For the longest time in my life, I couldn't decide whether to laugh at people who use tools like Reclaim to plan their whole day in the calendar, or whether they had something to look forward to. I've tried these tools myself once or twice, I couldn't cope with a programme telling me when to focus and when to do what.

That's why I stopped using these tools and judged people who claim to be more productive. At least I confessed that I didn't want to live such a rigid and strictly planned lifestyle.

Everything is so chaotic

Until I was 20 I didn't use a method to plan and structure my day. Most of my to-dos were stored locally in my mind and I had to remember and think about what I needed to finish and achieve. This led to me forgetting things an being very stressed. In general, I had a big problem with time management, which gave me so many bad habits that I still have today. For example, I do feel the need to take my phone with me every time I go to the toilet. I literally have to force myself not to look at my phone I eat. It is crazy that literally every moment of my life has to be filled with some sort of entertaiment.

My first journal

About 6 months ago I first became interested in the concept of the second brain (zettelkasten) and journaling. I watched some videos and tried to set up my first Obsidian Vault, where I just write about all the things that are on my mind, especially reflecting on most of the media I consume. For my daily life, I bought a physical bullet journal to keep track of my habits and tasks. It is also great for jotting down quick thoughts and notes, so I carry it with me almost all the time.

Side Quest: Time Trackers

I love software that tracks the usage of digital devices. But for the longest time there was no good option that met my needs, and believe me I've tried them all.

This frustrated me so much that I even started building my own (TimeSense), which made it to alpha. Anyways, I recently learned about Rize, which solves all the problems the other apps had and is almost perfect. Pernsonally I think it's very expensive but it does a very good job.

My google calendar starts to grow

This is what my rize dashboard looks like right now. Guess what, I think it's barely visible, but there is a native integration for my Google calendar. So it would be very nice to see what you were working on when reevaluting the day. So I added this information in my calendar and boom my calendar started to look like this.

So yes, I seem to have become the guy that I used to laugh at, but for the one week I used this new way of tracking my day, I was significantly more productive. The only thing is, that I am wondering if it will last.

Conclusion

This new way of keeping track is rather more expensive than my journal and I wonder if this productivity boost will last. But if it does, I will be very happy ro have taken this step towards a better life.

Furthermore, my old way of tracking might be outdated and especially too much to maintain as I would write down a task in my journal and then add it to reclaim to get a date recommendation. This is so redundant! So I probably need to refelct on my way of progressing further more because all of this problem is for nothing if it takes me more time than just executing my tasks.