lose the box! we have grown up with the box that we have to work at least 40 hours per week, and for most of us those hours have to be monday through friday … why?
have you ever tracked what your time is actually spent doing that makes up your 40-hour work week, i did one time (well kinda), and i found that the majority of my time was re-focusing from switching tasks or spending much longer on phone calls than i needed to and of course there was some facebook time in there. the point is the lack of focus.
eban pagan teaches a concept he calls the 60/60/30 and after implementing this strategy i found that the time it took me to get all of my client work done in a given week was about 2 days, not 5-7 days like i had been spending.
so here’s how it works:
- pick a singular task, meaning do not multi-task if you have a letter to write do only that.
- dedicate 50 minutes to that task, if it takes you longer still stop at the 50 minute mark
- take 10 minute break and get away from what ever you were doing, get a drink or take a quick walk outside
- dedicate 50 minutes again to a singular task
- take a 10 minute break
- take a 30 minute break to change your thought process, for instance take a power nap or get a snack. the goal here is to break away from the strict mental focus of the 50 minute segments.
after this you start it over again, i found that if i dedicated 2 days of my week or 4 mornings everything my business needed was completed and allowed me time to play or develop new ideas. it’s pretty hard to implement on days where you have meetings, and there may be an adjustment period if everyone is accustom to you answering the phone or email immediately. just remember this is your life and you need to find a process that works best for you!
try it out and give some feedback on how it worked for you.
Thanks for the post, Emily!
The 60/60/30 strategy you described makes a lot of sense. I’m a freelance copywriter and similarly “chunk my time” so I can focus on a single project, or a few small tasks, before taking a break. The “…re-focusing from switching tasks” is so counterproductive!
I’ll have to learn more about the 60/60/30 strategy. Is there something particular about that timing that makes work more productive?
I don’t remember the exact science Eben Pagan referenced when I learned this technique, but I found another video he created with his instructions to do this for the first 2 1/2 hours of every day. After reading The ONE Thing and Essentialism I was super happy to have this already a big part of how I work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbRYPriDSw