How to Manage Your Routine in Notion - Simplify the Process, Not Complicate It
April 29, 2024
Having a daily to-do is easy, right? Just jot down what you need to do & checkmark when it's done, same as you do in Notion.
But do you find yourself getting tired at certain times of the day than others? Even when you push yourself to get a task done, you just don't have the energy to go forward.
Instead of tracking every task you're doing in a period of time, you should track your energy.
How so?
What are Ultradian Rhythms?
Your energy never stays the same.
The ability that each of us has to focus for a period of time, before not having the energy to keep it going any longer. It’s important to understand our “rhythm” for working so that we can get done what we need to, without feeling unsatisfied.
As this article from Harvard states,
“Toward the end of each cycle, the body begins to crave a period of recovery. The signals include physical restlessness, yawning, hunger, and difficulty concentrating, but many of us ignore them and keep working. The consequence is that our energy reservoir — our remaining capacity — burns down as the day wears on.”
Like an oscillating graph, it goes up and down depending on the last time you ate & even when you exercised.
Image from University of Guelph
Understanding how your energy moves is crucial to building your own routine.
How? By helping you be more flexible with your time so you don’t burn out.
Ultradian Rhythms usually have 2 energy groups:
Low energy
High energy
To accommodate these two, I break my tasks into:
Light work
Deep work
I talk more about this in my article here, but the gist is that light work is for light focus activities (when you’re least energized), and deep work is for deep focus activities (when you have the most energy during the day).
Part of understanding your personal oscillations is by tracking them in order to adapt to any changes in your routine.
Understanding yourself
Do you feel more energy in the early mornings or the late afternoons? What time do you need a snack?
Whenever you ignore the signs that you need rest, it's only going to make you feel worse down the road.
Take the time to write down when you're most & least energized, along with the times you are sleepy. That way you can:
Have all the snacks you need ahead of time.
Find methods to help you keep deep focus when you have high energy.
Understand when your light focus times are so you can pair your low energy tasks with that time period.
You could do the work yourself to set this up, but personally I use the Energy OS.
How the Energy OS helps
Reading from left to right, input your light/deep/meals on the left & then see them on the timeline as overdue, future tasks, or right on time— and even time block them! Then on the right see how many light/deep/meals you have to do that day, helping you reach your focus goals & avoid burnout.
Below there's also the Wellness Journal to relate your focus tasks with how you're feeling, that way you can easily look over the data & make adjustments for better productivity. Along with this is the Stress Meter which adds up & shows on the Notification Center, further showing where you need to improve!
Lastly, the Time Journal adds up the total time for each focus task. Helping you time block efficiently & reach your time-oriented goals.
Takeaway
By having the ability to easily add a task, track your data at the click of a button, and viewing a simple dashboard to look over your data, you can adapt your routine to changing circumstances & come out feeling refreshed and satisfied with your work!
Long are the days of feeling overwhelmed with tasks that you don't have the energy to do, plan ahead of time with the Energy OS.
The Energy OS is available here at NichePlates for $25, but if you want priority support & lifetime updates it’s only an extra $10!
*Lifetime updates means that I'll be continuing to improve the system if there are bugs or newer ways of automating, I’ll send a monthly email when I do.
