144: How the ABC Method of Productivity Can Help You Manage Unstructured Time

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Welcome back, everyone. This is Grad School Femtoring, the podcast, and I'm your host Dra. Yvette. Today I have a solo episode for you, all about the ABC method of productivity. Some people call this the ABC method of time management. I think it goes hand in hand. It's about time management and about productivity. I decided to bring it up this time, because it's a topic that came up in one of my coaching sessions recently. I was having a meeting with the client, and we were trying to discuss how to strategize around structuring their time and their workload, during a time when there's a lot of flexibility and unstructured time. This is actually coming up for some of you as you are in your summer term. You might have the summer to work on a research project Or for some folks, they might be on a fellowship and so they have more unstructured time. It might be coming up for you if you are a remote employee, and there's not someone there expecting you to show up, clock in and clock out at a certain hour, or if you're a contract worker.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If you have any type of flexibility in how you do your work and structure your time, then this conversation is going to be helpful for you. I was first introduced to the ABC method of time management- maybe early grad school, it might have been early grad school, and possibly undergrad. Iran into an article which no longer exists. I tried to find it and I couldn't find it. In fact, I had saved the URL to that article and I went back to it, and it's no longer there. I don't know what happened to that article but it no longer exists on the internet. I should have saved it as a PDF. But in any case, I was looking up other sources and articles on this concept of the ABC method of time management, or ABC method of productivity. Most of the ones I came across were referring to ABC not exactly in the same way as I refer to it.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let me explain what I mean. In the world of productivity, time management, project management, and management in general, helping people to get their work done, they refer to ABC as labeling your task based on what is high priority, not so high priority and low priority. So high importance, less important, and least important. That means that when you have your task list, your To Do list, things you have to get done, you label them as an A task, a B task and a C task. And ideally, you're focusing more on the A and B tasks. A tasks because they're probably the most important based on urgency. There might be an upcoming deadline, or most important in terms of helping you to reach your major goals. So A task could be again, something that's due this week coming up. You have to do it, otherwise, you'll miss a deadline. Or it could be I need to prioritize this, because if I don't do this over an extended period of time, I'm not going to meet my long term goals. So A tasks first, then B tasks and C tasks.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Now, when I refer to the ABC method of productivity, I like to incorporate my energy levels. I like to incorporate my body and the way that I do things. Why? Because I think it's important to align the work that we do with our capacity to do that work. What do I mean by that? I mean that some of us are morning people. Some of us are afternoon people. Some of us are evening people. Some of us can function on five hours of sleep. Some of us can function on seven hours of sleep. Some of us can function on ten hours of sleep. Some of us have eight hours of day to get our work done. Some of us have five hours a day to get work done. Some of us have three hours a day to get work done. And it's all based off our bodies, our capacity levels, and how we're feeling. Not every single day is the same. Whether you like it or not, there will be times that you're feeling great and there will be times that you might be sick and there will be times items that other things come up. If you listen to your body, and when you work best, and under what settings you work best, and you align your tasks accordingly, there's a much higher chance that you will not be as stressed out, and you will increase the chances that you're going to meet deadlines on time and that you're going to do so without, again, sacrificing your time, sacrificing your energy level, sacrificing your health.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So for me, ABC refers to A time, B time and C time. A time means the time that you know you have the most energy, the most focus. You're feeling great, and you're able to take on more difficult, daunting or important tasks. B time refers to a time when you still have some energy, but it's less energy than your A time. So you're starting to lose a little bit of focus and a little bit of energy. C time is when you have the least amount of energy. This is when you start to get tired and kind of ready to wind down and wrap up your workday.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What I recommend is, rather than what other people are saying about, start out with your A task- yes, that's great. But even within your A tasks, there might be sub tasks within your A tasks that are more difficult and easier, more straightforward. So if you feel like you're low energy, you feel like maybe you're not a morning person, the morning is your C time. The afternoon is your A time. The evening is your B time. You know that you are not going to do great work in the morning, so maybe if it's your C time, then you're working on a research project, you start to find sources or do some formatting. Just things that don't take up a lot of energy for you to do, you can work on that. The afternoon comes up, you start to pick up your energy. You feel a little better. That's when you can tackle the writing, or the researching, or the reading. Anything that takes up a lot of mental energy- and physical energy too- go ahead and do that then. Then in the evening, again, should you choose to work all the way through, you can start to do the B tasks, which could be anything. Again, it's up to you to decide what tasks are A tasks, very important, B tasks, not as important, C tasks, the least important.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Basically, what I'm telling you is to listen to your body. Lean into the thing that your body's already kind of signaling to you. A lot of people tell me that they tried to be morning people. They get up early, and try to start their day, and then they might sleep in or they might get started with their day and find themselves procrastinating or they take too long with their morning routine, or they're just dreading getting started. They're struggling for some reason. Then I say, actually why not- if you know you do better work in the afternoon or in the evening, why not lean into that? Why not allow yourself to sleep in?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

If you have unstructured time, you're in control of your schedule, who's to say that you have to start at 8 or 9am? Also who's to say that you have to work eight hours a day, every day? You might be able to still get your work done in less time. Or maybe you might have days that you work less, and some days that you work more, and you try to balance it out based on off your energy levels. I actually don't believe in a nine to five, in terms of following it strictly as a means of getting work done. Why? Because the nine to five actually mirrors testosterone levels. For those of us that have uteruses, the nine to five schedule actually doesn't quite mirror the way that our bodies function and the way that our energy levels fluctuate throughout the month. Some days you might feel great and you might be able to accomplish a lot, and some days you might not feel so great, and you might not be as productive, as efficient, as focused.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

So the point of today's episode is for you to start to make observations, and start to reflect on how you schedule your time and how you do your work. When you have your to do list, do you just randomly work on things based off what you remember, based on what you see on your post it, or on your notepad? Or do you actually prioritize them based off urgency and importance? And are you working on those things when you're feeling your best? I understand there may be cases that no matter what, you can't do this, that no matter what, you have to meet a deadline. You have to work during times that you're not feeling so great, or during your least focused time or whatnot. Or maybe you have a nine to five job, and you know you have to show up at a certain hour, even though you wish you didn't have to show up that early.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You can still work with this concept even under those conditions. Why? Because you get to decide what tasks you work on when you get your day started. You get to kind of figure out how it is that you're feeling, and start to notice patterns so that you can identify when you work your best, when you do your best work. Then the more you align that- you align, again, high importance, high urgency tasks, with when you're feeling your best, the more efficient you might be. Then you might realize actually, you have a little bit more time than you thought.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That is why I'm a big fan of the ABC method of time management. If you don't want to bother with tools, if you don't want to bother with software, or you don't want to learn technology to help you with organizing your time and your tasks, you don't have to. But you can do this. You can make a list of all the things that you have to get done. You can label them A, B, and C. Then you can ask yourself and make observations- when do I feel the most alert, the most focused, do I have the most energy? And then see what happens when you align your A tasks with your A time.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let me know. Try it out. Let me know what you think, let me know how it goes. I'll be very curious to hear how helpful this was for you, because I know that it has been helpful for me. Odds are, it might be helpful for a few of you too. Alright y'all, that's it for this week. I hope y'all have a good rest of your week.