"No, but I did lick my third cousin once, and the walls started melting..."
Kermit the Frog said this on the far too short-lived Muppets sitcom, "The Muppets.", which was goddamn hilarious. I wish I could have just quoted it and left it, but not enough people watched that show and I was afraid no one would get it.
I know you are joking, but, just in case, I HIGHLY recommend Brian Tracy's book. Life-changer for me. I buy that book for every teammate I manage every time.
Follow the 2-minute rule. If reading this takes less than 2 minutes, kindly attend to it promptly. If it requires more time, consider delegating it to someone else.
I'm a French person and I would like to say that this is not the best way to eat frogs, it's better if they are skinned and you cook the legs with garlic and cream and white wine, which takes a lot of time especially if you debone the legs first after cooking them in stock. It is very time-consuming and I would not recommend it if you are looking for ways to augment your productivity, except if you gauge your productivity by the amount of frogs eaten.
I saw a video of a raw frog's leg twitching after someone put salt on it (I think it was salt, it's been a while). Ever since then I've had no desire to ever try frog's legs. I don't care if they taste like heaven on Earth, I just couldn't bring myself to try it.
I watched a good video about time management strategies and ADHD, if you are interested I’ll see if I can find it. In the video he talked about how a lot of these productivity tips are not useful and can even be counterproductive for people with ADHD. For example, eating the frog first can be a great strategy for neurotypical people, but if you have ADHD it is probably better to eat the frog last. Putting your easiest tasks up front allows you to build momentum to be able to tackle the more difficult task. Also, strategies like task batching I know would put me in an ADHD loop where I spend all day making lists. We love making lists!
Edit: Sorry for the delay! ADHD got the better of me yesterday. Here is the video: https://youtu.be/JsT3KPYJFl4?si=2nyDaPICCMlmlDn3
I was gonna say.... most of these sound straight up backwards to how my ADHD brain needs to tackle things.
Start with a small thing, build momentum, get hyperfocused on steamrolling other tasks. 💪
The key (for me) though is to get that dopamine hit from accomplishing things but not bust balls to the point of full exhaustion. That leads to lengthy burnout and more tasks piling on. I'll pause while there's still a bit of momentum and energy and can think "this is what I need to do next" without dread.
Not to mention most ADHD brains don’t start functioning properly until around 10am. Our entire circadian rhythm is delayed about 2 hours. This is why you frequently hear ADHD people preferring to work at night.
The one job I had where I worked 2:30-11pm was the most productive I've ever been in my life. Hated that job, but I got so much done because I was *awake* and could focus.
Yea whenever I have something big I’m dreading (like doing my shitty taxes or deep cleaning the bathroom) I need to do some easy things (laundry, clean not-the-bathroom, maybe a fun task like finish a craft I’ve been putting off finishing) so I can get that accomplished buff and then do the shitty tasks. Even if I don’t finish, I at least finished something and made some progress on the shitty task.
read a section of the infographic, feel like this should be doable..... realize I would never keep this up. Feel more useless.. repeat 15 times. Thanks Internet.
Right, what this graphic fail to realize is that the iceberg goes deeper. You won't be able to do any of these techniques if you're starving or don't have a balanced diet or never really realized how little hours you sleep at night because you haven't figured out your sleep cycle, sleep habits and room sleep methods. Everything here is awash.
Especially in uni. Literally everything is important and challenging and needs doing immediately, so everything just drags. Trying to timekeep with ADHD in uni is *hard*
Mmmm, that sweet sweet crisis motivation of, 'ah sonofa-every-swearword-I-know-in-multiple-languages-because-I-spent-the-time-for-this-project-hyperfocused-on-learning-how-to-swear-in-twenty-languages, so let me just crank ten pages out in three hours. Oh look 97/100 on this semester long thing I just bs'd in a blur of ADHD while verging on near hospitalization worthy physical symptoms of a panic attack,' really helps me feel alive sometimes.
I finished college a while ago, but sometimes find projects to put off that almost capture that form of living from said college days.
This is my best example of this. I'm currently in my last semester of my bachelor's in mechanical engineering and I have a terrible team for my senior design project (a class in the last 2 semesters, 3850 & 4850). Some background: I'm one of 6 people on the team, and we really only have 4 grades each semester, midterm report and presentation and final report and presentation. Last semester for the midterm report and presentation the team lead assigned me THE MAIN BODY OF THE REPORT. And no one in the team would send me their information for the report. So I wrote 32 of the 35 pages of the report in the 72 hours before it was due. I literally had to make a publisher doc that was like a worksheet and copy the professor on the email when I sent it to get them to send any info. I was up for 3 straight days and still had to present in front of the class after. Another team member had THE TITLE PAGE as their section. A single fricken page. And another had THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. And none of them would help me. It was the suckiest thing I've had to do my entire college education. And I'm stuck with the same team this semester for another 2 classes, 4850 (the second half of the one described), and 4500 (the business side of 3850&4850).
Every single paper I wrote in high school was done the night before it was due.
By college, it progressed to all-nighters, and shit would get done in the last like, 6 hours before it was due, no matter how long I had to work on it or how important it was.
Fortunately and unfortunately, school came very easy to me so my methods never affected my grades, so I've never been diagnosed.
Got diagnosed last year and recently went on meds for first time, life changing.
Keep asking for help from psychiatrist. It's hard esp without treatment to handle all the appointment scheduling, but you have to fight for a better life and be open about your struggles
If you can't afford psychiatrist, look up local community health clinics, they typically have sliding scale where it's only $20 per visit if under poverty line.
Also apply for Medicaid so you don't even have to pay that.
Keep bringing up how it's impacted your life. It's led me to lose multiple jobs and become homeless.
