5 Habits That Save Me 25+ Hours a Week | Time Management For Busy People
Summary
TLDRThis video offers five powerful daily habits to boost productivity and achieve better work-life balance. The habits include using portable tasks during idle times, eliminating small time-wasters, habit stacking by combining passive and active activities, understanding personal energy patterns to align tasks accordingly, and time blocking to structure tasks efficiently. With practical examples and motivational insights, the video provides a comprehensive guide to optimizing time management and maximizing productivity while still prioritizing self-care and personal growth.
Takeaways
- 🗒️ Keep a portable task list to utilize spare moments for productive work such as responding to messages, creating content, reading, or brainstorming ideas.
- ⌛ Identify and eliminate small time wasters like mindless scrolling, indecisiveness about meals or clothing, and inefficient commuting to reclaim valuable time.
- 🧠 Practice habit stacking by combining passive physical activities with active mental tasks to maximize productivity and prioritize personal growth.
- ⏰ Recognize that not all times are equal and plan your day based on your energy and focus levels, aligning high-value tasks with peak productivity hours.
- 📅 Implement time blocking by allocating specific time slots for tasks to increase focus, productivity, and reduce the effects of Parkinson's law.
- 🚆 Utilize commute time effectively by engaging in portable tasks instead of mindless scrolling, potentially reclaiming 7.5 hours per week.
- 📚 Leverage habit stacking to make progress on personal development, learning new skills, or relaxation by combining it with routine tasks.
- 🧘♀️ Identify your unique energy patterns and focus levels through self-awareness and experimentation to optimize task scheduling.
- 📝 Create a dedicated space or system to maintain your portable task list for easy access and reference during spare moments.
- 🔄 Regularly review and adjust your time blocking schedule based on actual time taken for tasks and fluctuations in energy levels.
Q & A
What are the five daily habits discussed in the video?
-The five daily habits discussed are: 1) Keeping and using a portable task list, 2) Eliminating small time wasters, 3) Habit stacking, 4) Realizing that not all times are created equal, and 5) Time blocking.
How much time can be saved by keeping and using a portable task list?
-According to the video, keeping and using a portable task list can save at least 7.5 hours per week, which is equivalent to an entire workday.
What is habit stacking, and how does it help save time?
-Habit stacking is the practice of combining a passive activity (like walking or doing dishes) with an active one (like listening to a podcast or writing). It helps save time by allowing you to multitask and accomplish more in the same amount of time.
Why is it important to realize that not all times are created equal?
-It's important to realize that our energy and focus levels fluctuate throughout the day. By aligning high-value tasks with our peak energy times, we can multiply the quality of our work and get more done in less time.
What is time blocking, and how does it help with productivity?
-Time blocking is the practice of allocating specific time slots in your calendar for specific tasks. It helps with productivity by setting boundaries and creating self-defined deadlines, reducing the negative effects of Parkinson's law (tasks expanding to fill the available time).
How can one identify their high and low value times based on energy and focus levels?
-To identify high and low value times, you can track your energy and focus levels for a few days or reflect on the times when you typically do your best work. Then, dedicate your high energy times to high-value tasks and low energy times to low-value tasks.
What is the recommended approach to implementing these five habits?
-The video recommends starting with one habit at a time and gradually adding more habits once the previous one has been successfully incorporated into your routine. It suggests not trying to implement all five habits simultaneously.
How can eliminating small time wasters save time?
-The video suggests that small time wasters, like scrolling on social media, deciding what to eat, or looking for a closer parking spot, can add up to a significant amount of wasted time each week. By identifying and eliminating these small time wasters, you can potentially save around 4.37 hours per week.
What is the importance of creating a portable task list?
-Creating a portable task list allows you to utilize your "empty time" effectively, such as when commuting or waiting for someone, by having a list of tasks that can be completed without requiring deep concentration or large blocks of time.
How does time blocking help in reducing the negative effects of Parkinson's law?
-Parkinson's law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. By time blocking and actively setting boundaries and deadlines for tasks, you reduce the tendency for tasks to expand unnecessarily and fill the available time, thus improving productivity.
Outlines
🕰️ Keeping a Portable Task List
This paragraph discusses the habit of maintaining a portable task list, which helps utilize waiting or empty time productively. It recommends having a list of tasks that can be done on the go, such as responding to messages, creating content, reading articles, or simply thinking through ideas. Doing these tasks during commutes or waiting periods can save up to 7.5 hours per week, which is a significant amount of time that can be used for other meaningful activities.
