How to Effectively Manage Time

Jan. 31, 2020

In this interview, Performance Psychologist Simon Marshall, PhD is with me to discuss one of the most common obstacles to meeting health and fitness goals - time management. For most of us, our days are filled with work and family obligations, leaving just a few precious unscheduled minutes at the end of the day.  It can seem nearly impossible to carve out the time needed for meditating, exercising, or cooking healthy meals at home.

There are biological reasons we find it harder to follow through with our good intentions as the day goes on. Fortunately, there are simple things that can be done to build better habits and strengthen our commitments. If you’re struggling to make it all work, Simon offers solutions for assessing your time-management problem and freeing up the time you need.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Simon Marshall:

[00:02:50] The underlying struggle.

[00:03:56] Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.

[00:05:30] Motivation and commitment to change.

[00:06:32] Book: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown.

[00:10:44] Substituting rather than adding.

[00:11:08] Self-determination.

[00:12:03] Sleep.

[00:14:45] Setting boundaries.

[00:17:05] The willpower bank account.

[00:17:53] Do harder things earlier in the day.

[00:20:29] Early time-restricted eating; Podcast: How to Use Time-Restricted Eating to Reverse Disease and Optimize Health, with Dr. Satchin Panda.

[00:21:34] Habits; changing the environment.

[00:23:20] Podcast: How to Get Perfect Sleep with Dr. Kirk Parsley, MD.

[00:26:43] Chronic sleep deficit.

[00:27:00] When you can't sleep.

[00:27:10] Inappropriate light exposure, not enough light during the day; Podcast: Why Your Diet Isn't Working: Sleep and Circadian Rhythm.

[00:29:35] forum.nourishbalancethrive.com.

[00:30:37] Track how you spend your time.

[00:31:55] Scheduling breaks.

[00:34:06] Why people resist time-use diaries.

[00:34:52] Book:Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, by David Allen.

[00:35:17] Reactivity bias.

[00:36:06] Ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

[00:39:22] Reduce things vying for your attention.

[00:40:00] OneTab Chrome Extension.

[00:41:06] Inbox Zero.

[00:41:53] inbox.google.com.

[00:44:12] Email suicide.

[00:46:10] Batching.

[00:47:37] Decision fatigue.

[00:52:55] Accountability challenges.

[00:54:14] forum.nourishbalancethrive.com.