I try to follow the GTD method to get myself organized, but I also use some other techniques together with it.

Planning Routines

There are some routines I have incorporated into my planning process.

  • Weekly Planning: Every Monday, first thing in the morning;
  • Daily Planning: Fast daily routine to adapt the weekly plan;
  • Weekly Retro: Every Friday, at the end of the day, I run a retrospective of the week;
  • Monthly Retro: On the last Friday of the month, I run a retrospective of the month.

Time Management Techniques

Work Batches

Since I first read about batching, I started applying the concept in my work routine.

The first time I joined a mid-size company as a manager, I noticed that if I didn’t take control of my schedule, other people did. In the end, you have many meetings inefficiently distributed in your schedule and many small holes of free time where you can’t be very productive or achieve something meaningful.

So I started allocating time for batching in my schedule. It is usually at the beginning of my workday. In those periods, I may focus on some crucial activities or run many small tasks within the same context.