Nick, how do you genuinely manage your time so well? I tend to get overwhelmed by a lot of stuff at this point. I have inspo stuff I want to do. I'll write a to-do list and still drift off or do stuff that aren't on the to-do list. Secondly, I feel like I just waste a lot of time generally. I block social media, but I still don't feel like I'm moving towards as much to my goals. I'm currently how you used to be. Write out a lot of stuff, plan, and do one or two. I'm also in the AI space. Yeah. So, how do you genuinely manage your time? I tend to get overwhelmed.
When I feel overwhelmed, I take a minute to list every single task I actually have to do on paper. The overwhelm comes not from the total volume but from my perception of the volume bouncing around in my head. My simple steps: take a deep breath, identify the first thing bouncing around that I need to do and write it out, then identify the next thing and write it out, and keep rinsing and repeating for 10‑20‑30 minutes to get a big list of actionable steps. To push further, write out the first subtask needed to move that forward—for example, after moving provinces I needed to figure out car insurance; the first actionable step was to call a phone number. Knowing the exact step reduces friction and makes it much easier to get done; this is about eliminating akrasia (weakness of will). Reduce the friction and you’ll win.
time managementoverwhelmproductivityactionable steps
I think the problem you describe is common. The key for me is not seeing work and breaks as opposites. The most important thing is momentum—making sure I always put in some small daily effort toward an actionable goal, regardless of what I’m doing. Starting small and gradually increasing effort works like progressive overload at the gym: your ability and resiliency grow over time. Most people view work as always on or always off, but I fluctuate—some days I work many hours, other days just a few, while avoiding extreme swings from top to bottom. I always do some amount of work toward my goals because momentum matters; when you get a ball rolling, lead generation, outreach, or content production will eventually yield results if you don’t stop. I avoid all‑or‑nothing thinking—I might work at 40% one day, 100% another, then drop to 30%, 80%, 60%, etc.—and that’s my typical workday. This approach helps reframe work so it doesn’t have to be all on or all off. Books like Atomic Habits and The Compound Effect reinforce this: start with a tiny habit (e.g., run for one minute) and build up gradually; by the end of a month you’ll have a solid habit. This method is far more effective and economically sensible than the all‑or‑nothing approach.
Yes, it definitely gets overwhelming; I have overwhelming days like anyone else. Even the big business titans I admire have extraordinarily overwhelming days, though they hide it well. The feeling of overwhelm exists on a gradient between no stimulation and overstimulation, with an optimal middle spot where you're optimally stimulated—this is the ancient Greek concept of ESS (optimal performance zone). On a stress‑meter graph, the sweet spot is where stress brings out your best performance; high performers operate there, while being over‑stressed (distress) is too much and harmful. I often feel overwhelmed and admit my project‑management systems aren’t the best, but I’m working on them. The key idea is to treat your limited daily time as a constraint and use it for good—find ways to do the same or more work in the same or less time rather than seeking more time. I appreciate the question and note that many one‑person businesses make more money than I do, so I look to adopt their systems. Simple systems that keep things on track are a big lever; publishing content every day is one of them, letting me answer questions and create content simultaneously—killing two birds with one stone. When a student asks a question, I record a video to answer it and also produce content, always looking for opportunities to combine tasks. This approach yields more creative output, a stronger content strategy, and higher volume—a tactical way to work.
I would first understand that human beings are just the stories we tell ourselves. If you wake up and your sleep tracker says you had bad sleep versus great sleep, you’ll perform differently even with the same amount of sleep. Studies show how suggestible we are, meaning we have far more control over our daily state and performance than we think. You can improve performance just by thinking, 'I’m fantastic and incredible at this; I crush it.' This is neurobiological. If you suggest a task is tiring you out, you increase the chance of burnout. Many high achievers adopt a nihilistic, existential viewpoint, zooming out. For example, the president works a lot despite his age; he takes vacations but still works long hours. My grandfather’s routine was waking up, going to the store, brunch, then sleeping six hours, then seeing friends at night. The point is that when you zoom out and realize your struggles are a tiny fraction of global struggles, it helps. Your life isn’t that important in the grand scheme; there are many things consuming vast amounts of energy. Adopting a nihilistic viewpoint frees you from cultural expectations about cognitive effort. In university, people complained about burnout, but historically, farming and shepherding involved 12‑14‑hour days as the norm. It’s about what you establish as your norm. By zooming out and seeing your struggles as a small chunk of worldwide struggles, you can reduce the perceived burden.
Yeah, I've been working on computers since I was about four, when my dad had a desktop tower and I started playing flash games on Newgrounds. My computer literacy is very high because I grew up with a screen, so I'm naturally faster than most people, and that's okay. For boosting pace, I recommend doing an audit: if you spend about 10 hours on your computer, check which applications you have open (using Task Manager or similar) and see where you spend most of your time. Identify the top three or four apps that account for about 90% of your usage, then learn every keyboard shortcut you could possibly want for those apps. Learning those shortcuts takes about an hour (there are really only five or ten most-used shortcuts per platform), and after that, the rest of your work will be roughly a time-and-a-half faster. Another quick recommendation: I prefer working on a laptop because my fingers stay on the home row (ASDF JKL;) and my thumb can stay on the trackpad, so I don't have to move my hand to a mouse. This setup is at least a time-and-a-half more efficient than constantly moving back and forth to a mouse, which wastes time each time you shift hands. It's probably better for your wrists too, but I don't worry about it. Beyond those, learn some problem‑solving heuristics—simple, fast ways to achieve the 80/20 result in most tasks. Examples: lower your bar for certainty, lower your bar for perfection, and use simple tools whenever possible instead of more complicated ones that only give marginal accuracy gains. For instance, I could record high‑quality OBS videos for every client delivery, but a Loom video is good enough and saves me about ten minutes each time.