Where has the time gone?

The Pomodoro Technique, the Four Quadrants Rule, Getting Things Done(GTD), Time Blocking Management…I’m almost 100% percent sure that you’ve heard of one or more of these and tried to use them.

To overcome procrastination, such as the reluctance to get out of a warm bed, you might have even used a “rocket launcher”: five, four, three, two, one pull the cover off (launch!)

However, you might find that these time management tools seem to have some usefulness, but they cannot reply to your question: where did the time go? Lot of time passes by unconsciously. In other cases, you spend a considerable amount of time on something but don’t produce anything effective.

Let’s imagine a day like this: you plan to search for some business plans that match to your interest in the morning. You flip through the webpages on search engines, changing search terms over and over again. When the clock rings at 12 o’clock, you still haven’t found the one you want. In the afternoon, you sit in front of the computer, trying to write a novel. After writing a few sentences, you feel bad about it, then press the Backspace key to start writing again. The aroma of afternoon tea wafts from the kitchen, but there is not even a single sentence in your document. In the evening, you want to relax for a while, but keep vacillating between things like watching movies, playing games, taking a shower, listening to music. Then, you watch short videos. Unconsciously, your eyes are strained, your mind is dizzy, your body is tired, and it’s time to sleep. Glancing at the alarm clock, you suddenly realized it was already 10 p.m.

You sighed, “Where did the time go? How did the time pass without doing anything?”

What does the sentiment imply? You are not someone without a sense of time; you have your own plan for this day. However, the output is not satisfactory. You’ve encountered difficulties, but it’s not directly related to Time Management Tools. Even if you can skillfully use some of them, it doesn’t mean that you’ll produce something useful or achieve your expected goal by the end of a certain period.

If someone asks, “What did you do all day?” You blush and try to speak, but not knowing where to begin.

From a psychological perspective, at the beginning of the day, you subconsciously set a goal when you decide to work. Such a goal can be specific or vague. Or, a positive expectation has established in your mind that spending time will surely yield something. However, when a period of time is over, or a day comes to an end, you will feel lost, frustrated, and ashamed because the expected goal hasn’t been achieved, even not taken the first step. The precious time has been drained of nearly all its worth.

So, the following insights should be helpful to you.

First, calculate your time cost. If you are a formal employee, calculate your hourly wage by dividing the average monthly salary by 176 hours in your country or region. This may be slightly higher or lower than the local labor market hourly wage. Then round it up or down, which is easier to calculate. For example, if the hourly wage is $30, just use this number as your cost of time. If you are a college student, just divide it by 2.

Second, establish the connection between output and time cost. This connection can be determined based on personal habits and psychological expectations, rather than social consensus of others’ opinions. For example, proofreading a 3,000-word document is worth $30; writing an idea is worth $5; writing a wonderful paragraph is worth $20; writing a 2,000-word essay is worth $60. You can break down some large goals into several smaller ones, and then equate their corresponding outputs with its monetary value. You can even make a table. This can strengthen positive incentives and thus complete goals one after another, rather than explore aimlessly with curiosity and thoughts. Moreover, since each output corresponds to different values, you can weigh in your mind whether to do those that mean high value but require a lot of time first, or relatively low value but easy to complete.

The third step is to write down the thinking process. Is this necessary? Isn’t it a waste of time? The process is not equal to the result. But, please believe me. If you have a try, it might be difficult at first. But, you will definitely have unexpected gains after a few months. The ability to express ideas and thoughts in writing has significantly improved. At that moment, you realized that writing is speaking and speaking is writing. The way you are talking about is the same as the way you are writing. Those mature ideas and valuable contents are often derived from such immature or even hard-to-look-at texts, or condensed the highlights of each.

Just as when I was writing this article, I had no ideas at first. Then, I wrote the following texts which are named “drafts”:

Writing this article, keeping in 2,000 words. The main purpose is to clarify its logic and provide targeted suggestions. Not aim to cover everything useful, but to focus on solving a problem.

When I was writing, I noticed that if this article is targeted at overseas readers at first, I will tend to use the style of foreign language articles and easily forget my mother tongue’s style.

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Making time more valuable (as the theme of the next issue)

Then I wrote the following words while writing…

The Pomodoro Technique, the Four Quadrants Rue, Getting Things Done, Time Block Management…

You might be familiar with them…

The Four Quadrants Rule, the Pomodoro Technique, Getting Things Done, the Rocket Launch Method…

You must have heard of various time management methods…

You are already ashamed of the mediocrity of this day in your heart…

So, the confusion you have encountered is not directly related to time management methods.

In order to overcome your procrastination, such as staying in a warm bed and not…

This is part of it, but not all of it. As I was writing and writing, ideas came to my mind. Then, in the following half hour and so, I wrote 1,500 words more by one sentence after another.

Also, when searching for useful information, you can simply write down its process. The format can be:

Today, I need to search for information about topic A.

First, I searched with keyword B in… And get useful information (1), (2), (3), (4).Some valuable but irrelevant information, such as (5), (6) and (7).Based on (1) to (7), I change the keyword, or ask the LLM to help search.

Then, the useful results returned by LLM are (8) and (9), and the results from Search Engine are (10) and (11).

Among them, (10) is exactly what I needed. (9) fills in one aspect that I have never thought of before.

Fourth, establish your own workflow. The so-called workflow is the order of doing one or several things. It can be finish one thing after another; it can also be handing over a task to an automated tool and doing another one while waiting for the result; it can also be alternated and parallel. Just like preparing dinner, you can make mashed potatoes first, then dessert; you can bake bread while cutting fruit salad; you can also cut some cabbage while cooking noodles, and put it into the pot after the water has boiled. As an example of myself, the workflow of one day could be: (1) write a 2,000 word article and posting to social platform;(2) look up information and jotting down ideas while writing; (3) spend two hours illustrating the article; (4) spend half an hour organizing my computer desktop and historical files;(5) read an hour of extracurricular books.

Fifth, to discover productivity tools that fit your habits. Productivity tools can be tangible, such as ergonomic keyboards for word workers. They can also be specific methods, such as asking LLM when encountering problems, or making full use of Microsoft Edge’s vertical sidebar and tab management functions to overcome the limitation of the number of tabs that accommodated due to screen width. They can also be abstract, such as the methods followed when creating creative text, or the writing rules summarized in the process of creating columns. If you can discover productivity tools that fit your habits during work or life, your output will increase significantly over a period of time.

There is a Chinese saying, “A workman who wants to do his job well must first sharpen his tools.” This is not only the experience of working people, but also the embodiment of the modern concept of “productivity tools” in ancient naive philosophy. Another saying is, “One can never have too many skills.” The “skills” in it can refer to skills, or can be extended to productive tools.