on time and task management

finding ways that work for my brain

I, like I’m sure many of you, have a tumultuous relationship with time. Maybe we’re all struggling through the attention economy, but I find it increasingly more difficult to protect my energy from so many competing priorities. Figuring out what works best for me over these past few years has been a whole journey, especially with my chronic anxiety (and maybe some neurodivergence/adhd stuff that I’m just beginning to unravel).

I wanted to share some strategies that I’ve been experimenting with—and would love to hear yours too. 👀

From my local bonsai garden

Problems I experience

• Constantly thinking about tasks I need to do

• Anxious about forgetting a task

• Easily overwhelmed if the todo list piles up

• So many ideas in the notes app, but overwhelmed by executing

• Resulting frustration with self for not being able to create

What I’ve been experimenting with

I’m always testing out different strategies, and these are ones that have been sticking for me personally!

Set & forget task scheduling

I’ve been taking time to set priorities in 5 min/day for the past 8 years or so. This gives me time at the beginning of the day to set daily priorities, and end of the day to see what’s outstanding.

The tweak I’ve made recently is when new tasks come in. Before, I would lump them all into the same day, or move them to the next day by default.

Now, I try to give my brain reassurance by actively scheduling all my tasks on different days of the week, or even the next week. This way, I can zoom in with focus and zoom out without worrying about missing anything. I can empty out my brain, set it, and forget it until the scheduled time comes. It sounds really simple, but damn my brain is so much happier!

I make it part of my Monday ritual to create my weekly planning sheet

This goes for non-work tasks, too. My reminders app with categories and deadlines is my best friend for setting and forgetting personal todo’s.

Seasonal planning

I mentioned closing out daily cycles above. But to expand more, I have been trying to live more seasonally ever since the pandemic threw out most structure in my life. The most consistent cycle I follow are the lunar cycles—New Moons for planting seeds, and Full Moons for reflections and release. This has been so crucial for checking in with my needs every 2 weeks-ish.

Another seasonal framework I’ve been obsessed with lately is the 12 Week Year. Like, I feel so excited by this that I have to shout!!! tl;dr — the 12 week year invites us to move away from annualized thinking (e.g., new year resolutions, annual planning). A year is actually a long af time, and motivations can fluctuate so much when trying to structure it.

Instead, what if 1 year was condensed into 12 weeks? And in those 12 weeks, we defined actions every week to contribute to 1 or 2 goals? It’s a way to give 4 deadlines for distinct goals that are closer to the horizon, but are still tied in to your long-term visions for your life. I also love that as a result, there are 4 opportunities to celebrate success and rest!

Of course I Notion-ized everything lol

I really love this because it helps me treat every season’s strategies differently, depending on my energy levels. For example, I just want to hermit and reflect in the winter, and I can release a lot of my guilt for performing at a certain level all the damn time. Having my own business lets me further reinforce this as a practice.

Starting late, but there’s still 5 weeks until Spring so let’s gooooo

I’m excited to stop thinking about all the things I want to get done for my personal projects + business ideas, and actually work on them in seasonal, incremental ways. I’ll probably share more about how this practice works for me in the future, as I continue to integrate it.