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How To Trick Yourself Into Getting More Done In Less Time
November 30, 2008
I used to think routines – especially morning ones – were only for the dull mindless masses who voluntarily shut down a part of their brain every day in the name of conformity to society norms.
“Live free,” I’d proclaim, shaking my defiant fist, “Viva la resistance!”
I thought that, until in actual practice of this “freedom” my life began to slowly disintegrate into a hazy mushiness where nameless days flowed directly into one another, I often forgot when I last ate something let alone when I was “supposed” to eat again, and my body was never quite sure when to go to sleep and how long to stay there when it did.
It wasn’t hell. Purgatory, maybe.
Nowadays, after realizing I get far more done in a day, look better, and feel fantastic – I’m a bit more appreciative of routine.
Like it or not, we’re hard-wired for at least SOME degree of routine in our lives. It’s one of those evolutionary-based things that’ll make you cry blood if you try to fight it.
Since we all gotta deal with routine and “time management” somehow, I’ve discovered a few tricks that have helped me get way more done in less time than I ever thought possible. Maybe they’ll help you too.
Ok, first, routine… we’ll do it first because it’s the easy one.
Just make a list (mental or actually write it out on paper) of everything you absolutely GOTTA do in a day to maintain a healthy, good-looking physical existence here on planet Earth. We’re talking life necessities here like eating, sleeping, exercising, hygiene maintenance, whatever. Make this list, add in the details that pertain to your life and congratulations… you’re now looking at everything you need to do at roughly the same times every day in roughly the same way.
Hence, the “routine” part of your day.
Why is this? Well, since your body and brain already crave some kind of routine anyway, why not feed them the stuff that’ll keep you in tip-top mental and physical shape so they can make them happen for you AUTOMATICALLY, even if the rest of your day goes to shit?
Now that you have your list, you’ve got to follow it and actually DO it… then in about 3 weeks, you won’t even need the list anymore. If you try to skip a step in the routine, it’ll feel like an annoying itch you HAVE to scratch before the day feels “complete.” This is good. This is training yourself to be at your best ALL the time, not just whenever it feels like it.
My routine in the morning has evolved into getting up, going into my study to see what e-mails await me (looking, but not touching… not yet), then going to the bathroom, brushing my teeth, looking over my bulletin board of success reminders and aspirations to put the day into perspective, then going in the kitchen to eat. After I eat, I do some exercises and take my protein shake along with 1 gram of Sun Chlorella, a multi-vitamin, magnesium, calcium, a couple shots of B12, and anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D3.
At that point, I’m awake, alive, healthy, and ready to face whatever I want for the day. And equally important, I’ve reviewed my Master Plan of what I’m wanting to accomplish and the real reasons why I want to live and breathe at all. You absolutely NEED a “Master Plan” of your own! If you don’t have this, then why are you even getting up in the morning? LIVE, DAMNIT! LIVE! 
Your routine list needs to consist of things that physically maintain your health AND put you in the right frame of mind every day. When you go to sleep at night, all the previous day’s enthusiasm and determination melt away into the night’s DreamLand. I used to wonder how to get this back, and that maybe not going to sleep at all was the answer. This is how I got into the horrible rut I told you about earlier. Don’t let it happen to you. If you’re working on a project and need to sleep, GO AHEAD AND GO TO SLEEP… your mind will reward you for it in the morning as long as you recharge it with your routine.
Ok, that’s the easy part. Now for the tougher stuff: dealing with distraction.
Distraction is the number one monster standing between us and a successful, happy, productive life. And this isn’t just distraction from “work” you gotta get done, but ANYTHING that holds you back from living how you want to live.
You’re working on something and people are coming up to you, asking questions. E-mails are coming in every minute, and your phone rings beeps chimes, whatever. Takes forever just to get the most simple thing done while the entire world burns as if you’ve got the only fire hose. Then before you know it, the day’s over and you’ve only crawled a few more precious inches toward your true desires.
If this even remotely sounds like your day, it’s time to make a change. Starting now. Not tomorrow. Now. Do it.
First, learn to let go of all that is not absolutely necessary. Yup, simple-sounding as it seems, it works. Sometimes the simple answers are best, but difficult to actually do. This one’s worth it. Believe me, most of the so-called “problems” you’re approached with during the day will either just “poof”, go away, or solve themselves while you’re busy breaking new ground and DOING WHAT REALLY MATTERS.
This also means to stop checking your e-mail. Seriously, CUT IT OUT. It’s a waste of time. I run a business and I know from personal experience how awesome it is to see those “you’ve got a new order” e-mails come in and I know how tempting it is to answer customer questions, complaints, praise, whatever and something inside you just makes you wanna do it RIGHT NOW, but… just relax. Take a deep breath. Hell, take a few deep breaths. Get focused on what YOU need to get done, and not how you’re going to REACT to all of these “extra” things. Then, when you’ve reached a break point, then and ONLY then should you schedule a time where you check your e-mail and deal with whatever’s there.
I used to have my e-mail on auto-check, every 5 minutes. The little sound was dinging all the time. But my writing and my life dramatically improved the moment I decided to shut down Windows Mail completely and only open it once or twice a day. Do it.
Speaking of scheduling times, you need to group similar tasks together. Oh man, this little strategy ALONE has saved me TONS of time! Just do it. If you have a lot of calls to make, rig it to where you make them all at once, one right after another. You’ll be amazed at how much time this saves over spreading it out over the day and doing it “whenever.” It’s so important I’ll say it again: GROUP. SIMILAR. TASKS. TOGETHER.
