One Hour A Day Will Make a Difference
We’ve talked about Time Stealers and Time Stretchers, but now let’s get to one of my favorite solutions which is the “Power Hour.” This could absolutely transform your business.
The key is to do this 4-5 times a week consistently. (ouch, I know you hate when I use that ‘consistency’ word!)
It’s more effective to practice your piano 15 minutes a day than to practice it an hour and a half once a week.
Consistency is the key not only in practicing the piano, or working on your voice, your typing skills, your marriage, your parenting and also in your business. Whether you do a Power 30 minutes or a Power Hour – it’s important to be consistent. I suggest for a growth goal: 5 days a week whether you have another job or not and regardless of how many kids you have.
A must-have for this is a timer. I really prefer the old fashioned tick-tock-tick-tock kitchen timer. Mine looks like a ladybug because my youngest picked it out. I like the stress of the tick tock. It reminds me that I’m on the clock. You must have a timer.
Also useful would be a Planner Sheet. Lately I’m really loving ruled index cards. They’re 4×6 ruled index cards held together by a spiral. There are about 100 in there and this is my little planner that I’m using. You might want to use a white board or a printed out sheet. That’s up to you. Don’t rely on your memory or something ON YOUR COMPUTER. Be tactile. Commit with pen and ink to your ‘critical power hour list.’
Here are some rules for your Power Hour.
- No incoming anything.
- No incoming emails.
- No incoming texts.
- No incoming Instant Messaging.
- No incoming Skyps.
- No incoming phone calls.
- No incoming ____________ – none – during this time period.
Here are some more guidelines…
- No perfecting.
- No editing.
- No tweaking.
- No adjusting.
- No researching.
- No blog-surfing.
This is production time.
You’re going to be thirsty and hungry and without a bathroom break. You’re going to go without cream in your coffee …period. End of story. Are you getting the picture?
Get a nail gun and nail your rear end to the chair for one hour.
It’s only an hour. It’s amazing how hungry we get when we sit down to focus. It’s amazing how thirsty we get when we sit down to focus. It’s amazing how we suddenly have to go to the bathroom. Go before you set the timer. Get your beverage, your snack, whatever, then get on the timer.
The key for this is to focus on one or two priority tasks. Ideally, this is one to two income-producing tasks or things that have been slowing your progress.
This is not a delivery time. This is not for coaching calls or ‘old business.’
What have you been putting off? What are you late on delivering? What is nagging at you? What are you scared of?
I can hear you justifying, “I’m already so busy. I don’t have time. Where am I going to find an extra hour?”
Solutions:
- Get up earlier.
- Stay up later.
- Turn off the TV.
- Stop reading books for a period of 6 weeks (gasp) and implement instead. I currently have a trial separation from my Kindle to avoid distraction 😉
- Take your materials with you while you’re waiting on kids in piano, karate, soccer, football, cheer, etc. Don’t gossip with the other parents or yell at the coach. Invest that time in your business.
- Have a job? Eat at the office and work on your side business during your lunch hour.
How badly do you want your business to grow? How badly do you want to be out of debt? How badly do you want to affect other people’s lives? You must want it badly enough to sacrifice personal comfort and complacency.
If you don’t want it badly enough to get up early or go to bed late or turn off the TV and really FOCUS, then no ‘strategies, tactics or systems’ are going to work for you. You’ve got to be hungry for it. You’ve got to need it. More importantly you must WANT it.
What time will your Power Hour be? How many per week will you have? I can’t wait to hear how you plan to implement this in your business building schedule!