One size does NOT fit all.
Too often we expect ourselves (or others expect us) to fit into a societal mode of productivity. You know what I mean. Get to the office by 8 am, work till noon, break for lunch, work all afternoon, leave by 6pm. That's 2 long, long sessions of presumed focus & productivity. I don't know about you but I don't fit the mold. I'm much more productive in the morning, and in shorter sessions, so I've learned to plan my day and week with that in mind.
Thanks again to my coaches and mentors!
How did I figure this out? Some by trial and experience, but I really started to figure out my own pattern of peak productivity in a coaching group with one of my coach/mentors, Lee Milteer. (By the way, using coaches is when we've made the greatest progress both in our business and personally.)
What time of day is your most creative?
Paying attention to how and when you function best is critical to your overall time management and peak performance. Are you a morning person? Night owl? Do you work best with music, TV, in a crowd or in solitary silence? Do you plan your day the night before, or wing it? Do you find email or the telephone or social media to be a distraction or a tool? It's worth taking some time to really study this and learn to value and exploit your strengths.
Work or play?
As entrepreneurs, we have a lot to do every day if our businesses are to succeed and grow. There's no time to waste. That's not to say, by the way, that we shouldn't have downtime or leisure time. We absolutely should. That should be planned into our days, weeks and months the same as our work time is. One often overlooked key to peak productivity is balance. When you work, work. When you play, play.
A simple but effective tool
Here's a simple tool I've often used to get focused and stay productive. Take a 3x5 index card and draw vertical lines so you have 7 equal columns, titling each column for day of the week. Use the pre-printed horizontal lines for hour slots from the time you rise until the time you retire.
Now is the challenging part. You are going to write in blocks of time for regular activities you do that keep you productive. You'll want to put these activities in during the times of day when you would be most effective doing them. For example, if you write best in the morning, schedule your writing blocks in the mornings. If you have a time of day when you are less creative or energetic, choose activities that don't require creativity or high energy for those times of day.
Now post it right over your workspace or computer monitor, where you see it every day.
Want a sample?
Email me at
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and I'll send it right out to you.
To your best success,
Dom & Kerry Cassone
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