# data[].attributes.body
As a Freshman, I will need to utlizie multiple resources to find success in my first year of college. Although the transition will be difficult, it will be much easier when I become familiar with the following resources on this map.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The secret to effective time management is...thinking in tomatoes rather than hours. It may seem silly initially, but millions of people swear by the life-changing power of the Pomodoro Technique. (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. 🍅)

This popular time management method asks you to alternate pomodoros - focused work sessions - with frequent short breaks to promote sustained concentration and stave off mental fatigue.

Try the Pomodoro Technique if you...

Find little distractions often derail the whole workday

Consistently work past the point of optimal productivity

Have lots of open-ended work that could take unlimited amounts of time (e.g., studying for an exam, researching a blog post, etc.)

Are overly optimistic when it comes to how much you can get done in a day (aren't we all 🙃)

Enjoy gamified goal-setting

Really like tomatoes

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique was developed in the late 1980s by then-university student Francesco Cirillo. Cirillo was struggling to focus on his studies and complete assignments. Feeling overwhelmed, he asked himself to commit to just 10 minutes of focused study time. Encouraged by the challenge, he found a tomato (pomodoro in Italian) shaped kitchen timer, and the Pomodoro technique was born.

Though Cirillo went on to write a 130-page book about the method, its biggest strength is its simplicity:

1. Get a to-do list and a timer.

2. Set your timer for 25 minutes, and focus on a single task until the timer rings.

3. When your session ends, mark off one pomodoro and record what you completed.

4. Then enjoy a five-minute break.

5. After four pomodoros, take a longer, more restorative 15-30 minute break.

The 25-minute work sprints are the core of the method, but a Pomodoro practice also includes three rules for getting the most out of each interval:

1. Break down complex projects. If a task requires more than four pomodoros, it needs to be divided into smaller, actionable steps. Sticking to this rule will help ensure you make clear progress on your projects.

2. Small tasks go together. Any tasks that will take less than one Pomodoro should be combined with other simple tasks. For example, "write rent check," "set vet appointment," and "read Pomodoro article" could go together in one session.

3. Once a pomodoro is set, it must ring. The pomodoro is an indivisible unit of time and can not be broken, especially not to check incoming emails, team chats, or text messages. Any ideas, tasks, or requests that come up should be noted to return to later. A digital task manager like Todoist is a great place for these, but pen and paper will do, too.

In the event of an unavoidable disruption, take your five-minute break and start again. Cirillo recommends that you track interruptions (internal or external) as they occur and reflect on how to avoid them in your next session.

The rule applies even if you finish your task before the timer goes off. Use the rest of your time for overlearning, or improving skills or scope of knowledge. For example, you could spend the extra time reading up on professional journals or researching networking opportunities.

Todoist Tip

If the system seems simple, that's because it is. The Pomodoro technique is all about getting your mind in the zone to finish your tasks.

What makes pomodoro so effective?

The arbitrary silliness of using a tomato as a stand-in for units of time belies the Pomodoro Technique's serious effectiveness in helping people get things done. Here's what makes the method uniquely suited to boosting productivity:

Making it easy to just get started

Research has shown that procrastination has little to do with laziness or lack of self-control. Rather, we put things off to avoid negative feelings. It's uncomfortable to stare down a big task or project - one you may not be sure how to even do or one that involves a lot of uncertainty. So we turn to Twitter or Netflix instead to boost our mood, if only temporarily.

Luckily, studies have also shown an effective way to break out of the avoidance cycle: shrink whatever it is you're putting off down to a tiny, unintimidating first step. For example, instead of sitting down to write a novel, sit down to write for 5 minutes. Still too hard? Try just sitting down to edit a paragraph. Doing something small for a short period of time is a whole lot easier to face than trying to take on a big project all at once.

That procrastination-busting strategy is exactly what the pomodoro technique asks you to do: break down your big tasks, projects, or goals into something you only have to do for the next 25 minutes. It keeps you hyper-focused on the next thing you need to do rather than get overwhelmed by the enormity of what you're taking on. Don't worry about the outcome - just take it one pomodoro at a time.

Combating distractions

If you've ever been interrupted when you were in a flow state, you know how difficult regaining focus can be. Yet, the constant stream of information pouring in via emails, team chats, and social media notifications demands more and more of our attention.

While it would be nice to blame technology for everything, recent studies suggest over half of all workday distractions are self-inflicted - meaning we pull ourselves out of focus. In the moment, it can be easy to justify these internal pulls - "This email is too important to wait," or "It took less than a minute to check my Twitter; it isn't a real distraction."

But those small interruptions add up! It isn't just the time you lose on distractions; it also takes time and energy to refocus your attention. After switching gears, our minds can linger over the previous task for over 20 minutes until we regain full concentration. Indulging the impulse to check Facebook "just for a minute" can turn into 20 minutes of trying to get back on task.

The Pomodoro Technique helps you resist all of those self-interruptions and re-train your brain to focus. Each pomodoro is dedicated to one task, and each break is a chance to reset and bring your attention back to what you should be working on.

Becoming more aware of where your time goes

When planning out our future projects, most of us fall victim to the planning fallacy - our tendency to vastly underestimate the time needed to complete future tasks, even when we know similar tasks have taken longer in the past. Your present self imagines your future self operating under entirely different circumstances and time restraints.

The Pomodoro technique can be a valuable weapon against the planning fallacy. When you start working in short, timed sessions, time is no longer an abstract concept but a concrete event. It becomes a pomodoro - a unit of both time and effort. Distinct from the idea of 25 minutes of general "work," the pomodoro is an event that measures focus on a single task (or several simple tasks).

The concept of time changes from a negative - something that has been lost - to a positive representation of events accomplished. Cirillo calls this "inverting time" because it changes the perception of time passing from an abstract source of anxiety to an exact measure of productivity. This leads to much more realistic time estimates.

