If there is no deadline, invent one, communicate and hold yourself accountable.
Stay in the zone
→ tempted by distraction
#56 Notice one breath
Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth and notice the air flowing in and out your body.
This works to calm down before public talks and helps also to reset attention. focus on your body.
#60 Go all in
Wholeheartedness is complete commitment.
I think the most important goal to achieve anything and one of the hardest to do. Between all projects, tasks, relationships, family, and many more things that are in our heads we end up sitting between chairs. Tactics above should help to be all in, to be able to focus and find energy.
… to ENERGIZE …
When batteries are empty and we feel exhausted and depressed, we are more likely to get distracted by Infinity Pools and get even more annoyed wasting time. When batteries are full and body feels rested and mind is sharp we are ready to take a project and it’s easier to maintain focus and priorities.
“If you want energy for your brain, you need to take care of your body.”
The tactics sound simple and obvious, but it is not at all easy to create habits to move more, eat healthy, sleep well. deal with caffeine and take real breaks. Keeping reminders to get a little better every day may help.
#61 Exercise every day & #64 Squeeze in a super short workout
Exercise every day for about 20 minutes instead of waiting to have time for a full 2h workout. Small steps on a regular basis create better results than big steps once and a while.
#66 Central Park your plate
Put salad on your plate and circle everything around helps to eat less heavy food.
#70 – #75 Be intentional about caffeine
Learn about how caffeine works and when it is your best time to get energy boosts with coffee (if that is the intention, not just joy).
I try to finetune my coffee habits and
- have the first cup, when cortisol wears off in the morning (caffeine has no effect, when cortisol keeps me awake),
- have another cup before I get tired (being tired means adenosine blocked receptors where caffeine docks and it’s too late for effect),
- and consider the five to six hour half-life of caffeine to prevent it from screwing up my sleep.
#80 Make real breaks
Breaks are meant to relax body and brain.