how to follow a schedule even if you lack discipline
Summary
TLDRThe video discusses the struggle with procrastination and time management, particularly for those with ADHD. The creator shares their personal journey and introduces the 'two calendar method' to address time blindness and fluctuating energy levels. They also highlight the importance of prioritizing tasks using tools like 'task score' in the EMP Note app to overcome analysis paralysis and make consistent progress towards goals.
Takeaways
- 📅 **Procrastination Issue**: The speaker struggles with procrastination, often only becoming motivated the night before a deadline.
- 🗓 **Planning vs. Execution**: Despite having a planner and a schedule, the real issue is not creating a plan but following through with it.
- 🔔 **Ignoring Notifications**: Calendar notifications reminding of tasks often lead to ignoring or deferring actions.
- 🤯 **Self-Blame and Stress**: The speaker used to blame themselves for procrastination and the stress it caused, promising not to repeat the cycle.
- 🔄 **Cycle of Procrastination**: There's a repetitive cycle of procrastination, hyperfocusing before deadlines, and then self-reproach.
- 🏃 **Lack of Fun in Procrastination**: Even while procrastinating, the speaker isn't engaging in enjoyable activities.
- 🚫 **Burnout and Lost Potential**: The constant cycle of procrastination led to burnout and a feeling of wasted life and potential.
- 🤔 **Questioning Abilities**: The cycle of behavior led to questioning one's abilities and a loss of confidence.
- 🏥 **ADHD Diagnosis**: The speaker was diagnosed with ADHD, which made traditional productivity methods less effective.
- 🔄 **Time Blindness**: A concept introduced where individuals lack a natural sense of time, affecting their ability to stick to a schedule.
- 📈 **Energy Level Fluctuations**: Energy levels vary, making it difficult to adhere to a rigid schedule.
- 📊 **Two-Calendar Method**: A method to manage time and energy levels by planning tasks and logging what actually happens to understand time usage patterns.
- 🔄 **Adjusting to Energy Peaks**: Aligning most demanding tasks with peak energy periods and saving easier tasks for low-energy times.
- 📉 **Overcoming Overwhelm**: Prioritizing tasks to prevent feeling overwhelmed and to break the analysis paralysis cycle.
- 📝 **Task Score Tool**: A tool within the app 'empo' that helps prioritize tasks based on factors like urgency, importance, and frequency of attention.
- 📱 **empo App**: An app that combines to-do lists, notes, habits, and calendar, using task scoring to help manage tasks effectively.
Q & A
Why does the speaker struggle with following a schedule, even though they use planning tools?
-The speaker struggles with following a schedule because the issue isn't planning but actually sticking to the plan. When reminders or calendar notifications appear, they tend to ignore them, leading to procrastination. This cycle causes frustration and burnout, despite having systems in place.
What is time blindness, and how does it affect the speaker’s ability to manage time?
-Time blindness is when someone lacks an accurate sense of how time passes. This makes it difficult to judge how long tasks take, either underestimating or overestimating time spent. For the speaker, this contributes to their inability to stick to schedules, often resulting in chaotic days.
How does fluctuating energy levels contribute to the speaker's struggle with productivity?
-Fluctuating energy levels mean that some days the speaker feels energized and productive, while other days they struggle to even start tasks. Traditional time management techniques don't account for these variations, making it hard to stick to a routine.
What solution does the speaker propose for managing both time blindness and fluctuating energy levels?
-The speaker proposes the 'two-calendar method.' This involves planning tasks on one calendar while keeping a second 'reverse log' of what actually happened. This approach helps track time accurately and manage energy levels by observing when the speaker is most productive.
How does the reverse log in the two-calendar method help with time blindness?
-The reverse log helps with time blindness by showing a visual comparison between the planned schedule and what actually happened. Over time, this allows the speaker to see patterns, improve their time estimates, and make more realistic plans in the future.
How does the two-calendar method help with managing fluctuating energy levels?
