Optimize Personal Productivity

Imported from heyharmony/skills (skills/optimize-personal-productivity/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add heyharmony/skills --skill optimize-personal-productivity. Copyright stays with the author.

Purpose

Productivity isn't about doing more things; it's about doing the right things and having the energy to do them well. Most people run on a hamster wheel of reactive meetings, emails, and requests, mistaking activity for progress. A sustainable productivity system starts with brutal clarity about what matters (your values and goals), then designs your calendar to reflect those priorities. Your calendar reveals the truth: what you're actually spending time on, not what you say you care about. This skill teaches you to align your time with your values, protect the conditions you need for deep work, and eliminate low-value commitments before they consume you.

When to Use

• You feel busy but unproductive: Your calendar is full but nothing important ships. Time audit time to see where real work happens.
• You're considering a promotion or new role: Before you accept, audit the calendar you'll inherit. Does it match your values? Can you protect deep work?
• You're onboarding to a new organization: The first month sets habits that stick for years. Design your calendar intentionally from day one.
• Burnout risk is rising: Exhaustion is often a symptom of misaligned time use, not workload. Audit your week and cut low-value commitments.
• You want to learn a new skill or lead a major initiative: You can't learn or lead without maker time. Protect it deliberately.
• Context switching is destroying focus: If you're jumping between 6 projects daily, batching and time-boxing can reclaim 10+ hours per week.
• You're saying yes to everything and meaning it: The ability to say no is a finite resource. It requires a system to track and prioritize.

Instructions

1. Conduct a calendar audit and identify your actual time allocation

   • Export your calendar from the last 8 weeks
   • Categorize every meeting and block: deep work, meetings, email/admin, 1-on-1s, all-hands, training, personal
   • Calculate percentage of time in each category (aim for: 40%+ deep work, 20% meetings, 10% 1-on-1s, 10% email, 5% personal)
   • Identify fragmentation: how many separate calendar blocks per day? Ideal is 3-4. More than 6 is context-switching hell.
   • Compare time spent to stated priorities: if you say "shipping is the priority" but spend 30% of time in alignment meetings, that's the problem
   • Look for time-waster meetings: recurring meetings nobody needs, meetings that could be async, meetings without decisions or owners
   • Identify peak energy hours: when do you do your best thinking? Protect those hours for deep work, not reactive work

2. Define your non-negotiable deep work time and defend it ruthlessly

   • Identify the type of work that produces your highest value: shipping, building strategy, creating, writing, code review, customer research
   • Calculate the minimum hours per week you need to do this work well (typically 20-30 hours for IC contributor, 10-15 for manager)
   • Block this time on your calendar: Tuesday-Thursday 9am-12pm is deep work. Make it recurring. Don't negotiate it.
   • Communicate the blocks to your team: "I'm in deep work until noon. If it's urgent, Slack me. Otherwise, I'll respond after lunch."
   • Protect the time: decline meetings that conflict. Redirect people to async channels. You're not being unhelpful; you're being responsible.
   • Start with 2 blocks per week, then expand as stakeholders adjust

3. Create an external task capture system to reduce mental burden

   • Your brain is terrible at remembering tasks. Every task you try to keep in your head is cognitive load that steals focus
   • Use a tool (Linear, Notion, Asana, Apple Notes, whatever you'll actually use) to capture every commitment and request
   • When someone asks you to do something: "I'll capture that and review it in my weekly planning session." This buys you time and takes the pressure off immediate decision-making
   • Weekly, review all captured tasks and decide: do I do this? Delegate? Decline? Postpone?
   • The goal is to move decisions out of the moment (when you're tired and say yes to everything) to a planned moment (weekly review, when you're clear-headed)
   • Don't use email as your to-do list. Don't use Slack as your to-do list. Use one system

4. Batch similar tasks and protect maker time

   • Identify your highest-context-switching activities: email, Slack, approvals, feedback, 1-on-1s
   • Batch them into specific time windows: email at 10am and 3pm (not continuously). Slack office hours 4-5pm. Feedback on Fridays.
   • Set expectations: "I read and respond to email twice daily, not in real-time." This trains people to think before they reach out.
   • Time-box each batch: 30 minutes for email, 30 minutes for Slack. When time is up, you stop, even if there's more.
   • Morning is sacred: no email or Slack before 10am. Use the first 2 hours for deep work when your mind is fresh.
   • Protect Friday afternoons for retro and planning, not context switching