⏲️ Eliminating Small Time Wasters
This paragraph highlights the importance of identifying and eliminating small time wasters that can add up to hours wasted each week. It suggests being aware of activities like mindless scrolling on phones, deciding what to eat or wear, or inefficient routines. Strategies like moving app icons, meal prepping, and creating a capsule wardrobe can help reduce these time wasters. By becoming aware and implementing strategies, one can save several hours per week and use that time more meaningfully.
🧠 Habit Stacking for Personal Growth
This paragraph introduces the concept of habit stacking, which involves combining passive activities (physical tasks) with active activities (mental tasks) to maximize productivity and personal growth. Examples include listening to podcasts while exercising, creating content during commutes, or responding to messages while walking. Habit stacking is an effective way to prioritize personal development and learning while managing a busy life, potentially saving up to 5 hours per week.
⏱️ Aligning Tasks with Energy Levels
This paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding that not all time is created equal and aligning tasks with energy and focus levels. It suggests that individuals have natural peaks and dips in concentration throughout the day, influenced by factors like sleep patterns and lifestyle habits. By matching high-value tasks with high-energy times and low-value tasks with low-energy times, individuals can multiply the quality of their work, find tasks easier to accomplish, and finish the day feeling more accomplished.
🗓️ Time Blocking for Increased Productivity
This paragraph discusses the strategy of time blocking, which involves allocating specific time slots for tasks in advance. It explains how tasks tend to expand or contract to fit the available time (Parkinson's law). By setting predefined time blocks, individuals can reduce procrastination, increase focus, and complete tasks more efficiently. Time blocking involves deciding how much time to allocate for a task, adding it to the calendar, and potentially aligning it with energy levels. It recommends starting with realistic time estimates and adjusting as needed through experience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Portable Task List
💡Empty Time
💡Productivity
💡Time Wasters
💡Habit Stacking
💡Energy and Focus Levels
💡Time Blocking
💡Parkinson's Law
💡Capsule Wardrobe
💡Self-awareness
Highlights
Spent 3 years experimenting with productivity and time management tips.
Uses five small daily habits for optimal time use and balance in a busy life.
Keeps and uses a portable task list, saving at least 7.5 hours a week.
Finds value in using public transport time for productive tasks instead of social media scrolling.
Portable tasks can include personal admin, content creation, and personal growth activities.
Eliminates small time wasters, saving 4.37 hours per week.
Identifies and reduces time spent on unproductive short activities.
Habit stacking combines a passive and an active task, saving at least 5 hours a week.
Realizing not all times are created equal for energy and focus, which can revolutionize productivity.
Adjusts day around energy and focus levels for more effective task completion.
Time blocking as a strategy to make tasks fit into defined time slots, used by successful figures.
Parkinson's Law and its effect on task completion efficiency.
Matching tasks with energy levels for improved work quality and enjoyment.
Start with one habit and gradually add more for better time management.
Provides actionable steps for implementing each highlighted habit.
