Simplifying Task Management: A Structured Approach

This year, the Time Sector System is five years old! For thousands of people it has changed their relationship with tasks and time in so many positive ways. Today’s question concerns the basics of the Time Sector System and its philosophy. 

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Script | 361

Hello, and welcome to episode 361 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show.

I still remember the day that the Time Sector concept came to me. I was walking to the gym one sunny afternoon and was reflecting on my overwhelming task list waiting for me at home. I remember thinking to myself that all these tasks hitting me day after day was not sustainable. 

I was organised and knew where everything was, but I felt trapped in a cycle of never-ending tasks and emails. Whenever I feel this way about anything I always tell myself that there must be a better way. 

And then it hit me. 

I think it was the word “unsustainable”. The number of emails I was getting was never going to reduce. It was going to increase. The amount of work I had to do was equally never going to reduce. At some point I would reach breaking point. 

It wasn’t the work itself. It was time. I just didn’t have enough time. That was the clue. 

You cannot control the number of tasks, messages, and emails you receive. It’s a random number. Yet, the one constant—a constant not controlled by you or me, but by science, and in particular physics, is time. Time is our constraint. 

If I could allocate time for doing the different categories of work I had to do and decide when to do the tasks in those categories, it would not matter how much work I had coming in. Everything would get done in due course. 

And that was the seed that sprouted into the Time Sector System five years ago. 

So, with the history told, it’s time now to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question. 

This week’s question comes from Elaine. Elaine asks, “Hi Carl, I recently came across one of your videos where you talk about the Time Sector System. Could you explain its philosophy and how it differs from other time management systems?” 

Hi Elaine,

Thank you for your question. 

The thinking behind the Time Sector System is that we are limited not by what we can do—we can do a lot—but by how much time we have to do things.

We need to eat, sleep and move (exercise), at our basic level. On top of that we likely have family commitments, school runs, doctor appointments and friends that need seeing. Then we have our work to do. 

The limiting factor is time. It’s fixed. We only get 24 hours a day. 

Now you can manipulate time by hiring people to do stuff for you. For example, you may be fortunate to be able to afford a nanny to take care of your kids when you are at work. Or, you may be able to hire an assistant. But no matter how you manipulate time, it’s still only 24 hours. 

So the philosophy behind the Time Sector System is, it’s not about what you have to do, it’s about when you will do it. After all, that’s the only thing you have control over. 

At a wider level, that means organising your tasks into tasks that need to be done this week, next week, this month, next month or long-term or on hold. 

When you divide your tasks up into when you will do them you narrow down the decisions you need to make on a day to day basis. When a new task comes in, you only need three questions:

What is it?

What do I need to do to complete it?

When will I do it?

So, for example, imagine I get a notification from my health insurance provider informing me I need to book myself in for a medical check-up. 

What is it? It’s a request for me to make an appointment with the doctor.

What do I need to do? I need to make an appointment with the doctor.

When am I going to do it? That depends. 

It depends, in my case, on when is convenient for my wife. We go together to the clinic for our annual check-up. In Korea it’s a six-hour ordeal, some turn it into a family outing. So, before I can make the appointment I need to consult with my wife. 

So, back to question 2. What do I need to do? Consult with my wife. So, there’s the task. When do I need to do it? This week would be good because if I don’t it will sink to the bottom of my list/ So. I choose today when I see my wife. 

When you are processing your inbox, that’s the process. What is it? What do I need to do? When am I going to do it?

Another example might be I have a project that is due for completion at the end of the month. As I am looking at the project, I know what it is—it’s a project. What do I need to do? I need to talk with my colleague about how she is getting on with the graphics for the landing page. That will give me an estimate on when I can finish the landing page. So, when am I going to do it? I’ll send her a message on Monday, so I can add that task to my This week folder. 

It could be that as I return from a business trip, I notice my passport will expire in eight month’s time. Now, I know the government won’t be reminding me that my passport needs renewing, so it’s something I need to do. 

