I don’t really know if this is going to last, but for the last two months I feel like I’m actually getting things done. I’m being constant with my daily and weekly review routines, I go through my daily tasks and leave only very few undone, I’m keeping good track of my many open projects at work.

This is, I think, thanks to a hard rule I imposed myself back in January. I decided to divide the day in two distinct halves: mornings are for doing things (I call it action mode); afternoons are for planning and cleaning up (management mode).

In the mornings, I keep my email client open, because I need to stay on top of any urgent message. But, here’s another hard and very effective rule: I only process or answer the email messages that are relevant to the tasks I am working on in that particular morning. The rest of the messages, urging as they may be, I completely ignore and leave for the afternoon.

In between action and management modes, mid-day, I take a break. Either for lunch or, two days a week, the gym.

In the evenings, my wife and I have started going out for a drink or a quick dinner. It’s our moment.

Days are long still. I woke up at 5:15 and I’m finishing my review and plan for tomorrow at midnight. So there’s still a lot to do for my goal of working better and working less. But I think I found a consistent routine that’s helping me stay on top of my game and it feels good.