one of the first things we talked about in this course was the idea of eliminating the bad kind of multitasking. We also learned about batch ng tasks in a way that allows you to hone in and focus without switching gears every time. And of course we covered the detriment of distraction. Well as it turns out, one of the biggest and best ways that we can utilize these techniques together is in the way we communicate or don't communicate with other people we work with, let me paint a picture for you of an all too familiar scenario. You sit down at your desk in the morning with your cup of coffee, bright eyed, motivated and ready to work on that project you've been putting off. That's right. Today is the day and you are going to get it done. It might be coding a new feature, writing a new blog post, updating an internal training manual or editing a video, you know which project I'm talking about. But then just a few minutes into working on it, something happens, someone comes into your offi...

ce, sends you a message on Skype, calls you on the phone and your concentration is broken, okay. You probably know where the story is going from here. You continue to get interrupted time and time again throughout the day, both by unexpected interferences and by your planned calls and meetings throughout the day and by the time five o'clock rolls around. You haven't even moved the needle at all on that project another day, lost. Well, if you've ever experienced something like this, I want to tell you about a genius new productivity strategy that many people like myself have begun using to great success. It's called Maker versus Manager days and it's an idea that's been advocated for by a lot of very successful people, most notably paul graham of y Combinator. Here's the basic idea on specific days of the week, you commit to only manager work meetings, phone calls, emails, messages, you know the drill on all other days, you vow to only work on maker work presentations, projects, blog posts, coding reports. What's most important about each of these days is not what you do, but what you don't do, you don't schedule meetings or answer emails on your maker days, you don't shame yourself about not getting any creative work done on your manager days, creating this clear delineation allows you to focus in and be more productive and more effective at everything you do by eliminating the need to change gears Because ultimately, as we know, it takes a good chunk of 3-4 hours to really get creative work done and to get in flow. And how can you do either of those things if you're being constantly interrupted? Plus, on the other end of the spectrum, how can you be expected to be at your best when you're answering emails, fielding phone calls and attending meetings, if you're rushing through them to get back to your creative work. In fact, in an even more extreme example of this delineation, deep work author cal Newport describes how he takes maker and manager weeks or even months completely ignoring the outside world while he's writing a book. For example, now if you can do that and take weeks or months off to focus on just one project that is obviously preferable. But let's be honest that strategy isn't applicable for most people. So let's go ahead and focus in on how maker and manager days look like personally. I've really enjoyed this strategy and I've been using it for a couple of years now on Sundays and Wednesdays, I strictly do creative work with minimal if any interaction with my colleagues or customers on Mondays and Thursdays, I dedicate the whole day to meetings, phone calls, emails and social media postings. Now, Tuesdays are flex days which can go either way depending on the need and Fridays and Saturdays. I don't work, which is customary in Israel, where I live using this methodology has been a massive help in organizing my time and preventing me from having the checkerboard effect going on on my calendar where I never would have more than one hour blocks of uninterrupted creativity time to really get into deep work and flow. Well, I know that some of you may not have as much flexibility over your time. If your students are working in large companies, you almost certainly can choose when meetings happen or when you set aside time to be a maker Furthermore, this method is so effective that it might actually be worth bringing it up with your study group, your colleagues or even your manager. I've linked to Paul Graham's original article in the pdf syllabus, so I highly recommend you check it out and try this maker versus manager schedule and see how it works for you and the people you work with.

Class Materials

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Course Syllabus

The Wheel of Life Worksheet

The Priority Star Worksheet

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Jonathan Levi

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Splitting Time Into “Maker” and “Manager” Days

Splitting Time Into “Maker” and “Manager” Days

Lesson Info

37. Splitting Time Into “Maker” and “Manager” Days

Lessons

Class Introduction: Structure & how to succeed

Why do things quicker

Where most people spend (or waste) their time

Quiz: Chapter 1

The power of preparation

Having clear priorities & goals - and making them "SMART"

Organizing priorities with the Priority Star Exercise

Setting deadlines & and making them real

The Pareto Principle - our secret to being effective

The "Bad" kind of multitasking, avoiding distractions, and meditation

Batching similar tasks

The "Good" kind of multitasking & the wheel of life

Planning for structured rest periods

Using small chunks of wasted time effectively

Quiz - Chapter 2

Just how much time are you wasting on your computer?

Automating meeting scheduling

Text expansion - stop typing the same things over and over

Speaking is faster than typing - and clicking

Using custom gestures to speed up common tasks

Launchers - act without doing

Wasting less time reading and sorting through email

Automating simple, repetitive tasks effectively across the web

Watching lectures, videos, and podcasts faster

Quiz: Chapter 3

Getting fit in fewer hours

Spend less time cooking

Sleeping less and feeling better

Quiz - Chapter 4

Monitoring your finances automatically

Paying bills automatically

Quiz - Chapter 5

Some things just aren_t worth your time

Thoughts & tips on "outsourcing"

Speeding up decisions

Speeding up communication