A Planner for Procrastinators
As a kid, I would often imagine my future self as a strong, independent, highly disciplined guy with an amazing routine and the ability to solve whatever problems came his way.
My younger self:
Looking at the way I turned out, I’m more surprised than disappointed. That kid was more disciplined than I am. At least he did his homework on time. I can’t even bring myself to take out the trash unless the bin is practically puking trash back out.
Here’s how my brain works:
Brain: “Is there a test tomorrow?”
Me: “Nope.”
Brain: “When do the mids start?”
Me: “Next week.”
Brain: “Come on, man! We’ve been through this before. You only answer with ‘Tomorrow’ or ‘Not Tomorrow.’”
Me: “Got it. My bad.”
Brain: “Hey, what about that laundry?”
Me: “Ah, yes. We have to do that today.”
Brain: “I know, but I was thinking… How about we just wear the pants we wore yesterday to university? And you can give that shirt you don’t like another chance. That way, we can watch an episode or two of BoJack Horseman. How about it?”
Me: “Oh… I mean… okay.”
Imagine the adult version of the clown kid above.
Here comes the part where the protagonist makes a comeback.
This week, the Amal Academy assigned me a course called “Productivity and Time Management,” and it turned out to be surprisingly eye-opening. It taught me something important: when your mind tricks you, trick it back.
The course introduced us to a planner template that turned out to be a gem. Instead of keeping everything floating around in my head, the planner helped me organize my thoughts into an actionable plan with clear deadlines.
The planner consisted of five sequential steps:
Brain Dumping → Sorting → Listing → Scheduling → Pomodoro
Here’s how I went through them.
1. Brain Dumping
First, I had to grab a piece of paper or open a blank document on my laptop. Then, I took a deep breath and dumped everything that popped into my mind onto the blank page — tasks, ideas, worries, deadlines, and anything else that was taking up mental space. The important part was not to filter or organize anything. I just had to write everything down in whatever format felt comfortable. This was surprisingly helpful because my thoughts are often messy and disorganized. Writing everything down gave me a place to put all those thoughts instead of trying to remember them simultaneously.
Here’s what my brain looked like after the brain dump:
2. Sorting Using the Eisenhower Matrix
Once everything was on paper, it was time to sort it.
The Eisenhower Matrix divides tasks into four categories based on two questions: Is it important? Is it urgent?
If something was important and urgent, like pressing my clothes before university, I did it right away. If something was important but not urgent, I scheduled it for later. If something was urgent but not important, I emotionally blackmailed other people into doing it. And if something was neither urgent nor important, like watching another TV show, I eliminated it from the list — even though it hurt.
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This step helped me realize that not everything that feels urgent actually deserves my attention. More importantly, it stopped my brain from treating every task as equally important.
3. Creating a to-do list:
For the tasks that were important but not urgent, I created a to-do list with reminders and deadlines. Instead of looking at a huge pile of things I eventually needed to do, I could see what needed to be done, when it needed to be done, and how much time I had to complete it. That made the workload feel much more manageable.
My to-do list looked something like this:
The biggest advantage was that I no longer had to rely on my memory. The list did the remembering for me.
4. Scheduling with time blocks:
Next came time blocking. I had to choose the two tasks that I wanted to remain most consistent with — the Highlights of the Day. These were the tasks that mattered most in the long run.
I then created time blocks for them in my calendar app.
This was probably one of the most useful parts of the planner because it turned a vague intention into a specific commitment.
There’s a big difference between, “I’ll study today,” and saying, “I’ll study from 6:00 to 7:30.”
The first is a wish. The second is a plan.
By putting these tasks into my calendar, I gave them a fixed place in my day instead of hoping I would magically find the motivation to do them later.
5. Pomodoro Technique:
Finally, there was the Pomodoro Technique.
I had to complete my Amal Academy courses and project works, which required around 10 hours of work in a single day. Asking me to work for 10 hours straight is like asking a rural government schoolteacher to come in and teach — I mean, he could, and he should, but he’s got better things to do with his time. Fortunately, I didn’t have to work for 10 hours continuously.
The Pomodoro Technique breaks work into 25-minute chunks, followed by 5-minute breaks. During those breaks, I could reward myself with something small, like a coffee or a song — In my case, a song was the more reasonable choice. Ten hours of caffeine would probably have turned me into a human espresso machine.
The five-minute break gave me something to look forward to. Instead of thinking, “I have ten hours of work ahead of me,” I only had to think, “I just need to finish this next 25 minutes.” And somehow, that made the impossible seem possible. By breaking the work into smaller chunks, I managed to complete the courses and project work on time.
What I Learned
The five steps together proved to be a surprisingly powerful system. Before using the planner, I often had a vague sense that I had a lot to do, but I didn’t know where to start. Everything existed as a giant, intimidating cloud of tasks in my head. The planner changed that.
Brain dumping got everything out of my head.
Sorting helped me distinguish between what was important and what merely felt urgent.
The to-do list gave my important tasks deadlines.
Time blocking gave those tasks a specific place in my day.
And Pomodoro made large tasks feel small enough to actually start.
More importantly, the planner helped me understand something about procrastination: sometimes the problem isn’t that I’m incapable of doing something. I simply haven’t made the task concrete enough.
Will I Do It Again?
Yes — but I don’t think I’ll use the planner only when I’m already drowning in deadlines. That was one of the biggest lessons I took away from this experience. Planning shouldn’t just be an emergency tool. It should become a habit.
I plan to use these techniques throughout university and eventually in my professional life. I also want to improve the process by reviewing my planner regularly and being realistic about how much I can actually accomplish in a day.
I know myself well enough to know that I’m not going to transform overnight into the perfectly disciplined person I imagined as a kid. There will still be laundry sitting on the chair. There will still be assignments I’ll be tempted to postpone. And there will definitely still be days when BoJack Horseman wins.
But now I have a system to fight back. From now on, I want to submit my assignments on time, stay on top of my chores, and prepare for exams before they become emergencies. Maybe I won’t become the disciplined adult my younger self imagined. But I think I can at least stop disappointing that kid.