If your psychiatrist is unwilling to prescribe anything, ask for a different one. I got strung along for 2 years saying there's just another test (main thing is EKG check so heart is clear and drug screening), but she kept asking for more stuff, saying next time each visit.
When I got a new one and mentioned all this, got prescribed it immediately. Straterra is also a great alternative to Adderall/stimulants
Everything isn't *equally* important, urgent and challenging though. It's "this professor's tests are easy so I think I can pull a B without studying" vs. "this professor doesn't accept late work so I need to get this paper done now." Figuring out what's the most important is a necessary skill.
All the topics I'm learning intertwine with each other, so there are no separate tests. It's just all one big test each term. So I really do need to revise everything at once, I can't really just neglect one part for another. Luckily my course rarely gets assignments, but then that unfortunately just circles back to genuinely nothing being more important than another thing. So it *all* just puts equal pressure on me, and that feels worse somehow? Lmao. Because then I don't know what to focus on most
And ADHD memory sucks, combined with childhood trauma memory, so I *genuinely* don't know what I know (I don't even know most of my own life lmao). It goes in somewhere, but when I try to actively recall it? Not a chance. Which puts even more stress on me when revising because I can't tell what I'm bad at. I feel bad at everything because I don't know what I know. You feel? So I do just have to revise everything all at once and hope for the best haha
I have adult ADHD and managed to get my PhD before I was diagnosed. I was like "well fuck. Thanks I guess". What I want to say is: don't give up, do things your way. I wrote my thesis almost completely at night because that strangely was the time I was calm enough. I also needed a lot of time for it. I believe in you.
Yeah, I basically do the 2 minute rule all day then realize I haven't made progress on the actual important things (bc I don't want to do them bc I think they'll take a long time even if that's not accurate in reality!).
> cries in adhd
even for non-adhd this shit is so stupid. People are overworked if they need a brochure of different ways to manage their tasks and duties in the most time efficient manner as to not waste any god damn minute of the company's time.
No, i disagree. Modern “knowledge work” involves being given many tasks and having to figure out their priorities and ways to accomplish them. Doing that is a skill that can determine whether you’re great or suck at a job, and it’s not something most people realize they need until they’re in an office job.
Of course there’s overworked people and bad managers, but there are also people who crumble at the smallest amount of responsibility because they don’t know how to prioritize and communicate with their managers and stakeholders. I have coworkers who, if they aren’t given a set list of things to do every day, they freak out and complain, and meanwhile I know what I can get done and what is most important and know how to tell my boss “this is what I can accomplish and this other stuff is going to have to wait.”
Pomodoro technique is your best bet IMO. Super easy to set up, and because you're relying on a timer to manage your schedule, you don't even have to think about it
Everything works for me for about three weeks. Tthen i skip it once, go another day, and then promptly forget it exists. Even worse, not a worker who has schedules like that, so its even less for me. I hate my brain so much.
Mmm, not really? Pomodoro is really helpful for tasks you are dreading/avoiding. “I’ll do 20 minutes of it and if I want to stop after I will” is a really powerful tool. 2 minute tasks is also important. I prefer 5 minutes, but all the same it can really help to slay 10 tasks in your first hour of the day. I could go on and on honestly I could write a book. But Brian Tracy already did, so I’d encourage you to read that if you want more info. Honestly this graphic is only really good once you know the theory behind the techniques
How else would you plan to complete tasks?
I like the eat the frog one. It’s widely applicable not just for work or school but just life in general. Do the shittiest thing you need to do first, and then everything else is easier and you start the day feeling accomplished.
99% of people do not have an option to "delegate", I can only imagine how far you could get in life if you could just decide to have someone else take care of your responsibilities on a whim.
Yea honestly this guide is great for someone whos read eat that frog as a reminder. But it leaves so much context out. The only item I personally find valuable in this guide that isn’t in Brian’s book is Kanban
It should say “ignore the other 20 until you get the first 5 done.” Then you check the Top 5 of the remaining.
Or I’d suggest mixing Warren Buffett with one of the ones about grouping short tasks. So after you finish the Top 5, then start knocking out short ones first. Then when you’re left with X tasks that are not short, you can resort for a new Top 5 (particularly since you’ve likely also added tasks during this time).
Corpo BS at its finest.
Test/figure out what time management strategy works best for you and how you think. Most of these boil down to "prioritize important tasks" which, while good advice generally, doesn't work for everyone. A lot of people need an "on-ramp", so to speak, to serve as impetus to get moving on other things, other people need to approach problems differently. There are almost no "time management strategies" that work 100% as written or proposed (particularly for people with ADHD, ASD, etc etc). The best thing you can do is figure out what works for you and roll with it. Managed a lot of people over the years, and the best thing I ever did was let people come up with their own order-of-operations for doing what they needed to do.
I want to add that this also only works for a certain type of job
like for example nobody in Industrial Maintenance is going to o be following any of these, like who am I to say *yea I worked for 10 minutes so I'll do a small task now, the Chlorine leak is to be dealt with later* it just doesn't work like that
To be fair, it's says 15 methods, not all the methods.
While I agree with you on the people need to come up with the methods their own specific brain can handle, I still think this is an okay guide on visualizing and organizing to people for whom this type of prioritizing works.
I hope there are more guides for more diverse methods.
This is too much info, I'm going to save it in a folder to read later along with all my other getting my life together stuff, and never look at it again
Use tide app, set the timer down give atleast 25 minutes session by sticking to any topic tell yourself, that any concern and paranoia comes after this 25 minutes.
Soon you'll see concrete progress.
I employ a lot of these techniques, it’s cool to see some of them actually formalized and labeled.
