– A simple path to a better and more balanced work life

For more than forty years, I’ve lived with a to-do list that was consistently longer than the time I had available. I strongly suspect I’m not alone in that particular struggle.

So when I started my own company in 2003, I was convinced the solution was finally within reach. At last, I could decide what I worked on—and when. Surely that would lead to clarity, calm, and a sensible balance between tasks and calendar.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

On the contrary. Even though I controlled what went on the to-do list, it still grew faster than I could complete it. The tasks multiplied in the dead of night and the result was the same as before: frustration, guilt and periods of stress.

Over the years, I’ve thrown myself into a whole arsenal of systems and methods in search of the Holy Grail. TimeManager. TimeSystem. Reminders. Trello. Basecamp. Jive. The Pomodoro technique. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Getting Things Done. Tony Robbins. Don Miguel Ruiz – and probably more I’ve forgotten. What they all had in common was that they offered great tools and smart insights. But none of them solved the fundamental problem: there were simply too many tasks and far too little time.

The turning point came when I finished a large, multi-year project a few years ago. For the first time in a long time, I had the space to stop and ask myself what I really wanted to do with my time. I decided to clean up – for real – and take a hard look at my priorities.

It was in that process that I realized something that today seems almost embarrassingly obvious:

The calendar is my new to-do list

When I force myself to put every task in the calendar, something interesting happens. I have to consider how much time each activity actually requires and when I can realistically achieve it. Of course, it’s obvious that I can’t write a paragraph for the new book, read a report and solve a client task at the same time – but that realisation remains abstract until concrete hours need to be booked in the calendar.

Only then does reality become inexorable. The calendar quickly reveals that the 24 hours of the day are already busy and that new tasks can only fit in if something else has to be moved or canceled.

That’s why today I consult the calendar – not a to-do list – when someone asks for help. If I say yes, it’s because I’m consciously choosing to move or opt out of something else. A yes is no longer free.

I also have colleagues and collaborators to whom I can delegate tasks. But delegation also takes time: briefing, follow-up and evaluation don’t happen by themselves. That’s why these activities get their own fixed blocks of time in the calendar, instead of hiding as invisible extra work.

Some projects also require contact with people I don’t already know – for example, potential reviewers, interview sources or experts. In the past, I tended to put off these types of tasks. They were easy to skip and hard to “get started”. Today, I set aside specific blocks of time and the result is amazingly simple: Tasks get done. And on time too.

I still use Trello for tasks that involve others, but my classic to-do list has pretty much disappeared. It has been replaced by a calendar that serves as both a management tool and a prioritization compass. Google Calendar is the focal point, synchronized across my devices, and I reserve fixed time slots for planning, where activities are continuously measured against my goals and strategies.

And it works – surprisingly well.

I say “almost” because I still have a small list of tasks that are either not yet scheduled or are so trivial that they don’t deserve a separate place in the calendar. I keep track of them in Apple’s Reminders app, which is so well integrated with the calendar that I only use it for small tasks.

The democratically distributed resource

By the way, have you ever noticed how often we use the phrases “when I get the time” and “I don’t have time”?

These are really strange formulations. Because every single day, when we pass midnight, every person on the planet is given exactly 24 brand new hours. It happens every day, all year round, right up until the day we are no longer here. In this way, time is one of the most democratically distributed resources we have: everyone gets the same amount.

Of course, how we spend our time depends on our living conditions. If you live in a place where you have to spend several hours a day fetching water, or live in a country where the minimum wage is so low that one job is not enough to make ends meet, the freely available time is quickly eaten up.

However, where I live and work, most people have a relatively large amount of time on their hands. Yet its management varies quite considerably. The common thread is that many see their time use as something externally determined: meetings, appointments, commitments – and a diffuse “busyness blanket” that seems to just drape itself over the calendar.

But is that the whole truth?

Our actions may take time, but ultimately they are the result of decisions we make ourselves. That’s why I think the phrases “when I get the time” and “I don’t have time” should often be replaced with the much more honest: “I don’t want to spend time on that”.

It sounds harsher, but it’s also truer. Because we are each the boss of our own calendar, and time is not something we are given – it is something we choose to take from the pool we already have.