How I Manage My Time - The System That Changed My Life
Summary
TLDRIn this productivity-focused video, the host addresses the common struggle of feeling overwhelmed by endless to-do lists and the misconception that time management is the key issue. Instead, they argue that energy management is crucial and introduces the concept of an 'Energy Investment Portfolio'—a method to categorize tasks into active and passive investments to optimize energy allocation. The video suggests capping active projects to avoid burnout and emphasizes the importance of embracing the finite nature of time and energy, aligning efforts with what truly matters.
Takeaways
- 😀 The video discusses overcoming the feeling of overwhelm in productivity by focusing on energy management rather than time management.
- 📈 The concept of an 'energy investment portfolio' is introduced as a method to manage energy by categorizing tasks and projects.
- 📋 The portfolio consists of a bucket list, active investments, passive income, and completed projects, helping to visually organize and prioritize tasks.
- 🎯 Active investments are tasks that require ongoing energy and attention, while passive income tasks are on autopilot or delegated to others.
- 🏋️♂️ The video emphasizes the importance of capping the number of active investments to avoid burnout, suggesting a range of three to seven projects.
- 🧠 It draws a parallel between investing money and investing energy, aiming for projects that compound and grow over time.
- 🌟 The idea of having 'something to look forward to' is highlighted as a key to happiness, with trips and experiences serving as examples.
- 🔗 The video mentions a Skillshare class on using Notion for productivity, sponsored content that ties into the energy investment portfolio concept.
- ⏰ The script points out that the number of active projects one can manage is similar to the cognitive limit on working memory, often around five plus or minus two.
- 🚫 The presenter expresses a preference for broad project goals over SMART goals, valuing flexibility and enjoyment over strict specificity.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the video regarding time management?
-The main issue discussed is not the lack of time, but the feeling of overwhelm due to an endless list of things one wants to do and the difficulty in managing energy to accomplish them.
What does the speaker suggest as a solution to the problem of overwhelm?
-The speaker suggests finding ways to make the activities more energizing and managing one's energy through the concept of an 'energy investment portfolio'.
What is an 'energy investment portfolio' as described in the video?
-An 'energy investment portfolio' is a method of managing energy by categorizing tasks into active investments, passive income, and completed projects, similar to managing a financial portfolio.
How does the speaker use the term 'active investments' in the context of the energy investment portfolio?
-The speaker uses 'active investments' to refer to projects or tasks that require ongoing personal effort and energy, such as organizing singing lessons or podcast episodes.
What does the 'passive income' column in the energy investment portfolio represent?
-The 'passive income' column represents projects that are on autopilot or are being managed by someone else, requiring less active energy from the individual, such as going to the gym with a personal trainer.
Why does the speaker believe it's important to limit the number of active investments?
-The speaker believes it's important to limit the number of active investments to avoid overwhelm and burnout, and to ensure that each project receives adequate attention and energy.
What is the suggested number of active projects one should have according to the speaker?
-The speaker suggests that the number of active projects should be capped at around five plus or minus two, which aligns with the human working memory capacity.
How does the speaker use the energy investment portfolio to manage personal and work life?
-The speaker uses separate energy investment portfolios for personal and work life, tracking active investments and ensuring a balance that prevents burnout and maintains productivity.
What is the significance of the 'completed' column in the energy investment portfolio?
-The 'completed' column serves as a record of projects that have been successfully finished, providing a sense of accomplishment and helping to reallocate energy to new projects.
How does the speaker feel about the SMART goal setting approach?
-The speaker does not resonate with the SMART goal setting approach, preferring a more flexible and less rigid system that does not detract from the enjoyment of working on projects.
What is the main takeaway from the video in terms of productivity and time management?
-The main takeaway is embracing the finite nature of time and energy, focusing on managing energy effectively through an energy investment portfolio, and prioritizing a sustainable and enjoyable approach to productivity.