Writer Ben Dolnick describes how his perception of time changed while using the method:

"Five minutes on the internet, as measured by my timer, would pass in what seemed to me about 35 seconds. A timed hour of research would seem to take between three and four hours. My timer was a crisp metal yardstick laid down in the fog of my temporal intuitions."

When you use the Pomodoro technique, you have a clear measurement of your finite time and your efforts, allowing you to reflect and plan your days more accurately and efficiently. With practice, you can accurately assess how many pomodoros a task will take and build more consistent work habits.

Gamifying your productivity

Every pomodoro provides an opportunity to improve upon the last. Cirillo argues that "concentration and consciousness lead to speed, one pomodoro at a time."

The Pomodoro technique is approachable because it is more about consistency than perfection. Each session is a fresh start to reevaluate your goals, challenge yourself to focus, and limit distractions. You can make the system work for you.

Motivate yourself to build on your success by setting a goal to add an extra pomodoro each day. Challenge yourself to finish a big task in a set number of pomodoros. Try setting a goal number of pomodoros for each day without breaking the chain. Thinking in tomatoes rather than hours is just more fun.

Quick tips for pomodoro-ing

While the 25/5 minute work/break intervals are the heart of the Pomodoro Technique, there are a few things you can do to make your pomodoros more effective:

Plan out your pomodoros in advance

Take 15 minutes at the beginning of your workday (or at the end if you're planning for the next day) to plan out your pomodoros. Take your to-do list for the day and note how many pomodoros each task will take. (Remember, tasks that will take more than 5 pomodoros should be broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Smaller tasks, like responding to emails, can be batched together in a single pomodoro.)

If you work an 8-hour workday, make sure your pomodoros for the day don't go over sixteen. If they do, postpone the least urgent/least important tasks for later in the week.

Build overflow pomodoros into your day

While an 8-hour workday technically leaves room for sixteen pomodoros, it's best to build in a buffer of 2-4 "overflow" pomodoros, just in case. Use your overflow pomodoros for tasks that take longer than you planned or for unexpected tasks that come up during the day.

If you don't end up needing them, use the extra pomodoros for learning or lower-priority tasks that always get pushed to the end of your to-do list. It's much less stressful to end the day with pomodoros to spare than to overschedule yourself and get behind.

How many pomodoros are in a day?

Experiment with the length of your pomodoros

For some types of work that require extended periods in a creative "flow" state - think coding, writing, composing, etc. - 25 minutes may be too short. Try extended work sessions with longer breaks. A DeskTime study found that a 52-minute focus and 17-minute break is the perfect balance. Others prefer 90 full minutes with a 20-30-minute break, based on Ultradian rhythms.

For tasks that you've been putting off for one reason or another, 25 minutes might be too long. If you're feeling a lot of mental resistance, or you just can't get yourself to stay focused for 25 minutes, try a 15-, 10-, or even 5-minute pomodoro.

For most people, most of the time, the sweet spot will be in the 25-50 minute range for peak concentration with a 5-15 minute break. Try mixing your intervals based on your available energy, the type of work, and how much a task makes you want to bury your head in cute puppy videos on YouTube instead.

Get away from screens during breaks

Not all breaks are created equal. If your pomodoro work sessions happen on your computer, don't just switch over to Twitter or Instagram when the timer goes off. Give your eyes and brain a break from screens - that means your phone, too! Stand up, move around, stretch, go outside, do a mini meditation, grab a snack, and watch birds out the window. If you work from home, fold some clothes or clear off the kitchen table.

Whatever you do, your break will be much more mentally refreshing if you escape the glowing hypnosis of your computer or phone.

Use an app to enforce your pomodoros

Humans are fallible. No matter how motivated you are at the start of the day, it's really hard to actually stick to your pomodoros. Hold yourself accountable with a break reminder app.

The best ones let you customize how long your work sessions are, how obtrusive you want your reminders to be, and how strictly you want your breaks enforced. Some will lock you out of your computer for the duration of your breaks.

We recommend BreakTimer (for both Windows and Mac.)

How to pomodoro with Todoist

So you're convinced the Pomodoro Technique is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now, it's time to put the method into action. Here's how to plan your pomodoros with Todoist:

Plan

At the start of each day (or the night before), review all your active projects and one-off tasks and schedule everything you want to accomplish for "Today."

Estimate how many pomodoros each task will take. Add tomato emojis to the end of the task name to indicate your pomodoro estimate.

Todoist Tip

Break anything bigger than four pomodoros down into smaller sub-tasks. For example, a project titled "redesign website" might need a more pomodoro-sized sub-task like "find 5 example websites as inspiration."

Now, when you open your Today view, you'll see your scheduled tasks and how many pomodoros each will take. Drag and drop your tasks to reflect the order in which you'll work on them.

If you have more than 12-14 pomodoros (remember that buffer!), postpone some of your tasks to the next day or later in the week. If you have 10 tasks you want to do in a day, you may find it helpful to schedule only half of the list and to assign an "@on_deck" label to indicate the tasks you'll get to if you have time.

Todoist Tip

Work

You'll start your day with a clear plan of what you'll work on during each pomodoro. You can use the timer on your phone, a physical Pomodoro timer, or any of the many digital alternatives like Pomodone which integrates with Todoist.

Once your timer starts, it must go off! Keep focused by adding any ideas or requests that come in as new tasks in your Todoist Inbox. When your timer runs out, you can review the list, schedule urgent tasks for a later pomodoro, and file away less urgent things for another day.

Repeat

Build your concentration muscle by making your pomodoro planning a daily routine. Add a task in Todoist for the same time each morning to remind yourself to plan out your pomodoros. Challenge yourself to hit a certain number of pomodoros each day, and take time at the end to reflect on what went well and how you could improve your focus in the future.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Pomodoro Technique - Why It Works & How To Do It

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Pomodoro Technique is an attention remedy for perfectionists and procrastinators of all kinds. Work in focused intervals. Take a break. Repeat. Learn more..

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure."

- Cal Newport, Author of Deep Work

If there's one thing that can be said about the modern workplace, it's this: If you don't control your schedule, it will control you.

