How to Stay Productive When You Have a Chaotic Schedule

Huge thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this episode!

Sure, all those internet gurus with their 15-hour morning routines and perfectly tailored schedules find it easy to stay productive... but what about you. How can you do the same when your boss schedules you to work at completely random hours of the day and your calendar looks like an M.C. Escher painting?

Today, I'll share some tips that have helped me deal with inconsistent, chaotic schedules.

Get my book "10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades" FREE:

Follow Me:

Subscribe to My Channel:

CIG Merch:

My Video Gear:

[agnesmurr]

I get very sleepy at 8 or 9 p.m. Then, if I don't get to bed right away, I remain sleepless till 2 a.m. Nightmare.

[ca]

Thomas Frank really knows how to time his video postings.

[hazeldecker]

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you addressing shift work! No one ever seems to remember that that's even a thing. I've done it off and on for 20 years, and I get so tired of every productivity list or sleep tips telling me I have to be in bed by 10pm!

[joels]

I did not learn that in 9th grade biology... MItoChondRiA Is ThE PoWer HoUSe oF thE CeLL

[gracehailey]

I literally came onto this channel to see how I could solve this very problem and he just uploaded this. The universe must be speaking to me.

[lenilav]

I can sleep always everywhere. I can sleep 12 hours in total or 4 hours + 4 hours...or 6 hours + 2 hours nap. My sleeping game is strong.

[mollerbt]

You know what else helps? FAST FORWARD! I just watched your video at 2x speed and turned a 10 minute video into a 5 minute video, effectively adding 5 minutes back to my day. My normal is 1.5x for most videos. If you have a lot of videos you want to keep up with, either for entertainment or educational reasons, then this is one of the best ways to hack and trim down on time consuming videos. Discussion type videos are intentionally saved for driving. No need to watch a discussion video. Just listen at 1.2x speed. Faster then normal, but slow enough to not have to focus to hard on whats being said allowing for main focus to remain on driving safely. :)

[DrBiohack]

This is quite helpful for me as a mum with babes who's sleep schedule dictates mine! I definitely had to adopt sleeping in blocks for a while and it did work. Honestly you are right, sleep is key to making me feel more able to handle my schedule effectively!!🙌

[yexumaelf]

This was a great video! As a wellness coach I loved the inclusion of information on Melatonin and sleep. One I want to add about polyphasic sleep (because I'm a health nerd =) ) is schedules is that the more frequent your sleep and the less you sleep in large blocks of time the more quickly you go into REM sleep. The body seems to prioritize REM over other sleep stages. I read a study that showed that taking short naps was more effective than sleeping once in a 24 hour period when professional rowers were limited to 3 hours of sleep for a competition. This doesn't mean that we should sleep deprive ourselves but polyphasic sleep (or adding naps into your day) definitely has benefits if you have a tight schedule.

[TheMarkODonohue]

Hey dude, just wanted to say I love how you do the little things well on your channel. E.g. at 7:18 when you're quoting NASA, the white containing box isn't just there, but rather animates around the quote. It looks clean and professional. Hope you have a good one mate.

[maxgarcia]

I'm very lucky to have basically stumbled into my dream job, the only problem is its shift work and I have to work half the week overnights and the other half evening shifts. One half of the week gets used frantically catching up on sleep and trying to squeeze in time for friends and errands, the other half I'm almost never home. Ultimately it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make as a childless, single 20 something. Most people my age are stuck in fields they hate, and I was there for years. I just have to learn to work around this weird schedule

[Terricharmedackles]

This is parenthood in a nutshell. Running a business around three kids means that my time is constantly pulled in different directions and my plans change constantly 🙂

[EggTamago]

Great video! Since going back to school and no longer having a steady 9-5 job, my schedule has been all over the place. Between weird class schedules, working nights driving for Uber on the weekend (and during the day whenever I happen to have time and it's at an hour when it's worth it), and currently doing contract photography work over the summer all over the city, there really isn't much room for consistency. Not exactly fun times for my autistic brain that really, really... REALLY prefers stability and routine.

I can't really say I'm mastering the chaos, but I've personally made an effort to take a step back from my calendar and offload to a task management app (Things 3, in my case). Being able to separate "intent to work on something" from hard deadlines is pretty handy. Rather than rigidly scheduling in "do laundry" or "take out the trash" in my calendar at a specific time, I throw it into Things so I know I need to do it at some point during the day (or tomorrow or whatever) when I have a moment. Put more simply, I'm accepting the chaos and working around it, rather than trying to beat it into submission.

[TheCountessAsuka]

Having worked the night shift at Jurassic Park, you are absolutely correct. The blackout curtains and ear plugs are a must. Especially when your sadistic roommate tapes the T-Rex audio and likes to put the speaker against your door.

[carleewoodard]

Definitely needed this!! As someone who is double majoring in Psychology and American Sign Language, it’s hard for me to maintain my fitness as well as my studies but I manage my time wisely!! Thank you so much!!❤️❤️🤗🤗

[memelordz]

Thanks so much man, I’m entering hs and playing 3 major full time sports and on a strict strength training regiment. This video was super helpful so thanks.

[spellove]

This came as a timely reminder for me to properly plan my schedule as it is week 2 for me in college. My anxiety tends to build up over the semester due to poor time management and poor life choices made. Really appreciate that the points u have mentioned are broken down into simpler and easily adopted habits. :)

[JustRakko]

A Video with this topic really comes to the perfect time. I'm studying abroad, more specifically in Japan and in the past few weeks I'm really struggling with going to bed early, getting some (good) sleep and still be on track with my goals. It's like Thomas can read my mind :O Thank you for everything!

[maulikaryan]

Could you show, what a well filled calendar looks like ?
Should we fill each and every activity like lunch and naps or just important ones ?
Should we delete the past activities or let them be ?

[giovannih]

Getting started in college will be easier with these videos. As always, great work Tom.