--- title: An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus description: A ritual and its predictability can help finding focus in your day canonical: https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-09T10:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:49:42.305Z article:section: Ideas og:title: An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus og:description: A ritual and its predictability can help finding focus in your day og:url: https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt395e04cfd6b4029e/6987828de53aba85204d7f25/184652791-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=337&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 337 og:image:height: 190 og:image:alt: to-do-list-blackboard og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus twitter:description: A ritual and its predictability can help finding focus in your day twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt395e04cfd6b4029e/6987828de53aba85204d7f25/184652791-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=337&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Mar 9, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  to do list on blackboard to do list on blackboardGetty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Mar 9, 2015 10:00 AM UTC We start every day knowing we’re not going to get it all done or fit it all in. How we spend our time is really a function of priorities. That’s why Peter Bregman argues in [18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0446583405&asin-it=0446583405&asin-fr=0446583405&asin-de=0446583405&asin-uk=0446583405&asin-ca=0446583405&asin-com=0446583405) that we need to plan ahead, “create a to-do list and an ignore list, and use our calendars.” “The hardest attention to focus,” he writes, “is our own.” **\*\*\*** **The Ritual of Managing Our Day** We need ritual to manage our days, “clear enough to keep us focused on our priorities. Efficient enough not to get in the way.” Bregman argues that ritual should take 18 minutes a day: Your Morning Minutes, Refocus, and Your Evening Minutes. **\*\*\*** **Step 1 (5 Minutes) : Your Morning Minutes** [Echoing Tim Ferriss](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/06/9-habits-you-need-to-stop-now/) Bregman recommends planning ahead. Ferriss prefers the night before, Bregman prefers the morning. Before you turn on your computer, sit down with your to-do list and “decide what will make this day highly successful.” Take the items off your to-do list (a picture of Bregman’s to-do list is below) and schedule them into your day.  Bregman’s To Do List “Make sure,” he writes, “that anything that’s been on your list for three days gets a slot somewhere in your calendar or move it off the list.” **\*\*\*** **Step 2 (1 Minute Every Hour): Refocus** Some interruptions help us course correct. --- > “” --- **\*\*\*** **Step 3 (5 Minutes): Your Evening Minutes** “At the end of your day,” Bregman writes, “shut off your computer and review how the day went.” Ask yourself three sets of questions: 1. How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure? 2. What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do—differently or the same— tomorrow? 3. Whom did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question of? Share feedback with? **\*\*\*** The key to this is the ritual and its predictability. --- > “” --- Bregman speaks worldwide on how we can lead, work, and live more powerfully. [18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done](http://a-fwd.com/es=farstrblo068-21&it=farstrblo0a-21&fr=farstrblo08-21&de=farstrblo07-21&uk=farstrblo-21&ca=farst-20&com=farnamstreet-20&asin-es=0446583405&asin-it=0446583405&asin-fr=0446583405&asin-de=0446583405&asin-uk=0446583405&asin-ca=0446583405&asin-com=0446583405) is an easy to read book that will add a few tools to your toolbox. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/"},"headline":"An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus","datePublished":"2015-03-09T10:00:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:42.305Z","description":"A ritual and its predictability can help finding focus in your day","url":"https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/","keywords":["Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt395e04cfd6b4029e/6987828de53aba85204d7f25/184652791-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt395e04cfd6b4029e/6987828de53aba85204d7f25/184652791-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"to-do-list-blackboard","caption":"to-do-list-blackboard","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3735619/18-minute-plan/","name":"An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day and Finding Focus"}}]}] ```