How do you balance the necessary evils of meetings, email, team chat, and "busy work" with focused time for the things you truly care about? Since becoming a digital hermit isn't an option for most of us, we need concrete strategies to help us focus in a world designed to distract us.

That's where time blocking comes in.

Time blocking (and its close cousins, time boxing, task batching, and day theming) is a simple yet effective way to take back control of your time.

Try time blocking if you...

Juggle many different projects/responsibilities (Jack Dorsey used day theming to run two major companies at the same time)

Spend too much time in "reactive mode," responding to emails and messages

Find their day chopped up by meetings

Battle constant interruptions throughout the day

Struggle to find the time and mental space for big-picture thinking

This guide will give you an overview of what time blocking, task batching, and day theming are; how a combination of these strategies can help you reclaim your schedule, and the best way to use your calendar and task manager to start time blocking yourself.

What is time blocking?

Time blocking is a time management method that asks you to divide your day into blocks of time. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task or group of tasks, and only those specific tasks. Instead of keeping an open-ended to-do list of things you'll get to as you can, you'll start each day with a concrete schedule outlining what you'll work on and when.

The key to this method is prioritizing your task list in advance - a dedicated weekly review is a must. Take stock of what's coming up for the week ahead, and make a rough sketch of your time blocks for each day. At the end of every workday, review any tasks you didn't finish - as well as any new tasks that have come in - and adjust your time blocks for the rest of the week accordingly.

With days that are time blocked in advance, you won't have to constantly make choices about what to focus on. All you need to do is follow your time blocked schedule. If you get off-task or distracted, simply look at your schedule and get back to whichever task you blocked off time for.

Dig deeper

Time blocking variations

Time blocking has a few close but distinct cousins that are worth considering: task batching, day theming, and time boxing.

Time Blocking

Dividing the day into blocks of time with each block dedicated to accomplishing a specific task or activity and only that specific task or activity.

"I will write every day from 9am to 11am."

Task Batching

"I will answer all of my emails at 3pm."

Day Theming

"Every Monday, I will focus on content creation. Every Tuesday, I will focus on content promotion. Every Wednesday, I will focus on research and ideation. Etc."

Time Boxing

"I will write 1,000 words between 9am and 11am tomorrow."

Task batching

Task batching is when you group similar (usually smaller) tasks together and schedule specific time blocks to complete all at once. By tackling similar tasks in a group, you'll limit the amount of context switching you have to do throughout your day, saving precious time and mental energy. For example, scheduling two 20-minute blocks to process email during the day is more efficient than checking your inbox every 15 minutes.

Time blocking pairs well with task batching because it saves you from scheduling every individual task on your calendar. Just block off chunks of time each day or week for when you want to complete a certain batch of activities, e.g., email, invoicing, workouts, meetings, writing, coding, deep work, errands, meal prep.

Day theming

Day theming is a more extreme version of task batching for people who have a lot of areas of responsibility competing for their attention. For example, an entrepreneur often has to pay attention to marketing, sales, product development, customer support, and HR all at the same time. Instead of setting aside time blocks for each area of responsibility each day, day theming dedicates a full day each week to each responsibility.

Mike Vardy, founder of Productivityist, uses day theming to set his overarching focus for each day. Here's how he themes his week:

Dedicating each day to a single theme creates a reliable work pattern and further limits the cognitive load of context switching. Vardy explains that theming offers mental clarity that allows him to focus on his family:

"Knowing what the day 'means' to me allows me to get the things I need and want to accomplish without seeing undetermined 'ought to do' items on a to do list. As a result, I have less decision fatigue and even have more energy when I spend time with my kids."

Time boxing

Time blocking and time boxing are often confused as being synonymous, but there's an important difference. Time blocking asks you to set aside certain chunks of time to focus on a given task or activity. For example, "I will work on a first draft of my blog post from 9am to 11 am tomorrow."

In contrast, time boxing asks you to limit how much time you'll dedicate to a specific task. Here's a time boxed version of the time blocking example above: "I will finish a first draft of my blog post tomorrow between 9am and 11am."

This self-imposed "time box" forces you to work efficiently because you have a limited amount of time in which to complete the task. It can be a fun way to challenge yourself and gamify your productivity.

Why is time blocking so effective?

This technique seems simple on the surface, but has profound impacts on your capacity to get things done:

Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, is a big proponent of time blocking. He dedicates 20 minutes every evening to scheduling out the next work day:

"Sometimes people ask why I bother with such a detailed level of planning. My answer is simple: it generates a massive amount of productivity. A 40 hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure."

When you schedule a chunk of time to work on a single project, problem, or task, you bring all of your mental resources to bear on one thing rather than spreading your attention thin across several tasks. The more you "single task", the more you build the mental muscles required for deep work, and the easier it becomes to stay focused.

It helps you knock out "shallow work" more efficiently

Shallow work is the busy work that's urgent but not important to achieving your long-term goals - think paperwork or responding to (most) emails. When you time box shallow work, you're setting clear limits on how much time you'll dedicate to it. Plus, grouping similar tasks together reduces the cost of context switching. By batching all of your shallow tasks together in a dedicated time block or two, you'll be able to power through them more efficiently and protect the rest of your workday for higher-impact work.

It makes you aware of how you spend your time

Most people are bad at time management. We are terrible at estimating how much time tasks will take, and we have a tendency to overcommit our future selves. Time blocking forces you to confront your current priorities and commitments and get intentional about how you spend your finite time. For each new commitment you let into your life, you're forced to find physical space on your calendar. As a result, the opportunity cost of saying "yes" becomes more concrete, and it becomes much easier to say "no."

It counteracts perfectionism

Fuzzy timelines are a perfectionist's worst enemy. There's always something to be tweaked and improved. It can be difficult to know when an open-ended project is finished, especially if you are aiming for perfection. At some point, you need to be able to say "good enough" and move on. Time boxing can help by imposing time limits on your projects. If you often prolong tasks by trying to get everything just right, set a strict time box for finishing the task and stick to it.

