focus

A Confession

I’m lazy.

And I’ll tell you why in a minute.

If you recall, last Wednesday I wrote about why you should show up every day.

And then on Friday, I shared some thoughts on Hustle.

(As a side note, I received more feedback from last Friday’s article about hustle than on any other article in recent memory.)

Which is why today, and over the coming weeks, if you’ll permit me, I’d like to continue on in this conversation…

There are three projects in the works right now. All of which are designed to help you show up every day.

  1. Focus Camp: A group of hundreds of folks who’ll all be going through The Focus Course together.

  2. A special project I’ve been working on with my friend Brett Kelly (of Evernote Essentials fame) that we’ll be giving away for free to everyone that signs up for Focus Camp.

  3. Something else that I’m not ready to announce just yet.

* * *

Now, as I said, I’m lazy.

And I’m not being hyperbolic.

Every evening after my two boys go to bed all I want to do is eat ice cream and watch Netflix.

Or, in the morning, when I sit down to my desk with coffee in hand, ready to work. So often I’d prefer to browse the Internet until lunchtime.

But if I spent the first half of my work day surfing the web, I’d never get around to writing.

Which is why diligence is so critical to living a focused life and doing our best creative work.

Now…

What if I told you that you could “automate” hustle?

Or, in less nerdy terms…

What if showing up every day was a natural part of your routine?

Good news: it can be.

It’s hard at first because inertia is working against you. But it gets easier as you build momentum.

Diligence is a muscle you can strengthen. It’s a skill you can learn. A character trait you can cultivate.

If you choose something long enough, eventually it will choose you back.

On Friday I’ll share with you a few of the small things I do to help keep my laziness in check so that showing up every day is simply a part of my routine.

* * *

By the way, getting clarity and diligence is what The Focus Course is all about.

If you go through the course with a group of people I promise you it’ll be way more fun and it will be much harder to quit.

Please join me and several hundred more folks as we go through the course together starting June 8th.

A Confession

Why You Should Show Up Every Day

Because if you do, you’ll be more creative, you’ll make more money, you’ll improve at your craft, and you’ll build an audience. And gosh-darnit, people will like you!

I’m completely serious.

You may never write a NYT Best Seller or have a billion dollar exit. But showing up every day to do your best work will absolutely leave you better off.

Diligence is the single most important component to creativity and building a business.

Just ask these clever guys:

“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.” — Ray Bradbury, hard-working writer

“The keys to success are patience, persistence, and obsessive attention to detail.” — Jeff Bezos, hard-working entrepreneur

“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.” — Chuck Close, hard-working painter

Do you see why diligence is more important than money, talent, relationships, audience, tools, or anything else?

It’s through your diligence (your persistence) that you build those assets.

Showing up every day is how you go about making money, developing your skills, building relationships, growing your audience, and mastering your tools.

Showing up every day means you have passion and focus. Why else would you do what you’re doing?

(Of course, there’s more to it than just showing up. You’ve got to be intentional about how you’re spending your time. (Work smarter, not harder.) But that’s a topic for we’ll get to later.)

* * *

Here are a few other advantages to showing up every day:

  • By showing up every day, you’ve stopped waiting passively for inspiration to mosey on by. Instead you’ve turned the act of doing your your best work into part of your daily routine. Now you’re playing offense.

  • Doing focused, creative work every day is challenging and, at times, even mundane. Your diligence helps you build a resistance so you don’t quit when it gets difficult.

  • The consistency of showing up every day, providing value, and showing your work is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your audience and establish true fans.

  • After a few years of showing up every day to do the work, you’ll have invaluable experience and perspective about how seasons of life go up and down. You’ll have a better story to tell about your work. (This goes hand-in-hand with developing your resistance to the mundane.)

  • Diligence in one area of your life will bleed over into other areas. It’s a skill you can learn.

  • Quantity leads to quality.

  • Quantity also breeds confidence. The more you do something, the more confident you become. Stick with it and you’ll slowly take ownership. You’ll realize you’re a writer and not just someone who writes; a photographer and not just someone who bought a camera; an entrepreneur, not an imposter.

  • Showing up every day removes the pressure of having to have a huge breakthrough ASAP. No single day becomes more or less important than any other day — the value is in the aggregate.

