0005: Your Calendar as a To Do list.
Putting proven time management techniques to work for me.
Some of the most effective people list dispose of to do list altogether and instead slot in important work as events in a calendar.
Nir Eyal talks about it in his book Indistractable
Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky’s book Make Time.
It came up a bunch in this X thread asking for people’s favourite productivity tips.
And it’s the first point in
about 10 time management techniques that actually work, Lenny also suggests,“To go even further: Sunday evening, plan out your week ahead by slotting your most important to-dos into your calendar.”
I’m going to try it for a week and report the results.
Day 1
I scheduled 4 hours of deep work, but got it done in 3, So Day one is a success!
This is similar to what I typically do which is create a to do list or a backlog, and then assign time blocks for certain tasks, except I do it in my bullet journal. By removing the planning from my journal I turned it into a more creative place.
Day 2
It worked again! I did jiggle some of the tasks around but managed to get things done. I started my day with a Creative Bubble which is an idea that
brought up that I’m exploring.Day 3
The earlier I put stuff in the calendar the better. Overall I’m really liking this routine. Coupled with Daily Blogging
Day 4
It’s my day off, no todo’s or calendar needed.
Day 5: Sunday
I put in plans for the whole week leaving some margins to move things around. I’m quite happy with this system And plan to keep going with it.
The next thing I did was add a morning routine to it. The first item on my morning routine list is to draw whatever I think and feel will be enjoyable, using drawing to make me feel good before anything else.
🔓Advance Your Illustration Career
If you would like to enjoy BONUS CONTENT including,
🗺️ My proven roadmap from illustration outsider to securing 10 five-figure picture book projects in 18 months.
🧠 Micro-Lessons on lots of useful topics to accelerate your illustration career.
🎥 20+ Hours of Video Workshops and Discussion.
💬 Vibrant Creative Community Connect with like-minded artists in our exclusive chat. Share experiences, seek advice, and grow together.
🏴☠️ Press the shiny, green button to unlock that secret treasure.