Fundamentals of Time Management

Where does the time go?
I’ve probably asked myself that question a thousand times, and heard
others ask it a million more. Oftentimes when I hear it, it’s a cry for help. It was for me four years ago. I
was putting such high expectations on myself that not only was I under delivering at work, I fell into
the worst shape of my life, and even my downtime was ruined by a crushing sense of guilt.
I hate that question, because it implies that we don’t even understand what’s happening, let alone
how to fix it. We feel like we’re fighting so hard for our jobs, our families, ourselves, but no matter how
hard you fight it’s just not enough. It’s easy to give up, and just tell yourself that there’s not enough
time to live the life you want to. To blame everything from pets to pandemics.
I refuse to accept that, and built Mana to help people take control of their time. Thought leaders like
Laura Vanderkam and Nir Eyal have shown that you can choose to achieve your best life. To enjoy
time that is happier and more fulfilling. If you want to spend time better, knowing where the time
goes is foundational. At Mana we’ve built the best, easiest tool in the world to help you do just that.
It takes more than a foundation though, being mindful of your time is a practice. Once you
understand what’s happening, the next step is to figure out what you want to happen, and execute a
plan to make it a reality. Our Guides are here to work with you individually to use the best time
management and habit formation practices in the world to make you feel like a superhero. This book
contains actionable strategies to help you become more mindful of your time, and not just at your job
or with your family, but in all domains of your life. Each chapter comes with an “action guide” that
helps you implement what you learned, bringing you closer to your goals.
Where does the time go? The Keepers of Mana (our users) know where their time goes, and are
passionate about spending it better. My journey has resulted in 3 promotions, losing 27 pounds, and a
magical first 18 months of parenthood with my daughter. Anyone can have Time Freedom, and our
mission is to help you achieve it. You’re always welcome to schedule time with us here for free, we’d
love to chat with you about improving the time in your life. Until then, thank you for your time!
Omar
CEO @Mana
i Letter from the CEO //

Have you ever felt overwhelmed or burnt out by the amount of work and number
of tasks that you need to complete? As students we often feel immense pressure
from ourselves, peers, and parents to be overachievers. We want to get straight
A’s, become captains of our sports teams, be active members in our fraternity or
sorority, and volunteer to support the causes we care about --all while having a
social life and playing it cool, like we have our lives under control.
So how can we stay afloat? How do we know what to prioritize and how to build a
schedule that brings us closer to having it all? Here is your four step guide to better
time management:

P.2 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

A lot of times, we take on too many goals and tasks because we feel like we are
supposed to, or other people tell us that we should. It’s rare that we set goals that
are truly aligned with our values and make us want to achieve them. CEO and
author, Elizabeth Grace Saunders talks about the negative consequences of a
year-long reading goal-driven only by insecurity in the face of professional peer
pressure:
“If sitting down to read feels more like a chore, it’s unlikely they’ll make
any progress — and they may feel badly for not achieving their goal when
the year comes to a close. While the goal itself felt like it was something that
fit the needs of their professional role, it didn’t match the individual’s
preferences or ambitions.”
In other words, she suggests that we reflect whether the goals we are setting are
truly those we want to achieve rather than those society tells us we should achieve.
My friends, it’s time to ask yourself the hard questions:
● “Is this goal/task/project aligned with my values?”

● “Is this goal/task/project bringing me closer to what long-term success
means to me?”
Everything you answered “no” to - scrap it. If it’s not adding value to your life or
bringing you happiness, it’s probably taking precious time away from things that
would, and as students we already have enough on our plates!
In short, set goals that align with your values. Consider what matters to you,
then figure out what you need to do from there.

Congratulations! If you made it to this step, then you are already well on your way
to taking control of your schedule. Once you have identified your goals, it’s time to
break. them. down.
In her book, 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam , suggests a great methodology:
“Once you know what you’d like to do in the next year, you can break this
down into what you’d like to do in the next month (120-240 hours) or week
(30-60 hours). On Sunday nights, or before the start of the workweek, sit
down and list the actionable tasks you need to do to advance you toward
these goals. This is the key part: schedule them in, knowing exactly how
long they will take.”
That’s right. Literally block out chunks in your calendar - it’s called timeboxing. For
me, I wanted to be more diligent about getting my workouts in. Just saying “I’ll
work out three times a week” really didn’t last because something would always
come up and I’d just say that I’d make up for it tomorrow. And... we all know how
that story ends. Now, I have 4:30pm~6:00pm timeboxed in my calendar every
Monday ~ Friday as “WORKOUT!!!” (yup, in all caps with three exclamation marks).
But sometimes we don’t know how long tasks are going to take. We end up
underestimating or overestimating, which leads to either wasted time or
unnecessary stress. The best way to figure this out is to start tracking your time.
Time management experts suggest that somewhere around 30-minute blocks are
best.
You’re probably thinking, “I’m a student, I already have so much to handle and now
you’re also asking me to track how I spend my time?” Trust me, I’ve been there, so
I’m going to share the easiest method I’ve come across to spare you the Excel
spreadsheets of every 30 minutes in your day, or worse, scribbled notes in your
Moleskine.
I started using Mana which digitized the process and gave me a comprehensive,
data-driven view on how I spend my time 24/7. Yes, tracking time takes diligence
but the returns on investment are huge.

Mana’s expert guides on time management helped me critically reflect on how I
was spending my time to be able to create time for things I truly value like my
health. With their constant encouragement and accountability, I was able to stick
to my 4:30~6:00pm timeboxed workout schedule week after week, and the results
have been amazing after hitting my targets for over 2 straight months! I’m really
proud of those results knowing that 3 in 4 people give up their yearly fitness goals,
most of them within 6 weeks or less!
So break down your value-based goals into actionable tasks, schedule them into
your calendar by timeboxing them, and commit to those times. This is now an
appointment you made with yourself.


Now that you’ve scheduled time for the goals that matter to you, let’s narrow down
the task to the day. What can you accomplish today that will bring you closer to
your unique goals?
1. Time management is priority management. So how do we optimize our

priority list and actually get things done? It’s interesting to ask yourself: are
you prioritizing the schedule or scheduling the priority?”
2. “What is more important, doing the right thing or doing things rightly?”
The answers for seizing control of your schedule? Schedule the priority, and do the
right thing.
Out of all the advice on time management and burnout management, the most
realistic and helpful advice I’ve heard is: At the start of each day, or the night before,
create a to-do list for the day, and purposefully limit it to 3~5 items that are most
important for you to accomplish.
By only having 3~5 items on your to-do list you will feel less busy, not burn out, and
actually get more done. Why?
1. It makes you prioritize, because when everything is important nothing is

important. A 3 item list is much less daunting and is definitely more do-able
than a 20 item list.
2. It leaves space for other things to come up. No matter how hard we try to
schedule and avoid distractions, things come up. But having only 3 items on
your list leaves space for you to address those surprises without feeling guilty.
3. It makes you feel productive and accomplished. While 3 important things a
day might not be much, it’s 15 important things a week and 750 important
things a year! Also, checking off all of your goals at the end of the day feels so
great and gives us a huge confidence boost!
Create a 3~5 item to-do list everyday in order of priority. Start with the first item
and before you know it, you’re well on your way to realizing all of your goals!

Stick to your schedule. While this sounds really trivial, it is the most important step.
Actually committing and following through with what you said you would do is a
matter of personal integrity. Once you start breaking commitments to yourself,
you lose trust in yourself and the whole system of self-discipline begins to crumble.
It’s okay if things don’t go as planned at times, that’s totally normal and a part of life
- especially for us, students. But if you’re experiencing stress and burnout because
what you are doing now is not working, be honest with yourself and change
something.
Make commitment a part of your identity. Habit master and author, James Clear
writes that the recipe to success is two-fold:
1. Decide the type of person you want to be

2. Prove it to yourself with small wins
This means to become the type of person who seizes control over their schedule.
Say it to yourself everyday. Every time I feel like skipping my workout or
procrastinating on something that’s on my to do list, I say to myself: “I am
disciplined”, “I am committed” and remember that disciplined and committed
people don’t make excuses or miss deadlines.
It takes time to truly believe it in your core. I know I’m certainly still in the process.
(Sometimes I have to be really extra and say to myself, “I’m a time management
queen” to even begin getting anything done). But with every day that you seize
control of your schedule, you prove it to yourself and reinforce that identity, and I
promise it gets easier.
So show up, especially on the days that you don’t feel like it, because you can
commit.


Tired of experiencing burnout and want to
seize control of your schedule?
1. Stop setting goals for others. Set goals that you actually care about for
yourself.
2. Break down goals by timeboxing them into your schedule. Start tracking your
time for best results, and use Mana if you’re looking for an easy way to do it
from your phone
3. Limit your daily to-do list to 3-5 priorities that are aligned with your goals.
4. Make commitment part of your identity. Say to yourself, “I am a time
management master”. Start showing up for that you.

My dream goal is…

Why is this goal important to me? How is this goal aligned with my values?

When do I want to achieve this goal?