-By tracking not only time but also energy levels throughout the day, the two-calendar method helps the speaker identify patterns in productivity. This allows them to schedule demanding tasks during their peak energy periods and reserve easier tasks for when their energy is low.
What is 'analysis paralysis,' and how does it affect the speaker?
-Analysis paralysis occurs when the speaker feels overwhelmed by a long list of tasks, leading to indecision and inaction. With so many urgent and important tasks, the speaker's brain freezes, making it difficult to prioritize and causing procrastination.
What is Task Score, and how does it help with prioritization?
-Task Score is a tool that helps the speaker prioritize tasks based on factors like how often they revisit a task, its urgency, importance, and whether it's blocking other tasks. This system ensures that critical tasks rise to the top of their to-do list, preventing important work from getting lost.
Why does the speaker recommend EMPNote, and how does it differ from traditional to-do lists?
-The speaker recommends EMPNote because it integrates to-do lists, notes, habits, and calendars in one app with a focus on prioritizing tasks using Task Score. Unlike traditional to-do lists, EMPNote continuously updates the task list, ensuring that urgent and important tasks remain at the top.
How does the speaker's method combat perfectionism and burnout?
-The two-calendar method combats perfectionism by encouraging observation and learning rather than following a rigid plan. By seeing the day as a series of adjustments, the speaker reduces the pressure to stick to a perfect schedule, which helps avoid burnout and stress.
Outlines
😫 The Struggles of Procrastination and Self-Doubt
The speaker describes their chronic procrastination and how it leads to a cycle of stress and self-blame. Despite using planners and scheduling tools, they struggle with following through on plans, often ignoring reminders and notifications. This leads to feelings of laziness, self-doubt, and burnout. They share how procrastination impacts their productivity and self-esteem, resulting in a sense of wasting time and potential. After being diagnosed with ADHD, they realized that traditional productivity methods don’t work for them, and they had to find an alternative solution to manage their time and energy effectively.
⏳ Understanding Time Blindness and Energy Fluctuations
The speaker introduces the concepts of time blindness and fluctuating energy levels, particularly relevant for people with ADHD. Time blindness makes it difficult to gauge how long tasks will take, leading to misalignment between plans and reality. Additionally, inconsistent energy levels complicate sticking to a routine, as traditional time management assumes constant productivity throughout the day. The speaker explains that managing time is only part of the equation; without considering energy levels, even well-planned schedules can fail. They emphasize the importance of recognizing and adapting to one's energy patterns for more effective time management.
🗓️ The Two-Calendar Method for Better Time and Energy Management
The speaker introduces the 'Two-Calendar Method' as a solution for time blindness and energy management. The method involves maintaining two calendars: one for planning tasks and another for recording actual activities and energy levels. This reverse log helps identify discrepancies between planned and actual time usage, allowing for more realistic future planning. Over time, this method helps improve time estimates and understand personal productivity patterns. It also aids in managing fluctuating energy levels by aligning demanding tasks with peak energy times and avoiding burnout. The speaker highlights how this approach fosters flexibility and reduces perfectionism.
🧠 Tackling Overwhelm with Prioritization and Task Scoring
The speaker addresses the challenge of feeling overwhelmed by long task lists, a common issue for people with ADHD. They explain 'analysis paralysis,' where too many tasks lead to indecision and inaction. The key to overcoming this is effective prioritization. The speaker introduces 'task score,' a feature of the Ampo app that helps prioritize tasks based on factors like urgency, importance, and frequency of attention. This method ensures that critical tasks aren’t buried under less important ones, making it easier to focus and reduce overwhelm. They recommend Ampo for managing time, energy, and priorities, particularly for those who have struggled with other productivity apps.
