WEBVTT - Just aim for 90 minutes

0:00:03.020 --> 0:00:09.299
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning.

0:00:10.570 --> 0:00:16.030
<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

0:00:16.090 --> 0:00:19.970
<v Speaker 1>tip is to aim for 90 minutes of focused work

0:00:20.630 --> 0:00:25.780
<v Speaker 1>most workdays. Even if you can't spend hours on heads-down

0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.740
<v Speaker 1>work each day, you can get a lot more done

0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.269
<v Speaker 1>when you protect at least a small amount of of time.

0:00:35.050 --> 0:00:37.890
<v Speaker 1>Today's tip comes from the book Ultra Productive by Eric

0:00:37.930 --> 0:00:42.190
<v Speaker 1>Partaker and Dr. Christian Punzgen. I recently interviewed Christian for

0:00:42.229 --> 0:00:45.910
<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast, so if you haven't already, please check that

0:00:46.010 --> 0:00:50.080
<v Speaker 1>episode out. Most of the lessons in Ultra Productive are

0:00:50.180 --> 0:00:55.100
<v Speaker 1>built around the idea of 90-minute cycles. For instance, if

0:00:55.140 --> 0:00:58.020
<v Speaker 1>you would like to boost your energy, aim to get

0:00:58.060 --> 0:01:01.650
<v Speaker 1>at least 90 minutes of deep sleep a night. something

0:01:01.690 --> 0:01:05.250
<v Speaker 1>that usually requires being in bed at least seven hours,

0:01:05.890 --> 0:01:09.870
<v Speaker 1>but is trackable with different apps and wearables. We can

0:01:09.970 --> 0:01:14.390
<v Speaker 1>also think in terms of 90 minutes at work. 90

0:01:14.390 --> 0:01:17.530
<v Speaker 1>minutes tends to be about as long as people can

0:01:17.590 --> 0:01:21.550
<v Speaker 1>work without some sort of break. A good workday might

0:01:21.590 --> 0:01:25.649
<v Speaker 1>consist of 90 focused minutes on one project, followed by

0:01:25.670 --> 0:01:30.069
<v Speaker 1>a real break, then 90 minutes on another project, and

0:01:30.150 --> 0:01:34.880
<v Speaker 1>so forth. Of course, many workdays look nothing like that.

0:01:35.900 --> 0:01:41.140
<v Speaker 1>You do 30-minute or 60-minute meetings, often back-to-back. Time not

0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.550
<v Speaker 1>spent on meetings is fragmented into emails on different projects,

0:01:46.330 --> 0:01:51.690
<v Speaker 1>answering Slack messages, and so forth. But the authors argue

0:01:51.730 --> 0:01:55.570
<v Speaker 1>that you can massively boost your productivity by getting just

0:01:55.570 --> 0:02:00.340
<v Speaker 1>90 minutes of focused work time each day. You protect

0:02:00.820 --> 0:02:04.910
<v Speaker 1>one block of 90 minutes and choose important work to

0:02:04.970 --> 0:02:09.109
<v Speaker 1>do during that time. Most people get just a few

0:02:09.130 --> 0:02:11.530
<v Speaker 1>minutes of focused work time each day, the authors say,

0:02:12.510 --> 0:02:17.549
<v Speaker 1>and their work suffers as a result. What I love

0:02:17.690 --> 0:02:22.630
<v Speaker 1>about this tip is that it feels doable. Whenever I

0:02:22.690 --> 0:02:26.250
<v Speaker 1>suggest people block time for focused work, I hear excuses

0:02:26.310 --> 0:02:29.690
<v Speaker 1>about how many meetings and Slack messages and whatever else

0:02:30.310 --> 0:02:34.790
<v Speaker 1>people are dealing with. they can't carve out three-hour blocks

0:02:34.870 --> 0:02:40.760
<v Speaker 1>of focus time day after day. So, don't. Even if

0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:42.560
<v Speaker 1>you have a lot of meetings or a lot of

0:02:42.700 --> 0:02:47.120
<v Speaker 1>urgent requests, I am guessing most people in knowledge jobs

0:02:47.780 --> 0:02:51.419
<v Speaker 1>could carve out 90 minutes, even if that means starting

0:02:51.460 --> 0:02:54.590
<v Speaker 1>a little early. Put your first meeting of the day

0:02:54.710 --> 0:02:59.770
<v Speaker 1>at 9.30 a.m. Dive right into your first task at

0:02:59.770 --> 0:03:04.070
<v Speaker 1>8 a.m. and go for 90 minutes. This probably won't

0:03:04.130 --> 0:03:07.830
<v Speaker 1>take a lot of schedule overhaul. Or if that is

