How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips (1)

- All right.

So over the past 10 years,

I have read basically all of the books

around productivity and time management.

And in that time, there are 10 things

that I still use in my life, genuinely use

to help make my time management more efficient.

Let's talk about them in this video.

Tip number one is that we absolutely own all of our time.

Now, this is like a big one.

When I first had this realization, my life genuinely changed

because I used to think I don't have time to do stuff.

And I don't know where I read it,

but I came across this like,

probably like a fortune cookie somewhere

which said something like

at any given moment you are doing

what you most want to be doing.

And that was a very empowering thing for me

because I was obviously in native empowerment

and it helped me realize

that my time is entirely within my control.

Like right now I'm filming this video

because I want to be.

Earlier today, I spent six hours playing "World of Warcraft"

because that's what I wanted to do.

I could not have said I don't have the time

to work out today,

instead, it was a case of I'm actively choosing not

to make the time to work out today.

And so when it comes to time management

like step one is always to recognize

that we are always in control of our own time.

Yes. You might have a boss.

Yes, you might have parents telling you what to do

but fundamentally you are in control of your own time

and you can choose to do whatever you want with that time.

If you don't have the time to do something,

that something it's just not a priority,

which is fine but don't pretend

like the reason you're not doing it

is 'cause you genuinely don't have the time.

Point number two is the title of this book

by Derek Sivers "Hell Yeah Or No What's Worth Doing."

Now, the vibe here, "Hell Yeah Or No"

it kind of says it all in the title

that when we're young

and we don't have very many opportunities in our lives,

we should probably say yes to the majority of things

that are coming our way.

But as soon as we get to a point

where we're starting to get more inbound leads

than we have time available,

we start operating with a hell yes or no maxim.

And the idea there is something

is either a hell yes or it's a no.

And so if I get an email from someone saying,

"Hey, do you wanna do this thing?"

And I'm thinking, maybe it sounds kind of all right

then my default position is gonna be no.

If I get an email from someone saying,

"Hey, do you wanna do this thing?

And I'm like, "Hell yeah."

Then I'm gonna do the thing.

And I'm trying to get better

at using this principle in my life.

Because even now my calendar is full

of a lot of things where I'm like, oh yeah, kind of

rather than hell yeah, too.

And now it was regret doing it when it comes down.

So hell yeah or no,

just like learning to be okay with saying no to stuff

is another really important principle of time management.

Thirdly, there's a tip I picked up from this book

called "Make Time" by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

And this tip is called the daily highlight.

This is like deviously simple.

Basically, the idea is that every day we decide this thing,

this one thing is gonna be my highlight of the day.

This is the only thing I need to get done today.

And on the days where I set a daily highlight

and I try and do this every day,

I always get the thing done.

And I'm always really happy at the end of the day.

But if I have a day where I don't set my daily highlight

then I kind of drown in my to-do list

and I have this just image in my head of like,

oh yeah, I need to do this and this and this and that.

And it's a lot harder to get stuff done.

Whereas on days where I have the daily highlight,

I have that just one thing that I'm focusing on,

this is the most urgent or the most satisfying

or the most fun thing I have to do today.

And then it just really helps with my time management.

Tip number four for time management is to use a to-do list.

And these days are use a physical to-do list

with this analog by Ugmonk.

It's very nice.

And it's like, you get these like note cards

and then you'd get this like wooden thing.

And you're like put the note card in the thing

and it looks like this.

And that means like every morning,

once I figured out what my daily highlight is,

I make a list of the other stuff that I have to do that day.

And I shove it on a list and then I tick them off

and cross them off with physical pen

as I go throughout my day.

It doesn't really matter what system you use

for it to-do list.

But again, there's a general principle of productivity

which is that our brain is for having ideas

not for holding them and a big part

of why we let stuff slip through the cracks

when it comes to managing our time

and managing our productivity

is 'cause we haven't written them down.

And so anytime I need to do something,

I write it down into an app.

These days I use Roam.

But then when I figured out my daily to-do list,

it's all based on this analog system by Ugmonk

which is very nice.

And it's kind of cool having a physical to-do list

in front of me that I can cross things off of it

and it just feels nice.