What would I like to achieve in the next year? List 3 actionable tasks

What would I like to achieve in the next month? List 3 actionable tasks

What would I like to achieve in the next week ? List 3 actionable tasks


In the age of Covid where online learning, working from home, and socializing over
zoom is the new normal, screen time = work time = down time = friend time.
The days seem to all blur together and we find ourselves repeating the unfulfilling
routine of opening our laptop at the start of the day and staying glued to the
screen until bedtime week in and week out.
How do we create more time for the things we love and end every day feeling
fulfilled and accomplished?
Create structure in an unpredictable world

To almost anyone, having an empty calendar feels like a dream-come-true. No
responsibilities. Just time for school, work, the people you care about - “the world is
your oyster!”
However, for me, the reality of having a blank calendar sets in when I catch myself
having watched an entire season of Gossip Girl in one day. (Yes, Gossip Girl is my
guilty pleasure too, and this may or may not have happened more than once
during quarantine - but that’s a secret I’ll never tell).
Bottom line… I get nothing done.
In the current work-from-home environment, where we can’t schedule in “dinner

with the girls” or where our longest “commute” is switching over to a new zoom
room, our calendars may look almost blank.
The unfortunate truth about a blank calendar is that we’re faced with the
burden of choice. In her famous “jam study,” Sheena Iyengar shows that when
people are faced with more than 6 choices - like having a blank calendar where we
have 24 slots to fill with activities - we feel completely overwhelmed and are unable
to make any decisions whatsoever. In practice, it means we choose not to make
any choices and default to binging the entire season of Gossip Girl.
So how do we manage our time and stay productive while working from home?
P.11 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

We all know the importance of spending quality time with family, friends, leaving
time for our health, yet when it comes to following through on these
commitments, something urgent always comes up. We end up hoping that we will
make time towards the end of the week, or that time will magically appear. The
result is that we never end up living up to our values.
It’s especially hard to be deliberate in the current work-from-home environment.

We are most likely surrounded by our family or our roommates 24/7 and it could
feel like we’re already spending time with them (sometimes even more than we
would like). But unfortunately, it’s rarely quality time.
Treat your values like the true priority that they are. Schedule them in… first.
The power of timeboxing

In a survey conducted by the Harvard Business Review, timeboxing was found to
be the number one productivity hack. However, timeboxing can also prove to be
extremely useful in other domains of your life.
In the words of Nir Eyal, “it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you planned to
do it.” Timeboxing is just that - allocating a fixed period of time to work for one
particular activity. A few of its benefits?

1. Enables a visual of when to complete a task

2. Provides hard deadlines and accountability
3. Makes you feel in control of your schedule
4. Gives you frequent feelings of accomplishment
I like to think of my life as having four domains: health, work, fun, and growth. To
me, a great week is one where I was able to make time for each of these four areas.


Every Sunday when I sit down to plan out the rest of my week, I deliberately
timebox an activity for each of these areas first. For me it looks something like this:
Health: 4:30~6:00pm Mon~Fri is my workout time
Work: 8:30am ~12:30pm are my main work focus hours
Fun: Sunday morning (time does very depending on when I wake up ), I

FaceTime my best friend
Growth: 2:00~4:00pm Monday and Thursday are set aside for Chinese lessons

Then everything else that needs to get done will fill the gaps in the rest of my
calendar - surprisingly there’s a lot of time left!
Of course, everyone’s values and priorities are different, but timeboxing the main
pillars of your life can help you create structure, stay accountable, and follow
through to make time for the things you value.


Many of us may have found that working from home and no longer needing to
commute to work or school, we actually freed up a lot of time in the day to pursue a
hobby that we otherwise would not have. Or, maybe we found we need some extra
down time to take our eyes off the screen.
In her book, 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam shares that a time-use study found that
on average, Americans have at least 30 hours per week of leisure time. If we now
add in the time we are saving ourselves from the commuting we no longer do, we
might realize that there’s actually more time that we think.
Vanderkam says that we often end up wasting our leisure time because we
don’t recognize when leisure time is appearing. The result is that we spend it in
the most frictionless way possible: watching TV.
What’s the solution?
First, it’s important to figure out what we would like to do with our free time.
Ask yourself: “What leisure pursuits would I like to build into my life?”
This can be taking up photography, starting a blog, training for a triathlon (if you’re
really ambitious). I love learning languages, so I decided to invest time in my week
to learn Chinese during this pandemic. These leisure pursuits can also fall into any
of the four domains of your life too!
Figure out the big chunks

Ever realize on a Sunday night that the weekend just happened to slip away and
you can’t even remember what you’ve done? Weekends are really great for
scheduling in your leisure pursuits or even valuable time with your friends and
family.
One of my favorite activities on weekends has been spending the entire afternoon
and evening with my family. Either on Saturday or Sunday we all set aside time to
spend it with each other and do our best to turn off our devices. We aren’t really

creative and usually end up going on long walks, but spending this quality time
together and catching up on our weeks has been so great.
Loosely schedule leisure activities into your weekend. This will also give you
something to look forward to during the week!
Figure out the small chunks

We often have 10, 20, 30 minute awkward gaps during our days where we are
waiting to join a zoom call, or waiting for a family member to finish getting ready
before going on a walk. Unfortunately these small chunks of time are like
quicksand. I’m guilty of turning to social media to fill in that gap of time. I say to
myself, let me see what’s been on Instagram really quick and then I’ll get to work.
Before I know it, the 10 minutes I promised myself turned into 30 minutes, or worse,
an hour.
Laura Vanderkam suggests creating two lists:
● “in 30 minutes or less I can…”

● “in 10 minutes I can…”
See if any of your leisure pursuits can be broken down into 10 or 30 minutes
chunks.
One of my favorite stories was from Riana, a mother of an 11-month old, who started
taking photography classes during her daughter’s naptime. She told me that she
had always loved photography and wanted to improve her skills. Being a full time
mom, she not only felt like she had no time but also felt mom-guilt for even
thinking about picking up a hobby. Riana said that after she started tracking her
time with Mana, she realized she could carve out time during her daughter’s daily
30-minute nap. In May, she signed up for online photography classes and has been
loving pursuing her passion ever since!
So whenever you find yourself in between tasks or with some extra downtime,
look through your list of activities you want to pursue and see if there’s one you
can check off.

To make sure there are no surprises or distractions that will keep you away from
what you intended to do, it’s important to make sure that everyone involved is in
sync.
Family
At the start of quarantine, it was near impossible to find quiet focus hours at home.
Whether it was my mom calling to help me set up her zoom call, or my brother
coming into my room for the tenth time to annoy me, it felt like every time I finally
sat down to get some work done someone needed something. This was, of course,
not one-sided and I was also very much guilty of interrupting my siblings and
parents without knowing it. After a bit of an adjustment period, however, I found
these two tips to be really helpful:
Have a conversation with family members. This might feel a little awkward
and forced, after-all if your family needs your help you shouldn’t turn a blind
eye, but talking through what times of the day you don’t want to be
interrupted can actually benefit everyone.
Create signals. Asking to remember your family’s or roommate’s schedule on
top of your own is most likely unrealistic. However, one solution I found
helpful was to create signals to show when I’m “in the zone” and don’t want
to be interrupted. For example, my door fully closed means I’m focusing.
When my door is cracked open, I’m no longer in my focus hours.
Of course, you have to also do your part of respecting your family members’ times
and signals.


Work
If you are working remotely, make sure to also sync your schedule with your
co-workers.
Working from home, your co-workers may be juggling childcare, or have found
that they work best during non-traditional work hours. Maybe that coworker is you.
Take a few minutes to have this conversation with them. Knowing when you can
expect your colleagues to be online and having them know when they can
expect to hear back from you can make everyone less stressed and more
productive.
Firstly, this alleviates the pressure of being “on-call.” When you’re not working,
you can focus on everything else that’s important to you - like time with family and
friends - and you won’t be worrying about your colleagues trying to reach you
because they know you won’t be responding.
Secondly, I’m sure we’ve all experienced anxiously waiting for a reply on Slack or
email without which we can’t go on to the next step. Knowing when you can
expect a reply from your co-workers, can also help you plan your work time better.
This is especially helpful, if you are now working across different time zones. At
Mana, we are truly a global team - working across 6 time zones. We created a little
cheat sheet of when each of us are online and when it’s realistic to schedule
meetings or hear back from each other. Maybe you and your co-workers can create
one too!
Make time for the things you love

In this new normal where work and life are completely intertwined we can still
make time for the things that matter with three simple time management
techniques:
1. Schedule time for your values

2. Take advantage of your downtime
3. Sync your schedule with those involved

What leisure pursuits would I like to build into my life?

Seperate your leisure pursuits into two lists

In 30 minutes or less I can…

In 10 minutes I can…

What is the secret recipe to success and achieving it all?
We live in a society that glamorizes working hard and hustling, but these things are
exactly what can lead to burnout. In fact, CDC studies show that global anxieties
are peaking and still growing, leading to a “burnout generation”. I recently had the
opportunity to talk to Adam, a friend new to timeboxing, who shared a story with
me that changed the way I view my goals and priorities.
He told me a story about avoiding burnout
In early 2017, Adam was juggling a full-time job, side hustle, and struggling to get in
shape for a newborn on the way when he rekindled his love for music.
He set out to intentionally schedule (timebox) a fun activity into his calendar that
would let him take his mind off work and decided that taking up the guitar would
be the perfect solution.
After two years of getting the hang of it, he decided to make the goal bigger and
aimed to practice for one hour every Monday evening.
But Monday would come around and he found himself choosing to put in an extra
hour of work or get some exercise. “I would say to myself, I’ll just practice for 2
hours next week,” he told me.
In August 2019, Adam sat down to reflect on the first half of his year and realized he
had put in no time - zero - on guitar. It was at that moment he realized that this
goal was simply not a priority for him at this time of his life.
So he decided to abandon the goal.
Abandon the goal? Give up? To me, that sounded like something for quitters, not
successful people.

