“We’re going to end this meeting early, and give you back 5 minutes in your day!”
Are you thinking::
🍻Yay! They just gave me the gift of time? Or,
🤮 What can I do with 5 minutes?
What if it’s an hour?
All time is not created equal.
From fresh produce to corporate real estate, most things are graded (and priced) based on quality. So why not think of grading time – and how you can best use it – in the same way?
Case in point:Like most of us (50-60%), my peak quality time for doing focused work is in the morning to early afternoon*. But despite this, I used to set or accept meetings for any time of the workday. While I realized I couldn’t push all meetings to the afternoon, making a concerted effort to do so allowed me to spend my peak quality time doing work that requires quality focus.
The takeaway? Know your peak time. Then, DO this!
Protect your peak thinking time like a dog with a bone: Identify your “prime hours” for focused work and guard them fiercely. If you’ve done The Difference Lab with your team, this is way easier, since you’re all preaching from the same songbook. Use this time to do your most important work, like strategic thinking, innovation, and creative projects.
Use small pockets of time for checklist stuff: That extra 5 minutes could be perfect for quick tasks like replying to a couple of “urgent” emails (in quotes because, let’s be honest, how many emails really are?). You can use those 5 minutes to tackle “micro tasks” where quality thinking isn’t critical.
Give your brain a breather: Even a 5-minute “brain breather” can improve focus, reduce mental fatigue, and lower stress. Imagine using every 5 minutes you got back to just breathe?
When you view – and spend – your time through the lens of quality, it gives you more quality time to spend on what matters most.
*We each have our peak productivity and brain performance times. Here’s a lesson on chronotypes - and whether you’re an owl, lark or middle bird.
Try This Subtraction
Stop obsessing over small mistakes
In his excellent newsletter One Thing Better, Editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine Jason Feifer shares two proven strategies to help you deal with the nagging sense that you could have done a better job at something. These strategies are the perfect antidote to the perfectionism that acts as – in The Difference Lab parlance – an “onerous obstacle” to subtracting:
Fight counterfactual thinking. In other words, thinking how you could have done better. Instead, imagine the downside, or, how things could have gone worse. The latter thought pattern is actually proven to parlay negative feelings associated with your performance.
Bell curve your self-perception by viewing your performance through the lens of how others view it. Give your definition of success a reality check.
I’ve just begun this one (it’s hot off the presses!) and already, I’m appreciating the author’s fresh take on work. She starts by admitting that work is not working for most North Americans. But rather than take a cup half empty POV, Schulte shares anecdotes and gives tangible examples of how work could work.
Share Your Tips!
What do you do to maximize your focused, productive time? We'd love to share reader tips in an upcoming newsletter.