It helps you follow through on your goals

In the article " Beyond good intentions: Prompting people to make plans improves follow-through on important tasks " researchers Dr. Todd Rogers and Dr. Katherine L. Milkman review several studies supporting the idea that "concrete plans help people follow through on their intentions."

From following an exercise regimen to scheduling a flu shot, people were more likely to act on their intentions when they wrote down a specific place, date, and time for the activity. Yet most people rely on vague intentions rather than concrete plans:

"Paradoxically, people frequently underplan when they begin with strong intentions. They mistakenly believe that their strong intentions are enough to propel them to perform desired behaviors, and that belief keeps them from using strategies that could help translate intentions into actions."

The takeaway: When you schedule your tasks and goals, you're more likely to follow through. Time blocking forces you to make concrete plans that ensure you're working toward your goals every day. As William Faulkner famously quipped:

"I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes at nine every morning."

But will time blocking work with my job?

One of the biggest criticisms of time blocking is that it doesn't account for reactive jobs where it's impossible to anticipate what will come in at any given moment. Is time blocking really a realistic strategy for a customer support specialist whose job is to respond to tickets? Or an account manager who needs to be available to respond to client requests?

We'd argue yes - asserting even a small amount of control over your schedule can be helpful no matter your job. Cal Newport put it this way:

"Periods of open-ended reactivity can be blocked off like any other type of obligation. Even if you're blocking most of your day for reactive work, for example, the fact that you're controlling your schedule will allow you to dedicate some small blocks (perhaps at the schedule periphery) to deeper pursuits."

When your workday is run by external forces, it's easy to lose sight of your own goals. Time blocking can help you gain a greater sense of control over even the most unpredictable of schedules.

Some common time blocking missteps and how to avoid them

While time blocking is pretty straightforward in theory, it can be hard to stick to in practice. Here are some tips to help you apply the method successfully (and not become a slave to your calendar in the process):

Underestimating your time

You'll get better at estimating how long tasks take over time, but until you've honed your instincts, err on the side of blocking off too much time for tasks rather than too little. Pad your schedule with extra time to complete and transition between tasks. You can even create "conditional blocks" of time you can tap into if you fall behind.

Try these tools

Being too rigid

Things will come up and ruin your plans. But remember that your plan is a guide to help focus your attention on what's important, not a binding contract.

Even productivity expert Cal Newport edits his plans throughout the day by crossing out original time blocks and filling them with updated plans as circumstances demand:

Newport deals with changes in his schedule by seeing it as a game:

"This type of planning, to me, is like a chess game, with blocks of work getting spread and sorted in such a way that projects big and small all seem to click into completion with (just enough) time to spare."

See your time blocks as a flexible way to challenge yourself, not strict tools to punish yourself when you fall short.

Overscheduling your leisure time

Though Elon Musk and Bill Gates have been said to schedule their days down to 5-minute increments, overscheduling your leisure time can be a self-defeating exercise. Studies have shown that scheduling leisure activities has a "unique dampening effect" on the overall enjoyment of the activity.

Instead, you can block out time to disconnect and relax without a set plan for how you'll spend that time. It will give you the flexibility to decide more spontaneously what you want to do-- call friends to grab a drink? Check out that new Xbox game? Read? Whatever you decide, just remember to keep at least some of your free time free.

Time blocking with Todoist

You can implement time blocking with any tool, but in this section, we'll focus on how to use Todoist alongside your favorite calendar app - or even good, old-fashioned pen and paper. We'll cover how to implement three different time blocking variations: task batching, day theming, and scheduling individual tasks.

Task batching variation

Strict time blocking - dedicating a time block to each individual task - can be tedious and hard to maintain over time. We recommend combining time blocking and task batching for a more streamlined system. Instead of one time block per individual task, you'll assign a time block for each category of task you batch together. Here's how that looks in practice:

First, decide on which broad categories of work need to be reflected in your daily or weekly schedule. For example, a freelance writer might have the following category list:

Now, sit down with your favorite calendar app or paper planner and create time blocks for the coming week that reflect the times you'll work on each category. Make sure all of your priorities and commitments are given enough space on your calendar. If you struggle to find room, you may need to start cutting down on your commitments. The end result will look something like this:

If you find it difficult to stick to your digital schedule, we recommend planning your day out on paper. A paper schedule forces you to start fresh each day and makes it easy to scribble things out and adapt as the day goes on. Plus, it's also easier to keep your paper schedule open on your desk as a visible reminder of what you had planned to focus on.

If you work at a company with shared calendars, you may find it helpful to publicly block off time for "Deep Work" to keep a sufficient chunk of the day meeting free. Khoi Vinh, a Principal Designer at Adobe, uses this strategy at his office:

"I look for blocks of time on my calendar that I can cordon off for "deep work". Sometimes I'll move around meetings to create longer contiguous blocks, and then I'll create a meeting called "Do Not Book" or, if I suspect someone will ignore that, I'll name it something like "Collaboration Session" or "Research Review." You have to get crafty."

You now have time blocks for each category, but you still need to know which specific task - or group of tasks - to work on when the time comes. That's where a task manager like Todoist comes in.

Create a Todoist label for each batched category you came up with in step one, then review all of your current tasks and assign the appropriate label to each one.

Now, when you come to a time block, all you have to do is pull up the corresponding label list and choose from the relevant tasks. Tasks with dates will automatically be sorted at the top so you'll know when something is due soon and needs your attention first.

Todoist Tip

To make sure nothing slips through the cracks, every task should have a label. However, you'll likely find that not every category needs to be tracked in Todoist. For example, you may want to keep track of your meetings or exercise classes in your calendar rather than in your task manager. And as we said before, you don't want to overprogram your free time. Experiment with your setup to figure out what makes sense for your specific circumstances.

Day theming variation

If you try time blocking and still feel too scattered and unfocused, you may want to try out day theming. We recommend this free Skillshare course by Mike Vardy. He walks you through setting up a day theming system, including detailed examples using both paper and Todoist.

