Before I started my copywriting business, I used to write quite a bit about productivity. Recently, I’ve rekindled my love with gettin’ shit done and want to share a REALLY exciting new project with you today.
I’ve always been fascinated by human performance, morning routines, and how super successful people get shit done.
I looove learning the behind-the-scenes of other people’s lives!
As you may deeply understand, finding a rhythm that satisfies your desire to do all of the things and be crazy successful with your desire to more or less act like a child and rebel against any and every schedule under the sun is HARD.
In other words, the adult side of my brain is constantly competing with the child side of my brain.
I want a successful business, but I don’t want to wake up to an alarm.
I want to publish a weekly blog, but I’m so distracted by Netflix.
I want to get up and move my body more, but I’m so comfortable on my couch!
I reject any schedule that feels like it’s intruding on my freedom.
Because after all, having freedom is the holy grail reason why I started my business in the first place.
This led me to develop the new productivity system that I’m trying out. I’m going to share it with you in a minute, but first I want you to understand why it’s so effective.
My quest for freedom brings me to some questions I’m sure you’ve also pondered for yourself:
Can you have a daily routine without dying a little bit inside?
Am I really capable of handling this much work without becoming resentful of my own business?
Is it physically possible for me to stick to a schedule?
You know that nagging feeling that you’re only sitting at your computer because it feels like working… but you’re not actually doing anything.
It’s so easy to fall into the pattern of sitting down at your computer in the morning and then sitting there until the evening because that’s how we’ve been told we’re supposed to work.
And sure, you might get a few things done.
You might have a burst or two of productivity throughout the day.
But let’s be honest: much of your time is spent doing one of the following…
- Getting lost on Facebook (even if you clicked over there for “work reasons”)
- Checking email and responding to emails (we love to constantly load our email for a dopamine rush)
- Daydreaming… which is useful unless you black out for 45 minutes and only snap out of it when you decide you need a snack
- Stressing out about the things you need to do and feeling overwhelmed by how you’re possibly going to tackle all of those tasks
How do you get distracted during the day? Let me know in a comment at the bottom of this post!
Recently, I had a thought…
We organize our offices and our clothes into drawers and compartments. Why don’t we do the same with our time?
In June of 2015 I read the bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. You probably did, too. That book was everywhere.
While my home is far from “KonMarie perfect”, I did take a few lessons from that book that stuck with me:
- People crave a way to organize the messiness of life
- Having a simple system with clear boundaries makes us feel safe
- There is beauty in simplifying and getting rid of clutter and chaos
I thought, how is organizing your time any different from organizing your sock drawer?
Why not apply some of the same concepts to organizing my day so that it doesn’t get cluttered with distractions that do not “spark joy” or lead me towards my goals?
On top of that, as an entrepreneur, you have to make thousands of tiny decisions throughout the day.
The problem with making all of these decisions? Each one of them taps the same energy source: your willpower.
“Unfortunately, we face a steady stream of tasks that deplete our willpower every single day.”
– Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage
This means that all of the following decisions are depleting your willpower:
- Deciding what time to wake up
- Deciding what time to start working
- Deciding what to work on
- Deciding when to take a break
- Deciding when to eat lunch, what to eat, for how long, and where
- Trying to remember random ideas, tasks, to-dos that pop into your head throughout the day
- Deciding when to stop working
After going back and forth about all of these decisions every day, you’ll be left with very little energy to actually get the work done that you need to do.
A couple of weeks ago I had this crazy idea: Why not organize the workday in 45-minute “bursts” of work?
45 minutes is enough time to get really into a task but not enough to get too distracted.
The gist of my “Sprint Sessions” system is this:
#1 You work in 45-minute blocks of time or “sprints”.
#2 You’ll have 6 sprints throughout the day (3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, but if you wake up super early, you could get them done before 2pm!).
#3 You will take a 15-minute break at the end of each 45-minute sprint.
Grab my “Sprint Sessions” printable below + start applying the Sprint Sessions to your work week!
Are you interested in trying Sprint Sessions?
I’ve created a Facebook Group for anyone interested in trying out this strategy!
It’s way easier to implement a new time management strategy if you have accountability.
If you’re interested, make sure to download the worksheet above and then come join my new Facebook Group where we can hold each other accountable and implement this system!
Aaaand just in case you’re not convinced, here is some feedback I’ve already gotten about this “Sprint Sessions” method:
“Using the 45-minute sprints throughout the day has had a major impact on my productivity and motivation. I find I spend way less time completing projects, yet I’m taking more “breaks” during the day. I’m loving it so far!” – Brittney