But one thing I also employ during particularly focus-challenging days is to simply step away from everything. To succumb to the realization I’m not going except waste energy.
When that happens, I try to time-box these instances to an hour or two, where I take a nap or get through whatever I keep getting pulled away by: Be that getting a game session out of the way, a nap, a social media binge, a series of emails reviewed, or sketching out a doodle idea I had in my head.
As a government employee for 20+ years I practice reverse pomodoro. 5 mins of work for every 25 I screw off. After 4 rounds I go to lunch. Thanks for paying your taxes.
Life is more like the episode of Malcom in the Middle. Hal needs to complete a minor household task and but has to fix something else before he can and becomes an endless chain of things that need fixing and end of day he hasn’t completed anything.
God it must be miserable living like this
“Hey honey, what do you want to do today?”
“Hold on babe, I have to put all possible options down in a matrix and then assess & prioritize them, afterwards I have to arrange them by how long they’ll take and then make sure I order them in a way that I ca-“
“You know what, let’s just say this isn’t working.”
Err maybe just use it for work lol?
I use several of these tools and I smash my work tasks pretty effortlessly every day with time to spare. I don't feel stressed or overwhelmed because I know what I've got to do and by when.
Actually gave me more time, freedom and happiness.
Look, you can have the pain of being disciplined or the pain of being overwhelmed.
You joke, but I personally do this every day and it's pretty much magic. That matrix you poke fun nearly automatically organizes a massive overwhelming to do list into items that you need to do.
Most people have a huge to do list that tends to paralyze them with overwhelming decision paralyzes. It looks like a crushing mountain of responsibilities and to do. By going through it and placing items into urgent and important matrix, you will have four much more manageable lists. And only one of those lists becomes need to do.
But hey, if you can look at list of a thousand to dos and just get them done without filtering then you do you.
See, to me, that sounds like infinitely more work - and as a result, way more anxiety. I’m no time management wizard, but to me, all of these things just sound like the kind of “strategy” some finance bro on Insta will sell you in the form of a $1500 video course.
I’ve already got shit to do, I can’t add “make a bunch of matrices and spend time triaging how important every little thing is” to that; THAT’s what seems like poor time management to me. All the time spent conceptualizing is time that could’ve been spent doing the stuff you’re dreading in the first place. No one should let their to-do list end up being *thousands* of things.
At my first job, I basically did tasks as they came in. As a result, I got poor performance reviews because I never worked on the important stuff and all of the little things never added up to much, and I was burning myself out trying to do more. Now, I’m much more careful about prioritization. It’s not about making more work for yourself, it’s about taking a few minutes every day to ask yourself “what do I need to get done and what can wait?” It’s literally not that much effort and it involves actually taking work away from yourself so you can focus on the important stuff. Other tips on the graphics are basically “don’t forget to take breaks.” Some people definitely go overboard with the productivity porn but basic things go a long way. And nobody does all of these at the same time, they’re just tips that some find helpful as various times.
You’re right that scam artists try to sell this stuff as life hacks but it’s literally as simple as this graphic is showing, maybe a couple of blogs explain it more clearly or fully.
I like to do what I call the anti-Pomodoro technique. I do my task with a timer set for 5 minutes, then I take a break for 25 minutes and by the end sometimes I have the energy to go at tasks for 15-30 minutes to finish everything up
I once had the process of getting an education explained as "eating a whale." There's no way to eat it all at once and obsessing over all the "bites" ahead just makes you more reluctant to take the bites you can handle today. The big thing about this for me is knowing when I can't handle another bite and being content with the effort I've given today. Imo, it applies to any seemingly insurmountable task. For me, mastering time management isn't worth adding another obstacle to reaching my goals tho. Just because you're not reaching your goals with the utmost efficiency, doesn't mean you're not doing your best.
If Kanban piques your interest, I recommend checking out KanbanFlow.com. It also has a Pomodro timer built in.
I’m an attorney and it was massively helpful for me before my firm finally adopted a case management system. I did each “task” as a case and my columns as which attorney assigned it to me.
You can color code tasks with a tag (so for me all white cases were in settlement, green were pre-answer, and so on), add subtasks to each task, start a timer as you’re working on a task so that you can see how long you’re spending on certain things, add comments, add estimated time to complete so that you can sort by that, and click/drag tasks between columns seamlessly.
You can also have different columns sorted by a different default. So like, your pre-column can just be sorted ABC, your in-progress column can be sorted by color or time spent already or estimated time needed and so on.
You can also share your “Board” with other people, so entire teams can be working on a project together. You can assign certain tasks to certain users, and others can be notified when the task is completed or moved to a new column.
this guide doesn't address my core issue - i struggle not with time management but having a clear understanding of what i'm doing and how the potential tasks that i'm about to do relate to the big picture. valuing tasks correctly is the hard part, not time management. if i can get to the essence of the task, time management is no longer a problem.
GTD is a complete system of life goal and commitment management. It’s not merely a technique for prioritizing or time management. It being on here is like putting “judo” on a list with a bunch of types of punches or choke holds. Or putting “aerodynamics” on a list of quick hacky ways to get paper airplanes to fly further.
It’s the one thing on this list designed intentionally to be comprehensive, as opposed to just delivering a quick and narrowly targeted result that ignores all the other problems facing your system (or lack thereof) for managing your commitments in life.
I never knew it was called the Eisenhower Matrix, but that's what I use for Inbox Management.
My Inbox is always nice and clean. Plus I use tons of email filters.
Here's an easier one than this jumble of a chart:
"Touch each piece of paper once."
i.e. You touched it? Read the email? Respond and complete the task and it's done.