Scheduling time blocks for individual tasks

Of course, if you want to keep a more granular schedule, you can always create separate time blocks for each task. The easiest way to do that with Todoist is via the 2-way integration with Google Calendar.

When setting up the integration:

Create a new calendar for just your Todoist tasks so you can toggle them on and off inside your calendar as you need.

Choose to sync your entire Todoist account or create separate calendars for each of your Todoist projects.

Choose to sync tasks with just a due date in addition to tasks with a due date and time.

Any Todoist task with a date and time will automatically appear as an event in your new Todoist calendar. Any task with a date but no time will appear as a day-long event.

During your weekly review, give each task you want to accomplish a date and/or start time by typing something like "Monday at noon" or "Every Friday at 9am" into the task field. Todoist will automatically recognize and highlight the date and set it when you save the task.

Now, when you open your daily or weekly view in your calendar, you'll see each of your tasks scheduled as separate events (aka your time blocks). You can extend, shorten, edit, and move your time blocks inside your calendar. Any changes you make in Google Calendar will automatically sync back to your Todoist (and vice versa).

Scheduling your days and weeks in advance can seem like a waste of precious time you could be using to actually get things done. But when you aren't controlling your calendar, it's easy to let distractions take over. By front-loading your decision-making on what to work on for the day or week, you'll be saving time and mental energy when it comes to actually getting to work.

Give time blocking and task batching a try for a week and see how it feels to take back control over your time and attention.

Todoist Tip

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Everything you need to know to take back your workday from meetings, email, & busy work and protect time for what's truly important to you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Most people overestimate what they can get done in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade."

This famous piece of wisdom (most commonly attributed to Bill Gates) holds true over shorter time spans too. We tend to overestimate what we can get done in a day, but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.

How do we get around this quirk of human psychology? How do we make consistent progress toward our biggest goals without drowning day-to-day in our overly optimistic to-do lists? How do we overcome the mental resistance that comes with big goals and just get started?

The answer is a deceptively simple and memorably named productivity method called Eat The Frog.

Eat The Frog is perfect for anyone who:

Struggles with procrastination

Gets a lot done but isn't making progress on the important stuff

Has a hard time sticking to a productivity system

Has trouble deciding what to work on at any given time

Feels overwhelmed by their to-do list

What is Eat The Frog?

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."

Productivity consultant Brian Tracy named the Eat The Frog method after this vivid piece of advice from Mark Twain. While there's more power and nuance to this method than meets the eye, it all boils down to this: Identify one important task for the day and do it first.

At this point, you may be thinking "ONE TASK? ARE YOU INSANE? I HAVE DOZENS OF THINGS I HAVE TO GET DONE EVERY DAY. I CAN'T POSSIBLY DO JUST ONE THING!"

Bear with me. If you feel pulled in a million directions and overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your plate each day, I'd argue that this method will be even more powerful for you. It's not that you'll kick up your feet and call it a day once you've eaten your one frog. You'll still work on other things, but your most important (often your most difficult task that requires the most energy and focus) will be prioritized first before all those other less-important-but-more-urgent things get in the way. For example, Doist's founder and CEO routinely checks 15-20 tasks off in a day but sets a goal to complete at least one high impact task daily.

Of course, you can always experiment with the exact number of tasks. Agile Results calls for 3 tasks a day, the Ivy Lee method calls for 6. But I'd encourage you to try out the most extreme version first. There's something about the extreme simplicity and hyper-focus of just one task that I've found makes this method particularly effective.

Why Eat The Frog works

Here's why Eat the Frog should be in everyone's productivity arsenal, even if you already use another method like time blocking or the pomodoro technique:

The most valuable work in today's knowledge economy is almost invariably work that requires all your mental resources to be focused on one thing - think cognitively demanding tasks like coding, designing, writing, strategizing, and problem-solving. Yet the modern workplace isn't set up to support that kind of distraction-free " deep work " (a phrase coined by computer science professor Cal Newport). We're distracted by so many emails, meetings, chat messages and requests for input that we don't have the time or space to focus on our highest impact tasks.

Eat The Frog requires us to push back against all of those distractions - both external (others interrupting us) and internal (us interrupting ourselves) - and prioritize the actions that will actually bring us closer to our goals.

It ensures you're setting your own agenda

All too often, the first thing we do when we sit down to work is check our email and incoming messages. Email and instant messaging tools put you in reactive mode - as soon as you start responding, you've ceded your time and attention to what other people want or need you to do. This kind of reactive prioritization can quickly take over your workday. In contrast, Eat The Frog asks you to put your agenda first before any other requests come in to derail your day.

It sets you up to win

Like we talked about at the start of this guide, it's human nature to overestimate what we can get done in a day, even when we know we're likely to overestimate. That's why productivity systems often end up making us feel like we're constantly behind and failing to keep up. When we feel bad we're more likely avoid what's making us feel bad in favor of things that boost our mood in the moment (i.e. procrastination).

In contrast, Eat The Frog forces you to focus on less, even when you know you can do more. Any day that you eat your frog is a good day. Furthermore, following the method means you'll be making progress on something meaningful on a daily basis. Studies have shown that that kind of progress is a key motivator and predictor of happiness and engagement at work, and can lead to a virtuous cycle of getting things done. We feel good when we follow through on the things we intended to do which in turn makes it easier to continue doing them. When you experience a win first thing in the morning, you're more likely to build momentum and good vibes to carry you through the rest of your workday.

It takes full advantage of your best work hours

We all know intuitively that not all work hours are created equal. The first hour of the morning when your energy and willpower are high is a helluva lot more productive than the hour after lunch when all you want to do is curl up and take a nap. Eat the Frog ensures that you're using your best hours to do your most mentally taxing work and leaves less important tasks for times when you've already exhausted your brain power for the day.

