Motivation Monday | Owning the Hours of your Day

This morning I browsed through my large collection of Audible books purchased throughout the years.  I'd like to revisit those titles again.  Rereading books is probably one of the most powerful things you can do.

When you take the information in for a second or third time, you will undoubtedly notice new insights missed during the first go around.  I'm also a different person than when I first listened to the book so I will process the information differently.  I know for a fact that I'll pick up something new.

After searching through several pages of options.  I decided to relisten to The Power of an Hour by Dave Lekani.  This is book the best place to start because if I can create a system for making my hours more productive, I can accomplish just about anything.

The premise of the book is that we all have the same number of minutes in an hour, it's how we choose to utilize our time that will make all the difference.   Most of our time is occupied with responsibilities outside of our control. But everyone can carve out an hour to make a real impact in their lives.



The Power of an Hour discusses a concept called Fearsome Focus.  We all know how essential focus is to achieving goals and making intentions real.  The ability to focus is what separates successful people from those who struggle.  Whenever I find myself in disarray, I know I've lost my focus.  When I'm getting things done and making huge progress, it's because I've maintained focus and entered into a state of flow.  Dave encourages us to set aside 45 fully focused minutes an hour.  During these 45 minutes, you allow ZERO interruptions.  The last 15 minutes of the hour can be used to decompress, answer emails, etc.

Sometimes I have a hard time focusing for extended periods, so instead of working in a 45 minute chunks, I prefer to use 20 minute blocks.  To ensure I stay focused the entire 20 minutes, I use a little kitchen timer.  Knowing that I have a limited amount of time to work really heightens focus.  Those 20 minutes go by really fast. By the time the buzzer rings, I'm actually happy to reset the timer so I have another 20 minutes to work.

A friend of mine routinely texts me to ask how things are going with my business.  Sometimes I tell her that I'm demotivated and not getting much done, other times I boast about how productive my week has been.  The ONLY difference between the two outcomes is MY LEVEL OF FOCUS.  One time I practiced a full week of focus as a personal experiment.  I made the conscious decision to give 100% attention to whatever I was working on.  No multitasking, no jumping from one thing to another.  Just focused attention.  That week was like nothing else I've ever experienced.  I was amazed by what I was able to accomplish.

I definitely want to get back to that place again.  My plan is to dedicate at least 1 focused hour a day on actions that will continue to create results long after I'm done.  Ideally, I'd like to get in at least 4 focused hours a day, but if I can only operate in FULL FOCUS for at least an hour, I'll be very grateful

I love Chris Brogan's quick video on breaking out his day into six major chunks of time. It's simple and easy to replicate.