📅 Finding the Right Tools and Mindset for Productivity
The speaker emphasizes the importance of finding a personalized system for time and energy management, especially for those with ADHD. They advocate for Ampo, highlighting its unique ability to dynamically organize tasks based on urgency and alignment with goals. The speaker argues that traditional to-do lists often fail to distinguish between urgent and important tasks, leading to ineffective prioritization. By using the right tools and focusing on progress over perfection, individuals can regain control over their time and reduce feelings of overwhelm. They invite viewers to explore Ampo and sign up for their newsletter for additional productivity tips and strategies.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Procrastination
💡Time blindness
💡Energy management
💡Two-calendar method
💡Reverse log
💡Perfectionism
💡Analysis paralysis
💡Task prioritization
💡Task score
💡Overwhelm
Highlights
The struggle with procrastination and difficulty following schedules is common, especially for those with ADHD.
Traditional productivity methods may not work for everyone, particularly those with ADHD.
Time blindness is a challenge where individuals struggle to accurately gauge the passage of time.
Fluctuating energy levels can make it difficult to adhere to a strict schedule.
The two calendar method can help address time blindness by comparing planned versus actual time usage.
Reflecting on daily productivity can reveal patterns in energy levels and help align tasks with peak productivity times.
Tracking energy levels along with time can provide insights into what factors contribute to high and low productivity.
Perfectionism can hinder productivity; the two calendar method encourages observation and learning over rigid planning.
Analysis paralysis, or feeling overwhelmed by too many tasks, can lead to inaction.
Prioritizing tasks is key to overcoming analysis paralysis and focusing on what truly matters.
Task score is a tool that helps prioritize tasks based on urgency, importance, and other factors.
Empo Note is an app that combines to-do lists, notes, habits, and calendar, making it easier to manage tasks.
The two calendar method and tools like Empo Note can help manage time, energy, and priorities effectively.
Finding a system that works for you is more important than striving for perfection in time management.
The speaker offers a free email newsletter for further tips on managing time without relying on discipline and motivation.
Understanding why traditional productivity advice may not work for everyone is crucial for finding personalized solutions.
Transcripts
I'm a pro procrastinator and the only
time I get motivated is the night before
the deadline and when I tell this to
people often times I get recommended to
use a planner everyone recommends
writing things down you need to do put
them in an order block time on your
calendar and don't forget to add it that
reminder as if I'm already not doing it
for me the issue is not planning it's
the following the schedule part when I
get a calendar notification reminding
what I'm supposed to be doing I notice
it stare at it sigh and ignore for the
longest time I thought it's because I'm
lazy and I lack discipline whenever I
would pull an old nighter the day before
my deadline I would blame myself for
putting myself in a such stressful
situation I would promise myself I will
never do it again but the next day I get
the calendar notification again notice
it and still procrastinate and the funny
thing is when I'm procrastinating and
running away from my schedule I'm not
doing something fun the more I repeat
this cycle of procrastination
hyperfocusing before deadlines and then
beating myself up the more I started to
question my abilities I lost confidence
in myself and I felt like I was stuck on
a treadmill constantly running but never
getting anywhere and this constant cycle
didn't just like stress me out but it
also led to burnout I started to feel
like I was wasting my life my potential
and also my time and we all know that
time is our most valuable asset right we
all have dreams and goals we want to
achieve but if you keep letting
procrastination run the show those
dreams could slip right through our fing
fingers if you're feeling stuck like I
was it's time to make a change before
you find yourself further away from the
life you want to live that's basically
when I knew I had to do something about
it I got diagnosed with ADHD and most of
the popular productivity methods just
don't for for my cytic brain but through
the years of trial and error I finally
found a way to fix this issue and this
method allowed me to grow this YouTube
channel to 1.4 million subscribers
establish a consistent workout routine
where I used to have it and make time
for my family as well as for my hobbies
obviously I'm not a productivity machine
and there are periods of time where I am
less consistent than I used to be but if
nothing has worked for you so far and if
you want to take control over your time
and stop feeling about yourself this
video can help let's start with a
problem that many of us face especially
