These are all phrases we either hear or say every single day. Whether we’re at work or out with friends everyone seems to be so busy all the time. This doesn’t really work for me, I don’t want to live a busy life. I want to live a life of purpose and action but not to have that feeling that I’m rushing around all the time making it impossible to fit the important things in. Often, we’re busy for the sake of being busy, and we aren’t actually doing the tasks which are going to level us up and move us forward because we’re ‘busy’ with all the crap which makes us feel like we’re achieving something then wonder why we’re in the same place as we were 6 months ago despite having ‘worked really hard’.
I’ve spent the last year trying to really understand the best way for me to manage my day to mean I get the most enjoyment, achievement, and satisfaction. What I’ve learnt is that actually, if we properly split our tasks into ‘types’ and priorities effectively we don’t need to rush around and ‘be busy’. What I’ve also learnt is that every single person has their own most effective way of working. Some are great early morning, some are great last thing at night so trying to fit into what someone else does because that’s the ‘done’ thing is like trying to wear someone else’s jeans and wondering why they don’t fit.
We live in a world of 9-5, where we are expected to work this daily structure because this makes the most sense however there are many people who operate on a totally different internal schedule making the 9-5 arbitrary and painful. We’ve all heard someone says ‘I’m not a morning person’ or ‘I’m useless after 3 pm’ or ‘I don’t sleep until 2 am because that’s when I’m most productive’ but those people are made to slot into the 9-5 workday because this is what the world requires of us.
Moving to Bali one of the first things I realized that one of the main drivers of people moving here, apart from the sun, sea, and food obviously, was that people wanted to have control over their time. The perception may be that people don’t work out here in Bali, they just surf and drink Buntings but actually over the last year I’ve met some of the most creative, entrepreneurial, dedicated, hard-working people I’ve met in my professional career. The difference between them and the people I worked with at Accenture? They run their own time schedule. They know they’re awesome at 5 am but finished by 3 pm, or they know they’re a night owl so they work with US clients while in the Indo time zone (12 hours difference for the East Coast and 16 for the West Coast) so they can work through the night and rest in the day. These remote individuals have identified when they’re most in their flow and when is the best time for them to rest, exercise, read, create, socialize learn or whatever it is that they enjoy doing in their spare time.
I’m from a family of morning people, we love waking up early, seizing the day and have often achieved more before 9 am then most have by lunchtime. My Mum has always said that she loves the fact the world is still asleep, it keeps her calmer if she has a more hectic work schedule then normal and because a lot of us work for ourselves, it means we can start early as there is often no need for a commute! Recently I spoke to my cousin, a very successful entrepreneur about working hours, he said he’s best to work from 12 pm into the evening, then have dinner and rest. This absolutely would NOT work for me, as I’m best when I get going early and finish early and spend the rest of my day creating, resting and reading.
At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to get more awareness of my working day and the time I was spending on certain types of tasks. I knew that if I could fit my tasks around me, rather than me around my tasks, I’d be able to gain some control and ensure I was getting enough done. We all know that feeling of being in ‘flow’ where we’re doing the thing we’re awesome at, which is what sets us apart and levels us up but we rarely reach it because we’re bogged down with the crappy tasks of life. SO, I went through all of the tasks I needed to do and decided to split them into 3 categories: do, think and create. I also started to put a little *star* next to the tasks which were going to enable me to ‘level up’, for example, to learn and apply a new marketing strategy.
Let’s go a little more into the 3 types of tasks
In our day we need a blend of all 3 but weighing too heavily on one type of activity is likely to make us unhappy and unable to get to where we want to get to. Additionally, we need to ensure we do the most important task (the ‘level up’ task) FIRST. We have a certain amount of focus and willpower in a day and we use it up as we go, like fuel in a car. SO, if you spend the first part of your morning in ‘do’ ie. emails, organizing, admin, you’ve got no fuel left for think and create and THAT is when we stop leveling up. Do you think or create tasks first, then put you ‘do’ in the afternoon (or whenever your brain is needing a bit of rest).
The following exercise is the exercise I did:
Aim for ONE level up task per week. Level up tasks are the ones we put off: writing blogs, reading books, building our personal brand, start that project but they’re the ones that help us get to where we want to get to in the next 6 months, a year or 10 years. Do them FIRST, once or twice a week. Watch your life level up.
Once we start accepting that there is no ‘one size fits all’ method, we can start moving towards fulfilling our potential. Having an awareness of your time and when your best in the day means we’re setting ourselves up for success. Remember: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.