There are a few rules of thumb that I try to live by. If you find myself detracting from these rules, please don't hesitate and tell me.
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.
Finish what you started.
Start.
Now is better than later but premature optimization is the root of a lot of evils.
This too shall pass. So endure; capture opportunities; enjoy moments, embrace the ephemerality.
Get a piece of paper and divide it into two columns. On the left, write down the hour blocks that you plan to work during that day, every line equals 30 minutes. Clearly mark blocks that you know you have something scheduled. Over the course of the day, update the time blocks to match what you have been doing. On the right, list out the things you want to achieve, separate out into work and personal. This is your TODO list of the day. Update throughout the day. It's ok if some items are left undone. Move them to the next day as necessary.
Make it one of the first things you do in the morning. At the end of the day, scan the paper and import into your digital note-taking system. Tag and markup as necessary.
Similar to the daily schedule but less detailed. Accept that all plans will change and update regularly accordingly.
Have a timer that goes off every hour to pause and ask yourself "What am I doing here, right now, at this moment? Is it what I should be doing to be who I want to be?" Complementary to the Pomodoro method.
A simple implementation in the MacOS terminal is with the say command: