Mastering Time Management Easily

How to Better Prioritize Your Tasks to Max Out Life
Say goodbye to the classic To-Do list!

Just today I answered an interesting question for someone:

His main issue was the fact that he had quite a few things on his to-do list, but he didn’t know which ones he should prioritize. He felt completely overwhelmed because of everything he had going on for him.

Have you ever felt the same way?

Today’s newsletter will forever help you get rid of that overwhelm!

Where Most People F*ck Up

Here’s how most people think of prioritization:

They have their to-do list with multiple items on it and then make a vertical hierarchy. They’re saying “Well, I think A is more important than B, but it’s less important than item C”.

Forget that kind of thinking!

Blank it out like an empty cinema screen.

Instead, think of it like a horizontal timeline.

So instead of saying that C is more important than A, which is more important than B, think of it like saying C should be done first, then A and finally B.

Why do it like this?

For one, our minds like following directions.

When we look at a to-do list, things aren’t immediately clear. You might look at it, and even when it’s ranked, you might feel “well, these are all important”. As a result, chances are you’ll do none, or do them half-heartedly because yyo’re unsure of those priorities.

Your mind likes steps and clear directions.

Therefore a timeline works pretty well.

A timeline gives you something to look at and say “Alright, here’s what I’m gonna do first”. And once that first task is done, you’ll naturally have the next step that logically follows from it.

You’ll have more clarity, less overwhelm and a better path forward.

SCORE!!

4 Rules to Create Your Timeline

The next question then becomes:

“Well that’s great Maikel, but how do I know which items to put first?

For this, I have 4 main rules:

1. Are there any external deadlines or intrinsic promises made?

2. Is there a logical sequence to my tasks?

3. Which tasks will give me the most bang for my buck?

4. Which tasks will help me get the most momentum?

That’s it, my entire thinking process of prioritization.

Let’s break each of them down.

Are There External Deadlines or Internal Promises Made?

This one is straightforward.

For some things, there might be an external deadline. Maybe you’ve got a report to make for your job or you’re doing a partnership for your sidehustle and need to have something finished by Monday.

If there are, move those tasks forward to make sure the deadline is met.

Sounds simple, right?

That’s because it is!

One of my rules is to make things as simple as possible.

This way, it avoids overwhelm and makes it more likely we’ll actually do it.

The second part of this question is about intrinsic promises.

What are those, you ask? (Did you ask? I wonder)

You’re reading one, actually.

When I started this newsletter, I promised myself and my readers (hey, that’s you!) that I would send a newsletter every Monday and Thursday. That’s my own commitment, it’s one I created for me, not one that other people impose.

That’s the difference.

Technically, I would be fine if I didn’t do it.

Except, I’d lose my personal integrity if I weaseled out.

The same rule applies here:

Move things forward in your timeline as you see fit in order to make sure that you make it by the time you said you’re going to have it done. Or make sure you do something at the frequency you promised yourself and others.

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Is There a Logical Sequence?

This is best illustrated with an example.

Let’s say you want to amass more wealth.

There are a LOT of things you could do for this:

• Invest your money

• Cut out (useless) subscriptions

• Find a higher paying job

• Make a budget

• Start a sidehustle to make more money

• Save more money each month

• Pay off any (high interest) debt

• Yadayadaya

Here’s how to work this into your timeline:

If you used the vertical hierarchy, you could say that investing your money is the key to building wealth, and thus most important. However, for our timeline it does NOT make sense to start there, as you’d have very little to invest.

An easy and effective first step would be to look at cutting subscriptions.

You could also look at other expenses that aren’t needed and cut those.

With that low hanging fruit picked, it would make sense that you look at making a budget each month. This way you can pay off your debt next, and then start saving money.

Finally, you’d reach a point where you’re saving enough that investing makes sense.

Or:

At the point where you have your spending under control, you could also look at increasing your income through the examples that I gave in the list above. And once that is high enough, investing would be the step after that.

See the point here?

When you don’t think of your to-do items in terms of importance, but rather in terms of sequence, it allows you to think through them more easily.

We’ll cover this further in point 4.

Which Task Gives the Most Bang for My Buck?

Here’s an old mistake I made that’s hilarious looking back at it.

And by hilarious, I mean “how the fuck was I so stupid?”.

Here’s the situation:

It was the first time I tried getting into an online business (failed horribly by the way). I had a blog and was trying to grow an email list. In order to do this, I spent quite a bit of time writing what we call lead magnets (something free I give people in exchange for their email).

I made a TON of them!

However, there was a little problem…

At the time, my blog was the main method of getting people to notice me.

And that blog was getting about 3 visitors per day on average.

Yeah…. all that time was completely wasted!

Nobody got to see my lead magnets, because nobody knew I existed.

Not my smartest move.

Lesson learned!

