It’s easy to fall into the trap of looking at a to-do list, working out how much time those item would take to complete, and forecasting how much you can get done in a given timeframe based on that.
The problem with that, if you’re like me, is that you implicitly assume maximum productivity per task.
But your mental state is rarely that great - you really only get a few great hours per day.
For most people, those 2-3 hours will be at the start of the day. And in that time a lot can be achieved.
Outside of those hours, though, very little can be achieved (for me, anyway).
When you’re forecasting how long a set of tasks will take, take into account which tasks will get done at which times, and adjust the forecast based on that.
For me, if I were slotting in a relatively complex, creative task after lunch and before 4pm (my very worst hours), I could literally expect it to take 5-10 times longer than if I did it in the morning.
So much so that I simply don’t schedule those kinds of tasks in that time slot - I wait for the next morning.
Which means I need to push out my time forecast.
It’s humbling to realise how useless you are at certain times of day, or after completing other complex tasks that drain your mental energy. We like to think we can push through all the time.
But the sooner you realise you can’t, the sooner you can manage that mental energy better and become more productive.