by Cal Newport
Remember, your list also serves another important purpose. During the day you will probably encounter various new to-dos and deadlines that need to be scheduled. For example, a professor might announce the date of an upcoming exam, or a friend might give you the date and time for an upcoming study group. The key is to get these obligations out of your head as soon as possible so your mind is not unnecessarily cluttered. Jot down a quick reminder on your list, in the Things to Remember column, as soon as they occur. This takes only a few seconds, and then you can forget about them. The actual scheduling of these tasks will take place the next morning; all you have to do for now is scribble a few words on a piece of scrap paper.
Remember, to-dos and deadlines that exist only in your mind drain your energy, distract your attention, create stress, and are more likely to be forgotten. When you’re working, you should be able to concentrate on working, and when you’re relaxing, you should be able to enjoy relaxing. But you can’t devote 100 percent of your energy to any activity when you have important reminders bouncing around in your head.
Few students have the energy to schedule every new piece of information that comes along during the day. Think about this for a moment: If it’s the middle of the afternoon, and you are hungry, and everyone is just getting up to leave at the end of a long class, when suddenly the professor yells out a notice that a paper topic is due the following week…you’re probably not going to have the energy to stop packing up, take out a calendar, think about what steps are involved in coming up with a paper topic, and then schedule each step on the appropriate days. It would be nice if you did, because then you could purge the deadline from your mind and be confident that it’s safely recorded in your calendar—but this is unrealistic. And it violates our original criterion that any time-management system should require only a few minutes each day.
That’s the power of the “things to remember” column of your list. You can’t expect yourself to be able to think seriously about time management at all points during your busy day. But the act of pulling out a piece of scrap paper from your pocket and quickly jotting down “anthro paper topic” requires minimal energy, no thinking, and barely any time. You don’t have to consider when to begin working on the paper topic, what steps are involved, or how many days it will require. You simply scribble down three words.
The key is that the list is a trusted piece of storage. You are confident that tomorrow morning, when you’re doing your only time-management thinking for the day, you will see that reminder and record the appropriate steps in your calendar. Because of your list, the deadline will not be lost. It will be scheduled.
Restarting After a Period of Neglect
To date, I have yet to have successfully followed any time-management system without interruption for longer than two months. I try, but inevitably I hit a rough patch. Typically, this happens during the few days following a really busy period—I’m so exhausted from the intensity of the preceding work that I find myself unable to even mention the word “to-do” without breaking into a cold sweat. This happens to everyone, and you can expect that periodically it will happen to you too. Don’t fear these occasions, and don’t let them make you feel like a failure. They’re normal.
The key point is that these lapses are temporary. After a couple days of swearing off my calendar, I always find myself growing uncomfortable with the increasing number of obligations that are free floating in my mind. Before I know it, I’m back into the swing of using the system again, and no worse for wear. The same will be true for you. Once you have learned the power of feeling organized, you will have a hard time going long periods without it.
Fortunately, the system described here is adaptable to these periods of neglect. If you skip a few days, all you need to do upon restarting is to dump all the to-dos and deadlines free floating in your mind onto a sheet of paper and then push these back onto your calendar for future dates.
Case Study: A Monday with Stephen
Even the simplest systems can come across as confusing when first described. So let’s go through a quick example that will show you how to put this system into practice. Stephen’s story is based upon the real-life college experiences of myself and the many students I interviewed. If you’re already at college, what follows will seem familiar. If you haven’t yet started your undergraduate career, don’t panic! Yes, Stephen has a lot on his plate. Notice, however, how he uses our system to keep control of his many obligations. Though he can’t finish everything in one day, he remains confident that everything that needs to get done will get done in time. As you read this example, imagine how Stephen’s stress might increase, and his efficiency decrease, if he didn’t have his list and calendar to guide his actions and capture the new to-dos and deadlines that constantly pop up.
Monday Morning
Stephen gets up early because he has class at 9:30 A.M.—a horrible thing. He grabs his calendar from his desk and roots around in his hamper to find the sheet of notebook paper that he used as yesterday’s list. He has only a couple of minutes before class, but that’s okay. Our system requires very little time.
Figure 2 shows what Stephen finds recorded on his calendar for today.
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Figure 2. Stephen’s calendar entry for Monday
Monday—3/11/07
• Finish reading for Tuesday Gov class.
• Gift for Dad’s birthday
• First step of research for Gov paper—find books, Xerox relevant chapters.
• Pay cell phone bill.
• Return Mark’s CD.
• First half of Econ problem set (due Wed)
• Pick topic for Anthro paper (due tomorrow).