Outlines
🔋 Overcoming Overwhelm with Energy Management
The speaker introduces the concept of managing energy rather than time, highlighting the common issue of feeling overwhelmed by an endless to-do list. They propose that the real challenge is not the scarcity of time but the lack of energy. To address this, they suggest making activities more energizing and introduce the 'energy investment portfolio,' a method to organize and manage one's energy towards various projects and tasks. The speaker shares their personal experience with feeling overwhelmed and how reframing tasks as energy investments can help in managing energy more effectively.
📈 The Energy Investment Portfolio: A New Approach to Task Management
The speaker elaborates on the 'energy investment portfolio,' a system that categorizes tasks into active investments, passive income, and completed projects. They use the analogy of financial investments to explain how one should actively invest energy in a limited number of projects to avoid burnout and maximize productivity. The speaker shares their personal setup in the Notion app, which includes a bucket list, active projects, passive projects, and completed tasks. They emphasize the importance of limiting active projects to a manageable number, drawing a parallel to the cognitive limit of working memory, which is approximately five to seven items.
🌟 Balancing Active and Passive Projects for Optimal Energy Use
The speaker discusses the importance of balancing active and passive projects to maintain energy levels and prevent burnout. They explain that active projects require consistent energy investment, while passive projects are those that are on autopilot or managed by others. The speaker shares personal examples, such as singing lessons and podcasting as active investments, and gyming and finding a new place to live as passive investments. They also touch on the idea that the number of active projects one can handle is similar to the cognitive limit of working memory, suggesting that most people can effectively manage between three to seven active projects at a time.
💭 Embracing Finitude and the Philosophy of Time Management
The speaker concludes by advocating for the acceptance of our finite time and energy, referencing Oliver Burkman's book '4000 Weeks.' They argue against the unrealistic narrative of being able to do everything efficiently and instead promote a more realistic approach to time management that acknowledges limitations. The speaker shares their personal philosophy of focusing on a few key active investments and enjoying the journey without the pressure of excessive productivity. They also mention their own struggles with tasks like replying to messages promptly, demonstrating that even productivity experts have limitations and must prioritize their energy wisely.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Productivity
💡Overwhelm
💡Energy Investment Portfolio
💡Active Investments
💡Passive Income
💡Bucket List
💡Compounding
💡Working Memory
💡Dunbar Number
💡Embracing Finitude
Highlights
The video discusses methods to manage energy rather than time, as energy is the limiting factor for productivity.
The concept of an 'energy investment portfolio' is introduced as a way to manage energy on tasks and projects.
The portfolio is divided into 'active investments' and 'passive income', reflecting the level of energy required.
The speaker shares personal examples of active and passive projects, such as singing lessons and gym routines.
The importance of limiting the number of active investments to avoid burnout is emphasized.
A recommended limit of 3 to 7 active projects is suggested, based on working memory capacity.
The video explains how to transition projects from active to passive or completed based on their energy demands.
The idea of investing in projects that compound over time, similar to financial investments, is discussed.
The speaker advocates for embracing the finite nature of time and energy, rather than striving for unrealistic productivity.
The video mentions a book summary and an interview that delve deeper into the philosophy of time and productivity.
The concept of SMART goals is critiqued in favor of a more flexible approach to goal setting.
The speaker shares their personal preference for vague goals to maintain creativity and enjoyment.
A method for weekly progress evaluation on active investments is suggested to maintain momentum.
The importance of monitoring energy levels and making adjustments to projects is highlighted.
The video concludes with a call to accept the limitations of time and energy, and to prioritize accordingly.