P.20 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

But I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Adam understood that to get the most value out of his time, he needed to
remove the mental pressure of an unrealistic, low-priority goal and shift his
focus towards the things that mattered. He succeeded! That year Adam earned
his promotion, made significant progress on his side hustle, got in the best shape of
his life, and has enjoyed spending quality time with his newborn daughter every
day.
Here are my 3 takeaways from his story:


In the book Life after College: Ten steps to build a life you love, Tori Ternhube and
Betsy Hays talk about the idea that our lives have seasons:
Every sport has a preseason, a season, a postseason, and an off-season before

it all starts again. Think about it in whichever way is more fun for you, but
focus on the idea that what we can do in the summer we can’t do in the
winter, and what you should focus on in the preseason is not what your
priorities are in the middle of the season
Thinking about life in chunks or “seasons” of five years, decades, or even bigger
sections like post college, pre kids, post kids’ graduation, can help figure out the
“when” aspect of your priorities.
Ask yourself these questions:
● What defines this season of my life?

● What makes sense to work on right now?
● What makes sense to work on in the future?
In Adam’s case, a newborn on the way fueled his need to be physically and
professionally fit for her arrival. Understanding the importance of this big change to
the seasons of his life made it easy to decide learning guitar was a goal best kept
for the future.
By understanding what the defining elements are of each season of your life,
you will pave the way for clear, organized thinking of how to set goals.


We have all heard, and perhaps even follow guidance on organizing our days by our
priorities. We hear tips on creating short to-do lists with our top priorities, tackling
the most difficult tasks first.
What if we thought about the seasons of our lives in the same way?
When deciding to abandon his goal of playing the guitar, Adam said that learning
to play the guitar simply didn’t fall into the list of his current priorities. Adam made
this really clear to himself by asking some tough questions and thinking carefully
about what goals meant to him:
“I asked myself why is this goal important to me? Why is this goal important
to me now? I was really honest with myself. I used the Mana app, where I was
able to organize my goals by priority level, depending on their importance to
me at that moment. It really helped me focus only on the highest priority
goals”.
To Adam, learning to play the guitar was only medium priority, while his career and
family goals were high priority. That convinced him this wasn’t the right season to
learn to play the guitar. Without feeling any guilt, he was able to spend time on the
goals that truly mattered to him.
When setting any goal, ask yourself the same questions:
● Why is this goal important to me?

● Why is this goal important to me now?
● Will putting this goal off allow me to spend time on things that are more
important to me now?


Having too many priorities leads to a big mess when it comes to effective time
management. Make those tough choices of putting some things off for another
time. By doing this, you will also create something to look forward to!
Just like we eliminate distractions to finish our daily work, we can eliminate the
bigger distractions in our lives that often come in the form of unaccomplished
goals or unfinished projects.
In her book, Outer Order, Inner Calm, Gretchen Rubin, explains:
“One source of clutter in our homes, and a significant drain on our energy, is
the uncomfortable presence of unfinished projects.”
These projects are often irritating and every time we see evidence of an unfinished
project we get a jolt of annoyance or guilt.
Rubin uses examples of unfinished projects around the house, but Adam
experienced the same thing with the guitar: Every Monday evening when the time
rolled around for his scheduled 1 hour of guitar practice, he would see the guitar in
the living room corner, and just feel immense guilt. The guilt was even stronger
since music was important to Adam, and he understood all the benefits that came
with it.
We all know this story. Maybe we set a goal to meditate every day for 20 minutes,
or a goal to read for at least 2 hours every week. While these smaller chunks of time
seem doable, we usually end up spending those 20 minutes or 2 hours on
something else if our goals aren’t current and high priorities in our lives. Or worse,
we let the guilt of not reaching the goal eat away at us and prevent us from doing
the stuff that actually matters.

So what do we do?
Gretchen suggests that the easiest way to complete a project that’s not bringing
maximum value to your life is simply to abandon it. Get it off your conscience.
Adam understood that what was more important to him was earning the
promotion and taking care of his health before the arrival of his daughter.
So he abandoned the goal and created time value for himself by spending time on
the things that were current high priorities in his life.
He’s looking forward to learning to play the guitar alongside his daughter next
season.
Got anxiety over something that’s not a high priority right now? Abandon the
project or postpone the goal. Don’t let it eat away at your mental space.
Recognize it’s not a priority right now and lift the weight off your shoulders.

It’s time to look through your current resolutions and ask these three questions:
Why is this goal important to me?

Why is this goal important to me now?

Will putting this goal off allow me to spend time on the things that are more
important to me now? Why? Do I want to come back to this goal later?

Let go of the goals that are not your highest priority right now, and make time for
the ones that matter!


We’ve all experienced it: as soon as we decide to start working, we take that first
deep breath and remember that we have an email to respond to or an

appointment to reschedule. My recent culprit has been the UberEats notification
that my food is on the way, dragging me to check every single notification on my
phone.
Living in the digital world, distractions are constantly surrounding us just a tap
away. Our current work-from-home environment doesn’t make it easier.
So how do we avoid skipping from tab to tab or constantly checking our phones?
How do we maximize our productivity, stay focused, and manage distractions?
Why do we get distracted?

Constantly checking email or responding to the “dings” and “blings” from our
phones is often a symptom of a deeper issue. By better understanding the root
cause of why we get distracted, we can learn to manage it.
In his book, Indistractable, (which, by the way, is the Bible of managing distraction),
Nir Eyal states that distraction often occurs as a result of us wanting to escape a
pain point. He says:
“As is the cause of all human behavior, distraction is just another way our
brains deal with pain.”
Ever start checking notifications from apps you don’t even use just as you are about
to start studying? Or worse, realize you’re watching a YouTube video titled, “How to
ride a unicycle” when you don’t even own a unicycle or have any prospects of
joining the circus? (True story )
P.28 Can’t Focus? How to Avoid Distractions //

This phenomenon happens as we unconsciously avoid facing reality: we steer clear

of the pain that comes with more stressful, uncomfortable, daunting tasks.
We’ll revisit how to manage these internal pain points a little later. But hey,
self-awareness is the first step to improvement!


Distractions come in all kinds of forms. Luckily, there are unique ways to manage
each kind. I like to organize distractions into two big sets by thinking about where
they are coming from and whether I could see them coming and then manage
each unique combination of distractions differently.
Where do they come from?
Thoughts:
These are those lurking thoughts that pop up and grab our attention to keep us
from doing what we’re supposed to. Thinking about what to order for lunch, how to
deal with a tough conversation later, or remembering something you forgot to do.
Environment:
These are caused by our surroundings. You know the ones: notifications,
background music, the phone rings, your partner asks where you left the scissors.
Can I see them coming?
Predictable:
These are the kinds of distractions you can eliminate ahead of time once you
identify them for yourself. Social media, chatting with friends, Wikipedia
wormholes, online shopping, and all the other things that creep into our productive
time.


Unexpected:
Unfortunately there are some distractions that we can’t plan for - like a sudden,
urgent meeting or phone call that appears out of the blue! However we can control
how we respond to these kinds of distractions.


Let’s go through common examples of how these kinds of distractions combine
and how to manage each situation.
Predictable Environment
These are what you would think of as quintessential distractions: our smartphones
or a full inbox.
The good news is that they are often the easiest to spot. We usually know we are
distracted from our plans when we find ourselves scrolling through TikTok for
hours or responding to emails that really could have waited.
The solution:
These kinds of distractions are easy to control simply by eliminating them
beforehand. Put your phone in another room while you are working. If your work
doesn’t require the internet - turn it off. The mantra here is: out of sight, out of
mind!
Here are some of my personal favorite tips:
1. Remove apps from your dock.