• Read five chapters from Anthro book (need to catch up for Friday’s quiz).
• Dinner with guys—7 P.M.—Molly’s
• Ill-conceived toga party—10 P.M.—Alpha Chi
* * *
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Figure 3. Stephen’s list from Sunday
Sunday—3/10/07
Today’s Schedule
Things to Remember
• 1:00 to 3:00—read article for Anthro.
• Call home.
• 3:00 to 6:00—write Government essay.
• Start researching summer internships.
• 7:00 to 8:00—dinner with Sarah
• Create schedule for practicing guitar?
• 9:00 to 10:00—edit Government essay.
• 10:00 to 11:00—start reading for Tuesday’s Government class
* * *
Figure 3 shows what he finds scrawled on yesterday’s list.
There are several things to notice here. First, Stephen has a lot of work recorded on his calendar entry for today. More than he can probably accomplish in twelve hours, so some of these to-dos will need to be moved to other dates. Also notice Stephen’s schedule from the day before (Sunday). This is typical. A fun night on Saturday inevitably leads to a late start and a large workload on Sunday. Stephen was too ambitious with his planning, and by 10:00 P.M. he was burnt out from working on his essay and never got around to starting the Government reading he had scheduled. So this task will need to be carried over to today. Finally, notice how Stephen’s Things to Remember column from yesterday includes some long-term projects, such as “Create schedule for practicing guitar.” This is a great use of the list! If you jot down ideas for extracurricular and personal projects as they occur to you, they will get moved onto your calendar and therefore won’t be forgotten until you finally get around to doing something about them.
Now let’s see how Stephen gets a handle on all of this before class.
What Does Stephen Do First?
Stephen’s f
irst step is to time label the tasks currently on his plate so he can determine how much he can actually get done. Between his calendar entry for today and the leftovers from yesterday’s list, Stephen has a lot of to-dos to schedule. His strategy is simple: He starts time labeling in order of importance until his schedule is full, and then moves the rest of the items to other days on the calendar. To effectively time label, however, he must first figure out how much free time he has available. Stephen quickly runs through the following in his head:
I have class from 9:30 to 10:30, and another class from 11:00 to 12:00. It’s unlikely that I will get any work done between my 7:00 P.M. dinner and the Alpha Chi party that starts soon after. I should also try to squeeze in an hour or two for a predinner workout (have to look good in that toga), so I should aim to be done with all of my work by 5:00.
With his free time now identified, Stephen can begin to time label his to-dos. Here is his thought process:
In between class, from 10:30 to 11:00, I can squeeze in my three small tasks—pay cell phone bill, buy a birthday gift for Dad, and return Mark’s CD. After my second class, I will need to get lunch, but then I should get right to work on my Government reading because it’s due tomorrow! Let’s see, I have three Government articles to read, which will realistically take two hours, so I will label this task with 1:00 to 3:00. Hmmmm, I am running out of time here. I need to start that Econ problem set because those suck, and it’s due Wednesday morning, so I’ll label that task with 3:00 to 4:30. Okay, I am down to my final half hour. What else has to get done? My Anthro paper topic is due tomorrow, so I will have to squeeze that in at 4:30 to 5:00. And that’s all I have time for.
At this point, Stephen is almost done. All that’s left is taking care of the still-unscheduled to-dos by moving them to future dates. Remember, these include both the unscheduled tasks recorded for the current day and the “things to remember” items from yesterday’s list.
On yesterday’s list I have a reminder to Call home…this week is so busy…okay, I’ll jot that down on the calendar entry for Friday, I’ll be more relaxed by then. I really don’t have time right now for these other two reminders—start internship research and create guitar schedule—so I’ll jot those down on the calendar entry for the first weekend after midterms are over. I should have more free time then. Okay, what’s left? The unlabeled items from today’s calendar entry. No problem. I can move the Anthro reading to tomorrow’s calendar entry, and then move the Government paper research to Wednesday—I can work on it after I hand in my Econ problem set. Done!
That’s it. Stephen has finished all of his serious time-management thinking for the day. Before leaving for class, he rips out a fresh sheet of notebook paper to use for today’s list. He divides it into two columns and jots down the tasks he scheduled for the day. Figure 4 shows what Stephen’s list looks like as he bolts out the door.
The entire process described above would realistically take only around three to five minutes to complete. The more you use this system, the more natural it becomes. Before you know it, updating your calendar and dashing off a daily schedule will become as routine as taking a morning shower. Remember, this is the only serious time-management thinking that Stephen has to do all day. Now he’s ready to face his Monday with his mind free from worry about tasks he’s forgetting or due dates that are looming. He knows he has scheduled all the tasks on his plate and that they will get done eventually. He has a flexible plan. And he can trust it.
