Full Proof Strategy from “Make Time” by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky
Making time isn’t about finding more hours in the day. It’s about making the most of the hours we already have.
#1: Concepts
In 21st century, 2 very powerful forces compete for every minute of our time
- BUSY BANDWAGON: refers to the idea that being busy has become a cultural badge of honor, and that many people feel pressure to constantly fill their schedules with work, social events, and other commitments. This pressure to be busy can lead to a sense of overwhelm and can make it difficult to prioritize and focus on what truly matters.
- INFINITY POOL: used to describe the endless stream of content and distractions available on our phones and computers. With social media, email, and other apps at our fingertips, we can easily get sucked into an infinite loop of scrolling and clicking, which can be a major time drain and can make it difficult to stay focused on our priorities.
This always-available, always-new entertainment is your reward for the exhaustion of constant busyness.
While Busy Bandwagon defaults to endless tasks, the Infinity pools default to endless distraction. With an avg person spending 4+ hours a day on their smartphone and another 4+ hours watching TV shows, DISTRACTION is quite literally a full-time job.
MAKE TIME is just 4 Steps, Repeated Every Day

The first step is choosing a single highlight to prioritize in your day.
Next, you’ll employ specific tactics to stay laser focussed on that highlight.
Throughout the day, you’ll build energy so you can stay in control of your time and attention.
Finally, you’ll reflect on the day with a few simple notes.
#2: HIGHLIGHT
“What was the highlight of your day?”
What do you want your answer to be? When you look back on your day, what activity or accomplishment or moment do you want to savour? That’s your HIGHLIGHT.
Your Highlight gives each day a focal point. You create your own reality by choosing what you pay attention to.
Choosing your daily Highlight starts with asking yourself a question:
What do I want to be the highlight of my day?
3 ways to pick your Highlight
Ask yourself any of the below-mentioned questions to fix the highlight of the day.
- Urgency: What is the most pressing thing I have to do today?
- Satisfaction: At the end of the day, which Highlight will bring me the most satisfaction?
- Joy: When I reflect on today, what will bring me the most Joy?
Highlight Tactics: Choose your Highlight
1. Write It Down
- Write your highlight on the evening or morning
- Record it on an app, calendar, notebook, or sticky notes
- Stick it to your laptop, phone, fridge, or desk to create a persistent reminder
2. Groundhog It (or, “Do Yesterday Again”)
- Do yesterday again if it is unfinished or you are creating a habit
- Repeat to build momentum and create a habit
3. Stack Rank Your Life
- Write the 3-10 big things that matter in your life
- Choose the one most important thing
- Now choose 2-5
- Rewrite the list in order of priority
- Draw a circle around number one
- Use this list to help you choose Highlights
4. Batch the Little Stuff
- Use batch processing to get small tasks done in one Highlight session
5. The Might-Do List
- Projects sit on this list until you decide to make them your Highlight and schedule them on your calendar
6. The Burner List
- Divide a sheet of paper into two columns. Left is the front burner and right the back burner
- Write your most important project (just one) in the top left-hand corner. List the to-dos for that project
- Leave the rest of that column empty
- Write your second most important project at the top of the right-hand column. List the related to-dos
- Make a kitchen sink. About halfway down the right-hand column, list any miscellaneous tasks that you need to do but that don’t fit with project 1 or project 2
7. Run a Personal Sprint
- Choose the same Highlight for several days in a row
- Break it up into steps for each day if needed
Make Time for your Highlight: By Scheduling your highlight, blocking your calendar, Prioritizing and say no to other stuff and by becoming a morning person.
#3: LASER
When you’re in Laser mode, your attention is focused on the present like a laser beam shining on a target. You’re in the flow, fully engaged, and immersed in the moment.
The key to getting into Laser mode and focusing on your Highlight is to create barriers to distraction.
The best way to defeat distraction is to make it harder to react.
When distraction is hard to access, you don’t have to worry about willpower.
Laser Tactics:
- Watch Out for Time Craters
- Small distractions that create much larger holes in your day
- Figure out your time craters
- Be the Boss of Your Phone
- Block Distraction Kryptonite: The one especially powerful Infinity Pool (social media, news, games, streaming) you just can’t resist. If it requires a password, log out. If it’s a website, block it. Remove the app, account, or browser from your smartphone if required.
