https://positivetenacity.com/2025/01/04/annual-operating-rhythms-and-time-budgeting/
As I progressed through life, I became increasingly aware of two major constraints on productivity: time and energy. While energy depends on the health of both body and mind, today I’ll focus on time.
By the time you’re 10–20 years into your career, you (hopefully) have a solid grasp of managing your schedule. I recommend founders conduct regular time audits and energy audits of their weeks and months to ensure they’re dedicating resources to the things that truly matter and bring energy (their “zone of genius”).
Another way to approach this is by examining your operating rhythms—daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly. While having a 3/5/10-year vision of who and where you want to be is essential, for operational purposes, let’s narrow the rhythm to a one-year cycle.
Annual Operating Rhythms
At the end of 2024, I listed activities that follow a regular cadence and categorize them into three groups:
Must-do activities (e.g., sleep).
Should-do activities that require prioritization. (e.g., mostly work related)
Aspirational activities I’d like to incorporate into my life. (e.g., exercising more, write more, volunteering more, hosting certain events)
These “building blocks” sustain my work as a builder and investor while also reflecting areas where I want to evolve.
This list includes everything from sleeping, eating, and morning routines to executive meetings and annual health checkups. For each activity, I calculate priorities and the average hours spent multiplied by the number of sessions per year. Some goals are aspirational (e.g., sleeping 7 hours a night, compared to my current 4–5 hours) while others are based on historically observed patterns or pre-scheduled realities.
Foundational Blocks
Initially, these foundational blocks consumed over 80% of my life, leaving minimal time for “value-creative” ...
