How do you know if a task needs immersive or process time? In principle, any task that requires you to be “hands-on” is immersive; any task that you can briefly start or maintain and then be “hands-off” is process. In practice, however, the difference may not be so easy to discern. How brief is that “briefly” I mention above? For me, it usually tak

Perhaps you will always have certain tasks that are particularly hard to nail down. But what you can do, even in those cases, is determine what the length of a “minimum session” might be. Maybe it’s not worth working on a logo concept if you can’t set aside at least an hour. Great. An hour becomes your baseline for that particular task.

“A to-do list is useful as a collection tool,” writes author Peter Bregman. “Our calendars, on the other hand, make the perfect tool to guide our daily accomplishments. Because our calendars are finite; there are only a certain number of hours in a day.”

For the processes that they haven’t internalized, they use an outboard memory device called a checklist. Chefs know that success is doing a job right once and then repeating it.

The really good stuff happens in immersive time, especially if you are in one of the creative professions. Immersive time is time to think, time to write, time to experiment, time to explore. But process time—because much of it happens with your “hands off”—actually produces more results in some cases.

Planning is prime—working clean with time What to know. Planning is first thought, not afterthought. Right planning promotes right action, saves time, and unlocks opportunity. Planning entails the scheduling of tasks, which means being honest with time, respecting both your abilities and limitations. What to do. Commit to being honest with time. Pl

Try this thought exercise for 1 day’s work, marking each task on your daily list with one of the four categories listed in the delivery matrix above, and then choosing which actions to deliver based on what yields the best combination of practical and political benefit.

Immersive time. These blocks of time you reserve for deep, focused work. For example, I take a lot of meetings between Monday and Wednesday. But Thursdays and Fridays I can usually reserve for deeper work—thinking, writing, reading, and brainstorming. Many of your Frontburners will go inside these Routines. The more you honor your immersive time, t

Your checklist should reflect only the factors you can control. A checklist measures your actions, not that of others. A checklist measures meticulous execution, not perfection. The items on your checklist should: Be actionable Measure quantity or quality Fit on one page