Cal Newport's Time Management System

Properties of a Good Time Management System

Any good time management system is going to need 3 things:

1. Capture - Some place to store all of the information that's important to making decisions. You need to get stuff out of your head. David Allen's system uses the term “full capture” system. Use it.
2. Configure - Capture is about where to put it and how to organize it. Care more about how you think through this information. Getting the relevant information consolidated so you don't have to search multiple places. Information should be organized well.
3. Control - Instead of being reactive (choosing things randomly) have a plan for your time in advanced. Do this control at a multi-scale planning level: quarterly, weekly and daily.

What Cal Uses

1. Capture - Cal uses two things: his time block planner and a text file called working_memory.txt.
   1. His shutdown process at the end of each day has everything going into Trello or Google Docs. Both capture devices are cleared for the next day.
2. Storage & Configure - Cal uses Trello for tasks and commitments. Plans like the quarterly plan live in Google Docs.
   1. Within Trello, Cal has separate boards for his various roles like Writing, Teaching, Researching, Podcasts, etc. Each has standard columns like To Be Processed, Waiting to Hear Back, etc.
3. Control - You do control at multiple scales:
   1. Quarterly - Whatever big projects you are working on are in Google Docs. These get broken out into detailed plans.
   2. Weekly - What is going to happen on each day within the week. Cal prints these.
   3. Daily - What is happening during the hours of the day. Cal uses his time-block planner.

Bonus

Constraints. This whole system is about how to constrain what gets into your workstream. What do you say yes and no to. With clear rules in place about what you let onto your plate, you'll avoid distraction.