<aside> 📌 Organising your time and attention

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Our attention, will power, flow and energy is limited throughout the day. There are ways, however, to use our energy and attention more efficiently. See some of my favourites tips that I use every day.

Table of content

Find out what time of the day you work best

Are you most focused in the morning or evening? Are you more creative in the morning or the evening?

Notice for a week what times of the day you are most awake, when you feel most creative and when you are tired.

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing | Daniel H. Pink

Plan in time for focus ⬆️

Plan your time according to what you found out in point 1.

Use different colours to indicate study, private events, meetings, etc.

Plan in study time, writing time and research time. If you only plan your meetings and classes, your calendar might seem empty (picture above). Also plan in the times you want to focus (picture below) so you get a clearer picture of how you spend your time.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/ec63c0b5-f21c-4a8a-8e05-96d4136b90f8/calendar-meetings.png

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/4bfb1281-0a6d-4a20-8744-ec9b091bc205/calendar-withstudy.png

Work in 25 minutes blocks ⬆️

It is not possible to focus for several hours in a row. Breaks are very important. One efficient way to ensure you take enough breaks is to work in 25 minutes blocks, also called Pomodoro Technique.

The Pomodoro Technique® - proudly developed by Francesco Cirillo | Cirillo Consulting GmbH

Write clearer tasks ⬆️

The task write on paper is rather unclear and it is not easy to know when you can tick the task off. Write clearly defined tasks that are clear when you achieved them, e.g. "Continue writing on how GDPR is affected by data mining technology", or "Write on paper for 25 minutes" or "Write 1000 words".

Some general tips from the book Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOxaYgojzto&feature=share

https://youtu.be/wLjgUYm2wpk

If you want to use an app to help you with your tasks, check out the video to the right where Keep Productive gives you an overview of 15 task management apps.

https://youtu.be/zlxKuNMaA4U

How to stop procrastinating ⬆️

Even with the best system we sometime procrastinate. Here are some tips by Thomas Frank on how to stop procrastinating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilwork_mktE&feature=share