My Day Method is for anyone who wants to make their best of their days, feels unsatisfied with their days or wants to feel greater alignment between what they say they are going to do and what they actually do.

Due to its flexibility, it has already been adopted by busy professionals, knowledge workers at both entry and executive levels, entrepreneurs, parents, and retirees.

The method focuses on optimising three key resources we all need to manage daily to meet our objectives, goals, and responsibilities. These are our energy, time and attention.

If you don’t manage your energy, you may not be physically or mentally well enough to work, study, or take care of yourself or others.

If you don’t manage your time, you may feel constantly busy, overcommitted or not follow through with things you said/intended to do.

If you don’t manage your attention, you may feel distracted, exhausted from multi-tasking, not mentally present or have difficulty finishing things.

Therefore, the method has three key components, one for each of resources you want to better control.

Prime: the practices included in prime support the four key types of energy: physical, mental, emotional & spiritual. As part of Prime, we recommend incorporating the following practices into your day:

1. Exercise - exercise keeps us physically fit, with many additional benefits for our wellbeing.

2. Learning - learning keeps our brains sharp and mentally strong and can be a source of inspiration and motivation.

3. Reflecting - reflecting encompasses both emotional and spiritual practices such as journalling, meditation, visualisation, using affirmations to help us connect with and understand ourselves.

4. Creating a daily plan - establishing your most important priorities and knowing where and when you need to be places throughout the day.

Prime is all about Energy and starting the day with a morning routine that gets you physically and mentally ready for the day.

We recommend spending one hour every morning on the above to give you a great start to the day. While the morning is optimal, when you Prime can be adapted to your particular life situation and chronotype.

Command: command incorporates the proven techniques of time-boxing, deep work, Parkinson’s Law, Hofstadter’s Law, and ultradian cycles of peak performance and recovery.

• Time-boxing: allocate time in your calendar to specific activities, tasks or items from your to do list.

• Deep work: quality work needs focused concentration for extended periods of time.

• Ultradian cycles: work in cycles of 90 minutes to enable periods of peak performance and recovery.

• Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available so you need to give yourself deadline and blocks of time to work.

• Hofstadter’s Law: tasks always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law so you need to factor in buffers and flexibility.

• Master to do list: use a list as a capture mechanism to hold everything you want/need to do. Then timebox items to complete them.

• Brain modes: we use different brain networks for different tasks. More on that below…

Command is all about time and planning your day effectively.

Command can be applied flexibly using your time management tool of choice - online calendar, physical planner or even just a piece of paper.

Protect: in Protect, we want to be clear on our non-negotiables (i.e. weekly exercise class, leaving the office to pick up a child, monthly social event), big rocks (that day’s main priorities) and put in “strategies” to avoid multi-tasking, email/collaboration tools taking over the day and unproductive meetings.

You do this by, timeboxing the non-negotiables in the diary, then scheduling 2-3 slots for checking messages and validating that any meetings in the diary have a clear purpose.

Protect is therefore all about Attention and minimising distractions and multi-tasking.

We recommend employing an email processing system and checking that all meetings have a purpose, agenda, the right attendees with the right prep having been done. Additionally, turn off all notifications.

Combined Prime supports your Energy and therefore wellbeing, Command enables effective time management and therefore productivity and Protect intentionally directs your attention.

Based on our research and speaking with individuals, we identified four main types of activities that people engage in on a daily basis which utilise different brain networks.

While a planning vs. doing mode had been discussed in prior productivity thinking, we expanded the modes to include meetings/being social and recovering.

We created the following four brain modes to represent the types of activities people engage in daily:

• Architect - planning, deciding, strategising.

• Builder - executing, doing. Builder can be split into deep builder (focused deep work) and light builder (smaller tasks like admin or processing emails).

• Connector - when engaging with people, whether in person, online or via email/teams/slack.

• Restorer - recovering, relaxing, re-energising or doing anything that gives you joy.

Each describes a different kind of work and energy. The idea is to become aware of how your brain works, which activities will be more demanding and importantly task batch activities that use the same brain mode, rather than switching back and force between brain modes, or worse multitasking.

For example, we recommend batching meetings together with a 10-15min break in between meetings rather than having 30 min of deep work, followed by a meeting, followed by light admin, followed by another meeting and then deep work again.

Note that these represent a practical, intuitive way to think about our brains , not formally recognised neurological states.

Our training go into what is happening in the brain during each of the modes. Contact us for more information on the neuroscience of each brain mode.

The idea of a daily practice comes from yoga, particularly Ashtanga yoga, which Natalie has practised for over 25 years.

In Ashtanga, you get on your mat regularly, regardless of how you're feeling or what kind of practice you might have that day. Some days you feel strong, focused and energised. Other days you're tired, distracted or simply not at your best. You show up, do what you can and observe what happens, without judging yourself or becoming too attached to the outcome.

I believe the same approach applies to My Day Method.

Some days everything comes together. You complete your morning Prime, your time-boxing goes to plan, you stay focused and finish the day feeling great.

Other days, life gets in the way. Perhaps you only manage one of your Prime activities, your carefully planned day gets turned upside down, or you find yourself multitasking during a meeting and realise afterwards that you barely heard what was said.

That's not failure. That's part of the practice.

The important thing is to become aware of what's happening, reflect on what worked and what didn't, and try again the next day.