Our peripheral vision is unfortunately too powerful, and just seeing the little
red bubble appear on my apps out of the corner of my eye, made me want to
check what I was missing. It’s just one text, I would think, before I realized I
had been texting my friends or replying to emails for the last half hour.
2. Close unnecessary tabs.
X out of your email or Twitter tab after you’re done checking them. Just


having them in your line of vision can trigger that mental chatter of I need to
email back my boss, or what are the more recent coronavirus updates?
3. Unsubscribe from emails and notifications.
It’s time to say good-bye to the promotional emails and the auto-signup
newsletters. You weren’t reading them anyways. Change the notification
settings for each app on your phone to decrease the number of calls for your
attention.
Unexpected Environment
These are the kinds of distractions we can’t predict or plan for. Often they are a
friend, family member, or co-worker coming to chat with you or asking if you want
to grab lunch. These are also very easy to spot but more difficult to control
beforehand.
The solution
Just like all distractions that we don’t have control over from happening, we can
control how we respond. Chris Bailey suggests two ways:
1. Get back on track quickly

If something important calls your attention, it’s important to deal with it and
get straight back to what you were doing after finishing. If it’s not actually
urgent, you can say no or put it off till later.
2. Enjoy them
Sometimes, these can be fun distractions, so if they are and you’ve got to
manage them, let yourself enjoy them without feeling guilty -- guilt doesn’t
help anyone!
One way to practically and efficiently implement these two suggestions is to break
time into 15-minute chunks. The Time Hacker Method suggests that it is highly


efficient to commit to short, highly focused time chunks, ideally 15-minutes, which
is what we suggest when you use Mana to track and understand how you use all
your time.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and commit to them being either your intense focus
time or relaxing break time. When working, 15 minutes feels less daunting and
more realistic than telling yourself you won’t be distracted for one hour. Giving
yourself a 15-minute break to enjoy spontaneous time with your family or
co-workers is long enough to spend some quality time but also gives you a
deadline for when fun is over and you need to get back to work.
Predictable Thoughts
Internal distractions are often harder to notice. But once you realize that you are
getting distracted, it’s easier to manage. A common form of this distraction is
multitasking. While we might think we are accomplishing more, multitasking is a
myth. Goldman says mental chatter is a common cause of multitasking as we try to
juggle everything we need to accomplish.
The solution
Focus on one thing at a time, and prioritize what matters (we’ve written a lot on
this topic). Often the root cause of this chatter is that we are confused about what
to prioritize.
Once you’ve figured out your priorities by asking yourself what truly matters,
schedule one thing at one time. One of the best ways to do this is by timeboxing
your schedule.

Timeboxing means deciding what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do
it. Schedule in your entire day by blocking off chunks of time for each important
task you need to complete - one at a time. Don’t forget to also schedule in your
breaks and “social media” time to give yourself a little rest and some time to
recharge to then go on to the next task.
Unexpected Thoughts:
This last kind of distraction is not only the trickiest to notice, it’s also the hardest to
manage. These are distractions that don’t actually feel like distractions and are
masked by us thinking we’re doing productive work.
Parkinson's law of triviality (also known as bikeshedding) states that when given an
important task, we often get hung up on something trivial for a disproportionate
amount of time. For example, spending days mulling over what template to use for
your next email blast (yet another true story).
The solution
To spot and avoid bikeshedding, Melinda Palmer, suggests that before moving
forward with a task, define the specific goal and why it matters. Another way to
think about this is through the two opposition concepts: “traction” and
“distraction”, pioneered by Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable:
“A distraction is something we do that moves us away from what we

really want. The opposite of distraction is traction. Traction is something
we do that moves us towards what we really want”.

He explains that the key difference between distraction and traction is intent. So
the same activity can be distraction or traction depending on whether it’s aligned
with what we intended to do at that moment. Tricky to spot, right?
If you catch a task that feels like it’s taking way too much time or keeps getting
half-done and moved to tomorrow’s to-do list, ask yourself two questions:
1. Will this decision matter five months from now?

If the answer is no, it’s probably more of a distraction than the kind of
productive work you want to be doing.
2. Is this problem helping me reach my goal?
If something isn’t moving you closer to your goals, find another solution for it
— it’s distracting you from what matters!


Knowing what kind of distraction you’re dealing with is the first and most
important step to managing it. Next time you catch yourself getting distracted, ask
yourself what kind of distraction it is and use the tools here to cope.
Managing distractions is not something we can learn overnight or from reading

one blog post - it takes time and practice, and even the most effective people are
constantly refining their methods, so don’t feel discouraged if you’re still getting
distracted!
Instead, use each distraction as a mini-lesson to reflect on how you can better
manage the distraction next time. Mana is especially helpful for this since I easily
have:
1. Encouragement to set resolutions that align with my most important goals

2. A quick and comprehensive overview of how I spend my time so I can quickly
see
○ How much I spend working toward goals

○ Where my other time is going
3. Space for journal entries on specific activities, so I can reflect on the number
of hours I spent on my goals and other activities: I either feel accomplished
and know I’m on track, or I know what to change for next week.
Curious to try out Mana? Get started today with a no-obligations free trial!

Here’s your ultimate pre-focus hour checklist:

Personalize it further by adding your own fields

Created a visual signal that I am “in-the-zone”
Removed apps from my dock (iMessage, Slack, Email,)
Closed unnecessary tabs (Social Media, Email, News)
Set a timer for 15 minutes
Put my phone away where I can’t see it


For a long time, I was turned off by journaling. Despite knowing its benefits, I
avoided it.

For one thing, journaling seemed like an extremely daunting task, another chore.
We hear about successful people who journal for an hour or two a day, and in those
moments come up with their most excellent ideas - this definitely couldn’t be me,
so why bother, I thought. Despite setting a New Year’s Resolution every year to
start the habit, it wouldn’t last much longer than two or three weeks.
Today, I journal every single day and have got a two-month success streak to be
proud of! In this short time, I have already seen improvements throughout my life -
even in the least expected areas.
As an excited and fresh journaler, I want to share some tips I wish I knew before
getting started and insights from those who have journaled for far longer. Maybe
you’ll pick up this habit too -- there’s no time like the present!

P.40 Decoding the Benefits of Journaling //

Let’s start with who journaling is for. It can be motivating and persuasive to
discover that many of our most revered thinkers like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie,
and Ben Franklin all kept daily journals. Still, it can feel demoralizing at the same
time. The feeling of not having enough innovative thoughts for the practice was
one of the mental blocks I struggled with the most when getting started. I’ve
realized that you don’t need a groundbreaking reason to start journaling, nor do
you need to come up with the next Theory of Relativity for your journal to be
powerful.
Simply, journaling doesn’t have to be revolutionary.
It’s written by you, for you.
No one will ever see your notes (my 10-year-old self would recommend taking extra
precautions by buying a journal with a lock to make sure your siblings don’t take a
peek). In fact, you can also choose to never look back on those pages if you don’t
want to either.

What do we even journal about? I was tempted to say “anything!” (which by the
way is the truth). Sometimes, though, this exact fact that we can write about
anything and everything is the very reason we don’t end up doing it. Journals vary
from stream of consciousness to food, events of the day, fitness, and beyond. There
are two kinds of journals that are especially helpful places to start.
Gratitude journal
This is where I began. I created a simple prompt, “I am grateful for…” (I know,

groundbreaking) and I would list three things I was grateful for that day. Anything
from specifics like an adorable grandma cheering me on during my morning run
(true story), to broader things like my health or family.
Gratitude journals are not only very simple, as there are so many things to be
grateful for, but practicing gratitude is also extremely beneficial to your health.
Especially during the current pandemic, when we might be feeling overwhelmed
and stressed, remembering the positives in our lives is essential, however large or
small they may be. After I started this habit, I even noticed that while going about
my normal, boring day, I would look for moments to be grateful for and think, “I’m
going to write this down in my journal!” On the days I wasn’t sure, I would look
through my Mana app at my time tracking records of everything I did, and it helped
me see a clear picture of many things I could be grateful for.


The weekly review
The weekly review is an excellent kind of journal to start if you’re also looking to add
life goals to your journaling habit. While the weekly review was pioneered as a
productivity hack, it can be applied to so much more.
At Mana, we believe in a comprehensive weekly review, which can be done easily
through the app: you get a reminder at the end of each week to reflect on each
activity or area of your life that’s tied to your goals and write a journal entry.
Our Seekers have expressed that going through this exercise weekly has been one
of the most powerful journaling tools. One Seeker summarized this process of
acknowledging his emotions in real-time as being fundamental:
“I like to reflect on my weeks and think about how they made me feel.
Did putting in 70 hours make me feel burnt out or proud of having
achieved something special? Was it disappointing to not hit my targets
for fitness and growth for this week, or was I glad I took a break to enjoy
family time with my daughter?”


We’ve figured out that anyone can journal about anything, so let’s now think
about the details by starting with the When and Where.
Everyone has different times of the day when they can find some quiet and when it
makes the most sense to reflect -- that’s natural with such a personal activity. Here
are a few true and tested times that have worked for others and might work for
you!
Mornings
The morning can be a great time to get all of your thoughts out from the night
before and get clarity for the rest of the day. Write down what goals you’d like to
accomplish today, any mental chatter, and new ideas you might have.
Post-work evenings
Another great time to journal is right after work. This time can be great for
reflecting on your time on the job – what went well and what you can improve
tomorrow. Experts say that this exercise is important for the learning process and
can also act as a way to create a work-life boundary, where you decide to no longer
think about work for the rest of the day
Friday afternoons
Friday is one of my personal favorite times to journal, especially for conducting the
weekly review. Laura Vanderkam also suggests that Friday afternoons are a great
time to reflect on the week and plan the week ahead as it’s usually when our
energies for work-related things die down. Since it’s a low opportunity cost time,
getting the weekly reflection out of the way on Friday afternoon also clears it from
your Sunday night headspace so you can fully enjoy the weekend.

