Allocate Energy to Categories

me@iany.me (Ian Yang) — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 12:42:26 +0000

I have read the post Get Everything Done & Still Have Time to Play by Jackie Ashton recently and adopted some strategies into my process.

Before I plan the tasks daily by allocating them into time slots in a calendar, it is tedious and time-wasting. It messes up my agenda, which is intended only to contain the events that I must do on time. And it makes me nervous and exhausted to follow a pre-defined schedule every day.

My new process is much simpler. I review my life objectives first and group them into categories. Then I evaluate their importance in my current life stage and allocate my energy in percentage into them.

Here is the list looks like now:

Maker 30%: Work as a programmer. I follow the suggestion from the lesson one “Switch Between Manager And Maker Modes” in the book “Leading Snowflakes.”
Manager 5%: Work as a manager.
Career 15%: The tasks that are not directly related to my work but help to improve myself on my career path.
English 15%: I want to improve my English listening and speaking, so I commit enough time on it. However, it is a short term objective. Once I’m satisfied with my English level, I can move the time to other categories.
Hobbits 10%: Piano, painting.
Workout 10%: Running, swimming.
Misc 5%: Such as reading novels.
Family 10%: Quality time with family.

Then I create a punch card to plan timed bursts for each category. I use 50 minutes for tasks requiring long focus period, and 25 minutes for short focus period. The 50 minutes session counts for 10% of the energy, and 25 minutes accounts for 5% because I dedicate 10 hours per day to the planned tasks. And this is my punch card.

Maker 50 / 50 / 50
Career 50 / 25
English 25 / 25 / 25
Hobbits 25 / 25
Workout 50
Manager 25
Misc 25
Family 50

I have set up my OmniFocus projects hierarchy by categories. Every night, I go through each category to see what to do next and plan enough tasks for the next day according to the allocated energy.

The next day, I choose a category and pick a task to work. If I have completed the timed burst, I checked it in the punch card, then move on to the next one.

The new process has many pros:

It is simple. Simplicity saves time and is efficient.
It associates every task to one of my life objectives. It motivates me to complete the job if its objective is crucial for me. Otherwise, if I always feel reluctant to do a task, maybe I should cross on that objective from my life temporarily.
I can dynamically adjust my day. If some routines occupy me in the most time of the day, I can use the remaining time to only the most critical categories.
It reminds me of what is essential in my life. For example, I should spare enough time with my family and friends.

The cons are that I should take the punch card with me. But it is so simple that I can print a whole week into a single piece of A5 paper. As a bonus, I can review the card every week, record the completion status into a spreadsheet, and adjust my plan according to the statistics.

~iany/ Life Management

Allocate Energy to Categories