Ultimate Day Step 4: Set Your Power Work
“Creating the best four or five power work zones in your day for you is like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first so you can deliver and perform at the highest level. As a result, you can then take the best care of others: your team, your colleagues, your family, everyone in your life who matters.”
You’ve got a lot going on and you want to be productive. But if you’re like a lot of people, you may confuse what’s important with what’s urgent.
This is one of many good reasons to establish your power work zones: they help you to sort priorities. Another reason is to tap into the right brain state for the right work. When it comes to crafting your ultimate day, take time to decide on the best periods for your power work: when you match the type of work needed to the brainwave that supports it for a length of time that is sustainable.
I believe that most of us do best on four or five 90-minute sessions a day. I like to schedule and shoot for four of them because that's sustainable for me almost indefinitely. So then it’s important to think about when I put those in.
In my case, my first power zone is dedicated to creativity and strategic thinking (alpha and theta brain states). That’s when I’m reading, learning, reflecting, strategizing, writing and being creative, like with my podcasting and videos.
My second power work zone is more about execution – it’s a mix of alpha and beta brain states. I’m doing speaking sessions, meetings, phone calls, and in a pure practitioner mode.
My third has that hustle vibe that is purely beta. Business connections, sales meetings, administration, invoicing, scheduling social media, booking speeches – all the practical stuff that needs to be done. I’m generally a little more tired in this period and less creative, so this kind of work matches that well.
The last chunk of work happens in an alpha state. I’m reflecting, learning, planning. It’s a bit of a strategic time. How did my day go? What can I learn from it? What changes can I make? I’m reviewing, sorting, gathering insights and applying them.
The basic idea is to match the type of work you need to get done to when in the day you perform the best for those tasks. And to limit those periods to 90 minutes. The simplest way to start is to ask yourself when you feel the most energized, the most focused, the most creative and go from there. Mark out those zones first.
In the end, once you have settled on a schedule that works for you, you’ll be knocked out by how much more productive you are and how much better you feel at the end of each work day. We lose energy when we’re doing the wrongs things at the wrong times (or for the wrong length of time) in the wrong brain state.
You won’t always be perfect. But the ultimate day isn’t perfect – it’s the best you can craft for the best possible life. It’s putting in place the systems that maximize your value and potential. It’s putting the oxygen mask on yourself first so you can deliver and perform at the highest level while attending to your own health and wellness. As a result, you can then take the best care of others: your team, your colleagues, your family, everyone in your life who matters.
Today’s Exercise: Set your Power Work
1. Commit to trying four 90-minute work periods in your day.
2. Start with when you’re at your most alert, focused and creative and schedule that one in. Or maybe you’ll have two of those.
3. Decide when it’s best to add in the functional stuff we need in our days: communicating with others, attending meetings, scheduling, replying to emails, and so on.
4. Reflect. What went well? What insights have you gathered? What changes can you make? Are you hitting your goals?
Fill in Step 4: Set Your Power Work on pages 8-11 in the Ultimate Day Workbook to help you with this exercise.
Today’s Bonus Podcast
As a thank you, check out this podcast Here with award-winning country singer & songwriter Tim Nichols as he and Greg discuss productivity and the creative process.
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.