- Turn off almost all notifications. Go into your phone’s settings, find the list of notifications, and turn them off one by one
- Make your home screen blank by moving all the icons to the next screen over
- When you get home, put your phone in a drawer, shelf, or your bag
- Skip the Morning Check-In: Don’t reach for your phone first thing in the morning
- Put a Timer on the Internet: Turn the Internet off. Switch off the Wi-Fi on your laptop and put your phone in airplane mode. Lock yourself out by temporarily blocking the Internet
- Wear Wristwatch: A wristwatch replaces the need to check your phone whenever you want to know the time.
- Slow Your Inbox
- Deal with Email at the End of the Day
- Schedule Email Time. Put email time on your calendar
- Empty Your Inbox Once a Week
- Pretend Messages Are Letters
- Answer messages in batch
- For truly urgent and important things, people will track you down in person or on the phone
- Reset Expectations: Manage the expectations of your colleagues and others. Say: “I’m slow to respond because I need to prioritize some important projects, but if your message is urgent, send me a text.”
- Add the new account to your phone instead of your regular account
- Vacation Off the Grid: Set an “out of office” email response. Example: “I’m on vacation this week, off the grid without access to email, but I’ll reply to your message when I return.”
- Lock Yourself Out: Schedule times to lock yourself out of email with Freedom
- Make TV a “Sometimes Treat”
- Don’t Watch the News: Instead, make a habit of reading the news once per day/week
- Put Your TV in the Corner: Rearrange the furniture so that looking at the television is a bit awkward and inconvenient
- Go à la Carte Instead of All-You-Can-Eat: Cancel streaming subscriptions and instead rent or buy movies and episodes one at a time
- If You Love Something, Set It Free
- Try going cold turkey for a month
- Unplug the TV, put it in the closet, or take it to a storage locker and hide the key
- Find Flow:
- Shut the Door: If you don’t have a room with a door, look for one you can camp out in for a few hours. If you can’t find one, put on headphones—even if you don’t actually put on any music
- Invent a Deadline: Create a deadline that will help you make time for something you want to do. Examples: register for a 5K run or invite your friends over for a homemade pasta dinner before you’ve learned how to make it
- Play a Laser Sound Track
- Use music as your cue for Laser mode. Try Focus Music
- Try playing the same song or album every time you start your Highlight
- Or choose a specific song or album for each type of Highlight
- Set a Visible Timer
- Use a timer to focus on the task at hand (Try Pomodoro technique)
- Start on Paper
- Paper improves focus because you can’t waste time picking the perfect font instead of working on your Highlight
- And paper opens up possibilities because you can do anything at all
- Stay in the Zone:
- Make a “Random Question” List: Instead of reacting to every twitch, write your questions on a piece of paper (How much do wool socks cost on Amazon? Any random idea/doubt in your mind?). Then you can stay in Laser mode, secure in the knowledge that those pressing topics have been captured for future research
- Notice Your Breath: Even a pause that lasts only one breath can bring your attention back to where you want it—on your Highlight
- Be Bored: Boredom gives your mind a chance to wander, and wandering often leads you to interesting places. The next time you are feeling understimulated for a few minutes, just sit there
- Be Stuck: Just be stuck. Stare at the blank screen, or switch to paper, or walk around, but keep your focus on the project at hand
- Take a Day Off: Take real breaks throughout the day. Switch to a joyful Highlight that’ll help you recharge
- Go All In: The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest but wholeheartedness. Seek out moments when you can be passionate about your efforts
#4: ENERGIZE
If you can increase your energy every day, you’ll turn moments that might otherwise be lost to mental and physical fatigue into usable time for your Highlights.
To increase your energy, all you need to do is travel back in time. Going back to basics represents a big opportunity. Because life today is so out of sync with our hunter-gatherer bodies, there’s a huge margin for improvement.
Energize Tactics:
- Keep It Moving:
- Exercise Every Day (but Don’t Be a Hero): The most important benefits of exercise can be attained in just 20 minutes. If you can’t manage 20 minutes every day, get out there for ten. Go small and go every day—or as close to every day as possible
- Inconvenience Yourself: Cook dinner; Take the stairs; Use a suitcase without wheels
- Squeeze in a Super Short Workout:
- You can finish a proper workout in as little as 5 or 10 minutes
- Examples: the 7 Minute Workout or the 3×3 workout
- 3×3 Workout: 3x times a week, complete the following 3 steps: as many push-ups as possible in one set (rest 1 min); as many squats as possible in one set (rest 1 min); as many lifts (pull-ups, curls, whatever) as possible in one set (rest 1 min)
- Eat Real Food:
- Eat like Hunter-Gatherer:
- Real food: non-processed ingredients such as plants, nuts, fish, and meat
- Quick and easy snack: almonds, walnuts, fruit, and peanut butter
- Eat food not too much, mostly plants.
