Desk with clock and task list

What’s the Difference Between Task and Time Management?

The terms “task management” and “time management” are often used interchangeably, yet they are distinct disciplines. Learning the differences between the two can make you better at both. So what exactly is the difference then? Task management is the discipline of planning and executing what you need to do: which … Read more

Anti-Resolutions: What WON’T You Do This Year?

As the new year begins, it’s common for people to create a list of New Year’s resolutions: goals you want to achieve, habits you want to start or break, projects you want to complete. Most resolutions don’t work because we don’t make them actionable or we don’t shift our identity … Read more

Are You Missing This Step in Your Year-End Review?

Do you do a year-end review where you take a look at what you did the past year and develop plans for the next? End-of-the-year reviews are wonderful to help you reflect on what you did this year and can be used to inform how you approach next year. But … Read more

Android working at a laptop

8 Pieces of Productivity Advice from a Chat AI

Last Wednesday, OpenAI released their newest AI text generation model, ChatGPT, and I started experimenting with it to find out what sort of productivity advice it might give. Turns out, it’s not so bad. Some of it I couldn’t say better myself. Read on to see the advice it gave … Read more

Stop Estimating Your Time—Do This Instead

You’re probably familiar with the concept of time estimation, but have you heard about time allocation? What exactly is the difference between estimating your time and allocating your time? Accurately estimating time is hard.  Time estimation is both an art and a science. For repetitive and simple tasks, you can … Read more

Introducing Matt Ames, the new co-founder of Day Optimizer

Building a startup is hard work. I’ve been developing Day Optimizer over the past few years alone. Many of you have watched as I created a structured methodology aimed at helping you build realistic daily plans, and then implemented that methodology into the desktop + mobile web application that is … Read more

Why “Zero Notifications” Is Unproductive

Yesterday I was a guest on The Mark Struczewski Podcast. One of the things we talked about was the “zero notification” productivity hack, and why it was unproductive—it wastes time to check for updates which are important but infrequent, and sometimes important and urgent situations arise that require attention. Yet, … Read more

7 Techniques for Prioritizing Your Tasks

Key to good time management is prioritizing what needs to be done when. Today we’re going to discuss seven techniques for helping you decide your priorities and what to do first. 1. Divide & Conquer When you have a long list of things, it can be hard to figure out … Read more

The Power of Staging Areas

Too often when we tackle a task, we attempt to finish it. Most of the time, that’s a good thing. But the converse is also true: often we won’t start a task because we don’t have time to finish it. And that can lead to missed opportunities. Staging areas give … Read more

Word: Dream

What Is Your 2020 Motto?

MottoA short expression of a guiding principle; a sentence, phrase, or word expressing the spirit or purpose of a person Choosing a motto to define your year has become a common life planning technique. A succinct word or phrase provides a theme for our year and gives us something to … Read more