5. Conduct a weekly review ritual and plan the next week

   • Sunday evening or Friday afternoon: 30 minutes to review and plan
   • Review last week: what did I accomplish? What surprised me? Where did I spend time that didn't matter?
   • Look ahead: what's happening next week? What's the highest-value work? What meetings are on my calendar?
   • Make explicit decisions: which deep work blocks am I defending? Which low-value meetings should I decline or delegate?
   • Review your capture system: what new commitments came in? Which are you actually doing?
   • Identify tradeoffs: if I commit to this big project, what am I dropping? Who needs to know?
   • Write down 3 wins from the past week (however small) and 3 priorities for the next week

6. Say no by default and make tradeoffs explicit

   • Every yes to one thing is a no to something else. Clarify what you're dropping.
   • When someone asks you to take on something: "That sounds valuable. What would I deprioritize to make space?" Forces them to make the choice real.
   • Distinguish between high-value asks and low-value asks: high-value gets a thoughtful yes or a clear no. Low-value gets a quick no.
   • Create a standard response: "I don't have capacity for that right now. Here's what I'm focused on. Can we revisit in [date]?" This keeps relationships intact while saying no.
   • Track your capacity: if you've committed to 40 hours of work this week, you're full. New asks get turned down or need trade-offs

7. Delegate or eliminate before optimizing

   • Don't optimize a task that shouldn't exist
   • First pass: eliminate (does this task actually matter? Who benefits from it? If nobody, kill it)
   • Second pass: delegate (do I have to do this, or can someone else? Do they have capacity?)
   • Third pass: optimize (only after eliminating and delegating, do you make the remaining tasks more efficient)
   • Example: you spend 5 hours per week in status update meetings. First, is this meeting necessary? If yes, can someone else run it? If no, can you do it async?

Output Format

=== PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY AUDIT ===

CALENDAR AUDIT RESULTS
Time period reviewed: [Dates]
Total calendar blocks: [Number]
Average blocks per day: [Number] (Target: 3-4. Over 6 is fragmented)

Time allocation:
- Deep work: [X%] (Target: 40%+)
- Meetings: [X%] (Target: 20%)
- 1-on-1s: [X%] (Target: 10%)
- Email/admin: [X%] (Target: 10%)
- Personal: [X%] (Target: 5%)
- Other: [X%]

Peak energy hours: [When do I do my best thinking?]
Time-waster meetings: [Recurring meetings nobody needs or outcomes could be async]

Fragmentation hotspots: [Days/times with most context switching]
Mismatch between stated priorities and actual time: [Where is the gap?]

DEEP WORK DEFINITION
Type of work: [What produces your highest value?]
Minimum hours per week: [What's required?]
Current hours per week: [What's reality?]
Gap: [How much deep work time are you missing?]

DEEP WORK PROTECTION PLAN
Protected blocks: [When/how often?] (Start with 2 per week, expand)
Communication to team: [What's the message?]
Metrics: [How will you know if this is working? Track "deep work hours" weekly]

EXTERNAL TASK CAPTURE SYSTEM
Tool used: [What tool will you use for task capture?]
Capture frequency: [When do you add tasks? In-the-moment or batched?]
Review frequency: [Weekly? Bi-weekly?]
Decision process: [Do it? Delegate? Decline? Postpone?]

BATCHING STRATEGY
Context-switching activities: [Which activities fragment your day?]
Batching windows:
- [Activity]: [Time window] (e.g., Email: 10am and 3pm)
- [Activity]: [Time window]
Time-box duration: [How long per batch?]

Sacred time: [When is deep work protected from batching? E.g., 9am-11am, no email/Slack]

WEEKLY REVIEW RITUAL
Day/time: [When do you review and plan?]
Duration: [30 minutes typical]
Review template:
- What did I accomplish last week?
- Where did I spend time that didn't matter?
- What's happening next week?
- What are my 3 priorities?
- Which deep work blocks am I defending?
- Which meetings should I decline/delegate?
- What am I dropping if I commit to new asks?