And yeah, even at work, when I'm working as a doctor

I use physical to-do lists to manage my patient list,

to manage my list of tasks.

There's something incredibly satisfying

about crossing something off,

which you just don't get when you use an app.

Principle number five for time management

is the concept of time blocking.

Apparently, this is something

that Elon Musk does all the time.

And basically the idea there

is any time we need to do something,

we put a block for it in our calendar.

So I don't like doing this for absolutely everything

because I'm a bit of a waste man.

And I think the more time I spend

managing my productivity system,

the less time I spend actually getting stuff done.

And then it's just all completely pointless.

But the one thing that I always schedule into my calendar

at the start of the day is my daily highlight.

So if I've decided my daily highlight

is filming this video

usually, well, I'll try my best to schedule it

into my calendar at the time

when I know I'm gonna film the video.

If my daily highlight is call my grandma,

I will literally scroll schedule it into my calendar.

If my daily highlight is make changes to my website,

I will schedule it at like for a block in my calendar.

And that's like really nice and reassuring

because it means that that one thing

that I've decided is really, really important

is always gonna get done

because it's always on the schedule.

And then if I need to move it around,

I'll move it around if something comes up

but at least it's there on the schedule by default.

And this thing where you combine the daily highlight

with time-blocking in the calendar

is just incredibly useful.

Everyone always kind of thinks that like,

oh, but only one thing a day?

Don't you have to do more than that.

And yeah, you do kind of have to do more

than that in most of our lives.

But imagine if every single day for the next year

you could actually do the one thing,

the one most important thing to do that day,

you'd make a hell of a lot of progress

over the course of the year.

And it would just be absolutely game changing.

Principle number six is related to something

called Parkinson's Law,

which is that work expands to fill the time

that we allocate to it.

So if I have to film a YouTube video in a day

and I give myself the whole day to film that YouTube video,

inevitably, it's gonna take all day

to film the YouTube video.

Whereas, if I only give myself half an hour

or an hour to film the YouTube video

and I fill my day up with other things,

then inevitably I get the video done

in that small amount of time.

And so the actionable advice here

is to leverage artificial deadlines,

even when it's something like filming a new course.

Like I'm working on a course for YouTube for beginners

where I kinda filming, took you to everything

about my YouTube video production process.

And this doesn't really have a deadline.

Like I could literally do it whenever I want.

I don't have to do it.

It's purely optional project

but I've set myself the goal that, okay, you know what?

I'm gonna film all of this course next weekend.

And I've blocked out time in my calendar next weekend

to film the course.

And that's an artificial deadline

which means the course is gonna get done.

Whereas if I just had it in my mind

or in my to do list without a deadline, without a schedule,

it would just inevitably never, ever get done.

Point number seven is one I've started applying recently

and that is having protected time.

When you were an entrepreneur

and you were like working for yourself

and all that kind of stuff,

you end up basically being able to set

whatever schedule you want

but like, if you're like, man

and you're like making connections and making friends

with people all around the internet,

you get to a point where your day is filled

with lots and lots of Zoom calls.

And I realized that for me,

I need to keep my mornings completely free

of any obligations or any Zoom calls.

And this has been an absolute game changer

because in the morning

that means I can wake up whenever I want.

Usually it's half past eight these days.

And it means that for a solid like four hours at least

I've got uninterrupted time where I can do whatever I want.

So these days I'm working on writing my book.

And so the morning is my protected time for writing.

But even on days where I'm not working on the book

it's just genuinely so nice to have that

like timestamp where I can think about the business

or plan some more videos

or do the things that help move me forward

in my work career.

And sometimes if I'm not really feeling it,

I'll just decide, you know what?

I'm gonna use this protected time

to play "World of Warcraft" or to just kind of relax

and read a book on the sofa.

So if you're interested

in better ways to managing your time,

I would recommend figuring out

what your protected time is gonna be,

time that is just for you and you alone

or "World of Warcraft" and not for anyone else

where no one is allowed to book something in your schedule.

All right, principle number eight is delegation.

Now this one is a little bit weird

because normally when you say the word delegate,