10X Your Productivity With One Small Habit

After doing some reflection, I realized that I had slowly drifted away from

A key habit I learned from my mentor Darren Hardy – one that seemingly and effortlessly 10x my daily productivity

 

The habit – “Book-ending” my days.

Everyone knows what bookends are right?

You see them on a book shelf – One on the left – books in the middle –then another on the right.

 

They hold the books together so they don’t fall over…

 

When you bookend your day, you hold your goals for the day together.

You can’t control a lot of the madness that goes on throughout the day

missed appointments, interruptions, unexpected problems, things that

distract you from key work…

…things you cannot control

 

However, you can control what you do first thing when you get up in the morning

as well as the last thing you do before you go to bed ( i.e. – your bookends)

 

The Hack

Set aside 30-90min each morning and each evening.  Time where you have complete,

uninterrupted focus – No Distractions, No Email, No Facebook, No Phone

 

Just you and your focus

 

During this time of focus, do one number key task you have planned for the day.

 

Do the same right before you go to bed Set aside 30-60min of uninterrupted focus

Finish your last key task of the day, reflect on the day, and prepare for tomorrow

 

It doesn’t sound like much, but it can be really powerful!

Especially if you actually do it every day, because it adds and makes a huge impact to how much

you can actually get done.

 

In the words of W. Clement Stone “big doors swing on little hinges”

 

Why does this work?

 

Uninterrupted focus accounts for about 80% why…

Think about your day, when do you ever really have complete focus?

Most people never have 100% focus on the task they are doing

with out interruptions.

 

If your still not sold on how important full focus with out interruption is

Check out Dave Crenshaw’s Multitasking test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCeGKxz3Q8Q

 

The other 20% comes from your “first thing in the morning bookend”

…the one you do before everyone has a chance to “get at you”

I find it catastrophic to not do my morning bookend first thing in the morning…

Though, I often do the evening one in the afternoon or early evening

 

Then every night about 15 right before I go sleep, I keep a gratitude journal

where I write down 3 things (or people) I’m grateful for and why.

 

I find it helps refresh my mind, and keep a positive perspective.

When you go to bed with “head trash” or being ungrateful, you typically wake

up feeling the same way the next day.  It’s much better to start and end your day

with gratitude and bookends.