Super5: Organize Your Day. My New App.

They say that time is our most precious asset due to its scarcity; our time is limited. Others argue that it’s not time, but attention. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reflecting on time management, trying to go beyond well-known techniques that work: Pomodoro, timeboxing, and time tracking (e.g., using Toggle).

Elon Musk and 5-Minute Blocks

Across the internet, it’s claimed that Elon Musk divides his day into 5-minute blocks, something he personally debunked on his X account years ago.

I definitely don’t do this 5 minute thing. Need to have long uninterrupted times to think. Can’t be creative otherwise.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018

Before discovering that it was all a myth, I tried the technique for several weeks, and the results were surprising. Unknowingly, I was implementing another productivity technique, Kevin Systrom’s ‘Five-Minute Rule,’ which suggests that if you commit to a task you’ve been postponing for 5 minutes, you’ll end up completing it and avoid procrastination.

How I Did It: Paper and Pen, Excel…

To implement the technique, I first tried with a paper template but quickly realized that carrying a notebook and pen all day doesn’t work. Next, I used an Excel sheet on my phone, and then I discovered something: my attention span increased, and tasks I often procrastinated on were minimized. However, with immersive productive tasks, something surprising happened: after setting an initial interval, my mind, once immersed in the task, completely forgot about the Excel template. Perfect. During a short break, I recorded the time spent on the productive task in my Excel sheet.

The Excel template somewhat worked: it avoided procrastination, increased time dedicated to productive tasks, and somehow rewarded me by recording the time. But I missed something: being aware of the time, the hour, when performing tasks that could lead me to procrastination.

My Own App

So, I decided to create my own application that implemented five-minute intervals and included a large clock displaying hours, minutes, and seconds, to be fully aware of the time. The application exists and is published on the Apple App Store (available for iPhone and iPad).

One of the problems with dividing the day into five-minute intervals is that it can be tedious if not done correctly (e.g., on paper). In Excel, we can copy a cell (interval) to the following cells simply by dragging, and that’s a feature my application implements, along with the ability to drag and drop a cell to copy it elsewhere.

Time Blocking

Time blocking is a technique I personally recommend because it worked for me until one day it stopped due to procrastination and the trauma of seeing several time blocks in the weekly view that you haven’t completed. Does it make sense to have 4 five-minute blocks instead of 1 twenty-minute block? The answer is simple: if it helps you complete the task and doesn’t take more than a few seconds, the answer is a resounding yes.

And this is the big problem: lack of real commitment and procrastination. That’s why, in my app, I implemented another feature: Objectives, with two differentiated sections: daily objectives and long-term objectives. In the daily objectives, there should be at least one objective that helps you achieve one of the long-term objectives.

Parkinson’s Law

According to Parkinson’s Law, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion,” so if we have a lot of time, this task will take longer to complete. By reversing the law, if we have less time to complete it, we shorten the deadline, and the task will be completed in less time. Elon Musk is famous for applying calendars with “unrealistic” deadlines for many of his projects, which are often not met but frequently manage to reduce development time incredibly.

Time, Life, Attention

I’m not a fanatic of philosophy, but the philosopher I’ve connected with the most is Seneca. Here are some of his quotes that have inspired me:

1. “It’s not that we have little time, but that we waste a lot.”

2. “The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes today.”

Indirectly, Seneca is referring not only to time but also to the attention we consciously dedicate to things, which is limited and often spent on things that aren’t worthwhile.

Daily attention is limited, and no application can expand it, but it can redirect it. In this way, you can regain control of your own attention in a world where it’s often hijacked by technology. In this case, it would be checkmate to technology for our own benefit.

Super5: Organize Your Life

The sense of urgency from Parkinson’s Law is also present in my application and can be felt in the “Live” tab, where you can see each block being consumed. Just like the sense of time and the limitation of attention, every time I use the app, it serves as a reminder.

The best approach is for each person to try different techniques and see which one works best for them. Therefore, if you have an iPhone, I invite you to try my application and decide for yourself. I’m in the launch phase, so right now you can get it for free with all functionalities, without subscriptions. If you like it, please give it 5 stars on the App Store:

Super5: Organize Your Day

Super5: Organize your day

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