* * *

Isn’t it silly to think that as creative and entrepreneurial folks we should live without routine, discipline, or accountability?

Showing up every day is the best thing you can do for your business, your creativity, and your platform.

Give your ideas and your goals a fighting chance.

Why You Should Show Up Every Day

Quality is a Probabilistic Function of Quantity (Part 7)

(Or: Why The Fastest Route to Doing Your Best Creative Work is to Show Up Every Day, Ship Early, and Ship Often.)

This is part seven in a series on creativity and entrepreneurship. You can find the previous articles here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

* * *

As people who care deeply about what we do and what we create, our goal is always quality. We’re aiming to write or design or record the best work we can; always seeking to get better.

Like I said last week, as a creative person, it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the end product. You have this idea — this clever, beautiful, amazing thing you see in your mind. You want to make that, and anything less is unacceptable.

But, when you’re there, in the mire of your own work, it usually feels like anything but quality. It usually feels like crap.

As a writer, I never cease to amaze myself at my inability to find the words I am looking for. And then, when I can’t find them, I have no choice but to use the less-exciting words which have come to mind rather than those perfect ones which always seem to escape me.

It is in those moments where I have to remember that quantity leads to quality. Or, put another way, I’ve become comfortable with falling short of my own lofty expectations.

Today, the goal isn’t perfection. It’s far more simple: The goal is to show up and do the best work that I can.

Don’t believe that you must chose between creating a lot of something, or creating one thing that is a masterpiece. The former leads to the latter.

Yes, I want to be a fantastic writer. Yes, I want to write engaging, clever, and quotable works. Yes, I want my articles to be insightful and memorable. But I’ll never reach it if I quit while things seem poor. I cannot allow myself to only write when it feels inspired and en route to greatness.

If we sit around and wait for quality it won’t come.

Quality must be pursued.

In an article in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell cited psychologist Dean Simonton and brings up Simonton’s argument that quantity does, in fact, lead to quality:

The psychologist Dean Simonton argues that this fecundity is often at the heart of what distinguishes the truly gifted. The difference between Bach and his forgotten peers isn’t necessarily that he had a better ration of hits to misses. The difference is that the mediocre might have a dozen ideas, while Bach, in his lifetime, created more than a thousand full-fledged musical compositions. A genius is a genius, Simonton maintains, because he can put together such a staggering number of insights, ideas, theories, and observations, and unexpected connections that he almost inevitably ends up with something great. “Quality,” Simonton writes, is “a probabilistic function of quantity.”

In his book, Deep Work, Cal Newport also argues that along with the ability to focus, quality is a byproduct of quantity.

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

He then goes on to say that, “unless your talent and skills absolutely dwarf those of your competition, the deep workers among them will outproduce you.”

Moreover, the idea that quantity leads to quality is the same case Geoff Colvin makes in his book, Talent is Overrated. Stating that the world’s top performers are, for the most part, people just like you and I but who have (a) put in far more hours practicing their craft and (b) made the most of their practice time by practicing with intentionality and deep focus.

“One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple, but it isn’t easy. It requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.” — Russell Brand

* * *

Consider the fairytale of Goldilocks and the three bears.

Goldilocks happens upon the home of three bears while they’re out on a walk. She comes in and tastes their porridge, sits in their chairs, and sleeps in their beds.

The first bowl of porridge was too hot; the second, too cold; but the third was just right. And likewise for the chairs she sat in and the beds she napped in.

So it is in our pursuit of quality, excellence, and breakthrough…

At first we feel like intruders; imposters. Everything we put our hand to is not quite right. Too hot, too cold, to big, too small, hard, soft.

But then, after enough perseverance and focus, eventually, we create something that’s just right.

Quality is a Probabilistic Function of Quantity (Part 7)

The Five-Minute Rule

The first five minutes are the hardest.

To prove it, I just set a timer for five minutes.

You see, I’ve been thinking about this article all day.

Yet, despite all the mental preparation I’ve done for what needs to be written, now that I’ve sat down to do the work, I’m very disappointed to discover that it’s still not writing iteslf.

So, as I said, I set my timer.

Five minutes.

I can muscle through.