if you have ADHD and that is time
blindness time blindness is when you
don't have a natural sense of time
passing you might sit down to work on
something and then get completely
absorbed and before you know it hours
have slipped by or it can be the
opposite you know you think you've been
working on something for hours but when
you check the time it's been like only
10 minutes and it makes it incredibly
difficult to stick a schedule because
we're kind of like constantly misjudging
how long tasks will take you know I
would like plan my thinking I can knock
out a project in an hour and then I
would only find myself like working on
it for 2 hours and when that happens the
rest of the day just like falls apart
because they don't match and this isn't
just like about poor time management
it's actually more deeper than that if
you don't have an accurate sense of how
long stin take your entire schedule can
become chaotic because suddenly you're
behind your schedule stressed and
feeling like you have never control over
your time and it's just just that ADHD
that can cause this anyone can struggle
with time blindness to some extent but
here's the thing time blindness is only
part of the problem and another major
issue is fluctuating energy levels you
know some days you wake up feeling ready
to conquer the world and other days you
can barely drve yourself out of bed like
I was today and this fluctuation in
energy is a major reason why sticking to
a routine can feel impossible now it's
not that you're lazy or lack discipline
it's that your energy isn't consistent
and most schedules don't account for
that traditional time management
techniques tell us to like break our day
into neat little blocks assuming that we
can perform at the same level all day
long but that's just not how it works in
reality this is where a lot of us go
wrong especially me because we focus so
much on managing our time feing
everything into a calendar blocking of
hours of tasks setting reminders that
we're going to completely Overlook time
management is important for sure but
it's just a part of the equation you
know if your energy is low it doesn't
matter how much time you've blocked off
our task you're not going to gain get it
done efficiently if at all think of it
this way time is a finite resource right
like we all have 24 hours in a day but
energy is dynamic it like es and flows
depending on a variety of factors like
how much sleep you got what you have
eaten your stress levels and even time
of the day and if we don't pay attention
to our energy we are setting ourselves
up for failure and when we plan our day
based purely on time we're ignoring how
our energy levels align with those
plants you might like schedule your most
demanding tasks for the morning thinking
you will be fresh and ready to go but if
you're someone whose energy peaks in the
afternoon like me you're literally
setting yourself up for frustration in
the morning and potentially burn out by
end of the day solution for time
blindness and energy management so how
do you manage your time when your energy
levels are all over the place and you
struggle with time blindness that's
where the two colar method comes in and
this is something that I'm big fan of
here how it works every day you plan out
your tasks estimating how long each one
will take and blocking of that time in
your calendar this step alone helps
address time blindness because it forces
you to make an educated guess about how
long something should take but and this
is the key you also keep a second
calendar where you log what actually
happened and this is your reverse log
let's say you scheduled a big project
for like 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. but
you find yourself still working on it at
2: p.m. or maybe you just like got
distracted and didn't even start it
until 11:00 a.m. either way you log that
to your second calar and this visual
comparison at the end of the day between
what you plan and what actually happened
helps you understand where your time is
really going and if you have time
blindness this method is a GameChanger
because over time you will see the
patterns in how long things actually
versus how long you would thought they
would take this helps you to improve
your time estimates making your future
planning more accurate and realistic the
more you do this the better you get at
it but the benefits don't stop there
this method is also incredibly effective
for managing fluctuating energy levels
because when you track your time and
also with your energy you start to
notice some patterns at the end of the
each day take a few minutes just to
reflect back okay look at your reverse
log and look at your estimated calendar
and ask yourself when you felt the most
productive during the day when did you
struggle and whether you hit at a wall
at any point or whether you had the
burst of energy that you didn't expect
and over time you will start to see some
patterns maybe you find that you're
consistently more productive in the
morning or that you hit it like a slump
after lunch once you identify these
patterns you can start aligning your
most demanding task with your Peak