0:03:07.990 --> 0:03:11.090
<v Speaker 1>not an option, you might be able to do a

0:03:11.090 --> 0:03:14.269
<v Speaker 1>90-minute stint covering the time when many people take their

0:03:14.310 --> 0:03:18.270
<v Speaker 1>lunch breaks. Most people won't really question a block of

0:03:18.590 --> 0:03:22.630
<v Speaker 1>noon to 1.30 with no meetings either. Or for that matter,

0:03:22.669 --> 0:03:26.070
<v Speaker 1>it might be no meetings after 4 p.m. And you

0:03:26.110 --> 0:03:29.990
<v Speaker 1>work on focused work from 4 to 5.30 p.m. though

0:03:30.030 --> 0:03:33.740
<v Speaker 1>I suspect many people's energy won't be so great at

0:03:33.780 --> 0:03:38.660
<v Speaker 1>that point. But whatever 90-minute time slot you set, you

0:03:38.700 --> 0:03:42.700
<v Speaker 1>just have to be good about protecting it. And herein

0:03:43.420 --> 0:03:46.940
<v Speaker 1>lies the problem. Though not the problem you may be thinking,

0:03:47.850 --> 0:03:52.530
<v Speaker 1>the problem is often not other people. You might be

0:03:52.570 --> 0:03:55.440
<v Speaker 1>able to do just fine not putting meetings until 9.30.

0:03:55.430 --> 0:04:01.570
<v Speaker 1>But then many of us Interrupt ourselves. It's kind of

0:04:01.660 --> 0:04:05.440
<v Speaker 1>exciting to see what is in our various inboxes. We

0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:07.740
<v Speaker 1>like to check headlines and feel on top of things.

0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.160
<v Speaker 1>We want to look at our texts and then look

0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.920
<v Speaker 1>at all the other alluring things that happen to be

0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.360
<v Speaker 1>on our phones. Working 90 minutes straight on something challenging

0:04:18.580 --> 0:04:22.859
<v Speaker 1>is really hard. So we interrupt ourselves to work on

0:04:22.980 --> 0:04:27.120
<v Speaker 1>other things and then claim that the world won't let

0:04:27.180 --> 0:04:31.210
<v Speaker 1>us focus. I get it. I have been guilty of

0:04:31.250 --> 0:04:35.050
<v Speaker 1>this myself. But it might be worth trying to see

0:04:35.089 --> 0:04:38.800
<v Speaker 1>what you can get done. Push through the first few

0:04:38.890 --> 0:04:43.140
<v Speaker 1>hard minutes and then get into the flow. When you

0:04:43.180 --> 0:04:47.640
<v Speaker 1>take a break 90 minutes later, you will probably feel

0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:53.080
<v Speaker 1>like you really earned it. Now, I am not sure

0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.789
<v Speaker 1>that this will actually quadruple your productivity or anything like that.

0:04:57.740 --> 0:04:59.740
<v Speaker 1>One of the upsides of working for myself in a

0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.440
<v Speaker 1>creative business is that I do carve out 90 minutes

0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:07.180
<v Speaker 1>or more for focused writing probably most days. And I

0:05:07.220 --> 0:05:09.880
<v Speaker 1>don't think I am four times more productive than anyone else.

0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.120
<v Speaker 1>But many people do feel frustrated that they don't make

0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.320
<v Speaker 1>progress on big projects, or they have to carve out

0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.040
<v Speaker 1>time at night or on the weekends to get work done.

0:05:22.620 --> 0:05:27.640
<v Speaker 1>One simple block of 90 minutes, treated carefully, might solve

0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.020
<v Speaker 1>that problem. I get that people can't lock themselves in

0:05:32.060 --> 0:05:35.120
<v Speaker 1>a tower, but you might be able to lock yourself

0:05:35.190 --> 0:05:39.029
<v Speaker 1>away for 90 minutes if you are careful about not

0:05:39.250 --> 0:05:44.650
<v Speaker 1>opening that tower door yourself and shouting, hey everyone, come

0:05:44.690 --> 0:05:51.089
<v Speaker 1>bother me. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening.

0:05:52.190 --> 0:06:02.390
<v Speaker 1>And here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

0:06:02.420 --> 0:06:06.440
<v Speaker 1>for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

0:06:06.700 --> 0:06:11.339
<v Speaker 1>or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.

0:06:17.170 --> 0:06:21.169
<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

0:06:21.210 --> 0:06:25.810
<v Speaker 1>from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

0:06:25.850 --> 0:06:33.010
<v Speaker 1>wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thank you.