“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear
I think there are some simple changes that most people can make in their daily lives to optimize their days . Most of this will sound like multitasking , but I don't like that framing. Multitasking has negative undertones. In particular, trying to do multiple tasks that require active attention is effectively impossible, and anybody claiming they can participate in a work meeting and answer emails at the same time is probably lying. For this reason, I refer to this practice as “Stacking Time”, not multitasking. It's a small but important distinction.
You have four main categories of tasks: productive/unproductive tasks and primary/secondary tasks.
Both productive and non-productive tasks are entirely opinion-based; however, primary and secondary are less so. Rather, primary and secondary tasks are dependent on the cognitive load required to participate in the task .
Some secondary tasks may be walking, stretching, sitting, listening to music, being in a sauna, or even just being outside. These are tasks that require very little to no cognitive effort to engage in.
On the contrary, primary tasks are those that require active focus to complete. This may include writing emails, watching long- or short-form content, reading, or driving in a new city.
When you pair two tasks together, you get 10 possible combinations:
Hover (or tap on mobile) any colored cell to see examples.
My goal is to avoid the red combinations whenever I can and aim for the greens as much as possible. However, this quickly leads to burnout, so I often make time for the yellow and orange combinations, which is also where I have found the biggest gains in day-to-day productivity.
For a fuller picture, here is a more complete list of the activities I rotate through under each combination:
Productive Primary & Secondary:
Productive Secondary & Secondary:
Non-Productive Primary & Productive Secondary:
Productive Primary & Non-Productive Secondary:
There are plenty of other combinations that would work for different people. The main point here is to make sure your cognitive focus is on one task at a time while you manage to do something else that is “good” or "healthy" simultaneously when possible.
As a TL;DR, here are the general rules I would follow when deciding if something is “Time Stacking”:
Never combine two cognitively demanding tasks.
One task should be passive or doable on autopilot.
If your primary task suffers, stop stacking.
Only Stack Time when it makes sense. Still take time to truly relax.