Write anything and everything I want. Just keep writing for five minutes until I find a flow.

By the time my five minutes is up, the writing won’t be so hard. And then I’ll have the momentum I need to finish out the whole article.

You’re smart. And I bet you’ve figured out by now that the Five Minute Rule goes for so much more than writing.

Those five minutes it takes to crawl out of bed and into the car to drive to the gym…

The first five minutes of brainstorming for a new project…

The first five minutes of a new logo design…

You get the idea.

Any time we’re sitting down to focus on something other than the television, it takes time to warm-up to the task.

This warm-up time is also known as “activation energy”.

Activation Energy refers to the energy required to start a new task. Which, for the record, is always more than the energy required to maintain that task once we’re in the zone.

It’s not unlike sending a rocket up to the moon.

That rocket burns tons and tons of fuel just to get itself into orbit. But then, once that momentum is established, the amount of energy needed to stay on course is a fraction of what it took to get off the ground.

(And there’s my timer… Let’s keep going.)

What if you could set things up in advance so that you didn’t have to expend so much energy to get started?

If we know that the first five minutes are the most challenging, then the smart thing is to make those first few minutes a little less challenging.

You do this by reducing the activation energy.

Which is a nerdy, science-y way of saying:

Do something today that will make life easier later.

It’s right in line with the advice of my sweet and wise grandmother. “Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today,” she said.

My friends, this is also my single most important piece of advice to those of you wanting to get more control of your time and attention.

If you can get ahold of that concept then it will help you to be more proactive.

It will help you build up your personal integrity.

And it will make your day-to-day life’s work that much easier because you’re building your own momentum.

What is something you can do today that will make your life easier in the future?

* * *

 

P.S. Just a quick reminder that my class on time management is now available on demand.

The Five-Minute Rule

My Grandmother’s Inspirational Quotes

My grandmother loved to print out inspirational quotes and phrases.

She’d either put them into the picture frames she bought at garage sales, or she’d just tape them up on the wall or refrigerator.

There was one printout in particular that I still remember well.

It had some of her values — the things she tried to live by.

They were short phrases:

“Be the first to say hello.”

“Compliment three people every day.”

“Live beneath your means.”

“Let the first thing you say brighten everyone’s day.”

“Always think the best of other people.”

“Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.”

Lately I’ve been thinking about that last one…

“Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.”

…and I think I may have had it wrong.

* * *

My grandmother knew that tomorrow would have enough craziness of its own. So her advice was to not put things off if you can do them today.

But I always thought of that in the context of work…

My grandparents started a new business in their late 50s. After they sold that one, they started another.

My grandfather — who lived to be 100 years old — told me that he tried to break a sweat every day.

If my grandparents had anything, it was work ethic.

But her advice wasn’t just about work and business.

I think it was also about relationships, finances, and more…

Don’t put off encouraging someone else if you can do it today.

Don’t put off living beneath your means if you can do it today.

Not that I’m going to print out an inspirational quote anytime soon.

…but I do need the occasional reminder to be proactive with my time and energy if there’s something I can do about it today.

 

 

* * *

 

P.S. If you also want to get better at doing what you can rather than putting it off, then I think this new class could help you tremendously.

My Grandmother’s Inspirational Quotes

A Focus on Time: Available Tomorrow (Here Are All the Details)

For the past couple months I have been putting together a class on time management. It will be available tomorrow.

The class was originally built in response to the feedback I’ve been receiving from those taking the Focus Course and the Elements of Focus. That, after completing the course, the topic people still wanted more training on was how to manage their time.

Since announcing the class a few weeks ago, we’ve received hundreds of emails from folks who are sharing their biggest challenges and struggles related to time management.

Because of the volume of feedback, the content of the class grew to more than double what I had originally planned.

There is a complete table of contents below, but some of the main themes addressed within the class include:

  • How to create a time management system that works.
  • How managing your time can empower a spontaneous and open schedule.
  • How to get breathing room in your day.
  • The importance of valuing relationships over efficiency.
  • Using your time to do work that matters and build your business, side project, etc.
  • Surviving in a meeting-loving, urgency-centric office culture.
  • And so much more…

The class consists of 30 MP3 lessons which add up to 5 hours worth of audio.

