How Highly Productive People Structure Their Days Differently

Work with your brain, not against it.

How many “projects” do you have ongoing at the moment? If you’re being honest, how many of those projects will you complete on time?

Our problem is not the projects themselves; it is that we are trying to do them all at the same time.

While technology has enabled us to do many things simultaneously, our brains have not evolved at the same pace. This leaves us trying to do too many things at once, which in turn dilutes our ability to focus on what matters today.

I’ve struggled with this dilemma for many years. There’s so much I want to do, but I have little time to do it all in a quarter, let alone a week.

This is compounded further by dealing with the day-to-day work and commitments—our core work and routines. We can’t just put all that on hold and focus solely on our projects.

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”Four quiet hours is a resource that I can put to good use. Two slabs of time, each two hours long, might add up to the same four hours, but are not nearly as productive as an unbroken four. If I know that I am going to be interrupted, I can’t concentrate, and if I suspect that I might be interrupted, I can’t do anything at all.”

Neal Stephenson (Author)

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The only way I’ve managed to control this is to get ruthless about what I will work on this week.

Trying to plan beyond a week is fruitless. There are too many things that can change, and priorities are shifting constantly.

Having an anticipated roadmap of what you would like to do and when is okay, but getting down to the doing can only be planned out for the following week. You don’t know what will happen beyond that.