How to Become a Master of Time

This week’s focus

Mastering Time: A guide to optimizing your dAy

By Caleb Heiser

You’ve probably heard dozens of people say: time is money. Well, to go a step further, time is the most valuable resource humans can obtain. Time is ever-moving, and there is nothing we can do to stop the clock or slow it down. However, we can make it work to our advantage. If I told you were able to double or even triple the amount of time you had in a day, you wouldn’t believe me. The meaning behind this is that so much of our time is wasted without us even realizing it. Today, you will learn habits to make each minute count. Now, this does not mean you can’t relax or give yourself free time. That would be impossible, and giving yourself breaks is actually vital to being productive, as long as you are optimizing this downtime. Lets look at how we can be masters of our time.

Habits to Harness

Two-Minute Rule

If a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Menial tasks tend to add up as the day goes on, creating unneeded stress and clutter in our minds. This is something that may happen subconsciously for most, but is easily avoidable with this foundational rule. It can be easy to add up small tasks until they become urgent, but instead we should train our brains to bias for action. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, even relates this rule to habit making. He says when starting a new habit, it should take no more than two minutes, otherwise it will be too difficult to repeat.

One thing to note is that adapting this habit can become a slippery slope. You can find yourself being counter-productive when you allow small things to cause a loss of focus on more pressing tasks. Like if you have set aside an hour to write down this week’s schedule, but answered an email which turned into texting a friend then scrolling on instagram and you lost 30 minutes. It all takes a little discipline and the right structure to make the best use of your time. This habit will save hours each week, let that compound over the course of a year and you’ll see just how much time you’ve gained.

No Snooze

This one is all about mind over matter: wake up when you intend to and face the day head-on. Many people set multiple alarms, often hitting the snooze button more than once. Then, after they finally manage to open their eyes, the first thing they do is mindlessly scroll through their phones. If you’ve struggled with this, know that you’re not alone. The early hours are crucial in determining the course of our day, so the choices we make in the morning matter. Optimizing our morning routine is essential for building momentum, so not pressing the snooze button should be the first decision we make each day.

For instance, consider planning to get out of bed at 8 a.m. and prepare yourself a healthy breakfast. Instead, you sleep in until 8:30 and doom-scroll on your phone until 9. This not only wastes valuable time, but sets an entirely different tone that produces negative output. Waking up on time and engaging in something productive translates to extra motivation, an uplifted mood, and increased energy. There are of course many other factors that contribute to this habit, such as proper sleep and structure. But the most important factor is emotional composure, if you are aware of your emotions then it becomes simple to overcome challenges.

Time-Blocking

Whether you’ve encountered the concept of time-blocking before or not, pay close attention. Time-blocking involves creating designated blocks of time in your day for specific tasks. The psychology behind this technique lies in mentally preparing for the upcoming segments of your day, making it considerably easier to focus on your work. For instance, you might allocate 10-11 a.m. for reading a book. Anticipating your next set of actions not only demands less effort but also enables you to concentrate more on accomplishing your goals.

By structuring your day in this way, you eliminate the need to waste valuable time deciding what tasks to tackle or how to be productive. Additionally, you can incorporate breaks or downtime blocks, such as hanging out with friends from 1-3 p.m. Keeping these breaks somewhat flexible helps prevent your schedule from feeling overly restrictive. The primary objective of time-blocking is to reduce friction in your routine, helping you overcome procrastination and distractions. Developing this habit requires practice, as you need to be realistic about your daily goals and the time required for each task. Give it a try for a week and observe how much you can achieve; chances are, you won’t want to go back.

Discover More About Your Time Below

Quality Quote

“Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson Share on X

Adaptable Apps

These apps will allow you to adapt the habits above into your life seamlessly.

Sunsama
Use this app to do all of your time-blocking, or as Sunsama calls it, “timeboxing”. The user interface is as sleek and functional as you could ask, but what makes Sunsama truly special is it’s ability to sync with second brain tools, calendars, and emails. This app gives the unified view that many others can’t offer to the same degree with its all-in-one integration capabilities. Sunsama makes daily planning and task management frictionless with all of the apps you’re already using.

TickTick
A highly respected to-do list app, with one of the best feature sets in its sea of competitors. Some namely features being the Pomodoro timer and Eisenhower matrix, two incredible tools to delegate and complete tasks. Moreover, you can track daily habits and set-up reminders to progress everyday. With TickTick make habits such as the Two Minute Rule effortless. This app’s reputation proceeds it and will change how you manage your time.

Stats for success

57%

Of people are habitual snoozers

2 hours

Is the average time people spend on social media daily

82%

Of people do not have a time-management system

10-12 minutes

A day of planning can save 2 hours of time

Brief Bullets

Hopefully this week’s post inspired you to take control of your time and made you more aware of your daily habits. With the right structure in place you will find your days to be more productive and fulfilling. Here’s a quick debrief with the takeaways:

Time-blocking and the Two Minute Rule should be foundational if you value your time. No Snooze sets the tone to put habits into action.

Task management apps create less friction in routines and allow us to free up wasted hours

Some traits that create time are consistency, organization, and emotional composure. Master these