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Figure 4. Stephen’s list on Monday morning
Monday—3/11/07
Today’s Schedule
Things to Remember
• 9:30 to 10:30 Class
• 10:30 to 11:00—Gift for Dad’s birthday, pay cell phone bill, return Mark’s CD.
• 11:00 to 12:00—Class
• 12:00 to 1:00 Lunch/Break
• 1:00 to 3:00 Do Government reading assignment.
• 3:00 to 4:30 Start work on Econ problem set.
• 4:30 to 5:00 Come up with topic for Anthro paper.
• 5:00 to 7:00 Get huge.
• 7:00 Dinner followed by inevitable embarrassment at toga party (Note to self: Flex a lot at party.)
* * *
Now let’s see how Stephen holds up…
During the Day on Monday
The day starts off fine. Stephen successfully finishes the small tasks that he scheduled for 10:30. During his second class, he remembers that he has some overdue library books that need to be returned. No problem. Stephen whips the list out of his pocket and jots down “Return books” under the “Things to Remember” column. A little later, the professor announces the date and time of the midterm—something else that needs to be scheduled. Again, no problem for Stephen. He adds “Sched. Gov midterm (4/5, 3 P.M.)” to his list, and then leaves the classroom confident that these tasks will be scheduled appropriately tomorrow morning.
After a leisurely lunch, Stephen hunkers down in the library to tackle his government reading. The articles are a little shorter than usual, so he finishes by 2:30, which is nice.
As he leaves the library, however, Stephen runs into a friend who convinces him to tag along on a Wal-Mart run. To be honest, it didn’t take much convincing. College students, for some inexplicable reason, love Wal-Mart runs.
After this (unavoidable) detour, Stephen gets back to campus by 3:30. Now he’s behind schedule. Quickly checking his e-mail, Stephen sees a message from a classmate asking if he wants to join a study group at 4:00 to work on the Econ problem set. Swiftly adapting, Stephen once again whips out his list and makes a couple of rapid changes to the Today’s Schedule column. He bumps up the Anthro paper topic work to start now, and then replaces his Econ problem set work with the study group that he just found out about. One of the big advantages of this system is its flexibility. Schedules will always change, but this the system makes it easy for you to regain your focus after getting sidetracked. Figure 5 shows the new state of Stephen’s list.
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Figure 5. Stephen’s list Monday afternoon
Monday—3/11/07
Today’s Schedule
Things to Remember
• 9:30 to 10:30—Class
• return books.
• 10:30 to 11:00—Gift for Dad’s Return Mark’s CD.
• Sched. Gov midterm birthday, Pay cell phone bill, (4/5, 3 P.M.)
• 11:00 to 12:00—Class
• 12:00 to 1:00—Lunch/Break
• 1:00 to 3:00—Do Government reading assignment.
• 3:30 to 4:00—Choose Anthro paper topic
• 4:00 to 5:00—Work with group on Econ problem set
• 5:00 to 7:00—Get huge.
• 7:00—Dinner followed by inevitable embarrassment at toga party. (Note to self: Flex a lot at party.)
* * *
The Anthro work goes fine. Stephen finds a topic that he is happy with and then runs off to meet with his Econ group. During the meeting, the group agrees to meet again Tuesday morning to finish the problem set. Stephen quickly jots down “Econ group—10 A.M.” under Things to Remember and then heads off to the gym. He’s done with work for the day.
The Aftermath
Because he finished a lot of work during the morning and afternoon before the party, Stephen was able to really relax and have a good time that night. In addition, he successfully recorded all of the new to-dos and deadlines that cropped up during the day. Ins
tead of bouncing around in his head and causing stress, they were safely placed in Stephen’s system and will be scheduled in due time. Most important, none of this required him to explicitly think about time management beyond the five minutes he spent planning that morning and the quick rescheduling he did in the afternoon.
As suggested at the beginning of this case study, imagine for a moment what Stephen’s day might have been like without the simple time-management system. What if, instead, he’d employed the strategy used by most students and simply tried to remember what he needed to get done? It’s highly unlikely that the small tasks—returning a CD, buying a birthday gift, paying a bill—would have been completed. Without a schedule, people don’t like to do menial chores unless they’re 100 percent necessary. There’s also a good chance that he would have forgotten about the Anthro paper topic altogether after the last-minute study group came up.