What if you had just one (more) hour of focus time today – without working an extra hour?
You arrive at the office knowing exactly what you want to accomplish – and you have blocked the time to do it. The time comes, and you’re able to start efficiently and stay on-task and make exactly the progress you wanted. You complete the tasks without uninvited interruptions. You go on with your day and leave on-time for dinner with the family and some downtime. You sleep soundly and look forward to the new day.
Nope. This isn’t some utopian fantasy.
It is possible when you develop the right habits and routines – and surround yourself with the right people. The secret to getting there is having both a system to teach you the plays, and the support to help apply what you’ve learned in the real world.
But let’s start at the beginning. And that’s finding that extra hour of focus time without having to work longer.
The most common challenge – and the reason people fail at these kinds of changes is they try to do too much too soon. Then they don’t stick with it. As a result, they don’t see the benefits – and they give up. Don’t let this happen to you.
Avoid this trap by picking a single thing to work on and stick with it for at least a week to see how it works for you – and then adjust as needed. Just give it enough time to get traction.
A great starting point is to make specific and intentional commitments to yourself in advance. For instance:
- Decide what your “on-time departure” is going to be – the night before. Mark it on your calendar. Plan your day around it. Don’t schedule anything for the half-hour before so you can run your shut-down routine. Simply setting that intention and making it a goal increases your chances of making it. Without a goal, the work will expand to fill the available time.
- Decide on the first two things you will do each morning – before the chaos of the day starts. Get organized the night before. Block time on your calendar and be “out” – just as if you had a morning appointment out of the office. That way when you arrive you can get right into your one or two most important things without interruption.
This is how you recapture the hour a day – and get home on time.
It will take time for this to work. If you can do it 3 of 5 days the first week you’re doing pretty well.
Once you get some momentum on this, pick one more thing to incorporate – then repeat.
-Doug
P.s … You are 65% more likely to meet a goal after committing to another person. Your chances increase to 95% when you build in ongoing meetings with your accountability partner to check in on progress. Share your commitment to me so you can get to the 95%. If you want the 95% then let’s talk. Click here to pick a time.