Transcripts
hey friends welcome back to productivity
club the ongoing series where we discuss
methods strategies tools that help us do
more of the things that matter to us in
a way that's fun and that's sustainable
now the problem that i've always had
with time management over the last
several years and that a lot of you guys
seem to have as well is just overwhelm
in terms of there is an endless list of
things that i want to do but then when i
actually get down to doing them i end up
doing very few of them or i end up
taking too much on and then i end up
feeling like i don't really have the
time for it but what i've realized
recently is that it's not really about
time management because all of us kind
of do have the time to do stuff at least
for me it's not really that i don't have
the time because i could make the time
it's that i don't have the energy one
solution to this problem is to find ways
to make the things that you're doing
more energizing and in a way this is the
thesis of the book that i'm writing and
i'm definitely going to be making more
videos around that core idea because
i've been doing a bunch of research
looking into the scientific papers
around like what is the things that give
us energy but that's not the point of
this video the point of this video is
method number two for kind of managing
our energy and that is this idea of the
energy investment portfolio right so
what is the energy investment portfolio
basically it is a glorified to-do list
or rather a glorified projects list but
i've been finding that framing it in
this way really helps me at least manage
my energy in a way that makes more sense
so i'm just going to show you what that
looks like i use notion for it we've got
a template linked in the video
description if you want to check it out
no they're not sponsoring this video but
like you can check it out if you want
but you can really create the system in
any kind of app you can use pen and
paper you can use journal you can use
todoist things or like a number of a
zillion apps that you can use for this
thing but i'm going to show you in
notion exactly what this looks like and
here is how it works we have the energy
investment portfolio and we basically
have four columns or rather three
columns and then the second one is split
up into two the first column is the
bucket list this is everything that i
think i want to do so mandarin glamping
mountain biking wakeboarding scuba
diving coat surfing bungee jumping learn
parkour learn motorbiking learn street
hypnosis stay in a treehouse learn to
cook road trip usa nevada archery get
good at acro yoga surfing trip to
bristol japanese et cetera et cetera et
cetera et cetera then in the middle we
have kind of the projects in progress
and i call these the active investments
and the passive income i like the money
terminology is kind of fun feel free to
call this whatever you want but i found
that this kind of taps into the sort of
obsessed with money part of my
personality and i'm very familiar with
like the idea of an active investment
and passive income which is why we're
using this terminology so the active
investments that i'm actively investing
my energy into and this is sort of in my
personal life rather than my work life i
have a work-life example i'll show you
in a second but the active projects that
i'm investing my energy into are at the
moment two things uh number one trying
to organize two singing lessons per week
because i really want to get better at
singing i really love musical theater
singers and i want to try and become
good and i know that getting more
singing lessons with my singing teacher
josh uh will hopefully help with that
and i also want to make sure that every
week i'm doing a podcast episode of not
overthinking with my brother link down
below if you want to check it out then
we have the passive income column now
this is basically projects that are on
autopilot or that someone else is taking
care of so in this case we've got two
projects on my personal life the first
one is that gyming three times a week
but this is basically on autopilot
because now i've got a personal trainer
when i didn't have a personal trainer
this was very much an active investment
i had to actively invest energy and
brain space and mind space and all those
things motivational force into actually
getting to the gym three times a week
but now that i've actually kind of
outsourced that to a personal trainer
and every week he's just like all right
what sessions are we doing and i just
have to look at my calendar and be like
monday wednesday friday done in a way
that is now on autopilot so going to the
gym three times a week is no longer
something i have to actively invest
energy into obviously i'm still
investing energy into it when i go to
the gym but this idea of energy
investment is really more about like
headspace than it is about like the
actual physical kilojoules or
kilocalories of energy that we're
investing into our specific work and
we've got another project which is you
know find a new place to live where i
have somewhat delegated that to angus
because we're trying to figure out like
can we figure out like a live work
situation and find like a commercial
building that i can live in as well all
that stuff angus is on the case and so
right now i've it's in the passive
income category because i am not
actively investing energy into it but as
