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Prioritize Focus: Time Management for Creative Work

Time management isn’t always about cramming in more things, optimising to become ever more fast and efficient. It’s more about choosing the right things, learning to prioritize what’s most important to you — and then creating time and space to focus on that.

• Prioritizing the right things for you, not just the tasks that seem most urgent.
• Creating time and space to focus on what is truly important.
• This often includes big projects, personal work, and new directions we want to try.

Limited Time, Limited Energy, Limited Focus

You need to manage all three, not just your time. Very few of us can manage more than four hours of creative work in a day. Many of us even need to divide that time into shorter sprints, with breaks to recover our energy and attention.

• Plan for regular breaks throughout the day.
• Refocus and replenish your energy for your creative work.
• Take time to recover after long hours or intensive creative sessions.

Pay Yourself First: Make Time for Deep Work

We often wait for a long stretch of uninterrupted time to magically open up, so that we can finally start the big project we want to do.

• Ring-fence time for the project you most want to do.
• Protect that time fiercely. Act as if it’s an important meeting or appointment.
• You’ll be surprised how much you can achieve in a few hours a week, especially if you schedule it during your most productive time.

Choose Your One Thing

It’s easy to get distracted by the latest new and shiny object. Or to end up juggling several projects at once, never bringing any of them to completion.

• Focus on one project at a time.
• Give it your full focus until it's finished or until it's reached its next milestone.
• You'll get more done and achieve greater satisfaction from completing projects.

Love vs Money: Balancing Passion & Profit

We all need to pay the bills, but it's important to make space for projects that are more speculative and might not immediately bring in income.

• Decide which kind of work you're doing and when.
• Focus on money work, but make room for love projects that fuel your creativity and passion.
• Trust that love projects will eventually pay off or lead to new opportunities.

Track Your Time: Understanding Your Time Use

Tracking your time is tedious, but it's also eye-opening. Try keeping a record of what you've been doing, in 30-minute increments, for a week or even a month.

• Be honest about how you spend your time, including procrastination and distractions.
• Identify patterns in your time use and potential areas for improvement.
• Recognize tasks that you dread doing but only take a few minutes to complete.
• Identify tasks that take longer than you anticipate and adjust your planning accordingly.

Energy Hangovers: Recognizing and Managing Fatigue

Some tasks are more demanding than others and leave you with energy hangovers. Even if you work alone, you need to make space for recovery.

• Schedule time for breaks after intense or demanding tasks.
• Engage in activities that help you recharge, such as walks, music, or exercise.
• Avoid distractions and prioritize tasks that require more energy and focus during your peak hours.

Manage Admin Tasks: Prioritize & Batch

Multi-tasking just doesn’t work. Every time you interrupt deep, focused work to look at an email, or interrupt your work to answer the phone, it takes a while to get back into flow.

• Schedule in blocks of time to do essential but distracting maintenance tasks.
• Batch phone calls, email replies, and other routine tasks.
• Set boundaries with colleagues, clients, and friends to avoid constant interruptions during your focused work time.

Chunk Down Big Tasks: Break Them into Manageable Pieces

Sometimes, we don't start a task because it's overwhelming, and we don't know where to start.

• Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable chunks.
• Focus on completing one hour-long task at a time.
• Tick off smaller tasks to create a sense of progress and momentum on larger projects.

Make Space for Ideas & Inspiration: Nurturing Creativity

There are some parts of work that don't always look like work, from the outside. To be at our most creative, we all need to make time for walks, reading, thinking, and exploring new things.

• Schedule regular time for activities that stimulate your creativity.
• Go for walks, read books, attend events, and engage in activities that inspire you.
• View this time as an investment in your creative process, as it can lead to new ideas and improved productivity.

Just Say No: Protecting Your Time & Energy

Saying no doesn't mean you're rejecting someone, that you're a bad person. It just means you can't do this thing, this time.

• Learn to say no gracefully without apologies or excuses.
• Protect your time for your own priorities and commitments.
• Embrace your right to say no to requests that don't align with your goals or priorities.