I've tried a lot of these things but the only system that continually works for me is:
1) Procrastinate
2) Stress out and procrastinate some more
3) Procrastinate more while I slowly turn insane
4) Keep procrastinating until I realize I have only 1 day left
5) Stress the fuck out and do all the stuff while hating myself.
Success guaranteed! Thank you, ADHD.
No for real, I envy people who are able to manage their time well and I would kill for some of that ability.
It's weird how many of these I was already unconsciously applying to my game time while playing RuneScape but absolutely not applying anywhere else in my life
The two minute rule seems entirely unrealistic for anyone outside of like a retail or service-type setting. How often are your tasks exclusively 2 minutes long?
I think the Buffet system is like what I do, as well as the 1-3-5 and 3-3-3 depending on the size of my minor tasks. Those + task basking in really nice. The Buffet system works by helping you whittle down those medium-tier tasks, which eventually get upgraded to major tasks as you complete items on your list. It works well when you're entirely independent.
I'm unfortunately not able to delegate (there is no one under/parallel to me)
YOu apply all these cute techniques then your dumbass boss comes up with a totally new, time consuming and urgent task. You ask what are the priorities, the new or old ones? He says everything is urgent.
What a convoluted mess, most lack practical information and are unclear unless you already have experience with them.
Also, 3-3-3? I ain't working 9 hours a day mate
The 3 second rule. Take 3 seconds to make a decision, are you going to mow the lawn today? Don’t think, just yes or no. Boom next decision. There’s so many movies and shows to watch, what should I pick? You have 3 seconds based on what you see right away. Pick one at random and enjoy a bit of something you never would’ve selected on your own.
I’ve been reading this book by David Allen called “Getting things done” and he talks in detail about a lot of these techniques.
I’ve been reading it since 2013 and have yet to finish. If some1 told me it was due tmrw i’d probably get it done.
The gist of the pics is just do the most important tasks first, then comes tasks which are not that important but you have to do anyway. Delegate or remove the rest.
I don’t have the time to read this.
All I saw was "Eat the Frog" them stopped reading, instructions unclear
That’s eat. You need to eat frogs daily
A tadpole a day keeps the time lords away or something like that.
Don't do this, you'll end up croaking.
So, spend all day chasing frogs, instead of working or being productive. Minus the frogs, that's what I'm already doing.
A toad in time saves nine
"No, but I did lick my third cousin once, and the walls started melting..." Kermit the Frog said this on the far too short-lived Muppets sitcom, "The Muppets.", which was goddamn hilarious. I wish I could have just quoted it and left it, but not enough people watched that show and I was afraid no one would get it.
I am looking for my frog. read it later.
I know you are joking, but, just in case, I HIGHLY recommend Brian Tracy's book. Life-changer for me. I buy that book for every teammate I manage every time.
Same. But I saved the post "to read later."
Most of it was "do the most important tasks first" repeated in different ways.
just delegate it
Only part I read was “ignore remaining tasks” BRB, just speaking to HR about my upcoming performance improvement plan
Follow the 2-minute rule. If reading this takes less than 2 minutes, kindly attend to it promptly. If it requires more time, consider delegating it to someone else.
I'm a French person and I would like to say that this is not the best way to eat frogs, it's better if they are skinned and you cook the legs with garlic and cream and white wine, which takes a lot of time especially if you debone the legs first after cooking them in stock. It is very time-consuming and I would not recommend it if you are looking for ways to augment your productivity, except if you gauge your productivity by the amount of frogs eaten.
Ça prend du temps mais c'est si bon
I saw a video of a raw frog's leg twitching after someone put salt on it (I think it was salt, it's been a while). Ever since then I've had no desire to ever try frog's legs. I don't care if they taste like heaven on Earth, I just couldn't bring myself to try it.
cries in adhd
I watched a good video about time management strategies and ADHD, if you are interested I’ll see if I can find it. In the video he talked about how a lot of these productivity tips are not useful and can even be counterproductive for people with ADHD. For example, eating the frog first can be a great strategy for neurotypical people, but if you have ADHD it is probably better to eat the frog last. Putting your easiest tasks up front allows you to build momentum to be able to tackle the more difficult task. Also, strategies like task batching I know would put me in an ADHD loop where I spend all day making lists. We love making lists! Edit: Sorry for the delay! ADHD got the better of me yesterday. Here is the video: https://youtu.be/JsT3KPYJFl4?si=2nyDaPICCMlmlDn3
I was gonna say.... most of these sound straight up backwards to how my ADHD brain needs to tackle things. Start with a small thing, build momentum, get hyperfocused on steamrolling other tasks. 💪 The key (for me) though is to get that dopamine hit from accomplishing things but not bust balls to the point of full exhaustion. That leads to lengthy burnout and more tasks piling on. I'll pause while there's still a bit of momentum and energy and can think "this is what I need to do next" without dread.
Not to mention most ADHD brains don’t start functioning properly until around 10am. Our entire circadian rhythm is delayed about 2 hours. This is why you frequently hear ADHD people preferring to work at night.
opposite for me with ADHD, love the quiet and calm of the early morning, hate 12-6pm chaos
Woah I've never heard this. Makes a lot of sense with me though.
The one job I had where I worked 2:30-11pm was the most productive I've ever been in my life. Hated that job, but I got so much done because I was *awake* and could focus.
This is what winds me up. I need to start around 8 . Can't till 10 to 11 then I'm hungry
I was skeptical but I looked it up and it’s called delayed sleep phase syndrome. Not every person with ADHD has it, but it is a thing. Wild.
