Chapter 4: Three Ways to Master Time Management ⏱

By now the idea that multitasking is an effective way to get things done and not a concept created by your aforementioned 2000s-era BlackBerry-wielding colleague to coax more hours out of his subordinates—well, it’s pretty well understood that it’s bogus. Workers who switch tasks often in short periods of time are less productive and less happy. No, we are in the age of mindfulness and presence, in which we get things done by focusing on them. What a relief.

So, do you need a Masterclass with Jon Kabat Zinn to be productive at the home office? Not really, but by all means learn to train your attention with the help of ancient wisdom traditions. To dial in your productivity, though, the bar is a bit lower. Instead, flow gurus and authors of Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler, suggest carving out a 90-120 minute block of time at the beginning of your day to do the most important tasks, completely uninterrupted. “Viciously protect the first 90 minutes of your workday,” Kotler says in media interviews. 

Scientific research seems to support this. The brain goes through 90-minute “ultradian cycles” (that is, recurrent cycles) throughout the day and the night, according to Stanford’s Dr. Andrew Huberman, who we mentioned previously. He says that this makes 90 minutes, plus or minus, the optimal amount of time for dropping into deep focus and also roughly where most people max out in terms of being able to pay attention. Like meditating, expect to spend some time in the beginning of your work session feeling distracted and bouncing around before you drop into deep focus. That’s normal. And avoid distractions like snacks, looking at your phone, and even getting up to use the bathroom unless it’s absolutely necessary; use noise-canceling headphones, white noise, or whatever supports your process for dropping in and staying focused.

So what’s the best way to incorporate these kinds of breaks into your work day? Ultimately, whatever method you can keep most consistently is the best option. Here are three different ways to break up your attention. 

• Pomodoro technique

  • Using a simple timer — whether a physical kitchen timer, your phone, or an app — can keep you honest with yourself when you’re feeling that reptile-brain urge to check your phone, or get up and leave your work as soon as it gets difficult. These come in all shapes and sizes.

• Calendar holds

  • If you suffer from having ambitions that are bigger than a 24 hour day can allow, a great technique to both keep yourself honest about how much you can get done in a day and to build in breaks is to schedule out your dedicated work time in blocks on your calendar. This way your colleagues will know you’re unavailable, you’ll have break times built in, and you won’t bite off more than you can chew.

• Intuitive breaks

  • Sometimes having another app or calendar hold to add can feel a bit too much like micromanaging your own time. One way to manage to build breaks into your work day is to just listen to yourself and create breaks when you need them. Sometimes the knowledge that breaks are important for focus is enough to get you up and out of your seat when you’re feeling stuck.