It also includes 7 PDF worksheets you can use for getting clarity about your time and scheduling your day.

* * *

 

Here is a complete breakdown of the class contents…

1. Introduction

A brief intro to the class and what to expect.

2. Meaningful Productivity

Any time I talk about focus, diligence, or productivity I have to lay the groundwork first. And so, before we dive into the nitty gritty, I give an overview of why it’s important to know what’s important to us in the first place.

3. Time Management Cliches and Myths

We all know that time management is a subject as old as… well… time. So let’s address some of the long-held cliches and myths head on.

4. Setting Goals and Priorities

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life’s made of.”

Ultimately, managing your time is unto something — it’s a means to an end. And that end is the living of life. How we spend our time is, quite literally, how we are living our life.

Therefore, if we’re gong to focus on time, it helps to have an understanding of how to properly set goals and priorities.

5. Overcoming Specific Time Management Challenges and Struggles

Based on the hundreds of emails we received from readers interested in the class, we compiled the most common challenges and struggles and addressed them directly.

  • How to Make the Most of Our Time
  • How to Get a System That Works
  • How to Estimate How Much You Can Complete in a Given Timeframe
  • How to Keep From Overcommitting
  • How to Be On Time More Often
  • The Tyranny of the Urgent
  • How to Thrive with a Variable Schedule
  • How to Overcome Procrastination
  • How to Deal with Distractions and Interruptions
  • How to Create Margin for your Time
  • How to Keep Your Schedule
  • How to Be Productive at Home

6. Time Management Strategies and Tactics

In addition to addressing the above specific challenges, I share over a dozen specific strategies and tactics to help you with your own approach to time management.

The best Time Management system is one that empowers you to spend time doing the things you want and need. These strategies and tactics are practical advice you can use right now to get control of your time without having to memorize some sort of new-fangled, massively-complex productivity system.

  • Quick Wins, Strategies, and Tools for Time Management
  • Planning Long — and Short — Term
  • How to Create a Time Budget
  • The Note
  • Attention Charter
  • Pomodoro Technique
  • Themed Days
  • Media Consumption
  • Automation and Delegation
  • Accountability and Community
  • Cognitive Energy and Saving our Strength through the day
  • Better Defaults and Spending Down Time Smartly
  • Honesty, Clarity, and Action
  • Time Management: Recap (The Main Points)

Accompanying Schedules and Worksheets

  • Attention Charter
  • Annual Work Plan
  • Annual Family Plan
  • Monthly Plan
  • Weekly Schedule
  • Daily Rest and Work Focus
  • Daily Schedule

Available Tomorrow

Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 8), at 10am EST, the class will become available.

When you sign up, you’ll have access to all the MP3 and PDF files at once. You can go through them at your own pace in order, or listen to the individual lessons that are most relevant to you now.

Update: It’s available now.

A Focus on Time: Available Tomorrow (Here Are All the Details)

A System That Works (for You)

Everyone wants a time management system that works. One they can stick with. One that’s not a pain in the butt.

What does that even mean?

A system that works, looks like this:

  1. It empowers you to do the things you want and need to do.
  2. It aligns with your personality.

Without those two characteristics, your “system” will be little more than a burden.

That’s why I use paper. Even though it’s far more convenient and modern to use a digital system.

Keep this in mind:

  • Time management (and focus and diligence, et al.) is an ever-moving target. As seasons of life change, and as priorities change, it helps to make sure you’re still spending your time well.
  • There’s not a “one size fits all” system. What works for that girl over there may not work for you, and what works for you may not work for others.
  • Being focused with your time takes work. (If you’re looking for something that requires no maintenance, no thought, and zaps you into an organized, stress-free, productive individual let me know if you find it.)

The reason I use a pen and paper is because I enjoy it. The analog aspect adds a bit of joy, which, in and of itself, is enough grease for the skids to keep me on track with using my system.

I’m also stubborn enough that I stuck with my system long enough that it became a part of my day, and it’s no longer something I have to fiddle with. If you’re trying to incorporate something new into your life, it may be a few months before it takes root.

The details of how I manage my time, while they may be interesting, they aren’t all that important. It’s the underlying principles that inform my time management system. Ideas that can be used in any time management system no matter how busy or not someone is.