Go digital
This suggestion might be a little controversial. While there is a lot of evidence

pointing to the benefits of using pen and paper, I believe that journaling online, and
especially using Mana, has uniquely valuable advantages:
1. Always accessible
We carry our phones with us 24/7. You never have to worry about
forgetting your physical journal (and if you’re a person like me who
refuses to write in anything else if I have a designated journal, this can
eliminate an excuse to skip important entries).
2. Reminders for Accountability
A well-timed notification can help you stay accountable to your goals.
I’ve found this to be especially helpful on the days where journaling fell
on the back burner.
3. Digital record
I love looking back through my old journal entries, and there’s nothing
worse than wanting to revisit some of your past thoughts only to find
that you’ve misplaced your journal, or lost in a move. Mana also offers a
clear view of your reflections over time, so you can see things like the
general status of your weekly reviews over time or trends in how certain
activities or kinds of activities make you feel. These visualizations are
powerful tools for honest reflection and can provide surprising insights
to help you with your goals.


Still not convinced that journaling is a great habit to pick up? Let’s now tackle the
Why of journaling.
There are countless benefits to journaling. These include reducing stress,
enhancing creativity, bringing more clarity, increasing self-awareness, and
capturing your life story that you can look back on (if you so choose). While these
are great perks, I’d like to highlight the three most powerful journaling benefits I’ve
found from talking to long-time journal writers and my personal experience.
Enables personal growth
I recently spoke to a colleague of mine who has been journaling for over three
years. He says that writing journal entries has been the most influential technique
he has ever utilized for self-improvement and happiness. This practice, he says,
allows you to be honest with yourself about what makes you feel joy, pride, anger,
and regret. Having this perspective often nudges you to change your behavior all
by itself.
Accelerates you towards reaching your goals
Journaling can be a fantastic tool to help you keep track of your goals and measure
your success. For starters, writing down your goals can make them seem more real
and tangible than just having them as thoughts in your head.

But when it comes to following through and staying on track when things get
tough, your journal can act as an accountability partner that pushes you just
beyond your comfort zone and encourages you along the way.
The Hawthorne Effect in practices states that people perform better when others
are watching. This is because fundamentally, we care about what others think, and
we want to put our best foot forward. In the same way, when we write down goals
in our journals and frequently record how we are faring and what progress we have
made to achieve those goals, we feel accountable to both our old and future self,
making succeeding more likely.
Establishes a powerful habit
Journaling every single day has been so impactful to me, not just because it felt
good (which it did!), but because of the tremendous effect on the parts of my life I
least expected.
By showing up every day to journal – no matter how tired I was or how uninspired I
was feeling, I began to form and reinforce a new identity: “I’m the type of person
who sticks with stuff.”
Self-care and my health tend to go on the back burner when things get busy. I
never have a problem with getting schoolwork or work done, even in stressful
times, but I have always done so at the cost of my physical and mental health. Since
beginning to journal every day, I set a daily resolution to move my body and break a
sweat. Spoiler alert! I have not missed a workout in over two months, and I
genuinely believe it was a result of the new identity that I created and reinforced
every day by journaling.

Now that you’re most likely convinced you want to start journaling let’s talk about a
few practical tips. In hindsight, what made it so difficult for me to stick to a
journaling habit until now was the pressure I felt and the unrealistic expectations I
was setting.
Release the pressure:
I used to think that for something to count as a journal entry, I had to sit and write
pages of thoughts for an hour and come out on the other side with a cleared head
and happier soul. Not only is this unrealistic, but it practically sets you up for failure.
As with all new habits that we pick up, the key is to start small. When wanting to
make a change, we often get too excited and start off too big. While this works for
the first few days or a week, the fire quickly burns out, and our new habit starts
feeling too much like a chore.
Author of Atomic Habits, James, Clear recommends the Two-Minute Rule
When I started journaling, I followed it too. For the first few days, I deliberately only
allowed myself two minutes. My first journal entry was 31 words long. After two
minutes, I stopped.
Although a few days later, I could no longer resist and started writing longer
entries, this two-minute rule set a bare minimum daily expectation.
Anyone can find two-minutes in their day. By releasing the pressure of journaling
having to be some big task, I knew that even on the tough days, all I had to put in
was 2-minutes.

Set the right expectations
Speaking of expectations, knowing the difference between establishing a habit

versus a routine can set you up for success without false hope. Nir Eyal explains
that we tend to think of habits as behaviors that will eventually become effortless.
On the other hand, routines (which are a sequence of actions regularly followed)
often require conscious thought.
Journaling is a routine, not a habit. The nature of journaling requires us to be

mentally present and is not something we can do on autopilot. Instead of feeling
disappointed (like I did many times over) when I thought my new habit would
eventually become effortless, I acknowledged that journaling would probably never
come easy. I recommend thinking of it as a routine (or part of a routine), being
deliberate about journal time, and not creating false hope that it will come
effortlessly one day.
That’s the who, what, where, when, why, and how of journaling, a comprehensive
set of tools to successfully begin your habit. Interested in trying out some of those
digital journaling tools with Mana? Click here and sign up for a free personalized
coaching session with one of our expert guides and help you get started on your
journey.

The Two-Minute Gratitude Journal:
Today I am grateful for….
1.

2.

3.

The Weekly Review
Completed my weekly review in Mana

Riana Kessler is a full-time mother to a 14-month toddler, living in a 1-bedroom
apartment in San Francisco. In late May, prolonged stay-at-home orders left her
family trip to visit her parents in Colorado much longer than planned. Riana, her
husband, Kevin, and their daughter, Evi, ended up living with Riana’s parents for
the entire month of June. When July came around though, they decided that it was
time to move back home to the city.
Moving home meant that the extra hands helping to raise a toddler amidst a
pandemic were gone, and all childcare duties were once again left to Riana and
her husband.
Survey data shows that childcare hours significantly increased during the
pandemic for both mothers and fathers, making this transition even harder. Riana
shared her data from Mana with us so we could get a closer look at what is actually
happening.
In July, Riana spent 30% more time per week on “entertaining Evi” alone, jumping
13 hours per week from an average of 41 hrs/week in June to 54 hrs/week in July.
While living with her parents, the house chores were split among four adults;
moving back home meant that Riana had to take on almost all of that work,
increasing time spent on “house chores” by over 12 hours per week. A lot of these
hours were spent baby-proofing the apartment and cooking new foods, since at 14
months Evi started walking more, eating solid food, and sleeping much less. She
wasn’t alone, her husband also took on an additional 6.5 hours per week of
childcare, while balancing a full-time job and starting a company at the same time.
Since time is zero-sum, many mothers have found their jobs and hobbies being
compromised amidst the pandemic. Riana is no exception, while in June she put
24hrs towards courses and practice for her photography hobby, that dropped 90%
in July with only a few hours available for practice and photo editing.
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Riana as she reflected on this transition
from living with her in-laws in June to moving back home in July. While the move
was challenging, Riana said that after a few weeks, she found a system that works.

P. 52 It Doesn’t Have to Take Village //

Here are my four takeaways from a full-time mom that you can apply to take
your time management to the next level!
Sometimes we feel guilty and uncomfortable asking others for help or think that
we need to be able to do everything ourselves.
Riana, too, used to feel this extreme guilt when something came up and she had to
spontaneously ask her husband to take care of Evi during his busy day.
Sync schedules in advance

Living with her parents, where the schedules of four adults and a toddler needed to
be synched, Riana had blocked off times for her parents to take care of Evi. She
says,
“To have to ask for help is very difficult - for moms especially. But by assigning
times in advance, I no longer had to ask for help, everyone just showed up for
their shift.”
Luckily this new routine proved useful, and when moving back to San Francisco,
Riana used the same tip to schedule in Kevin’s “solo-childcare” hours. She recalled
that Kevin appreciated the deliberately scheduled time to spend taking care of his
daughter and made him more productive since he looked forward to those hours.
Make this time for you guilt-free

During this time, Riana pursued her hobbies (often a luxury full-time moms feel
they don’t have). She signed up for online photography classes for August, and
re-committed to her yoga practice. By setting a schedule for these activities, her
mom guilt vanished.

We’ve all heard it a million times — plan ahead. What we don’t hear often is advice
to schedule time for planning, not just for the tasks themselves. Ever get to the
gym ready to train, only to realize you have no plan whatsoever, so you end up
wasting time searching YouTube for last-minute workouts?
Riana experienced the same thing with cooking. Cooking has been a long-time
hobby and living with her parents, she was able to carve out extra time to
experiment and challenge herself with new recipes.
But moving back home and facing time constraints, Riana realized that she spent a
lot of time planning meals. With Evi beginning to eat solids, there was now an extra
toddler-friendly meal to prepare.
Save time in the day by realizing what tasks

take up a lot of time planning
It might be meal-prepping, creating a workout plan, making shopping lists, or even
thinking about what house chores need to get done. If you’re unsure how long you
spend on prep work, start tracking your time. By tracking her time with Mana,
Riana noticed that she spent too much time planning meals every day. She was
spending, on average, 6 hours a week planning meals.
Plan out the week in a weekly planner

To minimize time spent planning three meals, three times a day, Riana blocked off
time every Sunday to create a weekly cooking whiteboard, where she planned out
the weeks’ meals and the ingredients necessary. By doing so, Riana ended up
saving 5 hours a week!
Have a daily task that’s taking up a lot of planning time? Consolidate the
planning in one sitting and create a weekly planner.


