5 Habits That Save Me 25+ Hours a Week | Time Management for Busy People

Key Concepts

• Portable Tasks: Small, low-focus activities that can be done during "empty minutes" like commuting or waiting.
• Energy Level Matching: Aligning tasks with natural fluctuations in personal energy and focus throughout the day.
• Calendar Blocking: Assigning specific time slots in a calendar for every task, treating them as appointments.
• Task Batching: Grouping similar tasks together to minimize context switching.
• Habit Stacking: Combining an active (mental) task with a passive (physical) task.
• Systematic Organization: Creating systems for remembering and locating information rather than relying on memory.

1. Fill in the Empty Minutes with Portable Tasks

The speaker emphasizes utilizing "empty minutes" that are often wasted on passive activities like social media scrolling. These moments, such as commuting (1.5 hours on train, 30 minutes walking daily, totaling 10 hours/week), waiting for others, or for meetings, can be filled with "portable tasks."

• Definition: Portable tasks are short, require minimal focus, and can be done using a phone or just the brain.
• Examples:
  • Organizing phone apps.
  • Editing content on the go.
  • Thinking through problems or ideas.
  • Tracking finances (using a free budget tracker linked in the description).
• Benefit: Reclaiming approximately one working day per week, allowing time for personal pursuits like seeing friends and family.

2. Match Your Task with Your Energy Levels

This habit is presented as a significant life-changer, moving away from the misconception of constant mental capacity.

• Core Idea: Our bodies experience natural peaks and dips in energy and focus.
• Personal Experience: The speaker previously forced workouts at 8 a.m. when creative ideas would surface, leading to lost thoughts or mid-workout note-taking. This was a mismatch of an energizing activity (workout) with high energy time, followed by a mentally demanding task when energy was depleted.
• Restructured Schedule:
  • Workouts are now done at 2-3 p.m. as an energy boost when creative juices run low.
  • Mornings are dedicated to deep, focused work.
• Implementation:
  • Requires self-awareness and tracking energy levels for a few days.
  • Identify when you do your best work, when energy dips, and when focus is highest.
• Benefits:
  • Multiplies the quality of work produced.
  • Tasks take less time and feel easier.
  • Makes work more enjoyable due to increased energy.

Shopify Sponsorship

The speaker briefly mentions Shopify as a solution for entrepreneurs overwhelmed by doing everything themselves.

• Problem Addressed: The feeling of being the entire team when starting a business, leading to overwhelm.
• Shopify's Solution: Powers e-commerce, handling payments, inventory, shipping, returns, and design in one place.
• Benefit: Allows for quick setup of online stores and provides 24/7 support.
• Offer: A £1 per month trial at shopify.co.uk.

3. Not Writing To-Do Lists (Calendar Blocking)

The speaker advocates for ditching traditional to-do lists in favor of calendar blocking.

• Problem with To-Do Lists: Tasks expand to fill available space ("like water") and can lead to overwhelm and indecision on where to start.
• The "Ice" Analogy: Tasks need a predefined space ("like ice") to have boundaries.
• Methodology:
  • Every task, as soon as it arises, is scheduled into the calendar.
  • Examples:
    • Call bank: 15-minute slot at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
    • Check emails: Blocked out at 3 p.m.
    • Call sister: Recurring slot every Sunday morning.
  • "If it's not in the calendar, it's basically not going to happen."
• Task Batching: Similar tasks are grouped together (e.g., personal admin on Thursday afternoon, content planning). This minimizes context switching.
• Flexibility: If a task runs over, it can be dragged to a future slot, preventing it from being forgotten and reducing mental burden.
• Benefit: Increased productivity and reduced mental load.

4. Stack Active Tasks with Passive Ones

This habit is described as a "game-changer" for efficiency.

• Definitions:
  • Passive Activities: Physical tasks (walking, dishes, working out, meal prepping).
  • Active Activities: Mental tasks (listening to podcasts, thinking through ideas, brainstorming).
• The Rule: Multitasking two passive or two active tasks is ineffective. However, stacking one of each is where "magic happens."
• Examples:
  • Voice-noting video ideas while walking.
  • Calling a friend while cleaning.
  • Listening to podcasts while at the gym.
  • Responding to messages while commuting.
• Opportunity: Identify tasks that don't require 100% brainpower to stack other activities.
• Benefit: Increases productivity without needing to find extra hours in the day, especially with portable devices.

5. Keep Your Life Organized

This habit focuses on creating systems to avoid wasting time searching for information.

• Problem: Wasting time looking for invoices, scripts, or bookmarked websites, which eats into productive time.
• Solution: Create systems that "do the remembering" instead of relying on personal memory.
• Specific Systems:
  • Browser Organization: Pinning frequently used tabs (Notion, community calendar, specific files, projects) in a consistent order. This is estimated to save 20 minutes daily.
  • Google Drive Organization: Implementing a simple folder structure (e.g., Business, Personal, Content) with clear subfolders. The goal is to make it "ridiculously simple" for future self to save and find files easily.
  • Weekly Digital Cleanup: Spending 10 minutes weekly to delete unnecessary files, move items to correct folders, and clear the downloads folder. This is likened to tidying a physical desk.
• Benefit: Saves countless hours of frustrated searching.

Conclusion

The speaker concludes by reiterating that these five habits have "completely changed my life." They also suggest another video on "17 small habits that made me rich" for viewers who enjoyed this content.