It's dead simple and infinitely flexible

While there are benefits to more complex and all-encompassing methods like Getting Things Done, maintaining them can often become just another task on your to-do list that you're not getting to. Eat The Frog is a simple method anyone can fall back on at any time with very little time or mental resources required. And it's almost universally applicable. No matter your job, goals, or circumstances, we all have to contend with our limited time and energy. Eat The Frog is a simple, yet effective way to ensure that you're making progress on something meaningful each and every day.

Tips for eating your frogs

Eat The Frog is simple and straightforward, but there are a few tips that will help you apply the method consistently and successfully:

1. Decide on your frog

Also known as your Most Important Task (MIT). This task is often important but not urgent, the type of difficult task that creates a lot of mental resistance and ensuing procrastination if you don't intentionally make time for it. You probably already know the task I'm talking about.

2. Pick something you'll be able to complete in 1-4 hours

Your frog should take half a day's work, tops. A clearly defined, realistic task will make it easier to get started and not procrastinate on. Checking it off your list before lunch will give you a concrete win and accompanying endorphin boost to carry you into the rest of your day.

3. Break it down into smaller steps if needed

If your frog is going to take more than half a day, break it down into smaller steps that will take 4 hours or less. The next concrete action on that list is your new frog. For example, in order to complete the task "Create a business plan", your frog for today might be "Complete competitive market research".

Todoist Tip

4. Resist the temptation to plan ahead

Once you start breaking your big tasks down, you may be tempted to schedule out your frogs for the whole week or several weeks to come. Don't do it! Accurately forecasting tasks into the future is nearly impossible and will only set you up for getting behind quickly. One of the benefits of Eat The Frog is that you get to start fresh with a singular focus each morning. Identify and tackle your frogs one day at a time.

5. Prepare your frog the night before

Ok, so you should plan a little bit ahead. The night before, you're close enough to be able to plan accurately, but still far enough removed from actually having to do it for too much mental resistance to kick in.

Lifehacker founder and serial entrepreneur Gina Trapani recommends getting everything you need to get started on tomorrow's frog set up before you leave work at the end of the day. For example, today my frog was to finish the first draft of this guide. Yesterday before closing my computer at the end of the workday, I closed out all of my other tabs and apps but left my research and outline Word document open in full-screen "Focus" mode so it was the first and only thing I saw when I sat down to work this morning.

It's not a fool-proof method of staying on track, but it does provide a powerful reminder of what you're supposed to be working on and decreases the chances you'll get distracted looking for the right app, email, document, website, or whatever else you need to get started.

6. Eat your frog first thing

Whatever your frog for the day happens to be, do it first thing when you sit down to work. If at all possible, don't schedule meetings. Don't catch up on Twitter. Don't check your email. Don't even think about thinking about all the other less important things you'll have to do later in the day. Focus all of your mental energy on your frog and only your frog.

Not a morning person? Don't throw the tadpole out with the swamp water. The same principles of hyper-prioritization can be applied to any time of day that you feel the most energized, focused, and productive. The point is to take full advantage of your best work hours, whether that's 8am or 8pm. When that time comes around each day, do your most important task first.

How to eat your frogs with Todoist

As with most workflows, there are multiple ways you can set them up with Todoist. For Eat The Frog, we recommend one of two approaches: priority levels or labels.

Using priority levels

The easiest way to set up Eat The Frog in Todoist is with priority levels. Here's how:

Todoist Tip

Using labels

If you already use priority levels in a different way, you can also use an "@frog 🐸" label to identify your most important task of the day. You can either pin the label directly to your favorites or create a filter with the query "@frog & today" to show you all tasks labeled @frog that are due today.

When it comes to productivity methods, it's tempting to go for the more complex workflows and overlook the simple ones. However, the most effective methods are the ones we can stick to when we're low on energy and fall back on when we find ourselves reverting to bad habits.

Whether you're looking to overcome procrastination or bring more focus and intention to your workday, Eat The Frog is a deceptively simple yet powerful tool to help you get there.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Is Eat the Frog? A Dead Simple System for Productivity Minimalists

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning." Eat The Frog is the simplest system to make progress on your most important goals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Who can define for us with accuracy the difference between the long and short term! Especially whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 address to the Century Association

Dwight D. Eisenhower - five-star general during World War II and 34th president of the United States - was a productive guy.

During his two terms as president of the United States, he led the construction of the Interstate Highway System, created NASA, signed into law the first major piece of civil rights legislation since the end of the Civil War, ended the Korean War, welcomed Alaska and Hawaii into the union, and managed to keep the Cold War with Russia cold.

And he did it all with panache - Eisenhower was Gallup's most admired man of the year no less than twelve times.

How was Eisenhower able to rack up so many accomplishments that would have such a lasting impact on his country and the world? He understood the fundamental difference between the Urgent and the Important. In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president who said, "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent."

Over 3 decades later in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey repackaged Eisenhower's insights into a simple tool to prioritize tasks, now known as the Eisenhower Matrix (also known as The Time Management Matrix, The Eisenhower Box, The Eisenhower Method, and The Urgent-Important Matrix). This framework for prioritization helps you combat the "mere-urgency" effect (more on that later), eliminate time-wasters in your life, and create more mental space to make progress on your goals.

Try the Eisenhower Matrix if you...

This article will walk you through why distinguishing between the Urgent and the Important is so critical, how the Eisenhower Matrix helps you do it, and how to apply the matrix to both your big-picture projects and everyday tasks using Todoist.

The Mere-Urgency Effect a.k.a. Why We're Bad at Prioritization

How do we decide which task to give our attention to at any given moment? Not very well, it turns out.

A recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research set out to examine how people decide what to work on when faced with tasks of mixed urgency and importance. Across five separate experiments, researchers observed a curious pattern: our attention is drawn to time-sensitive tasks over tasks that are less urgent even when the less urgent task offers greater rewards. This psychological quirk - dubbed the "Mere-Urgency Effect" - explains why we're so bad at task and time management. We're more likely to prioritize tasks with a deadline over tasks without one regardless of their long-term payoffs.

