In my new ebook entitled Time Mastery: 7 Simple Steps to Richer Outcomes I discuss the process of planning and executing a Sprint for you and your team. These are 2-week long periods in which you hyper focus on a major deliverable that you want to accomplish. These can be highly effective if you have defined the outcomes you want to achieve, have the authority to properly execute them and stay accountable the results you obtain.
As the holidays approach, you may find it helpful to schedule some Power Hours that are like mini-Sprints. These microbursts of productivity, packed tightly into one hour of time, can help you and your team enter the holiday season with a clear task list and mind.
Here’s how:
- Schedule an hour of time this week that you are able to “rope off” completely. If need be, you can let your team members know so that they can make arrangements to find assistance elsewhere during that hour. An option is for you and a set of team members to schedule the Power Hour at the same time. That way you are working in unison to get as much accomplished in one hour as possible.
- Determine which activities or tasks have been lingering around for days, weeks, or months that really need to get completed and haven’t. Things like clearing my inbox, scheduling health maintenance appointments, filing, running multiple small errands, and any number of things that have sat on the “side” of my desk fall into this category for me. Which tasks do you have that you never seem to get around to doing, but that are not going to go away? That’s your list.
- Schedule the hour for a time of the day and week that gives you the best chance at successfully executing it. When are the phones the quietest? When do you have the least amount of interruptions?
- Celebrate when you have completed your Power Hour. Doesn’t have to be big. Eat a Hershey’s Kiss if you like chocolate. Declare to the world with fists in the air “I rock!” The important thing is that you anchor the positive aspect of getting something done that you really didn’t want to do…and you had the discipline and fortitude to do it ANYWAY!
These Power Hours can be fun. Put in your headphones and listen to music from the best times you can remember. Challenge yourself to see just how many of the items on your list you can blast through with the laser focus of a Jedi warrior.