Diligence and focus are not personality types; they are skills that can be learned.

You have more power over your time than you think.

A System That Works (for You)

The Key to Success? Diligence.

As I mentioned yesterday, working from home brings a whole slew of unique challenges related to time management and focus.

We already know that busywork is a poor substitute for doing work that matters.

When you work for yourself it is so much easier to get caught up in the busywork.

I discovered this first hand about a year and a half ago just after our big relaunch of the new Tools & Toys website.

A couple of months after the relaunch I realized I was spending the best parts of my day checking traffic and affiliate stats. What a total waste of my time!

So I made some big changes to my day. I’m going to share some of them with you in a second.

But first…

My history with tasks and time

Lest you get the impression that I am a naturally organized and administrative person, I’m going to let you in on a little secret:

As a kid, my room was once so dirty that my parents literally brought in the snow shovel to help me clean up all the toys on my floor.

When I got older, I kept track of important things by writing them on my hand.

It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that I even began to care about tidiness, organization, being reliable, etc.

I used to see a schedule like a jail cell. I considered schedules to be constricting and prohibiting. I thought a schedule would keep me from having fun or living a spontaneous and free life.

Actually, it’s the opposite.

Managing your time is liberating. (Just as a budget liberates your finances.)

A financial budget empowers you to spend your money on the things you want and need.

And a time budget — a.k.a. a schedule — empowers you to spend your time doing the things you want and need to do.

The key to success? Diligence.

It was five years ago that I quit my job to begin writing full time.

There are many things which have contributed to my ability to continue writing (as opposed to crashing and burning and having to go get a job at Starbucks).

But, by far and away, the most important component to building a business is diligence.

It’s more important than money, talent, relationships, audience, tools, or anything else.

Those resources and assets are all very important to be sure.

But unless you show up every day and give focused time on the most important work, you’re not actually building anything — you’re just shuffling the cards.

Without taking control of my time, there’s no way I’d still be here today, writing for you from my basement office.

There are many things that are part of my day-to-day life which help me to stay on track and show up every day.

But I think these are probably three of the most important “practices” which help me stay diligent with my writing.

  • I mostly ignore email. Just ask anyone who’s ever emailed me. I’m terrible at it. But I’m terrible on purpose. It’s something I’ve chosen not to give much time to so I can focus on writing and “creating” content.

  • The Note (a.k.a. my editorial calendar). This is something I’ve done for quite a while now and it helps tremendously with making sure that each day when I sit down to do my writing, I’ve already got a plan in place for how to spend my time.

  • Schedule every minute. Yep. I take about 5 minutes each morning and schedule out every minute of my day. This liberates my day and helps me make consistent and meaningful progress on projects without working wild hours or feeling anxious.

(I share much more detail about my approach to planning and scheduling over here.)

* * *

Something I’ve learned over time is that diligence and focus are not personality types. They are skills.

You can develop the skill of being diligent.

You can get better at showing up every day.

You can work that muscle of focusing your time and attention.

I’m still getting better at it myself. (I’m not longer writing my schedule out on my hand, thank goodness.)

Next I want to share with you some thoughts about getting a system that works… a system you can stick with… a system that helps you.

Continue to the next post »

The Key to Success? Diligence.

Dodging Meetings Like It’s My Job

Yesterday I shared with you about how I ended up as the marketing and creative director for a large Christian ministry.

In that role I had complete autonomy of my schedule. And I learned quickly that I had to set priorities and boundaries for my time, and choose how my time needed to be spent. If I didn’t then I would literally fail at my job.

Today, as promised, I want to share about some of the things I did to protect my time and stay in control when I was in the midst of a very busy office culture.

Tomorrow, I’m going to share about some of the things I do now to protect my time as a self-employed, work-from-home dad.

First, an aside about meetings…

What’s the deal with meetings?

Just about everyone I know seems to have a strong dislike of meetings.

Even the word… “meeting”… it sounds like “meatloaf” — another thing that many people have a strong dislike of.