And the effect is even more prominent in people who describe themselves as "busy". The same researchers found that self-described busy people were more likely to select urgent tasks with lower payouts because they were already fixated on task duration. If you're already feeling a time crunch, you'll likely continue to prioritize tasks that keep you focused on the clock.

But there's good news too - the mere-urgency effect can be reversed. When participants were prompted to consider the consequences of their choices at the time of selection, they were significantly more likely to choose the important task over the urgent one. The findings suggest that if you keep the long-term importance of non-urgent tasks in view, you can overcome the pull toward urgent distractions and focus on what really matters.

That's where the Eisenhower Matrix comes in.

The Eisenhower Matrix - Urgent vs. Important

The Eisenhower Matrix is a simple tool for considering the long-term outcomes of your daily tasks and focusing on what will make you most effective, not just most productive. It helps you visualize all your tasks in a matrix of urgent/important. All of your day-to-day tasks and bigger projects will fall into one of these four quadrants:

Urgent & Important tasks/projects to be completed immediately

Not Urgent & Important tasks/projects to be scheduled on your calendar

Urgent & Unimportant tasks/projects to be delegated to someone else

Not Urgent & Unimportant tasks/projects to be deleted

In the real world, the distinction between urgent/non-urgent, important/not important is much murkier than under experimental conditions. Here's how Steven Covey breaks it down:

Urgent matters are those that require immediate action. These are the visible issues that pop up and demand your attention NOW. Often, urgent matters come with clear consequences for not completing these tasks. Urgent tasks are unavoidable, but spending too much time putting out fires can produce a great deal of stress and could result in burnout.

Important matters, on the other hand, are those that contribute to long-term goals and life values. These items require planning and thoughtful action. When you focus on important matters you manage your time, energy, and attention rather than mindlessly expending these resources. What is important is subjective and depends on your own values and personal goals. No one else can define what is important for you.

Below is an in-depth look at each of the four quadrants of the Eisenhower Matrix to help you identify which tasks go in each and how to handle them accordingly.

Quadrant 1: Urgent & Important

Urgent and Important tasks demand you take action quickly. These items typically have visible deadlines and consequences for stalling on taking action. Most often, these are either things that were sprung on you from an external source or things that you put off until faced with a looming deadline. Either way, they require a crisis mode response.

For example:

Quadrant 1 tasks are inevitable. Even if you never procrastinated (which is an impossible ask), there will always be something beyond your control. However, the problem comes when you focus on these unexpected or deadline-driven tasks to the exclusion of long-term goals that are important to you.

Covey cautions that spending too much time on Quadrant 1 tasks can lead to increased stress, burn out, and the sense that your days are out of your control. Spending all day putting out fires will quickly rob you of energy and passion for your work, and may make it easier to settle into mindless escapism found in Quadrant 4.

Quadrant 2: Not Urgent & Important

Not urgent, but important tasks are the activities that help you achieve long-term goals. These may not have a deadline (or even an end date) so it is easy to put them off in favor of more urgent tasks. However, these tasks have a much greater effect on your long-term effectiveness in completing your goals.

Examples:

Covey says that Quadrant 2 is the sweet spot of personal time management. This is the spot where you are focused not on problems (as with Q1) but on opportunities and growth. Living from this quadrant of the matrix means that you are proactive and prioritize activities that grow your skills and energy, and contribute to accomplishing meaningful goals. Quadrant 2 is where " deep work " happens because you are largely freed of pressing distractions.

By attending to Q2 consistently, you decrease the number of pressing problems that pop up in Q1. Living in Q2 means that you can create a plan to complete projects and avoid possible problems. For example, if you keep putting off completing routine car maintenance, you may pay for it later when your car stalls out.

Do you manage other people?

Quadrant 3: Urgent & Not Important

Urgent but Not Important tasks are best described as busy work. These tasks are often based on expectations set by others and do not move you closer to your long-term goals.

Examples:

Quadrant 3 is where the mere urgency effect lives. The drive to complete tasks because of real or assumed deadlines means you take on tasks that aren't actually meaningful to you. Given that Q3 tasks are urgent but typically related to someone else's priorities, spending too much time in this square can feel like you are doing things you should do rather than what you want to do. Focus on Q3 tasks may make you feel like you are not living up your larger life goals or don't have control over your day-to-day life.

Covey suggests delegating as many Q3 tasks as possible. Can you have someone else take those meeting notes? Can you get your groceries delivered instead of going to the store? Can you empower your children to do the dishes? Can you hire a digital assistant to schedule family doctor visits? Is there anything in your life you can automate?

If you can't delegate these tasks, try to keep them from taking over your day:

Turn off notifications on your phone and computer when working

Be clear with others about how much time you can spend on a given task

Save Q3 tasks for times when you are very low on energy rather than putting them first thing in the morning

Negotiate your workload with your boss

Quadrant 4: Not Urgent & Not important

Not urgent and not important tasks are time-wasting activities that should be ruthlessly cut out. These activities don't contribute to progress on your goals but can end up taking over large chunks of time.

Examples:

Watching TV for hours

Mindlessly refreshing social media and scrolling

Avoidance activities such as sorting and organizing email rather than answering it

Excessive shopping or online browsing

Quadrant 4 is the quadrant of excess and immediate gratification that ultimately leaves you feeling unfulfilled.

Don't get me wrong we all need some leisure time. Eisenhower himself was a well-known bridge player - even playing nightly up to D-Day - and was famously criticized for his many golf trips while in office. The key is that these activities were a balance for the many stressful aspects of being a political leader. However, if you're not intentional about it, the way you spend your downtime can actually drain your energy, passion, and creativity.

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that how employees spend their off-job leisure time is a strong predictor for how much energy and positivity they expressed the following workday. Employees who engaged in self-mastery activities such as exercise or volunteering were more motivated the following day. Employees who relaxed with yoga, meditation, or by listening to music approached the workday more calmly.