ELIMINATION AND DELEGATION
Task/meeting: [What?] Eliminate or delegate? [Why?]
Owner if delegated: [Who?]

CAPACITY STATEMENT
Hours available per week: [40, 50, 60?]
Hours committed to high-value work: [Deep work + 1-on-1s + essential meetings]
Hours remaining for new asks: [Capacity]

Example

Person: Alex, Engineering Manager at BuildCo (shipping 5 engineers)

=== PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY AUDIT ===

CALENDAR AUDIT RESULTS
Time period reviewed: Last 8 weeks (Jan-Feb 2026)
Total calendar blocks: 347 blocks over 8 weeks
Average blocks per day: 8.7 (FRAGMENTED. Target is 3-4)

Time allocation (actual):
- Deep work (design, code review, strategy): 18%
- Meetings (1-on-1s, standups, syncs, all-hands): 52%
- Email/Slack/admin: 20%
- Personal: 5%
- Unscheduled/buffer: 5%

Gap from target: Deep work is 22% below target. Meetings are 32% above target.

Peak energy hours: 8am-10am (before email and meetings). 9pm-11pm (after kids sleep, but unsustainable)

Time-waster meetings:
- Daily standup (30 min, 5x per week): Low value, team updates could be async
- Engineering sync (1 hour, 2x per week): Recurring, often rescheduled, decisions are rehashed in 1-on-1s
- Product sync (1 hour, 1x per week): Necessary, but could be 30 minutes

Fragmentation hotspots:
- Monday: 9 calendar blocks. Meetings back-to-back 10am-4pm. Zero deep work time.
- Wednesday-Thursday: Slightly better, but still 5-6 blocks per day
- Friday: Better (retro, planning, no product sync), but still fragmented

Critical mismatch: Alex says "shipping and team growth are priorities," but spends 52% of time in meetings and only 18% doing deep work or unblocking the team.

DEEP WORK DEFINITION
Type of work: Code review (unblocking engineers), system design (bigger projects), writing specs/RFCs, 1-on-1 career coaching (this IS deep work for manager)
Minimum hours per week: 12-15 hours for effective IC work + 8-10 hours for 1-on-1s (20-25 hours total)
Current hours per week: Code review ~5 hours (rushed, shallow). Design ~0 hours. Specs/RFCs ~0 hours. 1-on-1s ~7 hours (back-to-back, no time for prep)
Gap: Alex is missing 15-18 hours of effective deep work per week

DEEP WORK PROTECTION PLAN
Protected blocks:
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays 9am-12pm: Code review and design time (no meetings). Recurring, defended block.
- Fridays 9am-10am: 1-on-1 prep and reflection (look at previous week's 1-on-1 notes, identify coaching points)
- Total: 8 hours per week of protected deep work (half what's needed, but starting point)

Communication to team: "I'm in deep work Tuesday-Thursday mornings. This is when I do code review and design. If it's urgent, post in #urgent and I'll check at 12pm. Otherwise, I'll get to it during my work block."

Metrics: Track "actual deep work hours" on Friday in weekly review. Goal is to hit 8 hours consistently, then expand to 12-15 in Q2.

EXTERNAL TASK CAPTURE SYSTEM
Tool used: Linear (already using for team tickets; Alex will add personal task board called "Alex backlog")
Capture frequency: In-the-moment when engineers ask for design review or code review. Also, during 1-on-1s when someone flags a problem, Alex captures it.
Review frequency: Weekly, Friday afternoon (30 min)
Decision process:
- Code review requests: prioritize by blocker status (is this blocking shipping?) and engineer impact
- Design/architecture questions: slot into next available Tuesday-Wednesday morning
- New project asks or scope changes: discuss in 1-on-1 or team sync, add to backlog if low priority, refuse with tradeoff conversation if disruptive

BATCHING STRATEGY
Context-switching activities: Email, Slack, spontaneous questions, ad-hoc requests

Batching windows:
- Email: 10am and 3pm (batch check, 15 min each)
- Slack: 12pm (lunch time check, 15 min) and 4:30pm (end of day, 15 min)
- Spontaneous questions: Open door hours 4:30-5pm (after deep work is done, before end of day)

Sacred time: 8am-9am, no email/Slack/meetings. Alex reviews standing priorities and starts with 30 minutes of quiet focus before meetings.

