<ul>
<li>During a given day, if you accomplish what you intended to do, you had a productive day.</li>
<li>Certain ‘productive’ work like answering email or replying to messages is actually a distraction, and can be better managed by blocking specific time slots for execution.</li>
<li>You are not on track if you are not doing what is the main objective of the day.</li>
<li>Work does not mean ‘paid labor’ but encompasses community service, side projects and even hobbies.</li>
</ul>

Addressing Myths About Productivity

<ul>
<li>Reflect on the time during the day you had done what was the goal, and on what occasions were you distracted. This can be done using time-tracking apps or a simple journal.</li>
<li>Refine your calendar by timeboxing your main objectives to map your daily and weekly productivity, along with the real-time improvisations or delays that have occurred.</li>
</ul>
It’s impossible to be completely indistractable, but if we are able to meet our objectives and protect our most precious resource, which is time, then we have ample play in the day to live the life we want.

Reflect And Refine Your Calendar

<img src="https://nireyal-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/vintage-female-your-calendar.jpg" alt="How to Get the Most Out of Your Calendar" width="588" height="368" srcset="https://nireyal-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/vintage-female-your-calendar.jpg 1080w, https://nireyal-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/vintage-female-your-calendar-980x613.jpg 980w, https://nireyal-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/vintage-female-your-calendar-480x300.jpg 480w"><h2>These Two Questions Will Completely Change the Way You Use Your Calendar: It’s all about reflecting and refining.</h2>It doesn’t so much matter what you do with your time; rather, success is measured by whether you did what you planned to do. It’s fine to watch a video, scroll social media, daydream, or take a nap, as long as that’s what you planned to do.Alternatively, checking work email, a seemingly productive task, is a distraction if it’s done when you intended to spend time with your family or work on a presentation. Keeping a <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/" dir="ltr">timeboxed schedule</a> is the only way to know if you’re distracted. If you’re not spending your time doing what you’d planned, you’re off track.To create a weekly timeboxed schedule, you’ll need to decide how much time you want to spend on each domain of your life. How much time do you want to spend on yourself, on important relationships, and on your work? Note that “work” doesn’t exclusively mean paid labor. The work domain of your life can include community service, activism, and side projects.<h2>Build Your Values Into Your Calendar </h2>How much time in each domain would allow you to be consistent with your values? Start by creating a weekly calendar template for your perfect week. You’ll find a blank template using my free online calendar tool at <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/" dir="ltr">NirAndFar.com/schedule-maker</a>.Next, book fifteen minutes on your schedule every week to reflect and refine your calendar by asking two questions:<h3>Question 1 (Reflect): “When in my schedule did I do what I said I would do and when did I get distracted?” </h3>Answering this question requires you to look back at the past week. I recommend using this <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable-distraction-tracker-pdf" dir="ltr">Distraction Tracker</a> to note when and why you become distracted. If an <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/internal-triggers/" dir="ltr">internal trigger</a> distracted you, what strategies will you use to cope the next time it arises? Did an external trigger, like a phone call or a talkative colleague, prompt you to stop doing what you wanted to do? Or was a planning problem the reason you gave in to distraction? If so, you can look back through your Distraction Tracker to help answer the next question.<h3>Question 2 (Refine): “Are there changes I can make to my calendar that will give me the time I need to better live out my values?” </h3>Maybe something unexpected came up, or perhaps there was a problem with how you planned your day. <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/" dir="ltr">Timeboxing</a> enables us to think of each week as a mini-experiment.The goal is to figure out where your schedule didn’t work out in the prior week so you can make it easier to follow the next time around. The idea is to commit to a practice that improves your schedule over time by helping you know the difference between traction and distraction for every moment of the day.Before moving on, consider what your schedule currently looks like. I’m not asking about the things you did, but rather the things you committed to doing in writing. Is your schedule filled with carefully timeboxed plans, or is it mostly empty? Does it reflect who you are? Are you letting others steal your time or do you guard it as the limited and precious resource it is? When our lives change, our schedules can too. But once our schedule is set, the idea is to stick with it until we decide to improve it on the next go-round. Approaching the exercise of making a schedule as a curious scientist, rather than a drill sergeant, gives us the freedom to get better with each iteration.<h2>Protect Your Most Precious Resource</h2>By turning our values into time, we make sure we have time for traction. If we don’t plan ahead, we shouldn’t point fingers, nor should we be surprised when everything becomes a distraction. Being <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/" dir="ltr">indistractable</a> is largely about making sure you make time for traction each day and eliminating the distraction that keeps you from living the life you want—one that involves taking care of yourself, your relationships, and your work.