Setting ambitious goals is essential, and there’s nothing more rewarding than to
achieve a big goal that you’ve been working on. But if you’ve ever found yourself
constantly missing the goal of reading for 1 hour a week (true story), then this tip is
definitely for you!
Break down goals into smaller daily chunks

This is what Riana did when she wanted to continue to make time for house
hunting. She set a goal of 1 hour per week but had trouble reaching it week in and
week out.
After talking to her Mana Guide, she explained that setting aside an uninterrupted
hour was nearly impossible with a toddler. Her Guide recommended to carve out 15
minutes a day, four times a week instead.
Habit stack the goal

To not let those 15 minutes get lost during the day, intentionally decide when and
where you’ll be implementing this new habit. James Clear describes this as the
habit stacking technique — to add on a new habit to something you already do
each day.
For Riana, this was right after dinner. While her husband does the dishes, she took
15 minutes to find a new home for their family.
By breaking it down and attaching her micro-sessions to an existing habit, Riana

started to consistently reach her goals and doubled her time spent on real estate
research from June to July!
Next time you’re setting a new goal, take it one step further to break it down
into achievable daily bites and use habit stacking to make sure not to miss it.


When talking with Riana, I was amazed at how she was able to find time to work
towards her fitness goals, spend quality time with Kevin, and make time for
reading.
It was much more manageable for Riana to reach these goals when she was living
with her parents, as she didn’t need to have eyes on Evi 24/7. Without help back at
home, Riana started implementing the concept of alignment from Laura
Vanderkam’s book, 168 Hours.
Alignment means combining activities that utilize different parts of your brain,
particularly if one doesn't require much active mental engagement.
Find tasks that cross over between different

domains
At Mana, we like to think of life as having four main pillars: work, growth, health,
and fun. To live a balanced life, it’s essential to spend quality time in each of these
domains. A great way to continue reaching goals in these areas is by finding tasks
that have crossovers between the pillars. For example, walking while listening to an
audiobook is a great way to get in those steps and reach your reading goals.
Riana started to walk more with Evi to get her steps in and spend quality time with
her daughter. Kevin also combined his music goals with Evi by playing music to
(and sometimes even with!) her.
Don’t confuse multitasking with alignment. Make sure your focus hours for tasks
that demand 100% attention stand alone with no distractions. But alignment can
be a great way to reach goals in different domains of your life and increase
productivity.

Feeling like you don’t have enough time in the day to
get everything done? Follow these four tips from a
full-time mom:
1. Don’t be afraid to delegate
2. Consolidate planning for the tasks that need it
3. Set realistic goals
4. Combine tasks through alignment

My Weekly Planner:
Plan your week for activities that needs planning (meal prep, workouts, to dos)
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

P.58 It Doesn’t Have to Take Village //

We all have those days where nothing seems to be going right. An emergency pops
up that throws your plans off track, or despite having a long to-do list, you just can’t
seem to find the motivation to complete any tasks. Sometimes we just want to
wallow in our sorrows and clock out for the rest of the day. How do we stop
ourselves from going into a terrible spiral of self-sabotage?
Here’s a simple four-step guide to getting you out of the mental rut and back on
track.

P.60 Bouncing Back from a Bad Day //

When things aren’t going the way you want them, it’s easy to fall into a terrible
pattern of negative self-talk. But self-talk is powerful because it reinforces the
identity you’ve created for yourself. When you say “I am lazy,” you often find ways to
justify that identity by choosing not to do your work or binge-watching TV (my
struggle). On the flip side, saying, “I am healthy” often leads you to make healthier
life choices since you want to prove this identity to yourself.
On bad days to prevent a downward spiral of negative self-talk:
● Decouple your identity from the situation. Don’t say “I’m a failure” or “I’m
incompetent.”
● Acknowledge the thought from an objective perspective by labeling your
emotions and feelings, not yourself. For example, say, “I’m having the thought
that I’m not accomplishing enough” or “I’m feeling frustrated because of this
situation.”


I am a big believer in self-care, and there is a lot of research to suggest that taking
time for yourself can improve wellbeing, decrease stress, and increase happiness.
But there is a fine line between treating yourself in a way that will help you
recharge and come out feeling better and in a way that makes you feel worse. How
do we avoid falling into the trap of self-sabotage instead of self-care?
Treat yourself the healthy-way

Focus on activities that will help you feel refreshed and restore you. Instead of
drinking or binge eating, take a long bath, listen to music, or catch up with an old
friend.
Avoid moral licensing

Moral licensing is rewarding yourself with “bad behavior” for “good” behavior. For
example, starting the morning with a healthy breakfast and working out, followed
by treating yourself with dessert at dinner. While rewarding yourself is a great
motivator, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with treating yourself, it can result
in self-sabotage if done too frequently. What do we do?
● Don’t label tasks as “good” or “bad.” When we think of our actions in this
way, we try to reach an internal equilibrium. It becomes a game where we try
to even out the scores: I read for 30 minutes (1 point), now I can binge TV for 1
hour (-1 points).
● Think of behavior as either bringing you closer to or farther from your
goals. At Mana, we think of our lives as having four main pillars: growth,
health, work, and fun. To lead a balanced life, we must spend quality time in
each of these domains. If I’m feeling unproductive at work, I try to take a
break and use the time to focus on building up the other three areas of my
life - I might go for a quick run. This way, I end up feeling better about myself
since I’m spending my time achieving a goal in the “health” pillar while also
getting some space to recharge and come back to work in a better mindset.


Ever have a long to-do list of things you need to complete, and it’s just sitting there
on your desk, staring back at you, waiting for you to start ticking off some boxes?
The “2-minute rule” is my favorite tip for the days I feel unmotivated to tackle tasks
or, on the flip side, feel too overwhelmed to begin. Make the most of your two
minutes in three easy steps:
Prioritize your to-do list

We’ve written a lot of content on the benefits and importance of prioritizing and
condensing your to-do list. Choose one task from your to-do list that you will take
on for two minutes. It should be the most important task (and if you’re like me, it’s
probably the one you’ve been putting off).
Set a timer for 2 minutes

Work on that task for two minutes. Doing so releases the pressure to try to tackle
everything at once. It’s also much less daunting to complete two minutes of work.
Have an essay you need to write? Start with two minutes. Feeling unmotivated to
go work out? Put on your running shoes or unroll the yoga mat and do five sit-ups.
Two minutes of progress is better than zero progress, and you’ll end up feeling
better about yourself!
Check-in
Once your two-minutes are up, ask yourself, how am I feeling?
● Ready to continue? Great! Keep going and ride the momentum wave. Set a
timer now for 15 minutes and see how much you can get done.
● Still struggling? First, pat yourself on the back for completing two minutes.
Celebrating the small wins is so important, especially for an off day. Then ask
yourself what felt hard. If you’re feeling unmotivated, try step 4: move your
body or take your mind off the tasks and spend some time working towards
another goal. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and see if you
can complete another round of 2 minutes. Baby steps add up, and before you
know it, you’re well through your to-do list!


Physical movement has countless benefits and can help clear your mind and
increase endorphins (that happy chemical). It’s almost impossible not to feel better
when you’re moving around. Go on a walk, run, hike, or stretch. Sometimes 15
minutes of movement is all you need to make you energized to take on the rest of
the day.
But movement doesn’t have to mean exercise exclusively. Remember the four
pillars?
Setting goals in each of the four domains and progressing in each of them can be a
great way to bounce back from feeling unmotivated or burnt out in one of the
areas.
If I’m ever in a slump at work, I like to log onto Mana to see if I’m making progress
in the other areas of my life to see if I can refocus my energy on something other
than work. I like how with Mana, I can quickly see how much time I’m spending in
each area. Knowing that I could spend some time with friends or work out releases
the guilt I used to feel when I wanted to take a break from work but didn’t allow
myself.