energy periods and save the easier stuff
for whenever you're feeling low and if
you want to dig even deeper you can
track other factors that might influence
your energy energy levels like what you
ate how much sleep you got or whether
you exercise these can all play a big
role in how you feel throughout the day
by paying attention to those details you
basically get a clear picture of what
works best for you and I think this
method also helps a lot with
perfectionism instead of beating
yourself up in writing a rest of the day
the two calendar method really
encourages you to observe and learn
because you start to see your day as a
series of adjustments rather than rigid
plan you have to follow perfectly there
is another big challenge that can mess
with your schedule which is feeling
overwhelmed I feel overwhelmed a lot
when you got a like long list of tasks
staring back at you it's like really
easy to feel where you don't even know
where to start and when that happens
like my brain literally freezes up I end
up doing nothing or I get distracted by
the things that really don't matter and
it's quite like common especially if you
have ADHD and it's called analysis
paralysis where I got so much on your
plate that you can't even make a
decision you're stuck because every task
feels urgent and important and it's
really hard to figure out what to do
first the key to breaking out of this
overwhelm is learning how to prioritize
when you know what's most important it's
a lot easier to focus on and let go of
the less important stuff but to be
honest prioritizing can be quite
difficult especially when like
everything feels like it needs to get
done right now I've tried a bunch of
apps and methods but came into
conclusion that OTE is best at
prioritizing tasks to allow creating a
flexible schedule match to my energy
levels emply note unites your to-do list
notes habits and calendar in a single
app with a Twist that I've never seen
before called task score when I
discovered like the task score tool and
how it works like really well with ADHD
I approached them to ask if they would
sponsor this video and thankfully they
agreed and I'm really glad they did
because it's genuinely a game changer
and here how task score Works imagine
you got a bunch of tasks to do but
you're not really sure which one to
start right task score helps you out by
looking at few things first it considers
how often you are opening a task note if
you keep coming back to it task score
bumps it up the list because it's
clearly on your mind and next it looks
at the urgency and importance if
something is urgent like it needs to get
done in a couple in the next couple of
days it's going to score higher and if
it's important meaning it aligns with
your goals it will score even higher
this way the stuff that really matters
isn't buried under less important tasks
but it also doesn't stop there if a task
has a deadline or if it's holding up
another task it gets an extra boost this
makes sure that time sensitive tasks and
blockers don't get ignored and it all
does it without you thinking about it it
sounds complicated but it does it for
you so you don't have to worry about it
if you're user traditional to-do list
you probably know like they can get
quite overwhelming fast and tasks that
aren't immediately handed often sink to
the bottom and you forget about it but
with task score your list is always
evolving the most relevant tasks rise to
the top and you can easily snooze or
dismiss tasks that don't need your
attention right now one of the big
problems with classic to-do list is that
they don't differentiate between what's
new what's urgent and what's important
everything kind of like gets jumbled
together and it's really easy to get
stuck working on recent tasks that
aren't the most important even if you
don't use ampo you can apply this idea
to your own system whenever you are
prioritizing try to focus on tasks that
are Urgent or aligned with your goals
and don't be afraid to let go of tasks
that are no longer relevant we need to
say no if you're someone who struggles
with ADHD like I do or if you just find
it hard to stay on top everything EMP
note is hands down best app out there
for prioritizing your tasks and getting
organized so if you're looking for a
tool that can help you manage your time
energy and priorities and especially if
you have tried other apps and they just
didn't like stick with you give emplot a
try it's made a huge difference for me
and I think it could do the same for you
remember following the schedule isn't
about being perfect but it's about
finding a system that works for you and
helps you get a little better every day
and with the right tools and the right
mindset you can take control of your
time reduce overwhelm and start making
real progress towards your goal if
you're interested in how you can get
better at managing your time without
relying on discipline and motivation
check out my free email newsletter that
I send every single Friday and if you
want to learn more about why most
productivity advice don't work for you
and how you combat them you need to
check out this video
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