How to manage time during work for maximum productivity

A practical system for maximum productivity

1. Start the day with 3 priorities

Before opening emails or Teams/Slack, identify:

• 🔴 1 most important task — the task that creates the most value
• 🟠 1 important task
• 🟢 1 smaller task

Don’t make a list of 15 “priorities.” If everything is a priority, nothing is.

2. Protect your deep-work periods

During your 08:30–10:00 block:

• Put your phone away
• Disable notifications
• Close unnecessary browser tabs
• Don’t constantly check email
• Tell colleagues you’re unavailable if your job allows it

Switching between tasks has a cognitive cost; minimizing interruptions can help maintain focus.

3. Batch similar tasks

Don’t constantly alternate:

Programming → email → programming → Teams → documentation → email → programming

Instead:

Programming: 08:30–10:30
Emails: 11:30–12:00
Meetings: afternoon
Documentation: 14:30–16:00

This reduces the number of times your brain has to change context.

4. Estimate tasks before starting

For example:

“I need to finish this PLC function.”

Break it down:

• Understand requirement — 20 min
• Write code — 45 min
• Test — 30 min
• Debug — 30 min
• Documentation — 20 min

Now you have approximately 2 h 25 min, rather than an undefined task that could consume your entire afternoon.

5. Leave buffer time

Don’t schedule 8 hours of work into an 8-hour day.

A realistic day might contain:

• 5–6 hours planned productive work
• 1–2 hours for meetings, interruptions, unexpected problems and administration

This is particularly important in engineering jobs, where unexpected technical issues can consume significant time.

6. End the day with a 10-minute review

Ask yourself:

1. What did I accomplish?
2. What remains unfinished?
3. What is tomorrow’s #1 priority?
4. What interrupted me today?
5. How can I prevent that interruption tomorrow?

Monitoring progress is supported by experimental evidence as a useful self-regulation strategy for achieving goals.

The simple rule I recommend

Think of your workday as:

PLAN → FOCUS → BATCH → REVIEW

And remember:

Productivity ≠ doing more things.
Productivity = doing the right things with fewer distractions.

Time-management research also suggests that maximizing the number of activities isn’t necessarily the same as maximizing outcomes.

If you work a typical 8:00–17:00 engineering/office day, I can also give you a specific hour-by-hour productivity schedule, including emails, meetings, technical work, breaks, and unexpected tasks.