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests that we end up spiraling into long
periods of demotivation because we have taught ourselves to need “motivation” to
get things done. So when we’re not feeling motivated, we avoid entirely doing
anything and everything.
Here’s the good news, though. Just like we learned to need motivation, we can
unlearn this need by creating an excellence routine.
“You can train yourself for success just as well as you can train for
failure”. - James Clear
While this isn’t something that can be fixed or established overnight, creating a
routine that gets you in a productive mindset or helps you get out of a mental rut
can be extremely useful in the long run.
Through a little bit of trial and error, I established my excellence routine to be going
to get coffee. When I know I need to do a couple of hours of focus work, I walk to
my favorite coffee shop, order my usual, and work. This small ritual has been so
influential because on the days I don’t feel like working, all I have to do is get coffee,
which immediately puts me into a productive mindset. (I also can guarantee it’s not
the caffeine that does the trick since I’m a half-caf latte kind of coffee-drinker!)
Rescue your day

If you ever find yourself feeling exhausted, experiencing burnout, or just having a
bad day, follow these four simple steps and get back on track. Not only will you
save the day, but also you’ll most likely have an even better day than expected!
1. Reframe your self talk

2. Treat yourself in a healthy way
3. Start with 2-minutes
4. Move your body

My list of favorite self-care activities in each of the four pillars. At least one should
include movement!
Health
Growth

Fun

Work


We have all at some point set goals in our lives, and we have all at some point fallen
short of achieving a few of them. Unfortunately, we’re often too quick to judge and
blame ourselves when we fail to reach a goal we set. We call ourselves “failures,”
get demotivated, and fall back to our old habits.
But what if the reason so many people fail to reach their goals isn’t that they’re
“lazy,” a “failure,” or lacking discipline. What if the problem lies in the goals
themselves?
Create the right goals set you up for success, and you’ve already won most of the
battle. It’s also so much more motivating when you achieve the goals you set for
yourself!
How is it done? Here’s our tried and proven seven-step guide:
P.68 7 Steps to Successful Goal Setting //

Often, we fail to achieve goals we set because we are solely focused on its outcome
rather than the process. Outcome goals are great for providing a direction, but
focusing on process goals is a much healthier and sustainable way of thinking.
What’s the difference?
Outcome goals are challenging yourself to get an “A” in a class, earn a promotion,
or run a half marathon. Like the name suggests, success is defined by whether
you’ve reached the outcome or not. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with
these goals, we often fall short of them because many factors are out of our control,
which can be discouraging.
Process goals, on the other hand, center around the steps that lead to the desired
outcome. For example, setting a process goal of studying for 5 hours a week
instead of an outcome goal of getting an “A.” The point of these goals is to keep
doing small actions that should turn into habits.
In her Before Breakfast podcast, Laura Vanderkam suggests keeping process goals
relatively simple so that we don’t feel resistance to them or feel like a failure when
we fall short.
I set an outcome goal to run my first half marathon by the end of the summer.
Going from being a couch potato at the start of quarantine to running a half
marathon seemed impossible, so instead of fixating on running those long 13.1
miles, I set a process goal of running every other day. That was my only
requirement. It didn’t matter if I ran for 5 minutes or 50 minutes; the point was just
to show up. Before I knew it, I was doing 10-mile runs.
Set outcome goals to give you a direction, but focus on the process goal because
that’s the one that will endure. In James Clear’s words, “committing to the process
is what makes the difference.”


The goal you set has to be important to you. We’ve written a lot on the importance
of setting goals that matter to you because, at the end of the day, when things get
tough, it’s going to be your reason for setting the goal that will motivate you to
keep going.
Before committing to a goal, go through the tough exercise of asking yourself:
“Why is this goal important to me?”
Then ask yourself again,
“Why is this goal really, seriously, actually important to me?”
Go beyond the superficial reasons. Be as real and honest with yourself. It’s a tough
conversation to have, but you’ll save yourself so much time and potential
disappointment.
Once you’ve mentally figured out why the goal is important to you, write it down.
I’ve been using Mana to set and track my goals for a long time, and one of my
favorite features is that while setting a goal, there’s a place to write down why the
goal is important to me. Having a digital record means that whether things are
going well or things get hard, I can always go back to remind myself of my initial
motivation.


One of the reasons we sometimes fall short of achieving our goals is because even
though they are important, they may not be a priority right now. The reason to set a
goal’s priority level is that you’re more likely to achieve your goal if you focus on one
goal at a time.
Researchers found that people who tried to accomplish multiple goals were less
likely to succeed than those who focused on one goal at a time. People generally
default to the path of least resistance, and setting and working towards a new goal
requires a lot of effort.
Hence, until the goal becomes more-or-less automatic, focus on one goal at a time.
This is where setting the goal’s priority level becomes important. In addition to
asking yourself why the goal is important to you, ask yourself:
● “Why is this goal important to me right now?”

● “Will putting this goal off allow me to spend time on things that are more
important to me now?”
It’s okay to postpone goals to a later stage when they fit into your life’s framework
better, plus you’ll have something to look forward to!


Now that you’ve set a process goal that’s important and of the highest priority to
you, it’s time to give yourself a time frame - long enough to leave time for obstacles,
but short enough to keep you motivated. A lousy time frame is why many of us
(myself included) have often failed to follow through on our New Year’s Resolutions.
One year out is just too far out in the future that it’s easy to say, “I’ll start tomorrow.”
So what’s the sweet spot?
Laura Vanderkam recommends 90-day resolutions. Here’s why:
They’re not too long and not too short. One-year goals like mentioned can
give us the I’ll-start- tomorrow mentality. On the other hand, 90 days gives us
enough time to overcome the challenges that we’ll inevitably face.

It’s easy to reset. If things don’t work out with your goal, you don’t need to
wait until January to start a new one, giving you time to revert to old habits.
By failing fast, you can quickly pick up and move onto the next goal.
If things are going well, you can use the 90-day mark to re-energize and
re-motivate yourself to keep going for another 90 days.


While looking forward to a reward can be a form of motivation, we need to proceed

with caution. Author, Gretchen Rubin suggests that rewards can actually hinder
progress, for two main reasons:
It’s too easy to opt-out if the reward is a luxury. Looking forward to a reward
might be okay to get motivated, but if along the way you no longer want or
need the reward, then what’s the point of working towards the goal?
Eventually, you’ll be more likely to drop the goal altogether.

Rewards create negative associations. We usually only feel the need to
reward ourselves after going through some sort of hardship. Yes, the goal you
set most likely won’t be easy to achieve, but the overall process should be
enjoyed. Needing a reward can reinforce that the goal is challenging, making
it more likely to fall short.
There’s an exception!
Rewards can be great motivators when you treat yourself to things and
experiences that will bring you closer to achieving your goal. For example, if your
goal is to do yoga three times a week, buy yourself a new yoga mat or renew your
membership after a few weeks.


Sometimes it’s easy to go back on our goals or drop them because nothing is at
stake. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear suggests that finding an
accountability partner is one of the best ways to stick with forming new habits.
Why? Because we are wired to care about what other people think and seek
approval from others to feel accepted. Most of us also feel much worse letting
others down than ourselves.
An accountability partner is also an excellent resource for when you might be
struggling to reach your goal. My guide at Mana has been especially helpful for this.
Not only our guides expert life coaches who give practical advice to specific
questions but they’ve also got an overview of your entire goal-setting journey and
can be encouraging in reminding you of how far you’ve come.
Having an accountability partner dials the pressure just enough to keep you
motivated and stick to your goals, and they can offer advice and encouragement
when things get tough.


We have come to the final step in setting successful goals. We’ve done all the hard,
tangible work, and now, it’s all up to our mindset.
We have all heard some version of the quote, “if you believe you can achieve.” As
cliche as it might sound, it turns out that our success is scientifically proven to be
rooted in this. This is because faith and genuinely believing that we can achieve
something puts us in, what psychologists call, a “growth mindset” instead of a
“fixed mindset.”
Time after time, research has shown that people with a fixed mindset achieve less
because, in the face of adversity, they lack the faith and confidence to be adaptable
and to continue pushing despite things getting tough. On the other hand, people
who genuinely believe they can achieve a goal and have a growth mindset will see
setbacks as learning opportunities, simply hurdles to jump over, not dead ends.
Of course, this faith might not come overnight, so you can start with daily
affirmations such as,
“I welcome opportunities to learn.”

“I will achieve this goal.”
“Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to
rise.” - Kobe Bryant
Looking to set a new goal?

Here’s your seven-step guide to setting goals you’ll achieve:
1. Focus on the Process

2. Clarify Your Purpose
3. Prioritize Strategically
4. Define Sensible Timelines
5. Reward Yourself Deliberately
6. Identify an Accountability Partner
7. Believe You Can Achieve!


Fill out this worksheet before setting a new goal
1. Is this goal a process goal? What makes it a process goal?

2. Why is this goal important to me?

3. Why is this goal important to me right now?

4. When will I aim to achieve this goal?

5. How will I reward myself?

6. Who will keep me accountable? Sign up for a session with a Guide today

7. Repeat these daily affirmations:
I welcome opportunities to learn
I will achieve this goal
Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is an opportunity for me to rise

We have all experienced intense waves of productivity where we complete all of
our tasks within the hour. Following those bursts of energy, though, are usually
periods of demotivation (for me, it’s usually a Netflix series binge). Unfortunately
yo-yoing to and from either extreme isn’t sustainable and can even hinder
productivity.
But what if there were a solution that would help you maintain a high level of
productivity?
The solution? Two words: dopamine stacking
The power of dopamine:

Dopamine is one of our most important neurotransmitters that is responsible for
keeping us motivated, experiencing pleasure, increasing focus, and helps with
memory and learning. Our brains are wired to constantly scan for potential rewards
in life and at work, and in those moments we experience a surge in dopamine. One
of the most common catalysts for dopamine release is when we encounter new
stimuli - and it instantly feels good. But, dopamine releases happen in short bursts,
and after a few minutes we’re once again depleted of dopamine and are left
looking for new stimuli.
How can we leverage dopamine to increase our productivity?
Since we release dopamine every time we encounter something new, by switching

up our environments or routines we can intentionally release dopamine. This
release of dopamine will bring a burst of energy and focus and as a result increase
your productivity.
So...
by stacking one source of newness on top of another all the time, we can sustain
these high levels of productivity and motivation. This is called dopamine stacking.
P.78 15 Ways to Dopamine Stack Your Way to Productivity Bliss //

