The Anatomy of Time: How to Manage an Excess of Tasks, Decisions, and Distractions

Today's post marks the start of my new project: a blog dedicated to time management. It's my favorite topic, and I've been searching for a simple, effective system, my “holy grail” in this field, for a long time.

I could start with a different thread, but the search for “the one, perfect” method can be as exhausting as trying to implement it. So I sit down to make a list of tasks resulting from my projects. In theory, everything is prepared as it should be, and yet every week I come back to the same problem: where to start, how to get going on Monday?

I can usually figure out the first task for Monday. On Tuesday, things start to go wrong. I don't know why I can't get into the rhythm of implementation at the beginning of the week. I sit mesmerized over my calendar and don't know how to organize it. I don't have a problem with projects and to-do lists — I know what needs to be done. But when it comes to deciding “what exactly to do today, at what time,” suddenly everything becomes blurred. This is a big challenge for me.

My head is full of ideas, but when it comes time to act, I fail. The day passes, and virtually nothing on my short list of tasks for today is checked off. At the same time, I sometimes wonder how it is possible that despite all this chaos, some projects are moving forward and I am able to complete them.

This experience is not unique — it even has its own names and has been the subject of extensive literature. Simply put, we often face work overload. It can be quantitative, when there are simply more tasks than time, or qualitative, when the tasks are too complicated or beyond our competence. A related phenomenon is task overload, i.e., overload with individual tasks, and project overload — working on too many projects at once. Research suggests that with more than five parallel projects, concentration and productivity decline significantly.

There is also the myth of multitasking in the background. Multitasking sounds efficient, but in practice it comes at a cost: it reduces productivity by up to 40%, increases the number of errors, raises stress levels, and affects the quality of work. When we add to this the daily marathon of choices, decision fatigue comes into play. Since we make tens of thousands of small decisions every day on average, it's no wonder that after a few hours, the quality of our subsequent choices goes downhill.

Sometimes, on the other hand, we overanalyze in order to make the best choice, and... we stand still. This is classic analysis paralysis. In addition, when we jump between tasks, some of our attention remains on the previous one — Sophie Leroy called this attention residue. This “residual” focus can reduce productivity by up to 40%, and it takes 15–23 minutes to fully refocus. Finally, there is cognitive overload: information flows faster than our working memory can process it. Under favorable conditions, this turns into an avalanche of work — a sudden pileup of responsibilities — or student syndrome, i.e., putting things off until the last minute. Information overload also plays a role: too many stimuli, channels, notifications, and documents, leading to confusion and delays.

The effects? First, health effects: chronic stress, sleep problems, decreased immunity, and, in the long term, the risk of burnout. Second, professional effects: more frequent mistakes, missed deadlines, decreased quality, and more difficult team relationships. Third, organizational effects: lower morale, higher turnover, decreased productivity, and higher costs.

However, it is possible to work with this. Honest prioritization (e.g., using the Eisenhower matrix), blocking time for specific tasks, the Pomodoro technique, and consistently delegating non-critical tasks can help. It is worth switching to single-tasking, limiting context switching, building routines, and using simple decision-making templates. Attention hygiene is good: turned off notifications, scheduled blocks of deep work, regular breaks, and mindfulness practices. It is also helpful to recognize warning signs: a constant feeling of overwhelm, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, increasing irritability, decreased motivation, or forgetting tasks.

The situation of having too many tasks in a week has many names, but there is one common denominator: an excess of responsibilities with limited time and cognitive energy resources. The key is to recognize this in yourself and implement conscious strategies for managing time, tasks, and attention. This is what I will be looking for, testing, and describing here—without myths, but with practices that really help you move from chaos to clarity.

Finally, I will leave you with a simple, achievable step: choose one task that will really push your most important project forward, and block out 45–60 minutes for it in your calendar tomorrow morning. Turn off notifications, prepare everything in advance, and do only that. One small win can kickstart the rest of your day.

I would also love to hear about your experiences. Which of the phenomena described above resonates with you the most: work overload, analysis paralysis, or perhaps “attention residue”? Write about what blocks you the most and what you have already tried.

In my next post, I will show you my specific plan for starting the week: short reviews, three most important tasks (MITs), time blocking, and a buffer for unforeseen matters. Step by step — no fireworks, but clarity out of chaos. This will be the first chapter of Anatomy of Time in practice.