Did you ever wish the day had 25 hours, just to get everything done? If you did, I feel you. You are probably multitasking, managing multiple projects, and holding several conversations at once.
Of course, busy lives are nothing new. What is new is the way remote work reshaped time. Since 2020, it has been for me both a revelation and a curse.
Personally, I prefer going into the office.
Commuting creates natural boundaries: before, during, and after work.
When I work from home, those boundaries disappear, and the time flows in a completely different way. In the office, I would never spend an hour scrolling social media between meetings. At home, my brain tries to convince me this is the way to rest.
Build solid work blocks
My advice to you is to work in blocks of at least two hours. Real focus only starts after 20-30 minutes, and interruptions reset that timer. To protect those blocks, silence your phone. Or better yet, switch it to airplane mode. It feels unnatural at first, but keep doing it and you will experience the mental stillness that comes with it.
And when you feel tempted to check your phone or the tab with the social media, picture your boss sitting next to you. Be your own boss when it comes to your impulses. Control your brain!
Let’s talk about email
I’m one of those people who keep an almost empty inbox. But I don’t check it every time a new message arrives. I thrive to get the satisfaction of thoroughly cleaning a room in 30 minutes, not the burnout of constantly cleaning all day long. Constant checking creates fatigue. Have you heard about it?
I have read different statistics, I have taught this in multiple trainings, but it’s worth repeating. Research shows that task switching (the brain stores what you were doing, then retrieves what you left behind) consumes up to 68% of task time.
Ten “quick” inbox checks a day, 10 minutes each, make you waste over an hour a day of unproductive time you don’t even notice!
My tip: check emails three times a day – morning, after lunch, and evening. Morning: to spot urgent items for the day. Afternoon: to update progress. Evening: to prepare for tomorrow. Up to 30 minutes each. Urgent issues will find you through other channels.
Now for the hardest part – meetings
I’ve experimented with tricks: starting five minutes late, ending five minutes early, waiting for those who came late, starting with one person in the meeting, cutting meetings to 50 minutes. When I worked at Deloitte, the 50-minute rule worked, but mostly because the local office was tied to Canada. In Latin America, five minutes here or there rarely changes anything. Meetings run late, overlap, and snowball until the entire day feels squeezed, and you feel tired of trying to finish it at 6pm.
The breakthrough came when I realized I only truly control time when I’m the one running the meeting, with my PowerPoint slides and agenda announced beforehand. So I started preparing slides with a strict agenda and time-stamped slots. Let’s take, for example, a issue log review. I created 3,4,5 slides (you can use AI for efficiency, for example, Gemini makes a decent job in Slides). And I shared the slides as the agenda went: 5 minutes the recap, 5 minutes the first issue (description, status, next steps), 5 minutes the second and so on. When I am sending out the meeting, I use timestamps: Recap – 10:05 to 10:15, First issue – 10:15 to 10:20, Second issue – 10:20 to 10:25, Third issue – 10:25 to 10:30, New issues – 10:30 to 10:40.
This approach may feel unnatural at first, especially in cultures where flexibility rules. But, like children adjusting after summer break, people adapt quickly.
Wrapping up, even with structured meetings, focused work blocks, and scheduled email time, that only accounts for 8–9 hours a day. The rest of the day deserves just as much attention.
Here’s how I think about it:
24 hours in a day – 8–9 hours of work – 8 hours of sleep = 7 hours left for everything else.
Those seven hours can either disappear into random activities or be designed intentionally. Try using Google Calendar not only for work, but also for life. I have slots for breakfast, family time, yoga, reading.
A typical weekday might look like this: Wake up & breakfast – 30 minutes, Family activities – 1 hour, Social media – 30 minutes, Work – 4 hours, Lunch – 1 hour, Work – 4 hours, Family activities – 1 hour, Learning – 1 hour, Yoga – 1 hour, Reading – 1 hour, Social media – 30 minutes.
Reminders pop up on my phone five minutes before each activity (you have to manually cancel the 30-minute email reminder each time you schedule a new activity). If something unexpected happens, I simply move or replace the block. If my family needs time at a different moment, I swap that block with another activity.
It might sound rigid, but those who’ve worked with Agile frameworks, especially Scrum, know the power of rhythm. After a few weeks, the schedule feels natural: like a heartbeat.
I am a Senior Program Manager with 12+ years of experience leading large-scale multicultural programs. Every week I will write here about program and project management. If this sparks your interest, hit subscribe and stay tuned.