SigmaMyself
When people hear about my daily responsibilities; father of three, full-time QA engineer, rental property owner, nonprofit co-founder, blogger, webmaster for a local sports league, and board member for two HOAs. Their first question is always: “How do you find the time?”
The truth is, I don’t find time...I make it.
There’s no magic formula when it comes to time management, no secret productivity hack that suddenly grants me extra hours. Instead, I operate under a self-imposed system of urgency, discipline, and ruthless prioritization. In a previous article, I discussed how my anxiety of unfinished tasks fuels my productivity. Now, I want to break down the exact strategies I use to manage my chaotic schedule while still maintaining my sanity.
This isn’t about chasing the mythical "work-life balance", an idea I’ve found fundamentally flawed for driven individuals. Instead, I practice work-life integration, designing my days so professional ambitions and personal priorities coexist seamlessly, each fueling the other rather than competing for attention. As a father who reads engineering reports during soccer practice warmups, an entrepreneur who brainstorms business strategies during family hikes, and a community leader who mentors others during commute times, I’ve learned that true productivity comes from harmony, not separation.
The key lies in three interconnected efficiency systems that transform how I allocate my most precious resources – time, attention, and energy. These systems work synergistically to create days where career milestones are achieved alongside school recitals, where business growth happens without sacrificing bedtime stories. Here’s the framework that makes it possible:
Personal Efficiency – Mastering the art of focused execution so I can be fully present whether reviewing engineering schematics or helping with homework.
Digital Efficiency – Leveraging technology as a force multiplier that handles routine tasks, freeing me for meaningful work and family moments.
Financial Efficiency – Building systems that generate freedom, allowing money to work so I don’t have to.
This triad creates a self-reinforcing cycle: when my personal systems are sharp, I work smarter. When technology handles logistics, I gain mental space. When finances are automated, I buy back irreplaceable time. The result isn’t compartmentalized living, it’s an integrated life where professional success and personal fulfillment amplify each other. Here’s exactly how it works in practice.
Personal Efficiency: Mastering Your Mind and Routine
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise - Benjamin Franklin
The foundation of relentless execution begins with personal efficiency, how you structure your day, prioritize tasks, and maintain peak mental performance. One of the most transformative changes I made was establishing a high-performance morning routine. Research from Harvard and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that early risers tend to be more proactive, disciplined, and successful in their careers. Inspired by leaders like Apple CEO Tim Cook, who starts his day at 3:45 AM, I crafted a similar morning ritual designed to maximize energy and focus.
My morning ritual begins at 4:00 AM with a tall glass of water, a simple act that science shows boosts cognitive performance by up to 30% when properly hydrated. By 4:05 AM, I'm seated in meditation, training my mind like an athlete prepares muscles, cultivating the laser focus that will carry me through the day's challenges. This flows seamlessly into my Wim Hof breathing practice which three rounds of controlled hyperventilation followed by breath retention that floods my system with oxygen and leaves me vibrating with energy.
As dawn approaches, I transition to movement. Stuart Smith's primal movement patterns wake up my body, followed by yoga's mindful stretches. this combination creates the perfect synergy of strength and flexibility. The dopamine surge from this physical awakening gives me both the motivation and mental clarity to attack ambitious goals. At 5:15 AM, I practice Tai Chi in my backyard, its flowing movements backed by Johns Hopkins research showing a 60% reduction in anxiety.
My final morning anchor is journaling at 5:30 AM. While I log key events from the previous day and plan my upcoming schedule, the true power comes from my gratitude practice. Listing what I'm thankful for; my children's laughter, a breakthrough at work, even the quiet morning hours themselves, this grounds me in purpose before the world makes its demands. By 6:00 AM when I enter deep work mode, fully prepared to tackle my MIT (Most Important Task), typically an engineering innovation or business strategy that will move the needle in my professional life.
To ensure I stay focused on what truly matters, I apply the 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle), which states that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. In my engineering career, I discovered that a small subset of test scenarios such as boundary conditions and integration points, consistently exposed the most severe bugs. By prioritizing these high-yield tests in regression cycles and automating them first, I accelerated release velocity while actually improving quality. As a parent, I realized that certain activities like bedtime stories and weekend adventures creates the strongest bonds with my children, so I made them non-negotiable.
