Golden week’s coming up, and that means I will have a bit more time to work on my own projects. But it also means I think I will have extra time to do everything I need to, when in reality, I don’t.

When you have a bit of free time coming up, it’s easy to think that you’d have enough time to do what you need to then. This is called procrastination, and you need to make a concrete plan to counteract it.

I find it helps to overestimate the time it will take to do something, and to then put that overestimated time in your calendar. Dedicate time in your calendar for each individual project, otherwise you’ll never get it done. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t exist, basically.

Also make a point of reviewing the things you did and didn’t do, and adjust your calendar as necessary. Thankfully this is easily done these days.