Quirky productivity hacks with Hamish Stephenson
Hamish Stephenson ?? has been listening to the same album for 25 years. Blink-182 is his favorite band and their album Dude Ranch is how he organizes his day. The album is 45 minutes long, a good length for a block of focused work. He knows how much time he has left by the song, and he knows when he needs to wrap up.
Committing to a Dude Ranch block is how Hamish avoids getting distracted by all the pings and pushes coming to his computer and phone.?
“I'm a strong believer that if you're doing 20% of 10 things, you're doing 80% of nothing,” he says. “I want to? make sure I'm actually completing tasks.”
What Hamish does is a modified version of The Pomodoro Technique, in which you manage time by concentrating on a task for 25 minutes (using a timer), then take a five minute break and do whatever you want, then concentrate for another 25 minutes and so on. Every four Pomodoros, you take a longer break.?
Twenty-five-minute blocks aren’t a practical solution for a sales pro. Calls are rarely 25 minutes long. However, the cadence of concentrate - break - concentrate is worthwhile, especially when you’re doing critical thinking tasks.?
Choosing what to work on?
Hamish uses the concept of $10,000 per hour work to prioritize his activities.??
He breaks up his work into ten-dollar, hundred-dollar, and thousand-dollar tasks, and color codes his calendar based on them. Admin work is a ten-dollar task, preparing a proposal is a hundred-dollar task, and talking to an enterprise client is a thousand-dollar task.?
This method helps avoid Shiny Object Syndrome, where you get excited about something new. If you stop and think about the value of that thing, is it actually more than what you’re working on? Often, it just seems better because it’s fresh.?
Of course, some low-value tasks need to happen. Quantifying your time helps root out the ones that can be cut and highlights where you need to find efficiencies.?
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Brainstorming
Creativity is a big part of sales, but creative work doesn't always mesh well with time blocks. Hamish has a habit to manage thinking time, too: riding his Peloton bike.
“One of my greatest skills is just my ability to ideate things quickly,” Hamish says. “The Peloton is a creativity just builder for me. When it started, I didn't really want to be working out, so I ended up playing with my phone when I was on the Peleton, just scrolling through LinkedIn. I realized how much content I was taking in and how many ideas I was actually developing from that."
Now, he goes to his bike with the mindset that he's going to come up with ideas And he does, every time. Because the bike is stationary, it's easy enough to take a note on his phone without interrupting his workout flow.
Try it yourself?
Not everyone will best to manage their time with Blink-182 (surprise!) or come up with great ideas on an exercise bike. But everyone can find something unique to themselves that makes a difference. It’s about trying different things and paying attention to cause and effect in your life.?
If you feel restless, think about your environment. Does a messy desk hold you back? Clean it and see if you feel different.?
Are you always tired at 2:00? What if you dedicate that time to admin tasks instead of thinking tasks?
Even before you find changes to make, you can start managing time better with these simple steps:
A final word from Hamish: “You probably have your own Dude Ranch and you don’t even know it.”
What works for you? Let's talk in the comments!