WEEKLY REVIEW RITUAL
Day/time: Friday 4pm-4:30pm (before leaving work)
Duration: 30 minutes

Review template:
- What did I accomplish? (shipped what? Unblocked whom? Coached whom?)
  Example: "Code reviewed 8 PRs (only 1 was truly high-quality, others were rushed). Ran 5 solid 1-on-1s. Designed system for new feature."
- Where did I spend time that didn't matter? (meetings I should have declined, email spirals, etc.)
  Example: "Wednesday engineering sync was rescheduled and unclear. Should make async."
- What's happening next week? (3-5 major events or milestones)
- What are my 3 priorities?
  Example: "1. Code review and unblock frontend team. 2. Prepare for skip-level 1-on-1s. 3. Spec the new payment integration."
- Which deep work blocks am I defending? (explicitly decide which days/times are sacred)
  Example: "Defending Tuesday-Thursday 9am-12pm for code review and design. Open door hours 4:30-5pm."
- Which meetings should I decline/delegate?
  Example: "Decline Wednesday engineering sync (making async instead). Delegate all-hands note-taking to intern."
- What am I dropping if I commit to new asks?
  Example: "If product asks for design review on new onboarding flow, I'm dropping Friday architecture review. Who takes that?"

ELIMINATION AND DELEGATION
Task: Daily standup (30 min, 5x/week = 2.5 hours/week)
Decision: Make async. Engineers post update in Slack #standup channel, async questions answered in thread.
Owner: Engineer lead will manage standup thread
Savings: 2.5 hours/week

Task: Engineering sync recap and notes
Decision: Delegate to rotating engineer intern (good experience, low stakes)
Owner: Intern
Savings: 1 hour/week

Task: Weekly all-hands preparation
Decision: Decline attending (manager lead can present team update, Alex listens asynchronously)
Owner: Engineering lead
Savings: 1.5 hours/week (includes prep)

Task: Email triage
Decision: Not eliminated, but batched (reduce from "continuous" to "2x daily")
Owner: Alex (discipline required)
Savings: 3-4 hours/week

CAPACITY STATEMENT
Hours available per week: 40 (5 days, 8 hours/day)
Hours committed to high-value work:
- 1-on-1s (5 x 1 hour, no overlaps): 5 hours
- Code review/design (protected blocks): 8 hours
- Essential meetings (product sync, 2x weekly eng sync, retro): 4 hours
- Subtotal: 17 hours

Hours remaining for new asks: 23 hours (includes admin, email, spontaneous, buffer)

Decision rule: Alex can take on ~10-12 hours/week of new projects or scope. Beyond that, she needs to drop something.

COMMITMENT DECISION RULE
When Alex gets a new ask, she asks:
"I have 10-12 hours of capacity this week. If I do this, what am I dropping? Am I okay with that trade-off?"
Example: "You're asking me to design the payment integration (estimate 8 hours). I can do it, but I'm dropping code review feedback on the front-end refactor. Is that the right trade-off?" This forces the product manager or stakeholder to choose, not just the manager.

Edge Cases

• Calendar is already optimized but you still feel unproductive: The problem might be task selection (saying yes to low-impact work) or energy management (you're too tired for deep work), not time fragmentation.

• Your role requires high-touch meetings: Some roles (sales, customer success, executive) are meeting-heavy by nature. Instead of trying to have 40% deep work, aim for 20% and protect it fiercely. The goal is alignment, not a one-size-fits-all percentage.

• Async work is hard in your culture: Some orgs have synchronous, meetings-heavy cultures. You might not be able to shift this alone. Either fight for cultural change or optimize within the constraints you have.

• You feel more productive with context-switching: Some people actually thrive on variety and get bored with long focus blocks. Don't force yourself into a system that drains you. Experiment; maybe you need 2-hour blocks instead of 4-hour blocks.

• Deep work is blocked by other people's calendar: If your 1-on-1 or code review requester doesn't respect your protected time, the system breaks. You need explicit team support and leadership backing to defend time.

• Weekly review becomes another obligation: If the review ritual feels like busywork, skip it. Do a monthly review instead. The goal is reflection and intentionality, not a new form of time-stealing.