What is it: It’s a passport renewal.

What do I need to do? I’m not sure. The last time I renewed my passport was nine years ago. The system’s probably changed since then. What can I do about that? Go to the government’s website and find out the process. 

Okay, I need to do some research. When will I do it? I’m busy this week, so I can drop the task: find out how to renew my passport into my next week folder. 

I don’t need to add a date to it at this stage because I will be doing a weekly planning session on Saturday and I decide then. 

It’s brilliantly simple, and takes next to no time to develop the habit of asking these three questions. 

There are a few other little things you can do to make this seamless. 

For instance, have separate folders for your routines and critical recurring tasks. Routines are those little things that just need to be done. Watering the house plants, cleaning actionable emails, and basic admin tasks.

Your Recurring Critical tasks are those tasks that come from your Areas of Focus and your core work. I won’t go into the Areas of Focus here. These are your life level tasks such as planning your exercise, staying in touch with family and friends and self improvement. 

Your core work tasks are the tasks you are employed to do. At a basic level, these would be things like talking with customers if you’re a salesperson, preparing materials and teaching if you are a teacher, etc. 

What you do is pull out the tasks you need to perform each day, week or month, and se them to recur as frequently as they need to. 

Another one is when you first adopt the Time Sector System, the temptation will be to throw everything into your This Week and Next Week folders. This results in them filling up which causes overwhelm. 

When you first begin using the Time Sector System, you want to be learning what is realistic and what is not. This involves monitoring what you can and cannot get done each week. 

For example, I know my limit, when I begin the week, is thirty tasks in my This Week folder. Any more than that and I won’t be completing the excess. This does not include my routines and Recurring Critical Tasks. 

If I am to get my most important work done each week, anything more than thirty tasks in my This Week folder and something will break. 

It will take you a few weeks to find your limit. 

And then it all comes down to your daily planning.

While you can plan the week, you will find that you are picking up tasks that need to be done in the week you are in. Before you end your day, you should look at your calendar for the next day. Look to see how much time you have available to do your tasks. 

You’re going to have a very challenging day if you have seven hours of meetings and thirty tasks to complete. Something’s not going to get done. 

It’s during the daily Planning Sequence that you plan out a realistic day. Perhaps you can move some meetings, or reduce your task list. 

And to finish, you select your two most important tasks, flag them and make sure they are your must-do tasks. 

And that’s it. 

As I go through this, it sounds complex, but when you are doing it, it is not. 

New tasks go through the three questions—what is it? What do I need to do? When will I do it? And you can then move those tasks from your inbox to their appropriate folder. 

Then, on a daily basis, you check to see how much time you have for tasks, based on how many meetings you have, and create a prioritised, realistic list. 

At the end of the week, you get to look at your other folders—next week, this month, next month and long-term and on hold to see what can be brought forward to your this week folder. 

The good news is, this approach, helps you to delete tasks that no longer need to be done. 

Now what about projects? If they are not in your task manager, where are they? 

You manage your projects from your notes app. That could be Apple Notes, Evernote, Notion, OneNote or any kind of notes app that allows you to create links to documents, articles, images and emails. 

You notes is a natural place to manage your projects. After all, a project is a big hairy thing that needs managing. You will likely have documents and meeting notes to keep together. 

So, keep them together in a notes app. That way, when you’re working on a project you’re not distracted by all the little, easy tasks you could be doing. You can get yourself focused on the project and work from your project notes. 

All you then need is a single task in your task manager telling you to work on a specific project. Depending on what tools you are using, you will also likely be able to create a link directly from the task to the project note. 

Now the good news. If you are curious about the Time Sector System, I am in the process of updating the online course. It’s the fifth anniversary and it’s a big update. We are in the final editing stage and I hope to get launch the update in the next ten to fourteen days. 

I’ve also done a lot of YouTube videos on this—you can see the playlist on my YouTube channel. 

Thank you Elaine for your question and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.