Does Your Productivity System Control You?
Productivity systems can help us be more organized and complete the work we need to do. However, for many people, a too-rigid productivity system can lead to a sense of productivity enslavement. Instead of directing your own work, you feel like a slave working for a demanding master.
Using a more flexible approach can paradoxically make you feel more in control of your actions and contribute to the feeling of having a choice. When you have a more flexible system, you feel like you get to do what you want to do.
Rigid Time Blocking Described
Many productivity systems suggest a rigid regimen of time blocking your days. In these systems, you time block your complete day before you begin your work day, typically the afternoon or evening before or maybe time block your whole week on the prior weekend.
This can be a useful way to plan your day intentionally and follow through on your intentions. You block periods of time and the tasks to be done on a calendar. When you reach that time block, you stop what you were doing before and work on the new task.
For this system to work, you have to treat each block like you would with an appointment with another person for a meeting, a Zoom call, or a doctor’s visit. In other words, you must have the discipline to follow the schedule if it’s going to be useful.
The Problem with Scheduling ‘Tomorrow You’
However, for some, this approach to time blocking feels overly restrictive. You feel like you’re being bossed around by ‘yesterday you’—like you have no choice but to follow the pre-arranged schedule.
‘Yesterday you’ is not today you. Your emotions, motivations, and energy levels change from day to day. You may not be in the most appropriate mood or have the energy to work on a task during it’s assigned time block.
Time blocking your entire day the day before doesn’t account for these changes. Since everything is blocked, making changes to suit your mood or energy is more complicated. You can make changes, but you must move multiple time blocks around or reschedule them for another day.
Fluid Time Blocking: Choosing Tasks and Blocking Them in Real Time
A flexible, fluid time system is one alternative to standard rigid time blocking. It’s composed of two basic steps:
1. Use your task manager to determine potential tasks for the day. You use a task manager not as a boss but as a list of tasks that you can draw from. Consider your task manager as a “menu” you can peruse and make selections from, much like you would select items on a restaurant menu.
“Obviously, not every task on every to-do list will be as appetizing as the restaurant analogy suggests. But it’s surprising how many things do become more appetizing once you’re encountering them not as chores you have to plow through, but as options you get to pick.”
Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals
You can choose tasks to consider doing on a particular day and then separate them into possible tasks that you plan to complete on that day. I take this a step further and categorize my task list by priority. I have separate sections for “Possible Tasks,” “Today’s Tasks,” and my “Priority Task.” (See more about this in the next section).
2. Make a list of which tasks you plan to work on, and then, as you go through the day, decide when you will work on which task. You can also decide how long you will spend working on that task.
This allows you to consider your energy levels, how you feel, and your motivation as you review your possible tasks. You can do more complex tasks when you have abundant energy and less energetic tasks at other times. You have a sense of being able to choose what you want to do and when you want to do it.
How I Use NotePlan for Digital Choice-Based Productivity
You can use a digital or an analog system to implement fluid time blocking.
I use a digital system with the NotePlan app. The right panel of the app displays my calendar and tasks. I select the tasks I want to consider that day and drag them to one of four categories in my daily note.
The daily note is a template that includes several categories for categorizing tasks. These include “Possible Tasks” (tasks I may or may not complete that day), “Today’s Tasks” (tasks I intend to complete that day), and a “Priority Task” (the one task I want to make sure I complete that day). I also include a section for “Time Blocking” (tasks that I’ve decided to time block ahead of time).
You don’t have to divide it this way, but I find it helpful to use these categories. By doing so, I know what I definitely want to do, what other tasks I’d like to complete that day, and which tasks I can choose from if I have time left over.
As I go through the day and choose tasks in the moment, I drag them into the calendar and create time blocks. This lets me assign how much time I want to work on them and also records my work that day. When I do my weekly reviews, I have a visual representation of what I spent my day doing.
The Anchor Technique: A Simple Analog Alternative
Although I use a digital system, one could just as easily use a piece of paper each day.
In fact, Kourosh Dini recommends this method when he describes what he calls the Anchor Technique. He suggests writing tasks for the day on a piece of paper, picking one, circling it, and then visiting that task.
You can spend as much or as little time as you like on the task you’ve selected to visit. When you’re done, you return to the list, cross out the one you’re done visiting, and pick another task and circle it.
Handling Fixed Appointments While Staying Flexible
Of course, there will likely be some activities you must do at a particular time, like meetings or calls. When you don’t have a choice, you go with activities that are blocked on your calendar.
However, this typically still leaves a lot of work for which you have a choice of when to focus and how long to work. For those tasks, you might consider using a more flexible system.
Try a More Flexible Approach
There’s no one “right” way to be productive. Some people thrive with rigid time blocks, while others need a looser approach. If you’ve struggled with strict scheduling or feel it’s too rigid for you, it’s not a failure—it just means you need a different method.
A flexible, more fluid system can help you stay on track without feeling suffocated. Experiment, adjust, and find what keeps you both productive and sane. The best system is the one that actually works for you.
In addition to the rigid and fluid systems described, there are some intermediate systems with varying degrees of rigidity. David Sparks describes them well in his Productivity Field Guide.
Try this: Tomorrow, instead of scheduling every minute in advance, create a short list of key tasks and decide in real time which one to tackle first. See how it feels. You might find that a flexible approach gives you more control, not less.
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