Managing your time, I’ve found, is mostly a psychological problem rather than a logistical one. Many books lay out a particular system – from the Covey quadrants to David Allen’s 43 folders to a sea of nifty acronyms. What I’ve found from trying them out, and watching others try to use them, is that a system only works if it matches your particular needs. More specifically, if it caters to what I call your pathologies.

We all have some idealized version of ourselves that we aspire to be. This paragon of virtue may never procrastinate, or always rise above temptation .. whatever takes your fancy. Then there is the actual, flawed, imperfect person we actually are. Many people try to use a system that ought to work, rather than one that does work (for them). Hence a sea of unused DayTimer notebooks, mountains of abandoned organizational gear, and endless hopping from one To Do app to another. If cosmetics are “hope in a jar”, then organizational tools are “hope in an app” (or for the traditionalists, “hope in a binder”).

So what do I mean by pathologies? I don’t know what yours are, but I’ll share some of mine.

I Hate Clutter

Some people feel comfortable surrounded by things. They naturally keep papers in piles and leave lots of things lying out on desks. Not me – I like a spare and streamlined work environment. How does this relate to being productive? A friend of mine built an elaborate set of rules for sorting his email. Messages were passed automatically to a lovingly organized cascade of email folders. It worked well for him and was really cool, and I thought I’d give it a try, too. Result: disaster.

All my mail would come in, be sorted into the appropriate category, and I would look at it and be soothed by its orderliness. The problem is that I achieved this calm and pleasing result without actually doing anything. I had to throw away the whole thing and go back to having everything pour into my inbox and annoy me. Then I would be motivated to clean it up, by actually looking at the mail, making decisions, and taking action.

I Like To See My Whole World in One View

When I’m figuring out what to do, I like to see everything that matters all at once. I get stressed out when there are things I need to be thinking about, but they aren’t in front of me so I’m not sure I’m remembering all of them.

I like to plan out my week every Monday morning, and for many years, I have used two facing pages in my notebook to show: the big projects I’m responsible for, any deadlines for the week or in the near future, active to do items, key appointments, top priorities for the week, and top priorities for each day. It is a challenge to capture all that in two pages, but I’ve found it to be a really good exercise – it forces me to think about what’s important and distill it. Each time I have a new kind of role, I have to change those two pages. What I needed to capture when I managed a big team was radically different than when I’m a team of one in a startup and mostly work by myself on a set of projects. I keep those two pages open on my desk most of the time, so I’m always reminded of the most important things that I’m supposed to do that day and that week.

I could keep going for a while (I like to write and draw on paper, I can’t use bound journals because pages can’t be inserted or rearranged, ..), but I’ll spare you, because the important thing for you is to figure out what your pathologies are.

Sleuthing Them Out

A good way to start is to ask yourself:

• What system has worked well for me? What did I like about it? Why did I like using it?
• What didn’t work? Did it fail (you kept forgetting to do something important), or was it too much overhead, or did you just stop bothering with it? Why?

Remember, this is not about some idealized vision of yourself, or what works for somebody else – this is all about you. When you answer these questions, especially the second one, try to avoid value judgments – it’s not constructive to beat yourself up with things like “I’m lazy” or “I suck at organization”. Stick to thinking about what you have tried, what worked, and (for the things that have not) why they failed you.

The answers might be psychological (“I like writing things on paper because it is more visceral and I feel more committed to getting it done”) or mundane (“I didn’t carry around the binder because it was heavy and didn’t fit in my bag”). Don’t scorn the details – your whole system can founder if you just don’t like using it. If the color of the notebook bugs you, or you have a fetish for fountain pens, pay attention. If you are using an app, the details of the user experience matter a lot. “This app made me set up all these categories and I just got lost – I need something simple.” Or “I hate looking at the interface – it’s ugly”.

Your “system” might be very informal – maybe you like post-it notes on your monitor. Or piles on your desk organized a certain way. As long as it works for you, that’s what matters. Try to figure out how to eliminate any friction that prevented you from using (or wanting to use) some solution. Try to enhance any quality that you really like.

At the end of the day, the measure that your approach works is that you know what is important and you get it done. Then you have created a magical accelerant for your life.