Another game-changer was time blocking, a strategy popularized by Cal Newport in Deep Work. Instead of reacting to emails and meetings all day, I schedule everything in advance. My calendar includes blocks for focused work, family time, and even learning. Elon Musk takes this to an extreme, working in five-minute increments, but my adapted version uses 90-minute deep work sessions followed by short breaks. A UC Irvine study found that task-switching can waste up to 23 minutes per interruption, so protecting these blocks is critical.
Digital Efficiency: Leveraging Technology to Work Smarter
In today's fast-paced world, technology presents us with a critical choice: we can let it overwhelm us or learn to harness its power effectively. I chose the latter and my approach centers on three fundamental strategies that have revolutionized my productivity. Using automation to eliminate repetitive tasks. Maintaining digital minimalism to safeguard my focus. These methods work synergistically to give me more time, minimize distractions, and ensure my energy is invested where it matters most.
Automation forms the backbone of my productivity strategy, systematically eliminating repetitive tasks that once drained my time and energy. My email workflow serves as a prime example, by implementing AI-generated templates for frequent responses through AI email tools, scheduling non-urgent messages using Boomerang's delayed send feature, and employing Sanebox's smart filters to prioritize important communications, I've reclaimed more than 10 hours each month. These automated systems handle about 60% of my email correspondence without any direct involvement from me, allowing what was once a constant distraction to become a well-oiled machine that runs in the background.
Here's an example on how I streamline my landlord experience when searching for tenants. The problem that I find is that I'm asked the same types of questions, usually something like;
"Is the property available?"
"What’s the pet policy?"
"What are the move in requirements?"
Instead of typing fresh replies each time, I use AI-powered templates that auto-fill property details. When someone asks about pets, they instantly get this polished response:
"Thanks for your interest! This property allows up to 2 pets (25 lbs max each) with a $300 fee. Let me know if you’d like to schedule a tour!"
Another example is that I batch-write all my routine emails – like rent reminders and lease renewals – then use Boomerang to deliver them at the perfect time. A pre-scheduled message goes out on the 1st of each month:
"Hi [Tenant], just a friendly reminder that rent is due by the 5th via [Payment Portal Link]. Let me know if you have any questions!"
These are simple examples but the power of automation extends far beyond email management. In my rental property business, I use Zapier to automatically save tenant maintenance requests from emails into a dedicated Trello board, while simultaneously alerting my handyman via SMS. For social media marketing, Buffer schedules and publishes posts across all platforms at optimal times based on audience engagement data. Even personal tasks get automated, my smart home system adjusts lighting and temperature based on my schedule, and my banking app automatically categorizes expenses. By identifying these repetitive but necessary tasks and implementing the right tools, I've effectively created a team of digital assistants that work around the clock, freeing me to focus on strategic decisions and creative work that truly requires human judgment.
One game-changing strategy I've adopted that has greatly improved my digital efficiency is the Two-Minute Rule from David Allen’s Getting Things Done. The principle is simple: if a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. I apply this ruthlessly to email, quick replies, filing documents, or approving requests get handled on the spot. This prevents small tasks from snowballing into mental clutter. For example, when a parent mails a simple question like, "I'm new to the area, how can I register my son?" I respond right away instead of letting it linger. The result? A cleaner inbox and fewer nagging "to-dos" weighing on my mind.
To complement this, I’ve designed a distraction-free digital workspace. Since I work primarily on my laptop, I use Google Chrome’s profile system to create dedicated environments for each role:
Rental Business: Bookmarked links to property management tools, lease templates, and rent collection portals
Nonprofit Work: Grant documents, volunteer schedules, and donor communications
Personal: Family calendars, travel plans, and hobbies
This separation acts like "mental compartments", when I’m in my rental profile, I’m 100% focused on landlord tasks, not distracted by personal emails or baseball team spreadsheets.
Together, these strategies create a flow state for productivity. The Two-Minute Rule keeps small tasks from piling up, while my structured workspace eliminates context-switching. As Allen puts it, this cultivates a "mind like water", calm and ready to respond to what matters, without drowning in unfinished business.
Pro Tip: Pair this with a "Do It Now" mantra for emails under two minutes, and watch your efficiency soar.