I recently received an email from a reader who said one of her biggest challenges related to managing her time was dealing with the deluge of meetings:

I work on a team where there are meetings to prep for the meeting, and then meetings that come from meetings with follow up meetings for action items from the meetings. If you were to look at my outlook calendar you would see I rarely have blocks of time for focused work. It’s more like 30-60 minutes before the next meeting…

When I was the marketing director and leading the in-house design team, I was so afraid of having too many meetings. I treated meetings like fire. I knew they were necessary, but I didn’t want them to get out of control.

I also had to be careful about which meetings I allowed myself to attend. So often I’d spend an hour or two in a meeting with no outcome whatsoever. A literal waste of time. (I quickly learned how to spot time-waster meetings and began avoiding them at all costs.)

But meetings in and of themselves aren’t bad. (Same goes for meatloaf, too, actually. My wife has a meatloaf recipe that’s to die for.)

Meetings can be an invaluable tool for making forward progress.

The problem is that most meetings don’t result in progress.

Or, the forward progress is disproportionate to the length of the meeting.

Or the number of people in the meeting is 5x what it should be.

If you can relate, consider if there is something you can do about it. I’m serious.

What can you do in order to take control of your time at work?

You have a job to do. Are meetings and interruptions standing in the way of doing that job?

As I mentioned yesterday, when I took over as the marketing director, I had to get proactive with my time. That meant doing some crazy things to protect my schedule. And I’ll share those in just a minute.

But the reason it’s so important for you to have control of your schedule is that if you don’t, you’re not doing your job.

If your job is to work on a certain project but you’re also in meetings all the time, respectfully and honestly ask your managers which they’d prefer you do.

You can’t be a maker while working in a manager’s schedule.

Protecting Your Time is Always Applicable

After three years working as the marketing director, I quit that job in 2011 to work from my basement as a writer.

I’ve been writing full time for 5 years now. And so much of what I learned then about protecting my time still applies today.

Except these days, instead of protecting my time from meetings and interruptions, I have to protect it from shiny object syndrome and the incessant tug to peruse Twitter.

The things I learned also apply to my home life. So much of what I learned about being productive in the midst of a busy job also helped me with being productive once I became a dad. (Which, by the way, is something I talk about at length in the Time Management class.)

If you can get hold of a few basic skills for protecting and managing your time then you can use them in all sorts of seasons of life.

A Few Tricks

As promised, here a few of the tricks I used as the marketing director to thrive in the midst of that wild and crazy job position.

  • I would (politely) turn down meeting requests, even with people who were my superiors. When I was invited to a meeting I always tried to find out what it was about. And sometimes I’d ask to be excused if I felt that my presence there wouldn’t be valuable to the group nor to my own job.

  • I got one of those super-dorky bluetooth earpieces so I could call my mom more often. We had three different campuses. My office was at campus C but most meetings were at campus A. I drove back and forth often. And, in order to make the most of that 15 minute drive, I got a bluetooth earpiece so I could more easily have conversations while commuting. It was an excellent way to “meet” with someone over the phone. And it was great for catching up with my folks on a regular basis.

  • I’d schedule meetings with nobody. This was a trick I learned from someone wise. He would schedule meetings with nobody. What I mean is that he was always getting meeting requests. So, on his weekly schedule were two blocks of open time set aside for meetings. When someone would ask to meet, they would get slotted into the next available time.

  • I even scheduled meetings with myself. I needed at least 2 hours every day to work without distraction. So… I scheduled it. Then, if someone wanted to meet with me during that time I could tell them I already had something booked (because I did).

  • I worked from home on Fridays. Not only did I need 2 hours a day of uninterrupted time, I also needed one whole day of deep work. This was when I would do the sort of tasks such as planning, strategizing, etc. that should take a couple of hours minimum to really make meaningful progress.

It seems like a pompous thing to say “I’m taking the whole day on Friday to work from home. Nobody call me.” But, it was the right thing to do. It was necessary.

If I hadn’t taken time to focus on things such as planning and budgeting then my department would have ended up in big trouble and I’d have been out of a job.

I had to take that time so I could focus on the important work and plan for our long-term goals and objectives.

When it comes to office culture and meetings, there’s this sense that if you’re not in the meeting your missing out. We think people who skip out on meetings are slacking off. When, for all we know, maybe they’re actually getting real work done. ?