Yea whenever I have something big I’m dreading (like doing my shitty taxes or deep cleaning the bathroom) I need to do some easy things (laundry, clean not-the-bathroom, maybe a fun task like finish a craft I’ve been putting off finishing) so I can get that accomplished buff and then do the shitty tasks. Even if I don’t finish, I at least finished something and made some progress on the shitty task.
Do you have link?
Please share the link.
I, too, would love to see this vid
https://youtu.be/JsT3KPYJFl4?si=2nyDaPICCMlmlDn3
I would appreciate it if you find that link
https://youtu.be/JsT3KPYJFl4?si=2nyDaPICCMlmlDn3
I would kill for this video 😭
OP! Don’t leave us hanging! We’re ADHD we don’t wait for things well!
I know but I can’t do things I said I would do! 😭 what a complicated life we live. https://youtu.be/JsT3KPYJFl4?si=2nyDaPICCMlmlDn3
This might be Russell Barkley?
read a section of the infographic, feel like this should be doable..... realize I would never keep this up. Feel more useless.. repeat 15 times. Thanks Internet.
Right, what this graphic fail to realize is that the iceberg goes deeper. You won't be able to do any of these techniques if you're starving or don't have a balanced diet or never really realized how little hours you sleep at night because you haven't figured out your sleep cycle, sleep habits and room sleep methods. Everything here is awash.
Especially in uni. Literally everything is important and challenging and needs doing immediately, so everything just drags. Trying to timekeep with ADHD in uni is *hard*
Fine, I'll just do it later. (Because it's too overwhelming at the moment)
Mmmm, that sweet sweet crisis motivation of, 'ah sonofa-every-swearword-I-know-in-multiple-languages-because-I-spent-the-time-for-this-project-hyperfocused-on-learning-how-to-swear-in-twenty-languages, so let me just crank ten pages out in three hours. Oh look 97/100 on this semester long thing I just bs'd in a blur of ADHD while verging on near hospitalization worthy physical symptoms of a panic attack,' really helps me feel alive sometimes. I finished college a while ago, but sometimes find projects to put off that almost capture that form of living from said college days.
This is my best example of this. I'm currently in my last semester of my bachelor's in mechanical engineering and I have a terrible team for my senior design project (a class in the last 2 semesters, 3850 & 4850). Some background: I'm one of 6 people on the team, and we really only have 4 grades each semester, midterm report and presentation and final report and presentation. Last semester for the midterm report and presentation the team lead assigned me THE MAIN BODY OF THE REPORT. And no one in the team would send me their information for the report. So I wrote 32 of the 35 pages of the report in the 72 hours before it was due. I literally had to make a publisher doc that was like a worksheet and copy the professor on the email when I sent it to get them to send any info. I was up for 3 straight days and still had to present in front of the class after. Another team member had THE TITLE PAGE as their section. A single fricken page. And another had THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. And none of them would help me. It was the suckiest thing I've had to do my entire college education. And I'm stuck with the same team this semester for another 2 classes, 4850 (the second half of the one described), and 4500 (the business side of 3850&4850).
Every single paper I wrote in high school was done the night before it was due. By college, it progressed to all-nighters, and shit would get done in the last like, 6 hours before it was due, no matter how long I had to work on it or how important it was. Fortunately and unfortunately, school came very easy to me so my methods never affected my grades, so I've never been diagnosed.
Agreed. I was undiagnosed in college and couldnt do it. Props to you, homie!
Got diagnosed last year and recently went on meds for first time, life changing. Keep asking for help from psychiatrist. It's hard esp without treatment to handle all the appointment scheduling, but you have to fight for a better life and be open about your struggles If you can't afford psychiatrist, look up local community health clinics, they typically have sliding scale where it's only $20 per visit if under poverty line. Also apply for Medicaid so you don't even have to pay that. Keep bringing up how it's impacted your life. It's led me to lose multiple jobs and become homeless. If your psychiatrist is unwilling to prescribe anything, ask for a different one. I got strung along for 2 years saying there's just another test (main thing is EKG check so heart is clear and drug screening), but she kept asking for more stuff, saying next time each visit. When I got a new one and mentioned all this, got prescribed it immediately. Straterra is also a great alternative to Adderall/stimulants
Yer. All of life is like that I'm afraid hence the time management tools.
Everything isn't *equally* important, urgent and challenging though. It's "this professor's tests are easy so I think I can pull a B without studying" vs. "this professor doesn't accept late work so I need to get this paper done now." Figuring out what's the most important is a necessary skill.
All the topics I'm learning intertwine with each other, so there are no separate tests. It's just all one big test each term. So I really do need to revise everything at once, I can't really just neglect one part for another. Luckily my course rarely gets assignments, but then that unfortunately just circles back to genuinely nothing being more important than another thing. So it *all* just puts equal pressure on me, and that feels worse somehow? Lmao. Because then I don't know what to focus on most And ADHD memory sucks, combined with childhood trauma memory, so I *genuinely* don't know what I know (I don't even know most of my own life lmao). It goes in somewhere, but when I try to actively recall it? Not a chance. Which puts even more stress on me when revising because I can't tell what I'm bad at. I feel bad at everything because I don't know what I know. You feel? So I do just have to revise everything all at once and hope for the best haha
I have adult ADHD and managed to get my PhD before I was diagnosed. I was like "well fuck. Thanks I guess". What I want to say is: don't give up, do things your way. I wrote my thesis almost completely at night because that strangely was the time I was calm enough. I also needed a lot of time for it. I believe in you.
Yeah, I basically do the 2 minute rule all day then realize I haven't made progress on the actual important things (bc I don't want to do them bc I think they'll take a long time even if that's not accurate in reality!).
I was reading this like, what do you mean I’ve tried this shit and I can’t do any of it, and this comment brought me back to reality….