Employees who engaged in distraction activities to avoid or ignore problems, like watching excessive TV, did show a renewed positivity the following workday. However, with continued use of distraction their moods and motivation worsened as the week continued. In other words, distraction in moderation was ok, but habitual distraction resulted in less work satisfaction overall.

How to rebalance your quadrants

According to Stephen Covey, quadrant 2 is the "Quadrant of Quality" where time spent engaging these tasks increases your overall effectiveness. This is where personal and professional growth meets planning, prevention, and action.

To evaluate where you currently are on the matrix, start tracking your time and tasks. If you use Todoist for task management, you can easily get a list of all the tasks you completed and when you completed them. When you have a few days worth of data, sit down and organize your tasks into quadrants by asking the following questions:

Remember that you are only deciding these criteria based on your desired outcomes, not someone else's.

Once your tasks are sorted into the appropriate quadrants, examine where your time is currently being spent. Are you happy with your quadrant balance?
If you spend a lot of time in Q1, invest time in planning to anticipate and prevent problems:

Next step: Organize a weekly or even monthly plan around your current goals and deadlines. At the end of each week, do a weekly review. Reflect on how well your plan worked and adjust for the next week. If most of your Q1 tasks come from external sources, strategize on how you can better plan and anticipate them. You may need to develop a more proactive workflow with a colleague or client, or talk to your boss about rebalancing an excessive workload. If there's a particular client who's creating a lot of Q1 tasks, the work may not be worth the stress.

If you spend your time in Q3, delegate, eliminate, or limit the amount of time you spend on these tasks: If you spend your time in Q4, you may be stuck in a rut, stressed, or avoiding a problem:

Next Step: Use your time tracking to identify the biggest time wasters and strategize on how to avoid or limit them. Develop a plan to overcome procrastination before you're tempted to procrastinate. Remember, it's ok to just relax sometimes, but activities in this quadrant have diminishing returns when used excessively.

As you shift your priorities toward quadrant 2, keep using the Eisenhower Matrix to know what you should be working on day to day.

How to implement the Eisenhower Matrix in Todoist

You can use Todoist to organize your tasks into the four urgent/important quadrants with two different methods: labels or priority levels. Both methods are outlined below.

Using labels

In Todoist, labels and filters work together to help you organize and sort your task list. For this setup, first create these two labels:

Once you have your two labels, go through your tasks and assign the appropriate labels to each:

Add @urgent & @important to tasks that need to be done immediately and personally

Add @important to tasks that get a due date and are done personally

Add @urgent to tasks that can be delegated or relegated to

Don't add either label to tasks that can be dropped

You can quickly assign a label to any task by typing "@" into the task field. This will bring up a list of your current labels to select from. Keep typing the label name to narrow down the list.

Once all of your urgent and/or important tasks are labeled, create four new filters to correspond with each quadrant:

Urgent & Important with filter query: @urgent & @important

Important & Not urgent with filter query: @important & !@urgent

Urgent & Unimportant with filter query: @urgent & !@important

Unimportant & Not urgent with filter query: !@important & !@urgent

And/or combine them all into one Eisenhower filter with the query: @urgent & @important, @important & !@urgent, @urgent & !@important, !@important & !@urgent

Now you'll be able to check each filter view to know which urgent and important tasks need your attention first; which important but not urgent tasks need to be scheduled; which urgent and unimportant tasks you should either delegate or do in your low energy hours; and which tasks you should just delete.

Using priority levels

Instead of using labels to sort your tasks, you can use Todoist's four priority levels. Each priority level will map onto a corresponding quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix:

Assign a priority level to any task by clicking or tapping the flag icon and then selecting the desired priority level. Change the priority level any time by selecting the flag icon when editing a task, or just type p1, p2, or p3 right into the task field and Todoist will recognize and assign the right priority level when you create the task. Anything without a colored flag is P4 by default.

Next, set up a filter to view your tasks by priority from across all your projects. Go to filters, then click "Add Filter" and title it Eisenhower Matrix. Under query, enter " p1, p2, p3, p4".

Your highest priority tasks will appear near the top of each daily to-do list in your Today and Upcoming views (tasks with both a due date and time will appear first regardless of priority level).

Todoist Tip

Dealing with each quadrant

Once you've set up Todoist to work with the Eisenhower Method, you can begin to evaluate your tasks. Click your new Eisenhower Matrix filters to review your tasks by quadrant.
For Q1: Important & Urgent, p1: For Q2: Important & Not Urgent, p2: For Q3: Unimportant & Urgent, p3:

Delegate as many tasks as you possible. To delegate these in Todoist, you can share projects with anyone, assign tasks, set deadlines, upload files, and discuss task details with collaborators in the comments.

Q4: Unimportant & Not Urgent, p4:
When you're faced with a set of tasks, how do you decide which to tackle first? Do you select the task that's going to bring you closer to your long-term goals? Or do you give your attention to the most urgent item on your list?

Use the Eisenhower Matrix to avoid the mere-urgency trap and do more of what's important to you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Avoid the "Urgency Trap" with the Eisenhower Matrix

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Who can define for us with accuracy the difference between the long and short term! Especially whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future." - Dwight D.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Part 1 - Introduction & What is the Writing Center (CEWC)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Part 2 - Making Writing Meaningful and Effective

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
02. Mental health and Well-being Management  - Utilizing Counseling Center Services

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
03. Mental Health and Well-being Management - Adjustment to College

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
05. Mental Health and Well-being Management: Stress-less for Life

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Working with Others - Resolving Conflict

# data[].attributes.body
remember:

-make sure to schedule time after classes to meet with friends, call family at home, and relax by yourself. it's important to make sure that there is time dedicated to activities outside of academics

# data[].attributes.body
-make sure to set aside time to study after classes and spread out the team each week so that i will better remember the material

# data[].attributes.body
-make sure to visit the counseling center when i ever need help managing my mental health, there are counselors there for us

# data[].attributes.body
-take a DEEP breath and remember all the hard work it took to get to where i am today. if i can make it this far, i can continue to thrive, i just need to adopt a positive mindset, and believe in myself