I like to think of my life as having four domains: work, health, fun, and growth.
When I make quality time for each of these areas in my life, I feel the most
productive, balanced, and motivated. Next time you’re experiencing a lack of
motivation or are having a hard time focusing, see if it falls into one of these areas.
If yes, consider switching something up in one or more of these core elements.
Here are some ideas to get you started:


When thinking about the “work” domain of your life, I’ve found it helpful to focus
not on the hours of work that you put in, but rather the quality and effectiveness of
the work that you produced. That’s why we turn to productivity tools in work
environments to boost our performance. So if you’re anything like me, you
definitely have searched “how to be productive” or “ help, I need to focus now” on
Google and were met with an overwhelming number of tips claiming to get you
back on into focus mode. Have you realized that if you try any one of those tips,
usually you would instantly be more productive? That’s because it’s you’re
experiencing something novel and your brain just released dopamine!
Try a new productivity tool by creating a list of your favorite ones and simply
rotate through them every once in a while to keep you on track. Here are my
personal favorites:
1. Switch from to-do lists to a zero-based calendar. Organize your day not by
tasks, but by scheduling in all aspects of your life (work, breaks, family time)
into specific time blocks.
2. Break up your work time into 15 minute focus periods. Instead of
expecting a 5-hour uninterrupted work period from yourself, take it 15
minutes at a time.
3. Plan out your week on Friday afternoon instead of Monday mornings.
Take advantage of the Friday afternoon low energy hours to plan out your
week so that you can start right on track first thing on Monday.
4. Instead of a mental checklist, get an accountability partner. Having an
accountability partner can increase your likelihood of reaching your goal by
95%. (if you’re in need of one, our Mana guides can help!)


Making enough time for your health, both physical and mental is extremely
important. Unfortunately it sometimes falls on the backburner when our busy lives
get in the way. Changing something up in your “health” domain can be a great way
to get excited about making some time for some much needed “self-care”.
My personal favorite is to switch up your morning routine! We hear a lot about

having a killer morning routine to get us started for the day. Afterall, our mornings
often set the tone for the rest of the day. If you no longer feel motivated by your
morning routine, it’s time to switch things up! Here’s are a few ideas:
5. Drink tea instead of coffee. Or vice versa! Just by changing your go-to
beverage in the morning, your body will experience novelty and you’ll get an
added teaspoon of dopamine with your caffeine.
6. Skip breakfast, or not. If you normally eat breakfast in the morning, try
skipping the meal and getting straight to your tasks. In fact, some studies
have shown skipping breakfast in the morning can improve your productivity
without having adverse effects. Or, if you usually don’t eat breakfast, see if
some food boosts your energy.
7. Get ready in the morning. With work from home, it’s tempting to stay in our
PJs, throw on a top, and begin a long day of zoom calls (I am 100% guilty of this
too). Try picking out an outfit you love or putting some time into doing your
makeup, hair, shaving, or even spritzing on your favorite perfume/cologne.


Scheduling in time for “fun” is so important! On top of taking care of our health, we
also need to make sure we’re spending time with the people we love and are
enjoying life. Taking breaks throughout the day, especially when working from
home is important to keep us from experiencing burnout.
Get creative with your breaks! While we all know the benefits of down time and
taking breaks, we may not know how to take effective breaks, or we may have
gotten bored with our current routines. And if your breaks currently consist of
scrolling through social media, see if any of these ideas leave you feeling better
rested and motivated.
8. Take a short walk outside. Even if it’s 5 minutes just to walk up and down
your street or around the block. If you have some more time, explore a new
neighborhood, but don’t forget your mask!
9. Try a 5-minute meditation. Holistic life-coach Sabrina Cadidni suggests that

meditation is one of the best practices to being more present and focused.
10. Find a fun recipe and make a snack that excites you. Not only does
cooking boost your creativity, which helps boost your dopamine, if you love
food as much as I do, what better way to use your break than by making a
yummy treat you’ve been dying to try!


Last but definitely not least, making time for “growth” can be one of the most
rewarding and motivating elements of our lives. Growth can be anything from
picking up a new hobby or setting a new goal. One key factor that plays into our
motivation and that determines what kinds of tasks we end up doing is our
physical environment. This is also known as task association. For example, if we’re
in bed, our brain sends cues that it’s time to sleep.
Try sprucing up your environment to help with increasing your creativity and
replenishing your growth mindset. While we may have trained our brains to
associate our desk for “intense work periods”, it might be time to switch things up if
your productivity levels are dropping.
11. Change up the smell in your room. Before the pandemic, I would always go
to the library to do my “deep work” since my brain associated libraries with
high productivity times. I found it hard to find those focus hours in my room,
so my Guide suggested that I light library-book smelling candles whenever I
need to focus. It’s been a game-changer.
12. Switch up your music. If you like listening to music while doing work, try
out a new playlist or try not listening to music at all. If you don’t usually listen
to music, see if putting some on helps with productivity. Some studies suggest
that listening to classical music can also boost productivity.
13. Go to a coffee shop (if it’s safe). Maybe it’s time to take your home office to
a local coffee shop. I personally have used this tip many times when I no
longer endure my room. I’ve also found that strangers tend to keep me
accountable.
14. Switch rooms/working areas in your house. If going to a coffee shop isn’t
currently an option, see if you can bring your work down to the living room
instead of the office, or vice versa. Move your desk to face a different direction
in your room and enjoy a new view.

15. Set a new goal or form a new habit! We all have those goals and habits
that we’ve been wanting to achieve or pick up. The dopamine boost from the
excitement of starting something new is guaranteed and we’ve even written a
step-by-step guide on how to set goals and form habits to help you start right
away.
Want to keep your productivity levels at a

constant high?
When we experience change our brain releases dopamine, which increases focus
and motivation. Next time you’re feeling unproductive or have a dip in your energy
level, figure out what domain of life it falls under and try out something new (no
matter how big or small)! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
For “work” - try out a new productivity tool

For “health” - switch up your morning routine
For “fun” - look forward to a new kind of break
For “growth” - switch up your surroundings or set a new goal
The key is to continuously stack change on top of one another to keep things
exciting and releasing dopamine!

List a few ideas for each area in your life that can use some changing up
Work
For example, try out a new productivity tool

Health
For example, switch up my morning routine

Fun
For example, get creative with my breaks

Growth
For example, changing up my environment


Fundamentals of Time Management

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Where does the time go?

i Letter from the CEO //

P.2 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

My friends, it’s time to ask yourself the hard questions:

● “Is this goal/task/project aligned with my values?”

P.3 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

P.4 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

P.5 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

1. Time management is priority management. So how do we optimize our

1. It ​makes you prioritize​, because when everything is important nothing is

P.6 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

1. Decide the type of person you want to be

P.7 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

P.8 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

P.9 4 Steps to Seize Control of Your Schedule //

Create structure in an unpredictable world

Bottom line… I get nothing done.

In the current work-from-home environment, where we can’t schedule in “dinner

P.11 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

It’s especially hard to be deliberate in the current work-from-home environment.

The power of timeboxing

1. Enables a visual of when to complete a task

P.12 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

Health: ​4:30~6:00pm Mon~Fri is my workout time

Work: ​8:30am ~12:30pm are my main work focus hours

Fun:​ Sunday morning (time does very depending on when I wake up ), I

P.13 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

What’s the solution?

Figure out the big chunks

P.14 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

Figure out the small chunks

Laura Vanderkam suggests creating two lists:

● “in 30 minutes or less I can…”

P.15 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

P.16 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

Make time for the things you love

1. Schedule time for your values

P.17 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

Seperate your leisure pursuits into two lists

P.18 How to Set Work-Life Boundaries Working from Home //

He told me a story about avoiding burnout

So he decided to abandon the goal.

P.20 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

Here are my 3 takeaways from his story:

P.21 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

Every sport has a preseason, a season, a postseason, and an off-season before

Ask yourself these questions:

● What defines this season of my life?

P.22 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

When setting any goal, ask yourself the same questions:

● Why is this goal important to me?

P.23 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

In her book,​ ​Outer Order, Inner Calm​, Gretchen Rubin, explains:

P.24 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

P.25 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

Why is this goal important to me?

Why is this goal important to me now?

P.26 The Time Management Secret No One Talks About //

deep breath and remember that we have an email to respond to or an

Why do we get distracted?

P.28 Can’t Focus? How to Avoid Distractions //

This phenomenon happens as we unconsciously avoid facing reality: we steer clear

P.29 Can’t Focus? How to Avoid Distractions //

1. It makes you prioritize, because when everything is important nothing is

Health: 4:30~6:00pm Mon~Fri is my workout time

Work: 8:30am ~12:30pm are my main work focus hours

Fun: Sunday morning (time does very depending on when I wake up ), I

In her book, Outer Order, Inner Calm, Gretchen Rubin, explains:

It’s written by you, for you.

Author of Atomic Habits, James, Clear recommends the Two-Minute Rule

Journaling is a routine, not a habit. The nature of journaling requires us to be