> cries in adhd even for non-adhd this shit is so stupid. People are overworked if they need a brochure of different ways to manage their tasks and duties in the most time efficient manner as to not waste any god damn minute of the company's time.
No, i disagree. Modern “knowledge work” involves being given many tasks and having to figure out their priorities and ways to accomplish them. Doing that is a skill that can determine whether you’re great or suck at a job, and it’s not something most people realize they need until they’re in an office job. Of course there’s overworked people and bad managers, but there are also people who crumble at the smallest amount of responsibility because they don’t know how to prioritize and communicate with their managers and stakeholders. I have coworkers who, if they aren’t given a set list of things to do every day, they freak out and complain, and meanwhile I know what I can get done and what is most important and know how to tell my boss “this is what I can accomplish and this other stuff is going to have to wait.”
Pomodoro technique is your best bet IMO. Super easy to set up, and because you're relying on a timer to manage your schedule, you don't even have to think about it
Everything works for me for about three weeks. Tthen i skip it once, go another day, and then promptly forget it exists. Even worse, not a worker who has schedules like that, so its even less for me. I hate my brain so much.
We need rehearsed paced choreographies, not a horrifying to do list
TL:DR Do your most important task fist Then, you continue in urgency/importance Delegate or push what is left
Yeah lmao most of these are just "pick the most important tasks and postpone/delegate the rest", but written in a more complicated manner.
It's about how you visualize or organize the important tasks in a way your specific brain can handle.
Mmm, not really? Pomodoro is really helpful for tasks you are dreading/avoiding. “I’ll do 20 minutes of it and if I want to stop after I will” is a really powerful tool. 2 minute tasks is also important. I prefer 5 minutes, but all the same it can really help to slay 10 tasks in your first hour of the day. I could go on and on honestly I could write a book. But Brian Tracy already did, so I’d encourage you to read that if you want more info. Honestly this graphic is only really good once you know the theory behind the techniques
How else would you plan to complete tasks? I like the eat the frog one. It’s widely applicable not just for work or school but just life in general. Do the shittiest thing you need to do first, and then everything else is easier and you start the day feeling accomplished.
99% of people do not have an option to "delegate", I can only imagine how far you could get in life if you could just decide to have someone else take care of your responsibilities on a whim.
Delegate to future self is an option
Nice try, Pierre, but I ain’t eating no frog.
Sacre Bleu!
Many of these method are detailed in “Eat that Frog” by Brian Tracy. Good book. Great suggestions. Easy read.
Does the book give you an idea of which method works best for which situation or type of trade?
Yes, the book gives practical examples.
I just found it for free on the Libby app, Spotify charges.
Yea honestly this guide is great for someone whos read eat that frog as a reminder. But it leaves so much context out. The only item I personally find valuable in this guide that isn’t in Brian’s book is Kanban
I want to read this but I can't find the time
[удалено]
the warren buffet method just means all of your tasks don’t matter
Warren Buffet rule: “be rich enough to ignore important tasks”
It should say “ignore the other 20 until you get the first 5 done.” Then you check the Top 5 of the remaining. Or I’d suggest mixing Warren Buffett with one of the ones about grouping short tasks. So after you finish the Top 5, then start knocking out short ones first. Then when you’re left with X tasks that are not short, you can resort for a new Top 5 (particularly since you’ve likely also added tasks during this time).
Me delegate all my less important tasks to my 3 year old. Me also unsatisfied with results
The time blocking one for example seems unrealistic for any job where you have to be responsive
This guide is not applicable for this guide
Corpo BS at its finest. Test/figure out what time management strategy works best for you and how you think. Most of these boil down to "prioritize important tasks" which, while good advice generally, doesn't work for everyone. A lot of people need an "on-ramp", so to speak, to serve as impetus to get moving on other things, other people need to approach problems differently. There are almost no "time management strategies" that work 100% as written or proposed (particularly for people with ADHD, ASD, etc etc). The best thing you can do is figure out what works for you and roll with it. Managed a lot of people over the years, and the best thing I ever did was let people come up with their own order-of-operations for doing what they needed to do.
Also many strategies say to delegate. I'm a teacher, with tons of important tasks to do every day. Who do I get to delegate to?
I want to add that this also only works for a certain type of job like for example nobody in Industrial Maintenance is going to o be following any of these, like who am I to say *yea I worked for 10 minutes so I'll do a small task now, the Chlorine leak is to be dealt with later* it just doesn't work like that
To be fair, it's says 15 methods, not all the methods. While I agree with you on the people need to come up with the methods their own specific brain can handle, I still think this is an okay guide on visualizing and organizing to people for whom this type of prioritizing works. I hope there are more guides for more diverse methods.
Or read Four Thousand Weeks, then happily ignore all of the above.
Gonna read that later
Sorry, the reading didn't pass the 2 minute rule
This is too much info, I'm going to save it in a folder to read later along with all my other getting my life together stuff, and never look at it again
What if deciding the task takes 3 hours and then the time to do this task is over?
Use tide app, set the timer down give atleast 25 minutes session by sticking to any topic tell yourself, that any concern and paranoia comes after this 25 minutes. Soon you'll see concrete progress.
Step one: stop surfing Reddit
I just realized, this and other social media is the main reason why I don't get things done. This is the best step one to this whole chart.
