Manage Your Day-To-Day by Jocelyn K. Glei Summary

Manage Your Day-To-Day is a practical guide to boosting productivity and creativity by building intentional routines, avoiding digital distractions, and prioritizing meaningful work. Drawing from insights by experts like Scott Belsky and Dan Ariely, it offers strategies for taming email overload, fostering focus, and maintaining mental clarity in a hyperconnected world. Key themes include ritualizing creativity, resisting multitasking, and reclaiming autonomy over your time.

This book is ideal for professionals, creatives, and entrepreneurs struggling with digital overwhelm or seeking to deepen their creative output. It’s particularly valuable for remote workers, freelancers, and anyone aiming to balance productivity with purposeful work. Jocelyn K. Glei’s advice resonates with those tired of reactive workflows and eager to design a more deliberate daily rhythm.

Yes, for its actionable frameworks like “taming your tools” and “sharpening your creative mind.” The book condenses wisdom from leading productivity researchers into concise, applicable lessons. Readers praise its blend of psychological insights and tactical advice, such as defining “finished” for projects upfront and scheduling “unplugged” time to reset focus.

• Anchor your day: Start with creative work before emails.
• Ritualize focus: Designate distraction-free time blocks.
• Limit tool overload: Avoid defaulting to digital solutions for every problem.
• Embrace constraints: Use limitations to spark innovation.
• Breathe consciously: Reduce stress through mindful pauses.

The book advises compartmentalizing communication into designated time slots, resisting the urge to check emails first thing, and “resetting” through periodic unplugging. It emphasizes conscious bandwidth management—letting go of nonessential conversations to preserve mental energy for high-value tasks.

Glei argues that creativity thrives under structured routines, not chaos. She advocates “unnecessary creation”—personal projects to explore skills without pressure—and warns against over-reliance on technology for problem-solving. Her later work, like Hurry Slowly, expands this into advocating heart-centered productivity over hustle culture.

While both emphasize small, consistent actions, Glei’s book focuses specifically on creatives navigating digital distractions, whereas James Clear’s Atomic Habits offers a broader behavioral framework. Manage Your Day-To-Day uniquely integrates quotes and case studies from design leaders, making it ideal for visual thinkers.

Some reviewers note the advice leans toward self-employed or knowledge workers, with fewer takeaways for corporate environments. Others suggest the pre-2015 focus on email management feels dated in an era of Slack and AI tools—though core principles about intentional tool use remain relevant.

It provides templates for separating work/personal time, avoiding “always-on” burnout, and creating physical/digital boundaries. The “reset button” ritual—regular unplugging—is particularly useful for remote teams navigating blurred schedules.

• “Frequency makes starting easier”: Daily momentum reduces procrastination.
• “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”: Prioritize focus over inputs.
• “Love your limitations”: Constraints fuel creative problem-solving.

As AI tools heighten distraction risks, its lessons on guarding attention and intentional tool use grow more critical. The shift toward asynchronous work also aligns with its emphasis on self-directed routines over reactive workflows.

getAbstract offers a concise summary highlighting core strategies like ritualizing creativity and taming digital distractions. For visual learners, Behance hosts supplemental materials from Glei’s 99U conference talks.