The "it'll be fine" method

Zero buffers. I’m in a hurry, not stressed.

I want to tell you a bit about my time management system, better known as “it’ll be fine”.

The heart of the method is zero buffers and squeezing every second. For example, if I have a meeting on the other side of the floor, I’ll finish what I’m doing just a minute before and run.

I only schedule meetings back to back, especially these days when we work remotely. I end each meeting exactly on the minute, no matter what, and immediately jump into the next one.

If I have a meeting that’s a half-hour drive away, I’ll start getting ready 35 minutes before and leave exactly half an hour before. If I need to eat, I’ll just take something I can eat while driving.

If I know I have something in 10 minutes, I’ll take on another task or phone call, even if it might take 15 minutes, and I’ll finish it in 10.

Why “it’ll be fine”? Because people keep telling me “you won’t make it”, and I say it’ll be fine, and in the vast majority of cases it really is fine. As for the minority that isn’t, I’m willing to take the hit.

From the outside it looks like I have no planning abilities and everything is chaotic, and it sometimes drives the people around me crazy. But for me there’s a strong rationale.

Time is money. A lot of it. There’s no justification for letting 10 minutes drip through your fingers, so I use every time slot bigger than a minute. Parkinson’s law says an hour’s task will take you 45 minutes or two hours, depending on how much time you give it.

So do I never rest during the day? I also make sure to set aside a fixed amount of time for mindfulness.

This could be read as a permanently stressed schedule. I’m in a hurry, not stressed.

Matan Zinger once said I’m like Tom Sawyer: I throw my hat over and now I have to go get it. Yes, I limit myself on purpose to get the most out of it. If I have a meeting in 45 minutes I’ll go for a run, even though I do 5k in half an hour. I’ll just run faster.

This post started as a thread on X.