After I took the role as marketing director, I decided early on that I wanted the results of my work and the culture of my team to speak for my ability rather than my meeting attendance record.

Looking busy and being seen is a mighty poor substitute for doing work that matters.

Sadly, meetings and busywork are what so much of our corporate culture values these days. Because it’s what’s easiest to quantify in the short term.

* * *

Now that I work for myself, I have new tactics. But the ideas behind my tactics are still the same.

Next, I want to share with you what I do nowadays to keep in control of my time.

Dodging Meetings Like It’s My Job

Control

It was April of 2008. My wife, Anna, and I were driving to St. Louis from Kansas City.

Somewhere in the middle of nowheresville on I-70, I got a phone call.

There are a few moments in my life that I look back to as being keystone moments. Small events that signified and connected to something big.

This phone call was one of those.

Before I continue, let me give a little bit of context…

Just a few weeks earlier, my boss at the time had informally offered me her job as the Marketing Director for a large Christian ministry. We had met in her office where she told me she was quitting and asked me if I was interested in taking over her job.

The chance to be a leader? The chance to have my own office? The chance to pick my own hours!? You bet I was interested.

However, before I could “officially” be offered the job I had to be vetted and interviewed.

The vetting process took about a week. They had me come to a meeting where they asked me lots of questions. And they had a meeting without me but where they talked about me and the job I was up for.

I had no clue if they would actually offer me the job or not.

I was just a kid. Or at least I felt like one. I was a mere 27 years old. Everyone in those meetings had at least 10 or 20 years on me. Plus, I was a college drop out — I had quit after my freshman year to go play drums instead.

The final interview meeting was at the same time I was driving to St. Louis. They said they’d call me. And that’s the phone call I got.

I was ready. If they offered me the job, I knew I wanted to accept.

Though the job would mean more work, more hours, more responsibility, and more unknowns, I knew it would be a ton of fun. I knew it would be a huge opportunity to learn.

Well, they did offer me the job.

For the next three years I served in that role as the marketing director.

It was a trial by fire, and I loved it. The job, the team I was privileged to work with, the work we did — I’m so proud of it all.

I learned so much during those three years. I learned about management, team dynamics, budgeting, leadership, communication, marketing, audience building, and more.

But what I learned about most was time management and decision making.

I had to learn the hard way how to get good at spending my time.

I discovered very quickly that I alone had to be the one to take ownership of my time and attention.

I’d spent the previous 27 years of my life being told how to spend my time. From childhood, going to school, having a job — everywhere I went there was someone telling me when to show up, what to do, when to take lunch, when to go home, when to go to bed, etc.

But suddenly, in my new job as the marketing director, I had complete autonomy of my schedule.

I quickly learned that I had to set the priorities, the boundaries, and choose how my time needed to be spent. If I didn’t then I would literally fail at my job.

I’ll say that again:

If I hadn’t been proactive about taking control of my time, then I would have failed at my job.

This meant I did crazy things to protect my time.

And now that I work for myself, I have to be even more proactive with my time (though not quite as crazy).

I’ll share more about all of that tomorrow.

For now, think about this: Being in control of our time is a lot like keeping a clean house. A few hours of hard work over the weekend can transform a cluttered home into a peaceful space. The challenge is in keeping the home tidy on a daily basis (especially if you’ve got kids).

So too with how we spend our time. Once we get that initial grasp of control, the challenge becomes how to stay in control (again, especially if you’ve got kids). Staying ahead of the whirlwind. Keeping the time to do meaningful work even though our entire office culture seems to thrive on incessant meetings.

Next, I want to share some of the tricks I used as the marketing director to thrive in the midst of that wild and crazy job position.

Control

Solve Those Distractions

In the past week I’ve gotten literally hundreds of emails from folks regarding time management.

As people are signing up for the time management class that launches next week, I’ve been asking them about their biggest frustrations in terms of managing and scheduling their time.

By far and away one of the biggest challenges I’m hearing from people is that of distractions and interruptions.

In light of that, I wanted to share with you a quick and simple activity you can do to help with those distractions.

Try this:

  • Take a sheet of paper, and draw a line down the middle from top to bottom.

  • At the top of the left-hand column, write “Distractions and Interruptions”.