Distraction keeps us from getting what we really want. In this excerpt from his book ‘Indistractable’ Nir talks about how you can make the most of your calendar.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

These Two Questions Will Completely Change the Way You Use Your Calendar: It’s all about reflecting and refining.

It doesn’t so much matter what you do with your time; rather, success is measured by whether you did what you planned to do. It’s fine to watch a video, scroll social media, daydream, or take a nap, as long as that’s what you planned to do.

Alternatively, checking work email, a seemingly productive task, is a distraction if it’s done when you intended to spend time with your family or work on a presentation. Keeping a <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/">timeboxed schedule </a>is the only way to know if you’re distracted. If you’re not spending your time doing what you’d planned, you’re off track.

To create a weekly timeboxed schedule, you’ll need to decide how much time you want to spend on each domain of your life. How much time do you want to spend on yourself, on important relationships, and on your work? Note that “work” doesn’t exclusively mean paid labor. The work domain of your life can include community service, activism, and side projects.

How much time in each domain would allow you to be consistent with your values? Start by creating a weekly calendar template for your perfect week. You’ll find a blank template using my free online calendar tool at <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/">NirAndFar.com/schedule-maker </a>.

Next, book fifteen minutes on your schedule every week to reflect and refine your calendar by asking two questions:

Question 1 (Reflect): “When in my schedule did I do what I said I would do and when did I get distracted?”

Answering this question requires you to look back at the past week. I recommend using this <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable-distraction-tracker-pdf">Distraction Tracker </a>to note when and why you become distracted.

If an <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/internal-triggers/">internal trigger </a>distracted you, what strategies will you use to cope the next time it arises? Did an external trigger, like a phone call or a talkative colleague, prompt you to stop doing what you wanted to do? Or was a planning problem the reason you gave in to distraction? If so, you can look back through your Distraction Tracker to help answer the next question.

Question 2 (Refine): “Are there changes I can make to my calendar that will give me the time I need to better live out my values?”

Maybe something unexpected came up, or perhaps there was a problem with how you planned your day. <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/schedule-maker/">Timeboxing </a>enables us to think of each week as a mini-experiment.

The goal is to figure out where your schedule didn’t work out in the prior week so you can make it easier to follow the next time around. The idea is to commit to a practice that improves your schedule over time by helping you know the difference between traction and distraction for every moment of the day.

Before moving on, consider what your schedule currently looks like. I’m not asking about the things you did, but rather the things you committed to doing in writing. Is your schedule filled with carefully timeboxed plans, or is it mostly empty? Does it reflect who you are? Are you letting others steal your time or do you guard it as the limited and precious resource it is?

When our lives change, our schedules can too. But once our schedule is set, the idea is to stick with it until we decide to improve it on the next go-round. Approaching the exercise of making a schedule as a curious scientist, rather than a drill sergeant, gives us the freedom to get better with each iteration.

By turning our values into time, we make sure we have time for traction. If we don’t plan ahead, we shouldn’t point fingers, nor should we be surprised when everything becomes a distraction. Being <a href="https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/">indistractable </a>is largely about making sure you make time for traction each day and eliminating the distraction that keeps you from living the life you want—one that involves taking care of yourself, your relationships, and your work.

How To Get the Most Out of Your Calendar - Nir & Far

Addressing Myths About Productivity

Reflect And Refine Your Calendar

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