Are you struggling to make the most of your time? Do you feel like your days are slipping away without accomplishing what matters most?
Creating a weekly work schedule can be a game-changer for your productivity. In Buy Back Your Time, Dan Martell offers practical advice on optimizing your schedule to maximize efficiency and focus on high-value tasks.
Continue reading for Martell’s strategies for creating a weekly work schedule that’s designed for you.
Create a Weekly Work Schedule
Martell suggests you create a weekly work schedule designed to optimize your productivity. A weekly schedule allows you to:
- Remove time-wasting gaps in your schedule.
- Allocate tasks according to your fluctuating energy levels throughout the day.
- Avoid spending more time than you wanted on a single task.
- Discover opportunities to accomplish more than one thing (like listening to a podcast while driving).
(Shortform note: While weekly schedules can help streamline your day, you might not want to eradicate all of your gap time or constantly strive to accomplish multiple things at once. In High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard says breaks are important for being able to focus and think clearly. He recommends you take five to 10-minute breaks every hour—set a timer and get up to move around when it goes off. This refreshes your mind and body, making you more productive than if you’d worked straight through your day jumping from task to task.)
To make a weekly schedule, Martell suggests you take the following steps.
1. Schedule your most important tasks, both work-related and personal. Research suggests that people perform better on tasks they enjoy, so the most productive way to spend your time is by doing high-value and energizing (Group A) tasks. However, you should also leave room for lower-value but still energizing (Group B) tasks—like hobbies or social activities—because they recharge your energy.
(Shortform note: Some experts advise against scheduling your leisure activities, with one study finding that you enjoy planned leisure activities less than spontaneous ones. This is because your brain views all scheduled activities similarly—as work to be crossed off a to-do list. To make time for leisure activities without dampening your enjoyment of them, other experts recommend loosely planning them. For instance, instead of assigning a specific time block for doing your hobby, you could just plan to do it in the evenings after dinner.)
2. Arrange your tasks based on when you’re most productive. For example, do tasks that require the most concentration when you have the best energy and focus.
(Shortform note: In When, Daniel Pink explains that most people experience a predictable pattern of mood and energy throughout the day: They peak at the beginning of the day (feeling the happiest and most alert), experience a slump in the middle of the day, and then recover near the day’s end. However, this pattern varies for different people depending on their chronotype or internal clock. Some people hit their crest in the morning, while others are most alert at night. You can take a chronotype quiz to determine which type you are.)
3. Group similar tasks. For example, if you’re a writer, it might be more efficient to edit all of your work in one go. This eliminates the time spent transitioning between tasks—your mind is already in the right mode for the task, allowing you to accomplish it faster and to a higher standard.
(Shortform note: Task batching is effective because it reduces multitasking, which many experts argue is ineffective. It not only takes time to switch to a different type of task but also energy. Therefore, research suggests that task batching decreases burnout while promoting deep focus. However, be sure to schedule more mentally challenging tasks when you’re at your energy peak to be more effective.)
