60 MINUTES – THAT’S ALL YOU NEED !!

Your goal is not to work longer, but to do more during the time you have. A day has 24 hours, a week has 7 days and a year has 365 days. If you do something quickly, you will often put yourself ahead of your competitors and sweep the board. The race is won not by the runner who runs the longest, but by the one who runs the fastest. And here I have a technique that will significantly increase your productivity – a productive sprint.

Write down your one or two most important tasks for the day and do them in one sprint. Give yourself 60 minutes of your time after you:

? close all programs and websites (if you are working on the computer) that are not related to the realization of that particular task;

? turn off your mobile phone;

? resolve not to talk to anyone unless it’s necessary to complete the task;

? become fully focused on your task.

And now enter the flow state, feel the energy rising in you and start doing your task. For 60 minutes work, work, work. Do not do anything else – no trips to the toilet, looking out of the window, answering phone calls, talking to colleagues. WORK!!!

At the beginning it may be difficult – your bladder will be niggling you, you will want to check your e-mail, someone will be trying to talk to you. Over time, when you have seen the effects this style of work brings you, it will be much easier.

When 60 minutes is nothing for you – try 120 minutes. Satisfy all your basic needs, get ready, and work! Think of it as an Olympic race – in the Olympic Games you aim to finish the race in the shortest possible time and break the world record; here, you aim to do as much as possible within two hours. If you don’t like huge jumps, increase the time gradually – from 60 to 70 minutes, then from 70 to 80 minutes, etc.

If you do it right, in that 120 minutes you will complete as much work as an average employee during the whole day. Of course, there are still other things to do, but less important tasks can be done slowly or delegated to someone else.

Be like a samurai sword that cuts through but does not break.

The Japanese took care over the forging of swords. For centuries, their weapons were the best in the world. So what made the samurai sword stand out? Certainly the precision workmanship, but the secret was in the whole process.

At that time European swords were of medium quality – if the sword was to be sharp, it was necessary to use hard metal. Unfortunately, with the increased hardness, the sword became more brittle and likely to break. Another solution was to use soft metal, which didn’t break, but the resulting swords were not too sharp. What’s more, they could bend in a clash with a shield or armour. The samurai sword is something completely different – it consisted of two layers of metal, superimposed on each other.

Inside there was a soft layer, which provided flexibility and fracture resistance. On the outside, the sword was very hard, which resulted in an excellent blade. The hardening process and the use of two metals gave each Katana a characteristic curved shape. No sword could compare with Katana, and to this day samurai swords are highly desired by every collector.

I’m not telling you this to teach you about Japanese blacksmithing. When we manage time, when we plan our day, week, month, or even year, we have to be flexible, ready for changing conditions and new opportunities. Therefore, every plan changes during its realization. What’s important is to achieve the aim, not to implement the plan. Too strict adherence to the plan will make you a sharp, but easily breaking sword. On the other hand, being too flexible means that you will fail to overcome more serious barriers. You will crash into obstacles, like a drifting ship crashing against rocks.

That’s why you must be like a samurai sword hard outside and soft inside. Always leave spare time, change plans if they are bad, but have strong bases – such as those 60 or 120 minutes of productive time each day, and your key goals. In this way, you will reach a very high level of efficiency, and you will be valued as much as the highest-quality samurai sword.

Kaizen 

Do you know how long it takes for decisions made today to have a noticeable effect in your life? Six months. A whole half-year must pass for a significant change to appear.

Many people and companies introduce changes incompetently – too fast. This month I’m on a diet, and in the next, there will be a yo-yo effect. Many companies have gone bankrupt because of the inability to make changes wisely.

The changes should be introduced in accordance with the Kaizen philosophy (from the Japanese word kaizen, which means ‘good change’). Kaizen is a continuous improvement. The path to perfection consists of small steps that bring us closer to something better.

In compliance with Kaizen, it’s better to increase your efficiency by 1% per day than immediately by 1000%. It would seem that 1000% is better than 1%, but the real issue is implementing that 1000% all in one go. So instead of pushing too hard, it’s wise to make changes by taking small steps.

Guess how long it will take? If you improve your efficiency by 1% each day, do you have to wait 1000 days? Absolutely not. Have you heard about compound interest? If on the first day your productivity is 100%, with an increase of 1% per day, tomorrow it will be 101%, the day after tomorrow 102.01%, in two days 103.03% and so on. 1000% will be achieved in 233 days. It’s much better than implementing 1000% in one day and feeling frustrated when on the next day you don’t have the strength or desire to push harder.

Of course, this is not so easy – an increase by every next 1% will become more and more difficult, and so over time, the percentage increases will be lower. But if you continue to develop constantly and improve even by 0.1% each day, you will go forward and become better and better. Because it’s important that the change introduced has a lasting effect .

If you change something, you need to know if you are moving forward. Therefore, introduce measures of your efficiency. This applies to any change, not only those connected with time management. If today you are able to work productively for 60 minutes in the flow state, start measuring how much time you spend working like that during each day. If you now do 100 repetitive tasks in three hours, check how long it takes you to do them next month. Introduce measures and be consistent – only in this way will you know if what you are doing makes sense.

Do not make too many changes at once! If you haven’t mastered the basic techniques yet – start with them. If you start with more advanced techniques, do not introduce more than one at a time. Work comfortably and have everything under control, and the results will come faster than you expect.

From my experience I can say that this philosophy is worthwhile because it brings invaluable results, safety, and satisfaction for all. Good luck !!!

Should you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected] 

Dawid Bultrowicz | CEO/Managing Director | Improving Competitiveness & Profitability through Streamlining Business Operations | M&A, Executive Search, Interim Management & Consulting - Let’s Connect!