How can I prioritize my tasks effectively to stop feeling overwhelmed and boost profit?

What are the best time management habits to balance work productivity and personal life?

Struggling to manage your schedule? Discover 5 expert time optimization habits to reclaim your week. Learn how to implement the “Big 4” Kanban method, apply the “Hell Yeah” filter to stop overcommitting, and master the art of dedicated focus days. Transform your daily routine from chaotic to productive starting today.

Stop letting your calendar control you—read on to master these 5 strategies and build a schedule that drives success without sacrificing your personal life.

Time Optimization Habit #1: The Weekly “Big 4”

Set up a simple Kanban board with a column for each category (I use Trello to build my Kanban boards, but many people I know use Notion). Spend 15 minutes on Sunday night or Monday morning populating each column with things you can do during the week.

• In the “Promises” column, add any projects you’ve promised others that you want to knock out of the park. Like a pitch deck you promised your boss you’d deliver, or that video you promised your YouTube subscribers. When you overdeliver and exceed people’s expectations, bigger and better career opportunities come your way.
• In the “People” column, list a handful of special things you can do for the people you care about most. Start with the people you would want by your side at your deathbed. For example, plan a surprise date night with your wife, or reserve an hour to help your son with his school project.
• In the “Personal Enjoyment” column, list activities you could schedule this week that you can get excited about. Like, a round of golf with a great friend, a games night with friends, or time to go hiking while listening to a new audiobook.
• In the “Profit” column, list a few things you can do this week that will allow you to earn more money a year from now. Like, get a testimonial from a satisfied customer to drive more sales, or read ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’ and learn two powerful strategies to secure a raise in 6 months.

Once you’ve thought of items for each column, ask: What ONE thing can I do in each to make my week meaningful and memorable? Block out time in your calendar for each item ‐ it doesn’t have to be a lot of time – maybe just 15 minutes.

Time Optimization Habit #2: Capture & Interrogate

Write down everything you feel you need to get done today on a fresh notebook page, blank sheet of paper, or new document on your computer. Now, accept that none of the items on your list gets done. That’s right, not a single thing you want to do gets done today. What’s the fallout for not doing each item?

On a scale from 0 to 100—where 0 means it makes no difference, and 100 means it would be completely unacceptable to let it slide—rate every item on your day’s to‐do list. Anything you rate above 90 is an excellent use of your time today. Everything else, either ask someone else to do, deliberately postpone, or accept the small discomfort of never doing.

Time Optimization Habit #3: The Prioritizing Thought Experiment

When you need to pinpoint your true priority for the day and attack it immediately, conduct this powerful thought experiment: Imagine your phone rings—it’s your closest friend or family member who urgently needs your help in an hour, and they’ll need you for the rest of the day. You can’t say no. Therefore, in one hour you must abandon all your work plans. If you expected to do eight hours of work today, you now just have sixty minutes to be productive. What do you do?

Time Optimization Habit #4: Dedicated Days

Identify the few things you need to do well to thrive in your job, then dedicate at least one day a week to mainly doing one of those things or getting better at it. For example, I dedicate Monday to animation, Tuesday and Wednesday to writing & recording, Thursday to new products, and Friday to sales. The beauty of this method is that I can stay in one mode for most of the day and don’t need to constantly switch between responsibilities. As a result, I get more done.

If you can’t dedicate an entire day to one responsibility as described above, simply designate theme days and use any downtime on those days to focus on that theme. For instance, dedicate specific days to mastering that essential software program your company relies on, and use those 15‐minute gaps between meetings or projects to learn advanced techniques that will set you apart from your peers.

Time Optimization Habit #5: The “Hell Yeah” Filter

Your response to every project proposal or social event request should be “Hell yeah!” or “Sorry, I’m too busy right now.” If you commit to too many mildly interesting things, you’ll quickly feel overcommitted. What seemed like opportunities become obligations. You’ll wake up most mornings wondering, “Why did I say yes to this?”

A great way to determine if a request is a “Hell yeah!” is to ask yourself: If I had to do this thing tomorrow, would I be excited enough to make time for it? It’s easy to agree to future commitments we only somewhat want to do, then dread them when the day arrives. The ‘Hell Yeah!’ filter ensures your calendar only contains projects and events that truly matter and genuinely excite you.