Double Your Productivity with a Daily Power Hour

Here’s a simple technique for making steady, daily progress on your most important priorities. I call it the “Power Hour.”
If you schedule a Power Hour every day, you can see a doubling in your daily productivity, because you’ll make time to spend a highly productive hour on your top priority.

How to Power Your Day with a Power Hour

· CHOOSE YOUR TOP PRIORITY: Select the project or activity that will have the greatest impact on your business. Something that will generate revenue or achieve a strategic goal. (For example, a block of time to send emails to prospective clients)
· CREATE A PRODUCTIVE ENVIRONMENT: Settle into a productive environment where you won’t be disturbed (example: a quiet office with the door closed). Have all of the materials you need to make progress on or complete your top priority project. Bring a glass of water or tea so you won’t have to take a break.
· ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS: Switch off your phone, close your email software, hide newspapers, etc. (The world will survive if you are off email for an hour!). If a to-do item occurs to you during this hour, write it down to do later.
· SET A TIMER FOR 50 MINUTES: Put a timer on your desk (an egg timer, watch with alarm, etc) and set it for 50 minutes. For example, if it’s 10am, set an alarm for 10:50am. This step is key, so don’t skip it!
· WORK WITH FOCUS FOR 50 MINUTES: During that 50 minute period, work only on the high-priority project you’ve selected. If the project will take several hours, then go ahead and finish off a 50-minute chunk.
· DON’T DO ANYTHING ELSE: Don’t check email, don’t make phone calls, don’t get coffee, etc. Instead, get some serious work done.
· REWARD YOURSELF: When the timer goes off, take a 10 minute break, something that will refresh you. Such as a short walk outside to get the blood circulating, enjoying a glass of water.

This is pretty simple, right? But after the Power Hour, you’ll have a major sense of accomplishment from getting a key project done (or a big piece of it done), rather than putting it off and having it hang over your head all day.

If you do a Power Hour every day, I think you’ll be amazed at what you can get done in a day and by the end of the week. When I first started doing this, I was blown away by how much more I could get done – especially on the projects and activities that bring in more clients and more income.

A couple of additional tips to make this success:
· Put the Power Hour in your calendar in advance. Ideally, you can have one scheduled for each day of the week.
· Schedule the Power Hour during the part of the day that is most productive for you. For example, many people are most productive first thing in the morning, when their mind is clear and fresh. So schedule your Power Hour before checking email, or getting sucked into the other activities of the day.
· After you get the hang of it, you can do more than one Power Hour in a day. I like to schedule two Power Hours in a row, then take a 1/2 hour break for a light meal or to talk a meditative walk. This gives me a productive block of time balanced out by a block of time to rejuvenate and refresh.

Give this technique a shot, and then leave a comment below to let us all know how it worked for you.