And so, now I always ask myself:

“What things can I do that, if done, will actually move the needle for my goal?”

Or you could ask:

“What is the current bottleneck preventing me from reaching my goal?”

When you asks these two questions, you should be able to identify at least one or a couple of activities that will actually benefit you greatly. Move these on your timeline to have the highest priority wherever possible.

Which Task Allows Me to Build the Most Momentum?

Now, it’s time to get things snowballing!

Let’s revisit our previous 2 examples:

In my failed business attempt, there were multiple things I could have spend my time on:

• Creating more content on my blog

• Create content for YouTube

• Share my content on social media more

• Learn how to properly advertise myself

• Make more lead magnets (number 12 is gonna work, right?)

• Tweak the design of my blog

• And so on, you get the point

All of these thing have value and are useful.

However, at the stage where my “business” was at, it would make sense to better advertise myself and create more content. Those would be great first steps since it allows for more people to discover me.

In other words, they build momentum.

Sharing on social media would come a bit later, because I didn’t have an audience yet.

Finally, once people were visiting my blog regularly, at that point it would make sense to focus more time on creating different lead magnets and tweak the design of the site to get more people to stay and come back.

Here’s my thought process:

Think about which thing will make doing the other things easier.

In the example I gave about building wealth, cutting out subscriptions and useless spending come first because they instantly give you more money to work with to pay off debt or invest.

This way, you’ll make the most of your time.

Putting Everything Together

With these 4 rules, you can make your timeline.

Always stay aware of any deadlines you have have as well as potential promises you made to yourself and others. Get these into your schedule wherever needed.

And the key element:

Reverse engineer your goals.

When you know where you want to go, you can work your way back to figuring out which activities will have the biggest impact. Once you know that, you can work on putting them in the correct order for you.

The Simplest Productivity System Ever
Forget complicated apps, trackers and systems!

There’s a lot of talk online about “productivity systems”.

Most of it is complete bullshit!

If you go on Reddit, you’ll find people who are so obsessed with productivity systems that they waste more time picking a system than doing work. There are also people who switch between systems every 2 months, because the system didn’t make them productive…

Yeah…. duh!

Most “productivity” apps and sites are NOT meant to make you more productive!

They’re meant for optimization.

Think of it like this:

Using a productivity system like Notion is like shifting your car into gear 5 or 6 to allow yourself smooth driving on the highway. However, putting your car in 5th gear when you’re stationary does not work!

You’ll simply fail.

Again, simplicity is king!

Make it as simple as possible to just get started!

Don’t get me wrong, if your life is complicated (let’s say you’re running a business) then it makes sense to have systems in place for time management. For 98% of people reading this however, those are a waste!

First, make sure you’re consistent and productive.

Once you’ve done that, you can consider trying something more complex.

(I still don’t and don’t think I will for quite some time)

Use This Productivity System

Here’s what I use as my simple system:

A pen and a piece of paper or notebook.

My system is incredibly simple:

1. Have clarity on which goal you’re working towards first.

2. Sit down at night and write down 3 MUST do tasks for tomorrow.

3. Go to bed and get a good night’s rest (you need it).

4. Review your list in the morning and use that as your golden thread as you go throughout your day. Life with intent in mind!

5. Make sure you do the 3 things you’ve written down.

6. At night, evaluate yourself and check to make sure that you have done everything you said you would.

7. Set your 3 tasks for the next day. And if there were things you said you’d do today, but didn’t, add those tasks on top of your 3 for tomorrow.

That’s all there is to it.

If you do want to make this a bit more complicated by adding more self-evaluation, you can download my self evaluation form below. It’s a fillable PDF that helps keep track of daily goals and progress in key areas of life.

Additional Resources to Be More Productive
Let’s start out by fixing your morning routine

Let’s Start Creating Your Timeline

As always, it’s time to put today’s lessons into practice.

Here are my recommended action steps:

1. If you’re chasing multiple goals or are trying to make multiple changes in your life all at once, I’d suggest focusing on only 1 at first. Just like you can sequence to-dos, you can sequence goals for the same reason.
   
   This way, you prevent overwhelm as you snowball and make smaller changes. Changing everything at once isn’t sustainable for most people.
   

2. Once you’re clear on your first goal, write down the things that you should or could do in order to achieve it. Use your existing to-do list as needed.
   

3. Use the 4 rules of prioritization to create a horizontal timeline of your actions, milestones and sub-goals.
   
   Note: It’s perfectly fine if you don’t know all of the steps yet in order to achieve your goal. You don’t need to know all 13052 steps in order to take the first 3!
   

4. Clarify it even further by writing down your must-do activities for tomorrow. And then, make sure you do these tomorrow.

If you go through these steps, you’ll be able to quickly snowball your life ahead because you’re focused on the right things.

Remember:

It’s NOT about how many hours you put in, but what you put in those hours!