soon as angus is like alright here are
some five places we have to look at
that's going to now become an active
investment and it's going to become a
thing that i actively have to put time
and energy into and then we've got the
completed column which is you know surf
trip to morocco is the bull wedding
speech
a few other random bits and bobs but the
core idea here is that this middle
column the active investment column
needs to be capped at a certain number
now what is that number what is that
number of active projects a few months
ago i was trying to do a bunch of the
stuff at once i had learned mandarin on
the list i was trying to have guitar
lessons as well get better at acoustic
guitar i was trying to have piano
lessons as well learn piano and at the
same time i was trying to have i was
trying to kind of dabble with music
theory along with a bunch of other
things and that felt very overwhelming
it felt like oh my god i feel like i'm
trying to do too much oh also i was also
trying to have art lessons at the same
time this was something last year
actually and this list was too much did
i found that one two three four five six
seven eight eight projects on this list
was just too much for me to handle and i
was feeling that feeling of overwhelm
and that feeling of burnout and that
feeling of like oh what's the point of
doing all this i was getting to like my
art and guitar lessons and even though
they were fun like i'd i'd have that
feeling of oh my god i really can't be
bothered to do this and i recognize that
whenever i have that feeling of like ugh
i can't be bothered to do this and if i
have that feeling more than like once or
twice in a row and it becomes a pattern
that means i'm probably taking on too
many projects and so what i've realized
over time is that the the fewer things i
have in the active investment column the
happier i am with life and the more
attention i can give to those things and
the more effective i feel um and having
read a bunch of business books and
listened to a bunch of podcasts with
like ceos and billionaires and startup
founders and stuff they all basically
say that like limit your number of
projects in progress and so learning
mandarin is now back on the bucket list
it's something i'm not gonna take
seriously in this season of life
similarly guitar piano music theory art
lessons these are all things i want to
do at some point but i know that in this
current season of life that's not
actually going to be helping me because
it's going to lead to this overwhelm and
lead to this feeling of burnout now that
tends to beg the question for like how
many projects should you have going at a
given moment and i think this is going
to vary for different people i've been
speaking to basically everyone i know
about this over the last several months
i think the number is basically five
plus or minus two so somewhere between
three and seven seems to be around about
the number that seems to be reasonable
for most people coincidentally this is
you know if you look into the research
behind working memory this is how many
chunks of information we can hold in our
working memory in the random access
memory the ram of our brain is how many
chunks of information we can hold at a
given moment so for example when they do
studies where they ask people to
memorize bits of numbers generally
people can memorize five plus or minus
two chunks of information and i think
that seems to be round about accurate
for this active investment stuff as well
usually people i've spoken to if i think
of myself when i've got like more than
seven projects on the go it feels like
i'm completely scattered and i'm gonna
kind of burn out doing those things
whereas when i have less than that it
feels much more manageable and basically
the smaller this number is like i only
really need to put my kind of personal
life effort into these two or three
extra things each week that then starts
to feel really good i do have a separate
work one where i kind of think about
projects on the work list but that's
like a side point we're focusing on the
personal one here and i think this is
sort of like a dunbar number so done by
number that you might have heard of is
like the number of kind of people we can
have kind of close relationships with at
a given time i think we have a dunbar
number for active projects and i think
that number is five plus or minus two
now a few other things to mention about
this so why is it called an energy
investment portfolio firstly because i
like the finance terminology and i think
it's just kind of fun to think of it in
those terms but secondly it's an energy
investment portfolio because just like
we think of investing our money into
assets that compound like the stock
market or bitcoin not right now or like
real estate which will hopefully
compound over time we can also think of
investing our energy into projects that
compound so for example a lot of the
things on this list are skills and
habits so i know that to get better at
singing i just need to consistently show
up to singing lessons and hopefully that
will compound over time and i'll be able
to then be a good singer or be a way
better singer than i currently am with
the compound and growth and that's why
i'm thinking of this as an investment
portfolio like what are the projects i'm
investing energy and time and attention
into because i am investing in those