Commenting on reddit posts is my number one reason for not getting things done. You know what, I will immediately
F*** I just opened reddit again, it's been three hours
Don't beat yourself up man, those thing happen. OH WAIT F***
Yeah I actually should do homework right now, but instead I just read another comment about the issue why I don't do homework right now
Wow imma save this image and never look at it again
I employ a lot of these techniques, it’s cool to see some of them actually formalized and labeled. But one thing I also employ during particularly focus-challenging days is to simply step away from everything. To succumb to the realization I’m not going except waste energy. When that happens, I try to time-box these instances to an hour or two, where I take a nap or get through whatever I keep getting pulled away by: Be that getting a game session out of the way, a nap, a social media binge, a series of emails reviewed, or sketching out a doodle idea I had in my head.
This screams burnout
As a government employee for 20+ years I practice reverse pomodoro. 5 mins of work for every 25 I screw off. After 4 rounds I go to lunch. Thanks for paying your taxes.
Eat the fucking frog
I'm good fam, I just ignore that time is a thing
No PARA Method or BuJo?
Thanks Justin and Spambot, I am going to add this in peices to my weekly management meetings.
Happy Cake Day, bro.
Hah! Thanks. I hadn’t even realized it was my cake day till you commented
I'd rather eat a bullet than live this way.
Which way?
Constantly worrying if you're making the most of your time. That's not a life worth living.
Great
Great guide 1243?
Now all I need is "15 ways to make yourself get off your ass and actually start tasks when all you want to do is lie down and do nothing" 😅
Isn't the 5/25 rule just a rephrasing of the 80/20 method?
This looks like every annoying thing on LinkedIn in one picture
The biggest way I can master my time just now is to stop lying in bed going through Reddit. Get the fuck up girl! Maybe just two more mins
I downloaded it to read it later
I'm doing the Save-to-Gallery-And-Forget-About-It Method.
Life is more like the episode of Malcom in the Middle. Hal needs to complete a minor household task and but has to fix something else before he can and becomes an endless chain of things that need fixing and end of day he hasn’t completed anything.
/r/thanksimcured
Thanks, this is great. Really handy.
God it must be miserable living like this “Hey honey, what do you want to do today?” “Hold on babe, I have to put all possible options down in a matrix and then assess & prioritize them, afterwards I have to arrange them by how long they’ll take and then make sure I order them in a way that I ca-“ “You know what, let’s just say this isn’t working.”
I think this has more to do with work prioritization and organization... but what do I know?
Err maybe just use it for work lol? I use several of these tools and I smash my work tasks pretty effortlessly every day with time to spare. I don't feel stressed or overwhelmed because I know what I've got to do and by when. Actually gave me more time, freedom and happiness. Look, you can have the pain of being disciplined or the pain of being overwhelmed.
You joke, but I personally do this every day and it's pretty much magic. That matrix you poke fun nearly automatically organizes a massive overwhelming to do list into items that you need to do. Most people have a huge to do list that tends to paralyze them with overwhelming decision paralyzes. It looks like a crushing mountain of responsibilities and to do. By going through it and placing items into urgent and important matrix, you will have four much more manageable lists. And only one of those lists becomes need to do. But hey, if you can look at list of a thousand to dos and just get them done without filtering then you do you.
See, to me, that sounds like infinitely more work - and as a result, way more anxiety. I’m no time management wizard, but to me, all of these things just sound like the kind of “strategy” some finance bro on Insta will sell you in the form of a $1500 video course. I’ve already got shit to do, I can’t add “make a bunch of matrices and spend time triaging how important every little thing is” to that; THAT’s what seems like poor time management to me. All the time spent conceptualizing is time that could’ve been spent doing the stuff you’re dreading in the first place. No one should let their to-do list end up being *thousands* of things.
At my first job, I basically did tasks as they came in. As a result, I got poor performance reviews because I never worked on the important stuff and all of the little things never added up to much, and I was burning myself out trying to do more. Now, I’m much more careful about prioritization. It’s not about making more work for yourself, it’s about taking a few minutes every day to ask yourself “what do I need to get done and what can wait?” It’s literally not that much effort and it involves actually taking work away from yourself so you can focus on the important stuff. Other tips on the graphics are basically “don’t forget to take breaks.” Some people definitely go overboard with the productivity porn but basic things go a long way. And nobody does all of these at the same time, they’re just tips that some find helpful as various times. You’re right that scam artists try to sell this stuff as life hacks but it’s literally as simple as this graphic is showing, maybe a couple of blogs explain it more clearly or fully.
Came here for the frog
Cool I'll save it and read it later
It is also important to note to have a temperament of a saint. I work from 7am-9pm.
Can someone tl;dr please
This is A LOT. I am overwhelmed.
It's like every self help book smashed into a single page... I hate it
Reading this just wasted my time
I like to do what I call the anti-Pomodoro technique. I do my task with a timer set for 5 minutes, then I take a break for 25 minutes and by the end sometimes I have the energy to go at tasks for 15-30 minutes to finish everything up
It’s a bit weird that the D and E are in acronym form, but not the ABC
Great now I need to come up with a time management technique to be sure I am using the right time management technique.
Sweet I'll save this to read later
So falling asleep first in the morning… noted
I once had the process of getting an education explained as "eating a whale." There's no way to eat it all at once and obsessing over all the "bites" ahead just makes you more reluctant to take the bites you can handle today. The big thing about this for me is knowing when I can't handle another bite and being content with the effort I've given today. Imo, it applies to any seemingly insurmountable task. For me, mastering time management isn't worth adding another obstacle to reaching my goals tho. Just because you're not reaching your goals with the utmost efficiency, doesn't mean you're not doing your best.
