Some days we don’t have enough time, other days we have too much. As a result, we either never get around to the things we really want to do, or we procrastinate. That’s why productivity expert John Zeratsky’s calendar is always full, no matter what his workload.

From the time he wakes up until he goes to bed, Zeratsky’s entire day is scheduled, including meals, writing, breaks, meetings, checking email, and exercise. Zeratsky, who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, even schedules time specifically to spend with his wife.

“I like to think about not just the work I’m going to do during the work day, but I like to think about all the elements of my day,” Zeratsky tells NBC News BETTER. “When am I going to take a break? When am I going to have lunch? What am I going to do later in the day to re-energize? A lot of it is honestly because I don’t always make the best decisions when I leave that to the moment.”

John Zeratsky, productivity expert and co-author of “Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day” Photo credit: Jessica Kaminski / The Refinery

Zeratsky says he developed the method when he worked at Google Ventures, and wrote about it in his most recent book “Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day,” which he co-authored with his colleague Jake Knapp.

“Instead of optimistically hoping that I would get around to the things that I wanted to do, I realized I had to actually schedule it in,” Zeratsky says.

Zeratsky first began using the method while writing his first book, “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test Ideas in Just Five Days,” back in 2014, which he also co-authored with Knapp.

Here’s how Zeratsky fits what he calls “all the elements of a good day,” or everything he wants to prioritize on a daily basis, into his calendar.

The “calendar overlay” method

Zeratsky creates a daily template for his week in Google Calendar that contains all his elements for a good day, which he calls his calendar “overlay.”

He toggles the overlay on and off his regular calendar and makes adjustments as needed.

For Zeratsky, writing comes easiest in the mornings, so he schedules his writing projects into his calendar overlay for the mornings and schedules meetings and administrative tasks for the afternoon.

When he opens his calendar in the morning, he can customize his overlay to fit with his regular calendar.

For example, if he has a doctor’s appointment in the morning, he can adjust his calendar overlay around it.

“What if I went from working on my writing in the morning to working on that in the afternoon? I can play around with making those adjustments in that template without messing up my actual real calendar,” he says.

To avoid procrastination, he’ll often schedule two events at the same time into his overlay.

“For the afternoon, I’ll have one big block that says ‘admin work - catch up on email,’ and then I’ll have a couple of meeting slots, that way maybe some days I don’t have any meetings scheduled in the afternoon, or maybe I have a meeting scheduled but another block is free. Then when that meeting block isn’t being used, I can fall back on what else am I supposed to be doing with this part of my day,” Zeratsky explains.