Your body operates on it’s own kind of “rhythm.” To get the most done in a day, you need to work WITH this rhythm instead of against it. You’ll know you’re working against your body’s internal rhythm the moment you feel the need to gulp some caffinated coffee or shock yourself into a burst of energy with sugar, like from a donut or whatever.
You should never need to do these things.
To start working with your body’s rhythm, after your morning routine you need to get yourself in a room and FOCUS on working on ONE SINGLE IMPORTANT THING for 50 minutes. That’s all, just 50 minutes. Set a timer if you must, but just do it. 50 minutes of hardcore, pure focus and attention with NO interruptions. Then take a little 10 minute break and think about something else. Now you’re at an hour. Get back to work for another 50 minutes. Pure focus, dedication. Afterwards, another 10 minute break where you think about something else.
Now you’re at 2 hours, which is one CYCLE of your body’s rhythm. If you’ve followed this and worked hard and distraction free, you’ve gotten a shitload of stuff done. Now that you’ve been at it for 2 hours, this time take a 1 hour break, and go veg out completely. Do something completely unrelated to the task you were on.
And then… when your hour’s up. Get back to work, just like before in 50 minute blocks interspersed with tiny 10 minute breaks. Do the whole cycle 3 times during a day. This gives you nearly 6 hours of highly productive work and enough breaks to recharge your batteries and fill the remaining 2 hours for a full 8 hour work day.
Trust me YOU WILL BE AMAZED at how much you get done, and maybe even more importantly how AWESOME you will feel after having done it all. Instead of being exhausted after work and not wanting to do anything, you’ll feel enthusiastic, energized, and HAPPY… ready for whatever’s next. Playtime, family time, personal time, whatever. Enjoy yourself. Get what you want. That’s what we’re all here for anyway.
If you’re in business, you need to figure out what your time is worth. This isn’t some “pie in the sky” exercise in egotism, either. It’s real, down to earth stuff. To do it, simply take the income you wish to make per year, and divide it by the number of working hours you want to do in a year. This’ll give you some number, maybe a pretty high one. You might not be used to making this much “per hour” but if you start ACTING like your time is worth this much, then one day it really WILL be worth this much.
Why is this helpful? Well, for one, it helps you put things into perspective when hiring people to do the things you don’t need to be doing in your business (a.k.a the “detail” stuff, the things that don’t really bring in the cash, but still need to be handled – like answering customer questions, shipping packages, and issusing refunds.)
Consider this: if your time REALLY IS worth $150 per hour, then why are you taping up boxes and delivering them to the FedEx guy when you could hire some other dude to do that for $12 per hour? And you know what? At that price, he’d be thrilled to do it for you. And do it right. All while you’re over somewhere else doing what you do best.
Now earlier, I kept talking about doing only what is most important, most vital to moving you ahead, but how are we to know what these things are?
I can’t point out the exact ones for your life, but I can help you find them. Here’s some ideas that will help you.
So far what I’ve talked about involves having a solid vision for what you want in life and how it will make you feel to live in that reality, having clear priorities of things you need to do to get there, and then finally the daily “discipline” (its not really discipline if you trick your brain to do it as routine) to make it all happen.
When compiling your daily do-do list, ask yourself these three questions:
1. Is this something I could delegate/eliminate? (like I said before, learn to “let go” of some things… it’s tough at first, but it’s holding you back. Try to only do the things you are absolutely the BEST at, things for which you are irreplaceable. For example, with me, the writing I do for my business is what I need to focus on the most. It’s the thing that brings in the money. Everything else is just details.)
2. Is there some way I could do this in half the time? (example: Why have the meeting next week? Why can’t we have it tomorrow (or better yet, this afternoon) and go ahead and make our decisions? Why not invite others to be in on the meeting so I won’t have to repeat all the information back to them?)
3. Is this related to an objective that will truly make my life better/richer/fuller? (if it ain’t, why are you doing it? Do only the highest priorities, the things that really matter to the life you want to live.)
To help with this, one thing you could ask yourself is: “Of these things I gotta do, which one will be more important to me at the end of my life?”
We all have the same 24 hours in a day. The only difference between you and the next guy is how you use it. You need to do fewer NUMBERS of things, but each thing you do having vastly more SIGNIFICANCE to your life.
The oft quoted “Pareto Principle” says:
Twenty percent of the things we do will achieve 80 percent of what we want. (And in fact, it’s also interesting to note that 20% of damn near anything in life is far more deserving of your time and energy than the other 80%… we tend to only wear 20% of the clothes in our wardrobe as our “favorites”, in business 20% of the customers make us 80% of our profits, etc etc etc… so what it all comes down to is constantly identifying the 20, separating it from the 80, and focusing only on that. Then doing it again, and again… and again.)
So ask yourself, “Which tasks that lay before me are among that golden 20 percent?”
Give yourself the power to take control of your time. It really is one of the “big non-secret secrets” to success. And in doing so, you will begin to get what you want and smell the roses along the way.
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Tags: body rhythm cycles, dealing with distraction, getting more done in less time, goals, happiness, life, pareto principle, routine, success, taking control of life, taking control of time, time, time managementTopics: Money & Business | No Comments »