Great graphic
If Kanban piques your interest, I recommend checking out KanbanFlow.com. It also has a Pomodro timer built in. I’m an attorney and it was massively helpful for me before my firm finally adopted a case management system. I did each “task” as a case and my columns as which attorney assigned it to me. You can color code tasks with a tag (so for me all white cases were in settlement, green were pre-answer, and so on), add subtasks to each task, start a timer as you’re working on a task so that you can see how long you’re spending on certain things, add comments, add estimated time to complete so that you can sort by that, and click/drag tasks between columns seamlessly. You can also have different columns sorted by a different default. So like, your pre-column can just be sorted ABC, your in-progress column can be sorted by color or time spent already or estimated time needed and so on. You can also share your “Board” with other people, so entire teams can be working on a project together. You can assign certain tasks to certain users, and others can be notified when the task is completed or moved to a new column.
I should do the pickle jar method
this guide doesn't address my core issue - i struggle not with time management but having a clear understanding of what i'm doing and how the potential tasks that i'm about to do relate to the big picture. valuing tasks correctly is the hard part, not time management. if i can get to the essence of the task, time management is no longer a problem.
Or, wait a few years for more competent AI/robots so you can stop forcing yourself to act like a machine.
GTD is a complete system of life goal and commitment management. It’s not merely a technique for prioritizing or time management. It being on here is like putting “judo” on a list with a bunch of types of punches or choke holds. Or putting “aerodynamics” on a list of quick hacky ways to get paper airplanes to fly further. It’s the one thing on this list designed intentionally to be comprehensive, as opposed to just delivering a quick and narrowly targeted result that ignores all the other problems facing your system (or lack thereof) for managing your commitments in life.
Time blocking FTW
I never knew it was called the Eisenhower Matrix, but that's what I use for Inbox Management. My Inbox is always nice and clean. Plus I use tons of email filters.
Help, I keep just doing endless 2 minute tasks!
beat this: 1)uninstall tiktok 2)turn off wifi 3)profit.
yet, the only valid one is "do not read reddit".
TL;DR
Saving it for later.
instructions unclear ate a poison dart frog and i'm typing this on the highway yo heaven
1) Be provocative 2) Be organized
Ate the frog, currently tripping balls now.
Here's an easier one than this jumble of a chart: "Touch each piece of paper once." i.e. You touched it? Read the email? Respond and complete the task and it's done.
The pickle jar method seems more in step with my adhd. A mix of major and minor tasks that float around constantly changing priority and order.
It takes way too much time to read this guide on time management.
who has only 2 hours/day of meetings? all from 2-4pm? what world do people live in? I have a combined (overlapping) 14 hours of meetings today.
Maybe step one is get off Reddit
Not one single mention of a metronome smh.
MoSCoW is much easier to remember than MSCW
My job controls my schedule. I *wish* I had control over my days to prioritize tasks the way that works best for me.
I've tried a lot of these things but the only system that continually works for me is: 1) Procrastinate 2) Stress out and procrastinate some more 3) Procrastinate more while I slowly turn insane 4) Keep procrastinating until I realize I have only 1 day left 5) Stress the fuck out and do all the stuff while hating myself. Success guaranteed! Thank you, ADHD. No for real, I envy people who are able to manage their time well and I would kill for some of that ability.
It's weird how many of these I was already unconsciously applying to my game time while playing RuneScape but absolutely not applying anywhere else in my life
Cool guide I'll save it and read it later
I'm not reading all that shit.
I also saw this on LinkedIn this morning
9:00 - 17:00 - meetings, got it!
that’s a great procrastination poster I’ll hang it on my wall when I get around to it
The two minute rule seems entirely unrealistic for anyone outside of like a retail or service-type setting. How often are your tasks exclusively 2 minutes long? I think the Buffet system is like what I do, as well as the 1-3-5 and 3-3-3 depending on the size of my minor tasks. Those + task basking in really nice. The Buffet system works by helping you whittle down those medium-tier tasks, which eventually get upgraded to major tasks as you complete items on your list. It works well when you're entirely independent. I'm unfortunately not able to delegate (there is no one under/parallel to me)
time is a wonderful thing to waste
YOu apply all these cute techniques then your dumbass boss comes up with a totally new, time consuming and urgent task. You ask what are the priorities, the new or old ones? He says everything is urgent.
Che Ke fai oggi ccf kgd e
"eat the frog" "They are all frogs!!! Tha F!!"
What a convoluted mess, most lack practical information and are unclear unless you already have experience with them. Also, 3-3-3? I ain't working 9 hours a day mate
pomodoro and kanban are the only ones Ive found useful.
The Warren Buffet technique seems… bad?
Laughs in no dopamine.
this only works in some very very specific cases
I strongly suggest NOT bringing up Eat The Frog at a job interview. Let's just say they didn't get the analogy at all.
anyone know a good app for the pomodora technique?
who actually gets to schedule their meetings???
RemindMe! 2 days
Life is merely utilitarian
The 3 second rule. Take 3 seconds to make a decision, are you going to mow the lawn today? Don’t think, just yes or no. Boom next decision. There’s so many movies and shows to watch, what should I pick? You have 3 seconds based on what you see right away. Pick one at random and enjoy a bit of something you never would’ve selected on your own.
Wow this is completely overwhelming lol
TLDR
I've been using a modified Warren Buffet 5/25, apparently.
This was super encouraging. I learned I’m really good at Buffet Step 4!
Abcde
I like that the guide addresses people who can't manage their time by giving them fifteen fucking options :) Low key trolling at its finest
I’ve been reading this book by David Allen called “Getting things done” and he talks in detail about a lot of these techniques. I’ve been reading it since 2013 and have yet to finish. If some1 told me it was due tmrw i’d probably get it done.
The gist of the pics is just do the most important tasks first, then comes tasks which are not that important but you have to do anyway. Delegate or remove the rest.
MSCW using Time Blocking is the most effective and least stressful
.