I admit that the title of this post is misleading. You can neither manage nor control time. You can only decide what to do as time goes by.
Life expectancy approaches 90 years. How you could better utilize the fraction left? My approach is very simple; it takes just three figures.
The plan of work comes first. Every single task that I want to complete, repeated or not, complex or simple, long- or short-term, becomes a time-blocked entry in my calendar and only there. I color every entry in my calendar using the 2×2 Eisenhower Matrix of importance and urgency as a basis:
- Red for tasks that are both important and urgent. Red as in “red alert”.
- Yellow for important but not urgent ones. Yellow as in a highlighted text.
- Green for not important but still urgent ones. Green as the green traffic light.
- Blue, for neither important nor urgent tasks. Blue as the calm, blue sea in summer.
Importance and urgency are sufficient to describe any task, no matter if business, social, family, hobby, or whatever else. Any other approach I have tried tends to favor (rank) some activities (e.g., professional) over others (e.g., family), which I consider unfair and wrong.
My ideal allocation of time is about 60% spent on long-term, strategic aims (yellow color), 25% on current tasks (red color), 10% on routine work (green color), and 5% as a more-or-less slack time (blue color). Different schools of thought suggest different percentages on each color. That’s fine, as long as you stick on one distribution that fits you. In my opinion, red should not occupy more than 25%; I have seen proposals down to 5%. The reasoning is quite simple: the more time you spend on red alert, the less time you devote on your long-term tasks, which will become red over the time but without enough time to accomplish them.
The work of the plan comes next. I have devised an “Adjusted color-coded Eisenhower Matrix (ACEM)“, where the size of each cell is proportional to the aggregate time spent on color-coded tasks. This shows how effectively I utilize my time, both in planning and in retrospect.
At the end of every month, I revisit my calendar and compile my actual ACEM for the past month. Then, I compare against my ideal one. Sometimes, the comparison is truly surprising and disappointing. Still, I am happy since it serves as a good reminder to realign and focus on what is really important for me.
So, how does your ACEM look like in retrospect?