It’s all too easy to jump on a productivity method trend. I should know – I’ve been writing about productivity hacks for a while now and have found myself impulsively leaping aboard many bandwagons.
Discovering which of the endless productivity hacks and strategies out there could help us get the most out of our days feels like a huge undertaking.
And ironically, one we don’t have time for.
Recently, I decided to be more intentional about my productivity. I set out to rigorously test five popular time management strategies, using each one for a full month to really get a sense of how it might work in the long term.
To save you some time, I’m sharing the results of my personal trials (and errors) with each of these popular productivity methods, along with some of the pros and cons I discovered along the way.
Timeblocking
This approach, which involves dividing the day into blocks of time, was popularized by Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
The idea is simple – assign a particular task to a particular block, giving yourself a hard start and stop to work distraction free.
The method is relatively malleable, as you can adjust the size of the block to suit the task. For example, you might want to block out 3 hours for content creation but only half an hour for emails.
Pros
I usually struggle to stay focused as I’m prone to internal distractions. But after using this strategy for a week or so, I found that devoting myself to a task for a set amount of time increased my chances of getting fully engrossed and slipping into a distraction-free flow state.
Timeblocking may also help you combat Parkinson’s Law – the idea that work expands to fit the time available (I can easily spend 4 hours or longer polishing an article draft!). Because timeblocking imposes hard stopping points, it helps to prevent you from unintentionally spending far longer on something than you should.
Cons
If a task genuinely takes you longer than you expected, you either have to abandon your plan or schedule it again on another day. When I didn’t live up to my time estimates or had to break off mid-flow, it left me feeling frustrated and guilty.
Timeblocking can also make it more challenging to be reactive. If something comes up that you haven’t budgeted for, it can throw off your day.
Thankfully, Cal Newport has a handy solution: he leaves reactive blocks in his plan where he can deal with any urgent requests. He also assigns a backup task in case nothing urgent arises.
I found that it’s also useful to leave short buffers between blocks. This enabled me to take regular breaks and account for overspills.
Eat the Frog
“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. ”
Eat the Frog, as a productivity method, was inspired by this (possibly apocryphal) quote from Mark Twain.
The aim is to pick the most significant task on your list (the one you’re most likely to procrastinate on) and complete it before you do anything else. You can then get on with other tasks, safe in the knowledge that you’ve already achieved something significant.
Pros
This method ensures you’re devoting time and energy to the tasks that really matter. You won’t have to cram them in at the end of the day when you’re depleted.
I also found it quite freeing not to have my big tasks (and the stress or negative emotions they can cause) looming over me during the entire day.
Cons
If you have a lot of very important tasks to do, it can be tricky to pick a frog. Should it be your most difficult task? The most time-consuming? I decided to use the “most likely to procrastinate” part of the rule in the end and prioritized the task that was giving me the most anxiety, regardless of size or impact.
This method may also just not fit the way you work. I often like to warm up with an easier task – giving me a sense a momentum to build off of.
Personally, this method went either way for me, depending on the day.
The 1-3-5 Rule
This strategy for creating a realistic daily to-do list has been recommended by hugely successful people. Its fans range from executive vice chairman of the New York Stock Exchange Betty Liu to Muse founder Alex Cavoulacos.
The idea is to choose one large task, 3 medium tasks, and 5 small tasks to accomplish in your day. Focus on getting the “large” task done first and then proceed with the others in whatever order makes sense.
Pros
To-do lists are the classic productivity tool – they help us remember things, give us clear next steps, and keep us motivated by clearly showing our progress. But we’ve all felt that creeping panic at the sight of a to-do list that seems to stretch on forever – the 1-3-5 framework helps you keep your lists manageable.
I found 1-3-5 gave me a good balance of structure and flexibility. I could use my large and medium tasks as milestones but when I needed a change or had an unexpected gap, I could fit in a small task. As I discovered with the “frog” experiments, the small tasks helped me build momentum.
Cons
Not all days or tasks are the same. Your big task might take up so much time that you can’t squeeze in 8 other things. This happened to me quite a lot – not ticking off my medium and small items left me feeling discouraged and meant that I often forced myself to rush through them.
As with timeblocking, this strategy also limits your ability to react to changing circumstances. To address this, Alex Cavoulacos suggests leaving a few smaller items blank to accommodate urgent tasks.
Task Batching
Task batching is designed to help you get in the zone. There’s also a more extreme version: day theming (used by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey).
You start by grouping tasks by type and then tackling them in one go. For instance, if you have a lot of emails to send, you should sit down and blitz them, rather than doing them throughout the day.
Day-theming applies the same concept but on a larger scale. People who use this technique may devote a particular day to an aspect of their role (like project management) or to a type of activity (like meetings).
Pros
By keeping the context and type of work consistent, the task batching approach helps you avoid switching costs. These are minute delays as your brain processes the desire to switch tasks and then tries to switch from the “rules” for the old task to the “rules” for the new one.
While they may only be a fraction of a second each time, several studies have shown that they have a noticeable impact on performance and productivity.
Cons
While you’re removing the switching costs, you’re also opening yourself up to repetition-induced fatigue. Doing the same thing all morning (or day!) often left me feeling dissatisfied, tired, and unmotivated.
It isn’t always practical to wait for certain types of tasks to accumulate either. You can’t tell your boss that you won’t be addressing those urgent revisions until you have a full day’s worth to do!
The biggest challenge here is planning ahead, as tasks can change from week to week and may not always take up the same amount of time.
Pickle Jar Theory or Bucket of Rocks
Admittedly, my choice to try this theory probably had a lot to do with its strange name. Also known as the Jar of Life or Bucket of Rocks theory, this approach uses a metaphor to help you visualize your time.
Each day is a “pickle” jar that you fill with:
- Rocks: Important tasks that move you closer to your goals.
- Pebbles: Moderately important tasks like responding to emails.
- Sand: Activities like social media or chatting with colleagues.
You estimate how long your rocks will take you and prioritize them. Then, you can slot in the pebbles and sand.
Pros
The idea of the jar made it much easier to think about my tasks. That’s not really surprising – linguistic and visual metaphors have been shown to deepen our focus and facilitate understanding.
It also provides a clear framework for prioritizing ad hoc tasks. While asking yourself “is this a rock, a pebble, or sand?” might feel a bit odd, I did find it useful.
Cons
While some guides try to limit you to 4 rocks, there’s less clear guidance about the pebbles and sand – it’s up to you to decide how big your jar is.
While this does make it adaptable, I found that it meant I regularly ran out of time or pushed myself too hard. In other words, I didn’t get to the sand at all!
Experiment and Adapt Your Time Management Strategies
Unsurprisingly, I can’t say I found one perfect strategy, even after I made some adaptations. The key for me is to alternate between them according to my needs on a particular week or even day.
I’ve also discovered that often the best way forward is to use two (or more) of these techniques in tandem to get the right balance of accountability and flexibility.
For example, I might pick out my rocks for the day and then timeblock them into my schedule, leaving reactive blocks for pebbles and sand. Alternatively, I might use the 1-3-5 rule to pick a frog to complete in the morning when I’m feeling energised and medium and small tasks that I can batch in the afternoon to keep the momentum going.
So rather than viewing a productivity strategy as a hard and fast rule, think of it as a place to start. Try them out, tweak them, and discover what you can use to boost your productivity.