- Central Park Your Plate: Put the salad on your plate first and then add everything else around it
- Stay Hungry:
- Try Intermittent fasting
- How to fit fasting into normal life: eat an early dinner, then skip breakfast and have a big lunch as your next meal
- Go on the Dark Chocolate Plan: Allow yourself to have dessert as long as it’s dark chocolate
- Eat like Hunter-Gatherer:
- Optimize Caffeine:
- Wake Up Before You Caffeinate:
- In the morning, your body naturally produces lots of cortisol, a hormone that helps you wake up
- When cortisol is high, caffeine doesn’t do much for you
- For ideal morning energy, experiment with having your first cup of coffee at 9:30 a.m
- Caffeinate Before You Crash: Have coffee 30 minutes the period when your energy regularly dips.
- Take a Caffeine Nap: Wait till you get tired, drink some caffeine, then immediately take a 15-minute nap
- Maintain Altitude with Green Tea: Replace high doses of caffeine (such as a giant cup of brewed coffee) with more frequent low doses, such as green tea
- Time your caffeine intake so that you’re wired right when you start your Highlight
- Learn Your Last Call:
- The half-life of caffeine is five to six hours
- Experiment with cutting yourself off earlier and earlier and note if and when it becomes easier to fall asleep
- Disconnect Sugar
- Wake Up Before You Caffeinate:
- Go Off the Grid
- Get Woodsy
- Exposure to nature can make you measurably calmer and sharper
- Spend a few minutes in a park and take note of what it does for your mental energy
- If you can’t get to the park, step outside for a breath of fresh air
- Trick Yourself into Meditating
- Meditation is like exercise for your brain
- To get started, use a guided meditation app
- Try guided meditation while riding the bus, lying down, walking, running, or even eating
- Leave Your Headphones at Home
- If you put on headphones every time you work, walk, exercise, or commute, your brain never gets any quiet
- An occasional headphone vacation for a day or an hour is an easy way to put some quiet in your day and give your brain a moment to recharge
- Take Real Breaks
- Take breaks without screens
- Gaze out the window (it’s good for your eyes)
- Go for a walk (it’s good for your mind and body)
- Grab a snack (it’s good for your energy if you’re hungry)
- Talk to someone (it’s usually good for your mood )
- Get Woodsy
- Make It Personal
- Spend Time with Your Tribe
- Spend time having real conversations (with your voice)
- Spending time with interesting, high-energy people is one of the best—and most enjoyable—ways to recharge your battery
- Eat Without Screens
- You’re less likely to mindlessly shovel unhealthy food in your mouth
- More likely to have an energizing face-to-face conversation with another human
- You’re creating space in your day to give your brain a rest from its constant busyness
- Spend Time with Your Tribe
- Sleep in a Cave
- Make Your Bedroom a Bed Room
- Remove all electronic devices to transform your bedroom into a true sanctuary for sleep
- You can read in bed, but paper books or magazines are best
- A Kindle is okay if you turn off the bright white backlight
- Fake the Sunset
- Starting when you eat dinner or a few hours before your ideal bedtime, turn down the lights in your home. Instead, use dim table or side lamps
- Turn on your phone, computer, or TV’s “night mode”
- Use a simple sleep mask over your eyes
- Use an automatic “dawn simulator” alarm clock
- Don’t Jet-Lag Yourself
- Sleeping late on weekends is basically like giving yourself jet lag
- Resist the temptation to oversleep and try to stick as closely as possible to your regular schedule
- Keep that alarm set to the same time every day whether it’s a weekday, weekend, or holiday
- Make Your Bedroom a Bed Room
#5: REFLECT
Every day, reflect on whether you made time for your Highlight and how well you were able to focus on it. You’ll note how much energy you had. You’ll review the tactics you used, jot down some observations on what worked and what didn’t, and make a plan for which tactics you’ll try tomorrow.
- Observe what’s going on
- Guess why things are happening the way they are
- Experiment to test your hypothesis
- Measure the results and decide whether you were right
Fine-tune your days with the Scientific Method:
Take notes to track your results (template here).
If you fail at first, don’t be hard on yourself. Give it time and use the notes to track and tweak your approach.
You can check out the book here
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