Get Work Done

Step 1. Prepare Yourself for Work

You are the one who does your work. You do the work with your own body and your own mind, and your body and mind need to be ready to get the job done.

Our bodies are not machines; we have natural biorhythms that must be respected. Our bodies need food, water, and sleep.

Here are some ways to prepare your body and mind for work:

Sleep. Your brain needs rest. A tired brain just can’t perform high levels of thinking. A well-rested brain just functions better. Most people need 7-8 hours of consistent nightly sleep to function at peak levels. If you have had less than 7 hours, you are probably better off sleeping one more hour than working one more hour – your remaining work time will be that much more productive.

Know Yourself. Everyone’s biorhythms are a bit different, but we all have them. Some people get their best, most creative work done in the morning. For some, it is the afternoon. Some do not peak until the sun goes down. Figure out when your most productive 2-4 hour stretch is. These are your Golden Hours. You must use them if you can.

Take a Break. When we are busy, we often cannot see the forest for the trees. We can go into information overload. Our brains can’t focus on anything not directly in front of us. I can tell when this happens to me. I usually can see the long-term effects of a decision, but when my brain is overloaded, I just can’t. I read, and the words just slide off my brain. People talk to me, and I feel like words bounce off me. Time for a break. Brain rest during the day is important if you want to be productive.

Take a walk. Go to lunch. Meditate. Exercise. Don’t take your smartphone. The world will survive for half an hour. The tactics change, but the strategy remains the same. Give your brain time to reset.

Eliminate Open Loops. Our brains are cool. They don’t want us to forget things. They will loop information in our subconscious to ensure we don’t forget. The more loops we have going, the less brain power we have available for work. Worse yet, when our brains have a lot of loops, it lets us know we may be forgetting something, which creates worry. Now we are really in trouble. Eliminating open loops is critical if you are a busy person who wants to actually think.

You can eliminate open loops by creating and maintaining a task list. Place it in a trusted place and one that you will check and update regularly.

Take this Test: Think of 12 items you need from the grocery store. Then go to the store, without a list, and shop. Later, do the same thing but with a list. Were the experiences different? It is for me. There is way less stress if I close the open loop by writing the list in a trusted location.

Step 2. Prepare Your Environment for Work

So, you’re well rested and ready to work. When and where we work, however, are also important.

We live in an amazingly connected, demanding world. Everything is competing for our attention—social media, the news, spouses, children, co-workers, clients, vendors . . . . The phone beeps and buzzes and shows you angry red numbers next to the apps that are being ignored. Email stacks up. Calendars send alerts and reminders.

We only have so much attention to go around, and all of these things take away a little piece of our brains, a piece that’s unavailable to get things done. The good news is that we can reduce these demands and focus on work without moving to Walden Pond.

Here are a few ways:

Divide Your Work Day. Every hour is not your golden hour. Our bodies don’t work that way. If you have figured out when golden time is, set that time aside for what’s important and use the rest of the day for reactive work: e-mails, phone calls, meetings, administration, paying bills, etc.

Decide What’s Important to Do. Setting aside golden time to work on what’s important doesn’t help if you don’t know what's important. First and foremost, for entrepreneurs, what’s important is what is closest to money — what task can I perform right now that will result in revenue as soon as possible?

My mantra is “money in the morning” — morning is my most productive time, and I try to set aside time to work on things people are paying me to do. Afternoons are for business development, administration, etc.

Avoid the Culture of Done. Our culture is laser-focused on “done.” We love to cross things off the to-do list. This can lead to spending our golden time doing simple, easily done tasks—responding to emails, returning a phone call, writing a short, simple letter — but those tasks are often unimportant. Often, the important stuff languishes because it’s too large, too daunting. It won’t be done today.

Avoid that culture. Take the big, important task and divide it into smaller, doable components, and only put the next step on your to-do list.

Create a Distraction Free Environment for Golden Time. Golden time requires a distraction-free environment for our best work. What this means to you will vary wildly from what it means to me.

Some people need a clean desk; some do not. Some people need a change of scenery to work — a conference room or a different location altogether from where the busy work gets done. Most people like to do their best work in the same place every time; some have to change it up occasionally. Some people like music, some want silence.

Figure out for yourself what you need and create that environment. Whatever your distraction-free environment is, it does not need interruptions. Interruptions kill productivity. No phone, no social media, no email, no staff intrusions. Just work.

Use Your Tech. Limiting interruptions seems nearly impossible these days. We are just too connected to every device, and they are insatiable at demanding our attention. Tech may be the enemy of focus, but we can also use tech to help us.

Take time (but not golden time) to learn how to use your tech. These days, devices have many cool features that can help you. Most devices have settings that allow you to temporarily turn off these interrupting notifications. These devices even allow you to designate certain people who can interrupt you and filter everyone else out. Work with your tech to help you create your best work environment.

Step 3. Do The Work

You are well-rested and prepared to accomplish important work during your golden hour in a distraction-free environment. How do you get it done?

Don’t clear the decks. If you are like me, your brain will try to trick you into not working one last time. Your brain will say: You just need to clear the decks before you get at it! Close the open loops of “I got a Facebook notification” or “Let me just check my email inbox real quick.” Don’t do it.

Once golden time starts, it's all about the work. Don’t clean. Don’t check. Don’t peek. Just get to it.

Do not multitask. Multitasking is a myth—or at least a misnomer. When we do two or more things at once, we do each of them less efficiently than if we had just done them serially. I know — you’re different. Good for you! But can you pass this test?

Write out, longhand, you’re ABC’s. Time yourself.

Now, write out, in longhand, the numbers 1-26. Time yourself.

Now, write out the ABCs and the numbers 1-26 simultaneously, alternating between the lists. A-1-B-2-C-3 etc. Not one jumbled list; two lists done at the same time. Time yourself.

Most people take longer to write the combined list than they took to add the first two lists together. Just focus on one important task at a time.

Be Invictus. Golden time is what separates the doers from the distracted. It is game time. It is the battle. You need to be Invictus during golden time. It’s what matters.

So schedule golden time regularly – a regular, steady, predictable half hour daily, every day gets more done than a once-per-week binge. Make golden time a high-value activity. It’s not the thing you do if nothing else comes up. It is your work. The rest is reacting to other’s priorities.

Conclusion

Don’t give in to distractions. Your brain will try to get you back to just eating empty calories. Don’t let it. Be Invictus. Focusing and getting work done will get easier and easier as you do your work regularly.

About the Author

Scott Pfeiffer is a business management consultant who helps his customers engage in rigorous strategic planning and implement those plans with operational excellence. For more information, visit his website at www.fscottp.com.