You’ve got rhythm. Maybe you can’t do the Tango, but you’ve got an energy rhythm.
Your energy rhythm runs through your day, day after day, predictably. Technically, it’s called the Ultradian Rhythm—it’s why you have high energy times, when you’re able to focus, make decisions and get results and zoned-out times when you want to hide and play Tetris.
Maybe your day is something like this.
Morning is your best time. No question – you’re full of energy, creative, optimistic and looking forward to getting stuff done. Over 80% of people I’ve surveyed report morning is their best time.
Mid-morning you’re still trucking, but unexpected distractions mean unfinished tasks are piling up. Ugh.
Afternoon rolls around – focus is harder to find, your mind wanders in meetings. Email becomes a welcome distraction. “Hey,” you think “I’m still getting stuff done.”
You started the day on a run to the finish. Now it feels more like a treadmill – lots of activity but not making much progress.
If I’ve just described your day, I have good news. There is a productivity hack I’ve been successful using and have taught to over 3,000 people in some 12 industries.
If you’re serious about getting better results, maybe even in less time, let’s get started with the myth of constant time.
Note: this post was originally published in March, 2013 and has been given a polish and republished for your reading pleasure.
THE MYTH OF CONSTANT TIME
Look at your watch and time seems evenly spaced out, as if it’s equal – 9AM to 10AM appears equal to 2PM to 3PM. Wrong.
This is where traditional chunk-it-down time management has done us a disservice. We’ve been taught to allocate work to the time most convenient to get it done.
Need 45 minutes to finish that proposal? There’s an opening at 11AM – block it there. Need to call back sales leads? Block it for 2:30PM – you have an opening there.
The problem is…TIME IS NOT EQUAL.
It turns out we all have Power Hours when we’re at our best, ready to perform and able to stay focussed on priorities. And then we have Productive Hours when we need to be doing easier, lower-value work, like: administration, returning calls, regular meetings, and email.
In fact, for about 90% of us our Power Hours are first thing in the morning and, again just after lunch.
So, here’s the hack.
Once you plan your hard work around Power Hours and use Productive Hours for lower-effort work you immediately improve your results.
Now, let’s look at how to harness those Power Hours.
DO THE HARDEST 50 IN THE FIRST 90
Imagine if your productivity increased by 200%, without working longer. Got your attention?
The only catch is you have to do this one thing every day:
Do the hardest 50% of your work in the first 90 minutes
That’s it – figure out what moves the needle and get it done when you’re at your best.
We all know what the hardest half of our work is. It’s usually what gets pushed to the afternoon. And then tomorrow.
For me it’s sales calls, dealing with client issues, resolving a problem with staff and finishing proposals. Those are high ROI tasks—get them done, I feel like a hero. Procrastinate on them and I feel pressure and more than likely will be working over the weekend.
The 90 minute length is not random — coauthor of The Power of Full Engagement James Loehr, writes that it’s “tied to the ultradian rhythms that regulate physiological markers of alertness at 90- to 120-minute intervals.”
In this video I show you precisely how I make my morning the most important time of my day. In fact, this is the strategy I used to finish my book, launch new events, open my new office, and fill my calendar with speaking engagements. Yup, it works.
NOTE: I’ve discovered that about 15-20% of people I’ve surveyed are not morning people – their peak work times are after lunch and well into the evening. Fine, those are their Power Hours – same productivity hack applies.
Now let’s talk boundaries.
FIRST BUILD A BOUNDARY
Many people I’ve interviewed design their day around “ramping up” to maximum performance as the day progresses. Once they create a plan, check their email, chat with Joe down the hall, and shuffle paper they expect to be firing on all cylinders.
They’re comfortable in their routine.
Uncomfortable is a very different way to show up. It’s like the day-before-vacation experience when urgency (finally) beats procrastination and for one day you are super human.
The reality is nothing happens until you get uncomfortable.
And uncomfortable is declaring every morning you have a hard-work boundary for 90 minutes. If you have to check urgent emails and double check your day timer, cool, but your goal is undistracted hard work for 90 minutes. With breaks, of course.
Maybe you start with a no-email boundary. That would be a big first step. Or do a deep dive and slap a sign on your door that reads “On a conference call (with me)”
My morning boundary has saved me from myself for the last 6 years.
My morning starts at 5AM with 2 hours of writing (like I’m doing right now.) Then it’s outside with my dog, Riley for 40 minutes. Back home, eat, get cleaned up and drive or cycle to my office. When I get to my office it’s straight into my first boundary for hard work.
By 10:30 I feel like a hero. A huge part of my day is crossed off and so is the pressure I used to feel as I got further and further behind.
My second Power Hour is typically 30 minutes after I eat and lasts for about 60 minutes. I also plan that to be highly productive and will block time on my calendar for client calls, writing, calling sub-contractors or planning.
Of course, I have to be able to work distraction-free.
NEXT REMOVE DISTRACTIONS
Trust me on this one – if you have not recently removed unwanted distractions from your workspace the 50 in 90 practice will fail faster than you can say “I need a vacation”.
Best intentions have no hope against a workspace cluttered with attention-grabbing distractions.
Here’s a quick test: look around you right now – how many things (other than small children) are screaming “Look at me! Look at me! I need attention.” It takes willpower – the ability to overcome resistance and get work done – to stick to your hardest 50 in 90 practice.
You burn up your tank of willpower every time you ignore your hardest 50 and check Facebook updates, email Inbox, notes on your desk or To-Do list. Do that all morning and your tank will be on reserve by lunch time.
Oh, I forgot – you don’t take lunch.
So, do yourself a big favour – take 30 minutes to remove all unnecessary distractions. My rule is that if it’s unfinished work, it has to go. This includes unfinished books, client files, cables, phone messages, passwords, and unopened mail.
Now there’s one last step…
NOW GET STUFF DONE
You’ve committed to the hardest 50 in the first 90 minutes. You even purged your workspace of clutter—the stage is set.
Now get stuff done.
The bottom line is our value comes from who we are and what we do. Even the Dalai Lama has to get stuff done.
The false economy people buy into is action equals productivity. So they reply to emails the minute they come in, flit from Facebook to Instagram (Zuckerberg has you both times), then over to a spreadsheet they’re updating and back to email. That’s lots of action – not much about getting stuff done.
Only results counts.
Changing routines is hard – it’s always easier to run with habits we know than to practice new ones.
Unless, the pain is big enough.
For me the pain was constantly watching important work move to tomorrow and then to next week. Sure, I was busy, but I wasn’t effective.
Doing the hardest 50 percent of your work in the first 90 minutes is all about being effective.
Oh, and one more thing. Don’t chuck the baby if you fall off the wagon once in a while. Stuff happens, expect it, get going again, and move on. I think you’ll be surprised by what happens.