Transcripts
I have spent the last 3 years
experimenting with almost every
productivity and time management tip out
there there are five small daily habits
some evidence backed and some of my own
that I now use to get the most out of my
time and balance everything in my busy
life if you want my credentials I'm
currently working full-time with a 2hour
commute I write one newsletter and
create one YouTube video each week I
exercise every day eat well and get 7
plus hours of sleep at night and still
try and make as much time as possible to
do the things that I love like seeing
friends and reading and working on my
personal development the first habit is
keeping and using a portable task list
and this saves me at least 7 and 1/2
hours a week this might be an unpopular
opinion but I genuinely love public
transport it's literally a free pass or
a $5 pass to getting where you want to
go without having to do the driving
yourself I would say about 85% of people
use this time to scroll on social media
and 5% spend at playing games on their
phone if this is you it's not your fault
and it's what I used to do as well it's
because it's the path of leas resistance
scrolling and consuming social media
content has turned into a norm every
time that we are sitting on public
transport waiting in the car for our kid
or our friend or filling in time in
between meetings and classes I like to
call these waiting times empty time and
there's something that the other 10% of
people do with this empty time that
allow them to make these small parts of
their day more meaning meaningful or
more useful they use something that I
like to call portable tasks whether they
realize it or not a portable task can be
used in almost any situation where you
have empty time they typically involve
things that require only your phone or
your brain they don't require deep
concentration and they don't require
large blocks of time these portable
tasks could be work rated they could be
personal admin or they could be related
to your personal growth and development
or even rest and relaxation so every day
I drive Drive 15 minutes to the train
station and then I take a 45 minute
train to work instead of scrolling
social media on these train rides I've
used the time to respond to messages to
create and edit content I'm probably
editing this YouTube video on the train
right now I've read and saved articles
and posts that I wanted to explore more
I've even just sat on the train for 45
minutes and let my mind work through a
current problem that I'm having or an
idea that I've come up with it might not
sound like much but let's do the maths
if I am taking the train for 45 minutes
twice a day 5 days a week that equals
7.5 hours every week an entire work day
this is one whole day that you get back
to spend more time with your friends and
family or get in that exercise that you
can never find time for it's time you
can now use to do the needle moving work
on your side hustle or Hobbies or maybe
it will just give you the opportunity
for a bit more self-care and relaxation
time that will really help you to
perform at your best so some inspiration
for other portable task that you could
use you could read a book or listen to a
podcast you could create your next
workout program you could clear out your
overflowing camera roll or tidy up your
home screen and like I spoke about
before you could just use it to let your
mind wonder and just decompress from the
day if you do genuinely want social
media time because it is okay to be on
social media you could use this time for
that intentionally it's more just about
eliminating the Mindless scrolling the
key here is to have a constant list of
portable tasks that you can pull from so
you don't end up on the train or waiting
for someone and then spending all of
that time deciding what to actually do
with the time so create your own
portable task list based on your
interest priorities and goals what I do
is I keep a master to-do list on notion
and this houses all of my different
to-dos which I then pull from and time
block into my days so under this list I
have a category section and one of those
categories is portable tasks or phone I
think it's called called so every time
I'm in a situation where I only have my
phone on me but I have a bit of spare
time then I just sort this notion
database into phone tasks only and I
pull things from there if you want to
make your own one of these lists then
you can take the free notion 101 course
that I created which I'll pop in the
description below a small habit like
this is something that contributes
massively to a more balanced and
fulfilling life by giving you time back
and helping you to use your minutes more
meaningfully the second habit is
eliminating small time wasters which
could save you 4.37 hours per week this
is inspired by the weekly Apple screen
time report which always makes me
question what I am doing with my life I
went through a phase where I was racking
up almost 7 hours of screen time a day
yes I was using my phone to create
content and track my workouts and listen
to things on Spotify but those things
absolutely did not take me 7 hours and I
could never quite work out how it
somehow got up to that amount because I
wouldn't spend an hour straight
scrolling on Instagram or Tik Tok I
started paying more attention to what I
was actually doing with my phone and I
came to realize that it was all these
little 5 to 10 minute Scrolls that
somehow added up to hours each day it
was the ones where I would just finish a
work and reward myself with a little
scroll on my phone or where I didn't
know what to do next and so I would
procrastinate by scrolling on my phone
even when I just got home from a long
day and would just spend 5 minutes in
the car before going inside just just
doing a small scroll they really don't
feel like much but all it takes is 10 of
these little 5 minute Scrolls to waste
almost an hour of your day and it's not
just our phone that's the issue because
these small time waster are absolutely
everywhere deciding what to eat for
lunch or dinner can add up to 70 minutes
a week going back and forth on what to
wear each day can add up to 35 minutes a
week looking for a closer park for 10