things and i'm hoping that they will
have a return further down the line
there are some projects you know my
surfing trip to morocco generally things
that are trips or one-off projects where
there's no compounding returns on those
that's sort of the equivalent of kind of
buying a property doing it up and then
selling it where you're not really
benefiting from from compounding there
but it is still an investment in that
you're investing into this thing so that
you can do this thing and gain a return
from it even though it's a one-off
return and the surf trip to morocco was
sick the trip to istanbul was sick and
so i like to put when i'm organizing
something big into the active investment
thing as well because organizing three
holidays at a time is actually too
overwhelming and i can't do it but i
know that if you know every month or so
i'm trying to organize something new
i'll just chuck it into the active
investment list and then in my mind i'll
know oh okay this is what i'm organizing
and then once it's done once it's been
organized so let's say for example my
next trip is wake boarding trip to
barley and i can give it a little type
of trip just for fun while i'm still
organizing it i'll often put it over
here it needs organizing
then conveniently in notion i can use
the notion card feature to like you know
put in details of the trip
and i can do all the things on notion
i've made zillions of videos about
notions so you can check those out if
you're not familiar with notion and then
once the trip is organized i'll chuck it
in passive income because now i don't
need to do any work for it anymore so
it's just kind of passive doesn't quite
work with the idea of passive income but
you get what i mean and then when the
trip's done it'll just go into completed
so then i'll know that okay cool i now
currently like right now i'm not in the
process of organizing a major trip and i
know i have space in my brain to
organize a major trip so now i'll be
thinking huh okay cool you know actually
i think a mountain biking trip would be
quite fun cool let's just find a date in
the diary and organize it and invite
some friends to it and this kind of
attitude has actually made me take a lot
more trips over the last few months than
i i've taken before because now i know
that sort of trip organizing is an
investment i could make and when that
slot is empty it feels great because it
means i can just organize the next one
and just to speak to something my
english teacher used to say back in
school the secret to happiness is to
have something to do someone to love and
something to look forward to and so in
this case these trips are the something
to look forward to that i have and the
rest of the stuff especially the work
stuff is the something to do and we'll
talk more about someone to love in a
later video now if you're having a look
at this notion template and you're
thinking that sounds interesting but
you're thinking you might want to
potentially try and use notion to build
this or anything else for yourself you
might like to check out my brand new
class on skillshare which is all about
notion for beginners and how to maximize
your productivity using notion and thank
you skillshare so much for sponsoring
this video if you haven't heard by now
skillshare is the world's best platform
for learning basically anything on the
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around a dozen classes on skillshare
including my brand new one which we've
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all about how to use notion for
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over all of the details around beginner
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thank you skillshare for sponsoring the
video let's get on with the video final
thing to mention on this front uh you
will notice that none of these are
particularly smart you might be familiar
with like the paradigm of goal setting
called smart goals specific measurable
achievable realistic and time-bound or
something like that and technically you
know learn music theory is not a very
good goal right because like how will i
know when i've learned music theory
people would normally say that to make
that an effective goal you should say
pass the grade 8 a b rsm exam in music
theory by this date and then that
becomes achievable and measurable and
time-bound and all that stuff but to be
honest i have never really vibed with
that type of goal setting what i
generally prefer to do is just have a
very rough idea of like okay these are
the broad projects i'm working on i know
in my own mind why i'm working on them i
know that they're going to be connected
to things i actually care about which is
why they're on the list but i don't need
to try and build a complex system that
kind of takes the joy out of working on
the stuff i know that some people love
this you know my friend august bradley
has an incredible youtube channel where
he goes in depth about like going ham
and all these complex notion features
and he loves being able to connect every
single project in his life to some kind
of wider goal and i find that incredibly
inspiring but i've tried that system and
i find that generally whenever i have
complexity in a system complexity
reduces my creativity and reduces my
productivity and reduces my enjoyment of
life so these are all deliberately vague
