17d • Minute Reads
What Helped Me Turn My Life Around in 8 Months...
Over my years working I've had a lot of different working styles and habits.
Whenever I see success across the time period but different behaviors, it just tells me that there are far fewer things that matter than people argue over.
For example, you'll have some people talk about how it's very important to wake up early.
Some people talk about how it's important to be a night owl.
Some people say that routine matters.
Some people say that routine is the enemy.
But when I have people asking me how I "locked in"...I almost always get questions about my work habits. So I figured I'd just give them to you:
1. Have at least 1 empty day per week.
As in 0 calls. 0 anything.
Give yourself time for unstructured thinking and finding solutions.
When I looked back at my calendar year and saw what I accomplished during those days, I made more progress during my empty days than I did during my “planned” days.
To be clear, it's not that I wasn't working those days.
It just allowed me to work on the thing that mattered most in that precise moment.
I'm just always willing to bet that present me knows whats most important more than me weeks earlier when I was planning.
Our predictions are notoriously bad, so i plan for maximum flexibility.
I currently have ~2 open days per workweek (not including weekends).
2. Not allowing for gaps in your calendar.
It's fine to have meetings or calls to make, but have them all grouped together so that you can work as long as possible on the days that you cannot have empty.
3. I prefer taking Saturdays off to Sundays.
Sundays, I prefer to think about what is coming the next week. Saturdays, I usually could benefit from a half day or full day off.
4. Not feeling guilty for the one to two hours of work in the morning.
Sometimes I just like to clear things off so that I can actually be free to relax.
5. A list system of some kind to keep track of activities.
Some people use tech. Some people use sticky notes. I tend to like writing things with a pen for whatever reason, and so I have continued to stick with that for years. I have a list for long term projects and one for short term stuff. I like both.
6. Time blocking.
When things get really intense, I start to look at my calendar and start blocking time to get specific things done rather than always starting at the top of my list every free moment I get. I find I’m more productive this way.
7. Night before hit list. I am less productive when I don't know what I'm going to do the moment I wake up.
Over time, I started making a decision about what I was going to do first thing in the morning the night before. Making that decision is almost like my mental permission to go to bed.
I share these because maybe one or more may work for you. This is certainly not a list of dos and donts, just a list of what's worked for me.
What works for you may be different.
I'm also married to nothing besides “getting it done.”
Hope this helps.
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What Helped Me Turn My Life Around in 8 Months...
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