Digital minimalism forms the protective barrier around my attention. In an age of constant connectivity, I've made deliberate choices to reduce digital clutter and distractions. I've removed all social media apps from my phone, accessing these platforms only through web browsers when necessary. Notifications are strictly controlled, with only the most critical alerts permitted to interrupt my focus. Inspired by research linking excessive social media use to increased stress, I practice 'Airplane Mode Mornings' where I avoid all technology until 8 AM, making just one concession for digital journaling on my phone. My information consumption is equally intentional, replacing endless scrolling with a single curated daily newsletter. These practices create space for deep work and meaningful personal connections.
The cumulative effect of these strategies has been transformative. Where technology once fragmented my attention and consumed my time, it now serves as a carefully orchestrated support system. Automation handles predictable tasks in the background, delegation ensures skilled professionals manage appropriate work, and digital minimalism preserves my cognitive resources. This balanced approach has allowed me to structure my days more effectively, with focused mornings for important work, productive afternoons for collaboration, and uninterrupted evenings for personal time. The tools themselves haven't changed, but how I engage with them has fundamentally shifted, proving that with intentional design, technology can be a powerful ally rather than a source of constant distraction.
Financial Efficiency for Time Management: Using Money to Buy Back Time
The final pillar of relentless execution is financial efficiency, structuring my finances to maximize freedom and minimize wasted time. I follow a modified version of Elizabeth Warren’s 50/30/20 budget: 50% of income goes to necessities, 30% investment, and 20% to discretionary spending. But I took it a step further by automating everything. Apps like Mint track my spending in real-time, I auto-invests monthly thorough my brokerage account, and all my bills are on auto payments. As a result, I spend zero time managing my finances manually, it's literally on auto-pilot.
Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy also influenced my approach. Instead of chasing speculative trends, I focus on long-term wealth-building by maxing our my 401k and retirement accounts, primarily investing only on index funds and cryptocurrency. The goal isn’t just growth, it’s creating passive income streams that buy back my time.
Financial efficiency isn’t about drastic changes, it’s about small, consistent habits that add up. I’ve developed simple rules that help me spend intentionally and save effortlessly. Before making any non-essential purchase over $100, I implement the 24-hrs waiting period. This pause eliminates impulse buys about half the time, I realize I don’t actually want or need the item. For everyday spending, I use cash−back credit cards strategically. I'm always search for on credit cards with the best perks, mixed with programs like Rakuten, last year I got back $2,000 in my pocket just for buying what I normally would.
You don’t need expensive tools to optimize your finances, free solutions work just as well. Most banks offer customizable alerts to avoid overdraft fees and flag suspicious activity, while free Google Sheets templates can automatically import and categorize transactions, eliminating the need for paid budgeting software. One of my favorite free resources? The public library. Beyond books, my card grants access to streaming services, museum passes, and financial education, all without dipping into my entertainment budget.
The real magic happens when these systems work together. Automated tools handle the tracking, while mindful spending habits prevent waste. Together, they save me over 100 hours a year, time I once spent stressing over money. The best part is that anyone can do this! It takes just minutes to set up but pays off for years to come. Start small, stay consistent, and watch your financial confidence grow.
Conclusion: The Relentless Execution Blueprint
People often assume that managing my many roles, father, husband, engineer, entrepreneur, and community leader, requires some hidden secret or superhuman ability. There’s no shortcut, no magical productivity hack, just a deliberate system of urgency, discipline, and ruthless prioritization. By integrating work and life rather than chasing an impossible "balance," I’ve built a framework where professional ambition and personal fulfillment don’t compete but complement each other. I’ve learned that true productivity isn’t about doing more, it’s about designing a life where every minute serves a purpose.
Mastering time isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing less, but better. By optimizing my mornings, automating repetitive tasks, and structuring my finances for efficiency, I’ve reclaimed over 10 hours per week without sacrificing performance in any area of life.
If you take just three actions from this method, start with these:
Design a morning routine that primes you for success (wake up early, move, meditate, focus).
Automate one repetitive task this week (emails, bills, or social media).
Audit your spending and automate all your expense and investments.
The Relentless Execution Method isn’t a quick fix, it’s a lifelong practice. But by implementing these strategies, you’ll transform from someone who’s constantly busy to someone who’s strategically productive.
Want the exact templates and tools I use? Connect with me on X @SigmaMeUp for a free resource pack. Now, go execute relentlessly.