  • Above the right-hand column, write “Solutions”.

  • Now, list out as many distractions and interruptions you can think of. Anything and everything that stands in the way of you doing what it is you want to do.

  • Then, next to each one, list a possible way for how you can remove that distraction or interruption.

This is a play straight out of The Focus Course, and the idea is 2-fold:

  1. For one, you won’t be able to implement a solution for every single distraction and interruption on your list. But I bet you can solve at least a few of them. And every little bit helps.

  2. Secondly, and most importantly, this gets you in the driver’s seat. It’s a way for you to be proactive when it comes to those external distractions that get in the way of doing your focused work.

Solve Those Distractions

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule

Ben Franklin Daily Schedule

That’s a copy of Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule. I’ve written about this before, but (for obvious reasons) I wanted to return to it today.

What I love about his schedule is how open and simple it is. Though it was a routine, it was very forgiving for all the nuances and variables that each day’s tasks and priorities seem to bring.

He had only six blocks of time scheduled each day:

  • Getting ready for the day: shower, breakfast, personal study, and prepare for work (3 hours)
  • Morning work (4 hours)
  • Review of current projects and to eat lunch (2 hours)
  • Afternoon work (4 hours)
  • Dinner and rest and wrapping up the day (4 hours)
  • Sleep (7 hours)

So simple yet still structured and helpful.

From time to time I take a look at my own daily schedule to make sure it’s serving me as well as it should be. Because I want to be the one who sets my schedule just like I am the one budgeting my finances.

A schedule, just like a financial budget, is there for the purpose of serving my goals. A schedule makes sure the minutes don’t get away from me. It helps me keep from squandering my time.

As a creative person, I’ve found the structure of a schedule is extremely empowering.

I used to think the opposite. Many folks still do think the opposite. They think “time budgets” are oppressive and that a schedule is something only prickly people do. Well, that’s silly.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

There’s no good reason a creative person should live without any sort of routine, discipline, or accountability.

What is margin if not a constraint that keeps us from overflowing our borders? It is by living with constraint that we are enabled to do our best creative work.

If you’re struggling to get a simple yet helpful schedule in place, maybe there’s something from Ben Franklin’s day that could inspire you.

Consider setting a block of time each day for something that’s important to you.

A Focus on Time

Speaking of time management — you don’t have to be (or live like) a founding father of the United States to get the most of your time each day.

I like to schedule every minute of my day, but that doesn’t mean you have to.

While you may be feeling bummed out at your current approach to time management (or lack thereof) the good news is this:

Diligence, focus, and deep work are all skills that can be learned.

As I announced yesterday, in a little less than two weeks I’m launching something that will help you tremendously. It’s a class on time management.

It’s a class for people who dislike schedules just as much as it is for those who love them.

(Go ahead and read that last sentence again.)

Now, if you’re asking how that is possible, let me tell you…

It’s possible because taking ownership of your time and attention is different than merely implementing a few quick tips for how to rock a Day Runner.™

Focus, priorities, time management, etc. are important because they’re about loving life. Again — not for prickly people, but for all people.

Which is why A Focus On Time promises to be equally relevant for those who adore spontaneity as well as those who thrive in administrative.

This is a class for those who want to get the most of their time — their life — every day.

Go here to find out all about the class and sign up to be notified for when it comes out. You’ll get first dibs at early-bird pricing, and I’ve got an updated version of my PDF ebook about procrastination that I want to send you as my way of saying thanks.

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule

A Focus on Time

A Focus on Time

Things like diligence, focus, priorities, saying no, time management, and the like are important. But why?

This quote by Benjamin Franklin pretty much sums it up for me:

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

Focus, priorities, time management, etc… These are important because they’re about loving life.

* * *

It’s been about 9 months since The Focus Course came out. And a few months ago I also began offering the free Elements of Focus class.

Between Focus Course members and those who’ve gone through the free class, the number one area of feedback has been a request for additional training on time management.

Therefore, I’m putting together exactly that:

A Focus on Time

This is a brand new class by yours truly, focused on scheduling, prioritizing, and time management. It launches in two weeks.

Click here to find out more about the class, and sign up to be notified when it launches.

A Focus on Time