Start your day with a power hour
The total opposite of getting nothing done, having too many interruptions in your work, or procrastination, is productivity.
To kick start your day and continue at top pace, slip a power hour into your schedule. A power hour is one full hour without unplanned distractions, unrelated phone calls, negative self-talk with yourself or gossip with others, unwarranted pauses for teas and coffee, playing with your phone, surfing the internet on social media, and anything else that will stop you from focusing directly on the task in front of you. This is how you clear your inbox. You would be surprised how many emails you can send out in an hour. This is how you call your customers one after another. This is how you clear any backlog. When you give undivided attention to any task without distraction you will find that you build momentum and focus as you go further into that hour. The minute you are distracted you lose the drive that forces you to dive into the work you are doing and get it done. You lose time. It’s very hard to pick up a task with the same focus and energy if you have been distracted. You often go back to the job on hand thinking about whatever it was that pulled you away. The idea of a power hour is that you allow nothing to pull you away.
It’s a bit like swimming in a pool. When you go swimming you swim lengths of the pool. You normally don’t stop and have chats or go and make a coffee or look at your phone. You do what you came to do. Swim. This is just like swimming! Look for a quiet time to have your power hour. For me, it’s the first thing in the morning. I would even suggest that you wake up early before the rest of the world starts working and get a head start on the tasks you wish to focus on. More importantly, find a time that suits you. This is like an athlete training for an event. When athletes train they are training for results. They focus on one thing only. They focus on their game. It’s the same for you. Focus on one task at a time. Whatever is not needed, such as phones or the internet, remove them from your radar. If you work around other people let them know that for that hour you don’t want to take any calls or speak to anybody as you are working on something that needs your total focus. It will take time and practice. Print up a power hour sheet that you can monitor the work you are getting done each day and see your progress.
You will get results. In fact, I use this method for my writing. And, my editor is delighted with my approach!
Taken from The ‘Binman’s Guide to Amazing Customer Service’ by Oisin Browne, which can be pre-ordered on Amazon Kindle today and will be available along with the paperback on the 27th of November on Amazon. It will be stocked in Charlie Byrne’s in Galway, Hana’s Bookshop in Dublin, and O’Mahony’s bookshop in Limerick.
