In the song "Diva" by Beyonce, there's a line that I personally love: "Since 15 in my stilettos been strutting this game." A more accurate line for me would be "Since 15 with my planners been strutting this game," although admittedly that line lacks the gravitas of Beyonce's lyrics...However, at this point I've used so many different planners and planning methods that I basically consider myself a human guinea pig for products related to maximizing one's time! Some of these t

"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work." -Stephen King There's nothing wrong if working in Pomodoros isn't your thing. As long as you are able to stick with accomplishing your most important task before moving to task #2 and complete task #2 before moving to task #3 (etc.), you'll begin to establish a flow and become productive. The reason I personally love Pomodoros so much is because the technique merges the removal of distraction

The Get It Done Method The rationale behind this approach to time hacking is to focus on completing a given task, regardless of how long it takes to complete it. One of the things about this method that I personally have found useful is that if I feel in a flow after the first 25 minutes of completing a task, I do a self assessment to determine if I feel that I have enough energy and momentum to continue for another 25 minutes? If yes, then I begin another Pomodoro, and if no

"What gets measured gets managed." -Peter Drucker The truism "time is our most valuable resource" exists for a reason, although it can at times feel a bit trite. Similar to money, the more we keep an eye on it, the more awareness we develop about the patterns that facilitate success. The Baeder-Meinhod Phenomenon is essentially where you brain suddenly recognizes something that it was previously not aware of or familiar with. For example, if a friend buys a yellow car, you mi

"There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither." -Alan Cohen If there's one thing I've learned from my 24 years on this planet, it's that high performance depends on the ability to recover quickly. My academic coach in college used to always say, "Plan your work, work your plan!" This is why it's important to use the designated 15 minute Pomodoro breaks wisely. Think of them as time to recover.! Examples of productive activities to impleme

When I was younger, I used to struggle immensely with executive functioning skills, including organizational and time management. Frankly, working with a specialist on these weaknesses used to be something I felt shy about sharing, but now I feel the opposite. If anything I can say is helpful to someone else, then by all means why wouldn't I share it? (This is a rhetorical question). One of the best secrets this coach taught me is the magic of the Pomodoro technique! This Pom

These are some of the methods I personally have found help to facilitate a "distraction free zone": 1) Put my phone on airplane mode 2) Disable all app notifications on your phone 3) Log out of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. (this one is admittedly so much easier said than done) 4) Use apps like Freedom that will turn off certain websites or internet 5) Set the mood: listen to music that gets you in the flow! I know that there are conflicting opinions on listening to mus

The way you write down your task can impact your ability to get it done. When I write a task down, I try to ask myself, "Is this concrete? is it clearly actionable?" I've found that a good rule of thumb is that if there's an uncertainty on how to begin a given task, I probably need to flesh it out more. People (myself included) procrastinate often times because they envision a given task being more complicated than it is in actuality. I'm frequently astounded at how little ti