Lately things have been really busy for me. There's a lot going on, pulling me in multiple directions with conference speaking, leadership, development, planning, and more. In one sense, it's really cool that I'm finding multiple ways to add value to the world and life itself is exciting and full! In other ways, it's clear I need to come up with some better strategies for managing my time if I want to get everything done.
We're moving to Puerto Rico in the beginning of December which adds another level of urgency to everything. Thankfully my amazing wife 
That's the most exciting thing I've been doing lately, but as with any new startup type activity, there's always more work to be done than time in the day. I'm realizing I need to start time-boxing my activities to ensure I still accomplish all the things I intend to do without letting important things get missed or getting sucked too deeply into one project.
I've been doing the Exchange Transfer report almost every weekend for more than a year and lately it's not getting done on time. Same thing for the monthly Witness Engagement report. I haven't been as engaged with the Steem community as I'd like, though I am looking forward to hanging out at Steemfest3. :) There are seasons for intense focus in one area or another, but there's also a lot of value in finding balance. I'm still keeping up with my witness duties and my backup node is running v0.20.6rc1 to test it out. That said, I want to organize my time a bit more and that's what this post is about.
I started using Trello more for organizing my priorities and todo lists in swim lanes like so:
If I ever get distracted, I can go back to my list and make sure I'm working on the most important things I intend to get done today.
Though I haven't been as consistent with it, I also sometimes use the TopTracker app to keep track of what I'm spending my time on:
One nice feature of the app is how it periodically takes blurry screenshots of your desktop showing what you're doing (with a preview first, so you can reject it if you want). This is a nice way to stay on track in case you get side tracked reading some website instead of working on your current task.
The more I've been thinking about productivity hacks, the more I've also been considering how much I value flow and the free, autonomous nature of doing whatever comes my way in any given moment. Often, the things I find most valuable to work on in a given day or not the things I originally planned on accomplishing, especially as I work with others on a team or within larger communities. As I come up with systems, I also don't want to lock myself into doing less valuable things just to get through my list. As with everything, a balance is needed to stay productive, flexible, and creative.
I recently asked this question on Twitter, and I liked the answers so much, I wanted to share them with you as well:
Here are some of the replies:
The replies got me thinking a little deeper:
Ultimately, focused attention creates amazing results. At the same time, freedom empowers creativity and some of our best work.
How do you keep your responsibilities balanced? How do you stay productive?
Thanks to everyone who left such great replies on Twitter. If you want to follow me there, you can do so at https://twitter.com/lukestokes
Please leave your ideas in the comments below as I'd love to hear them.