Like yoga, My Day Method draws on the principles of non-judgement, non-harming and acceptance. We aim to do our best, but without being overly critical of ourselves when things don't go to plan.

Over time, showing up every day helps build habits. You become more aware of how you use your energy, time and attention, what drains you, what supports you and what you might want to change.

My Day Method is not another standard you have to live up to. It's a practice you return to every day, learning a little more about yourself and how you live your life. Over time it builds and you can look back at how far you’ve come - just one day at a time.

Our wellbeing depends on how well we look after ourselves, both physically and mentally. Yet when life gets busy, exercise, learning, reflection and rest are often the first things we sacrifice.

My Day Method encourages you to make time for these activities rather than leaving them until everything else is done.

Prime focuses on building a daily routine around three activities that support different aspects of your wellbeing:

• Exercise: Physical activity supports your physical health, brain function, mood and ability to manage stress.

• Learning: Reading, studying or exploring something new keeps your mind active and can provide enjoyment, inspiration and a sense of personal growth.

• Reflecting: Activities such as journalling, meditation or simply taking time to think help you process emotions, understand yourself better and manage stress.

The routine can be adapted to your circumstances. Some days you may have an hour or more; other days, just 15 minutes. What matters is developing the habit of making time for yourself.

But wellbeing isn't just about how you start your day. It's also about how you manage your energy throughout it.

Through Command, you plan time for breaks, lunch and recovery rather than filling every available hour with work and responsibilities.

The Four Brain Modes also encourage you to recognise when you need to switch into Restorer Mode. Rest is not something you have to earn by finishing everything on your to-do list. It's an important part of maintaining your physical and mental wellbeing.

My Day Method helps you become more aware of your wellbeing and build exercise, learning, reflection and rest into your daily life, rather than treating them as optional extras when you have time.

We define productivity as the relationship between what you achieve (output) and the resources you use to achieve it (input).

Productivity = Output ÷ Input

The first step is therefore to be clear about what you want to achieve. Your goals, values and personal purpose help you define what’s important to you and where you want to focus your efforts.

The next step is to consider the resources you need to achieve those goals. These include your skills, knowledge, tools and support from others (among others), but also three resources we all need to manage every day: energy, time and attention.

My Day Method focuses on these three resources because how you manage them influences what you can achieve, how you feel along the way and today’s always on world makes it difficult to do so.

By managing your energy, planning your time and protecting your attention, you can make better use of your resources, reduce wasted effort and make progress towards your goals.

So My Day Method boosts your productivity by helping you become more aware of how you use your energy, time and attention. It helps you value and manage these resources with as much care as you would your money, health and relationships.

Living intentionally means making conscious choices about how you spend your time and what you give your attention to, rather than simply reacting to whatever comes your way.

My Day Method encourages you to start by thinking about your personal purpose, values and goals. What is important to you? What do you want to achieve? What are the things you don't want to compromise on?

From there, the method helps you translate those intentions into daily decisions. By setting your priorities, identifying your non-negotiables and planning when you will do things, you take greater control over how you spend your days.

An important part of this is learning to stop multitasking.

Multitasking is often considered a valuable skill, particularly in today's workplace. But when two activities require conscious attention, what we call multitasking is usually our brain rapidly switching between them. Every switch has a cognitive cost, making it harder to concentrate, increasing the likelihood of mistakes and contributing to mental fatigue.

Often, we multitask because we're trying to do something we feel obligated to do while simultaneously doing something else we'd rather be doing. Perhaps you're answering emails during a meeting, checking work messages while spending time with your children, or thinking about your to-do list while having a conversation.

The result is that you're not giving either activity your full attention.

My Day Method encourages you to question these habits. Does that meeting really need you? Could those emails wait? Is this how you want to spend your time right now?

By deciding what matters, making room for your non-negotiables and protecting your attention, you become more deliberate about what you do and what you choose not to do.

Rather than leaving decisions about your time and attention until the last minute, My Day Method encourages you to make those choices consciously, every day.

That's the most common situation and concern people have.

My Day Method allows flexibility by helping you decide before the day starts what absolutely needs to happen today versus what can move. So that if something unpredictable happens, you already know what can move.

You set a small number of priorities, protect a few blocks of time, and adjust as the day changes. You may be surprised by how much control you have once you start timeboxing and establishing boundaries with your time.

If you role is to be entirely reactive to others all day, you will need to be even more protective of your builder time and it’s worth reflecting if other’s priorities should come before yours in your day.

In those situations, we recommend negotiating deadlines when new requests come in rather than accepting and assuming that anything new needs to be actioned immediately.

Additionally by identifying your non-negotiables and schedule time for prime, you’ll be more in control.

No. My Day Method is a framework and methodology so you can apply it with whatever tools you use today.

We recommend downloading the guide and trying it out on the My Day Method templates for a few days to get the hang of Prime, Command & Protect.

Once you understand the method, you can integrate it into your day - whether you use paper, planners, google/outlook calendar, Microsoft co-pilot or an AI chat.

Many of our users have found it useful to add the My Day Method guide into an AI chat such as Microsoft co-pilot which has a help me Plan My Day feature. My Day Method gives it the rules for your day.

My Day Method offers a range of downloadable templates you can download to get started.

A digital companion is in pilot and coming soon but is not necessary to begin implementing it.

If you are an individual, you can download the Free Guide which includes a sample template to start planning your day immediately.

If you are looking for a speaking engagement or workshop, contact us via the Contact Us page to discuss your needs.