because the point of this isn't so that
i have like a surefire complex system of
working towards any goals the point is
that so i can keep track of like am i
doing too many things because that's
always a risk in anyone's life that i've
ever spoken to the risk is not am i
doing too little it tends to be am i
doing too much especially for people who
are ambitious which tends to really only
be the sorts of people i speak to and i
found that over time the fewer projects
i have in active investments like
generally less than five ideally less
than three the less likely i am to burn
out and the more likely i am to enjoy
the journey while it being sustainable
right so how else can you use this
energy investment portfolio uh the other
thing to think about is with active
investments you have to be actively
putting some amount of effort into them
and so again i don't like complexity but
the thing i ask myself when i look at
this is what progress can i make on this
thing this week just this week i don't
think in terms of this month or this
quarter or anything like that i'm not
thinking i'm not making a whole list of
actions that are required in this
project i'm just thinking okay what
progress can i make on this this week
people like to make long lists of action
points again i've tried this i've tried
every productivity method under the sun
where you have a project and you break
it down into the 50 different steps that
it's going to take and you tick off one
at a time but i always found with those
at least for me that just writing down
those steps was its own exercise in
procrastination and once i'd written
down all the steps i kind of lost
interest in the project because it's
just like okay now i actually have to do
the work whereas i find that when i just
take it a day at a time or a week at a
time and just think only what is the
next action that just makes me make so
much more progress on anything than
worrying about the whole shebang list of
steps final tip when it comes to this
stuff is that i generally find it super
helpful to really kind of try and try
and monitor my own energy levels when it
comes to these sorts of projects
and
over time i've started to recognize the
feeling of you know when i feel like a
project is draining my energy so for
example when i have art lessons and i
had i was having art lessons three to
three days a week and i found that there
was they were draining my energy rather
than energizing me usually that is a
sign that something is off and i
recognize that feeling of like oh this
feels a bit raining
try and figure out okay what's off about
this and then sometimes the answer is to
scrap the project and put it back to the
bucket list sometimes the answer is to
delete it all together because i've
realized i actually don't care about
taking our lessons anymore or sometimes
the answer is okay let me figure out a
way to make this a bit more fun a bit
more energizing i guess overall the meta
point behind this video and why i love
this way of thinking about time
management compared to what i used to
before this is something oliver bergman
talks about in his book 4000 weeks
basically the idea is that actually time
is finite energy is finite like we
cannot do all the things and as much as
productivity gurus like me might pedal
the narrative that actually you can have
it all and as long as you are efficient
with your time you you too can build a
side hustle and learn the language and
start a youtube channel and like have a
healthy relationship and like work for
60 hours a week like
that narrative is a little bit old i
don't think i ever used to peddle that
narrative but like people had the vibe
that oh my god ali must be a machine you
must be so efficient all the time i
always used to be a bit surprised by
that and my friends would be surprised
because they'd be like they'd see me and
they'd they'd see that i waste so much
time and they'd be wondering why why the
internet considers me some sort of
productivity guru the thing that clicked
for me when i read 4000 weeks and when i
interviewed oliver burkman on my podcast
is this idea of embracing finitude
embracing the fact that we cannot do it
all i just suck at replying to whatsapp
messages i'm never going to be able to
reply to all my friends and rather than
feel bad about it and think oh if only i
was more efficient on the toilet i'd be
able to reply to messages i just think
you know what it's fine some friends
will go without a reply and i'm okay
with that and i'm sad to be
disappointing them but ultimately i'm
okay with it because my time and my
energy is finite and i can only do
certain things so for example replying
to friends whatsapp messages within an
hour is not on the list of active
investments although for some of my
friends they really value that they see
as a big priority in their life and
therefore they tend to do more of it
anyway if you enjoyed this video you
might like to check out my book summary
of 4000 weeks which is going to be
linked over there that is time and how
to use it it's the most kind of
philosophical take on time management
and productivity that i've read in
recent years and over there you can find
my interview with oliver berkman on the
deep dive podcast where we explore the
topic in depth thank you so much for
watching have a great day and we'll see
you in the next video bye
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