minutes instead of just parking 100 m
away and walking can add up to 70
minutes a week and things like driving
all the way home and then going back to
the gym instead of just driving directly
to the gym eliminating that saves me 80
minutes a week once you become aware of
these things they start appearing
absolutely everywhere so the first step
to getting your time back is to identify
these time wasters I did this just by
starting to become aware of what I was
doing as I went throughout the day what
are you doing repeatedly that you really
don't need to what things are taking
extra time that you could eliminate and
how can you make the things that you do
regularly slightly more efficient once
you've gained this awareness then you
can start to implement strategies to
reduce the time wasting so for example
with my bad Instagram scrolling habit I
would just move the Instagram app on my
home screen every week this brought my
conscious mind into the picture when I
was trying to look for the app and gave
me a moment to question whether I
actually wanted to use it another thing
that I do is meal prepping because this
eliminates the decision making when I'm
trying to work out what to eat for lunch
and dinner another massive thing was
creating a capsule wardrobe to make
choosing my clothes each day so much
simpler so identify your time waster
think about some different strategies
that you could use to eliminate these or
to reduce your bad habits and start
giving yourself back the time to do more
meaningful fulfilling things habit
number three is one of my absolute
favorites and this is habit stacking
which has saved me at least 5 hours a
week if you feel like you don't have
time for personal development or
learning a new skill or exercising or
even just responding to messages then
this one is for you habit stacking has
been the single biggest tool that I have
used to prioritize my personal growth
and learning while living an extremely
busy life there's a lot of different
definitions for this but my favorite way
to explain this is combining a passive
activity with an active one passive
activities are normally physical ones
things like walking doing the dish es
working out or meal prepping active
activities are mental so things like
listening to a podcast taking a phone
call writing or thinking about something
now multitasking on two passive or two
active tasks doesn't work you can't run
and meal prep at the same time and you
can't write an email and respond to a
message at the same time but habit
stacking one of each of these does work
for example I wrote the outline for this
you you video while I was walking I
create content and respond to messages
while I'm on the train I listen to
podcasts and audio books while I'm at
the gym or meal prepping or washing the
dishes these are really simple
activities that can solve the problem of
feeling like you never have enough time
in the day or having your personal
growth always put in the do later pile
you are sitting right now with a
portable device in your hands that you
can do absolutely anything on this makes
habit stacking one of the easiest ways
to implement more productivity into your
life and manage your time better so
experiment with some different forms of
habit stacking and work out which
combinations work best for you and your
goals habit number four is more of a
mindset shift but it's realizing that
not all times are created equal this is
a big one when I first realized this my
life completely changed and I have never
looked at time planning or productivity
the same way again I used to look at my
mental capacity and focus as this
straight line that stayed constant
throughout the whole day I thought that
doing a task at 7:00 a.m. would take the
same amount of time feel just as
difficult and be done to the same
quality as if I did that task at 700
p.m. turns out it doesn't quite work
that way our bodies go through natural
Peaks and dips in concentration energy
and focus throughout the day these Peaks
and dips depend on our sleep and wake
times our chronotypes so whether you're
an early bird or a night owl as well as
things like our habits and our lifestyle
and the way that we look after our
health realizing this made me start
planning my day around not just my time
but also my energy and focus levels I
used to be a 5:00 a.m. morning gym girly
I would head to the gym before work get
my workout done go to work feeling great
and then come home try and work on my
side hustle or work on creating content
and feel absolutely exhausted I was an
introvert spending all day talking I was
doing lots of mental work even just
having to pay attention to the way that
I was holding myself and interacting
with others all of this just really took
it out of me and I didn't have very much
left at the end of the day in terms of
my mental capacity the main issue was
that I was putting a task that energized
me my workouts at the start of the day a
time where I was already high energy I
was then putting a task that took a lot
of energy from me my deep focused work
at the end of the day when my energy was
already depleted I had nothing left to
give I was just trying to pull from an
empty cup and it was it was completely
mismatched so what I did was I started
swapping these times instead of working
out in the morning I started heading
into the city early and doing 90 minutes
of my focus work before going to my
full-time job then at the end of the day
after I'd used up all this mental energy
and I had to commute all the way home I
would use up my physical energy by going
to the gym or going for a walk but I
wouldn't do a task that required more
mental energy that I didn't have
understanding your unique patterns and
energy fluctuations really comes down to
self-awareness and experimentation you
can either track your energy and focus
levels for a few days or just have a
think about the times where you normally
do your best work and try and dedicate
those times to the work that produces
the most value for you I can guarantee
you that when you start aligning your
tasks with your energy levels you will
multiply the quality of work that you
produce it will take you less time and
you'll find doing the work easier you're
genuinely making work feel more fun
because you have more energy to give to
it so in summary first work out your
high value and low value times based on
your energy and focus levels then work
out your high and low value tasks based
on how much energy and focus they
require and how much they contribute to
your goals I spoke about deep and
shallow work in one of my past videos so
go have a look at that if you want to
know more about working out which type
of work is the most important then all
that's left to do is to match your times
with your tasks so put your low value
tasks at your low value times and your
high value tasks at your high value
times this is such a simple change but
when you start arranging your day based
on your energy and focus levels and not
just your time you will get so much more
out of your day and finish the day
feeling so much better about the work
that you've done habit number five is
time blocking time blocking is a
strategy that Elon Musk Bill Gates and
Cal Newport the author of deep work all
used to get the most out of their time
most of us treat our task like ice we
think they're this solid block of work
that take up a predefined amount of
space but in reality your tasks are like
water they mold to fit the space that
you put them in so right now it's a
Sunday and I'm filming this YouTube
video if I was to have blocked off the
whole day to film this video it would
have taken me the whole day I would have
started procrastinating and focusing on
things that didn't really matter I would
know that I'd have time to film again
and so I probably wouldn't do a very
good job the first time but the
difference is that today I have also
gone to the gym I've meal prepped I've
grocery shopped I've seen a friend I've
set aside time to read this afternoon
and so I don't have the whole day free I
don't have time to procrastinate on the
video this has meant that I am more
intentional and productive with the 1 to
2 hours that I do have this comes back
to Parkinson's law we will make tasks
more complicated and be less efficient
with our time just so that those tasks
fill the time available for its
completion so I've given 1 to 2 hours to
my task today it's going to fill up that
time if I gave it a whole day then it
would fill up all of that time instead
when we time block we reduce the
negative effects of Parkinson's law by
actively setting boundaries and creating
self-defined deadlines to complete the
task in we basically pour water into a
mold instead of all over the floor in a
world where we are increasingly in
charge of our time where there is always
a million things to do and where our
results are based Less on the number of
hours that we put in and more on the
quality of those hours implementing
structure like this has never been more
important how do we actually time block
well it's pretty much as simple as it
sounds you take the task that you have
to do decide how long you have to
allocate for it and then you add it into
your calendar this pairs really well
with habit number four about matching
your task to your energy and focus
Levels by not looking at just how much
time the task will take but also looking
at how much energy it will require you
can decide the best time in the day to
place a Time block for that task now
this will take time to get right you
won't immediately know how long a
certain task will take or how much you
can actually get done in an hour you
might not know where your energy levels
sit and when the best time to do certain
types of work is so my biggest
suggestion is to just start with what
you think and be realistic just because
you want a task to only take 1 hour it
doesn't mean that you can squeeze a 4H
hour task into 1 hour it'll just create
more stress and anxiety and really
feelings of inadequacy when we then
don't get it done so start by setting a
realistic period reflect on how much
time it actually took and then start
adjusting your times from there okay I
think there is a lot that we can take
away from this video the biggest thing
is just don't expect yourself to
implement all five of these habits at
once because that I can guarantee you is
going to be impossible I have built up
these habits over years and a lot of
experimentation has happened along the
way so what I would recommend is to
start with just one of these action
steps and then when you've successfully
added that habit in then come back to
the video and choose another one to add
in so action step one is to keep a list
of portable tasks write down an area of
your life where you can Implement these
portable tasks whether that's on the
train or waiting to pick someone up each
day and then create a space to keep your
list of portable tasks that you can
access easily again if you want to
create your list you can use the notion
101 course otherwise you could just make
something in your phone or even on a
notepad that you take with you but habit
number two identify three small time
wasters that you're currently doing and
create a strategy or multiple strategies
to start reducing these time wasters for
habit number three think about two
things that you're currently doing that
you could start implementing some form
of habit stacking into and plan out
exactly how you will do this so if you
want to start habit stacking on your
drive to work then work out exactly what
podcast that you're going to listen to
so when the time comes around
implementing it becomes that much easier
for habit number four identify your high
and low value times do an audit of what
you currently spend that time doing and
start exploring where you could transfer
more low value shallow work tasks to
lower value times and habit number five
time blocking set aside 15 to 30 minutes
on a Friday afternoon or on the weekend
to time block your week ahead thank you
so so much for being here I hope you
found this video helpful if you did
please like And subscribe and if you
have any time-saving habits or you want
to hold yourself accountable for the new
habit you're going to implement drop
them in the chat below so that we can
all support each other and share our
time management knowledge I'll see you
next video
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