It often boggles my mind that I’ve been in the blogging world for over 6 1/2 years! How can that even be possible? I think back to my early blogging days when I was blogging a whopping 7 days a week (!!) and even when I “dropped” down to 5 days a week, while also working a full-time job and some sort of “side hustle” whether that be a second job, managing bands, etc…
My hope before launching this site was to blog 3 days a week, but I quickly found that only 1 post per week seems to be the most manageable while working full time, freelance writing, and trying to manage my overall stress, anxiety, and energy levels.
I was never a big procrastinator but found over the last year or so that I was starting to pick up that tendency, and truthfully, I think it stemmed from having too much on my plate or just generally being tired. I would sit down to work on something and then allow myself to get distracted by Facebook, Instagram, email, or a show on Netflix. This wasn’t working and I knew something had to give, and ended up stumbling across what I am calling one of the best ways to increase productivity.
In no way do I think this is some profound new tactic for time management and productivity, but it’s one of those things that may be too obvious for many of us to realize when we’re in the heat of it. So what did I do?
Power Hour
Power hours don’t have to actually be a full hour as I’ve had the same success with other durations of time, but the idea is simple. I sit down for one hour of uninterrupted work. I set a timer, close my email, put my phone on do not disturb, and only use websites that I need in order to get the work done.
I can’t even begin to tell you how productive I’ve been when the alarm goes off an hour later. At the end of the time, I usually will get up to use the restroom, refill my coffee or bottle of water, and often reset the alarm for another 30 minutes. I find that hour sets the tone for what I’m doing and truthfully, when I see how much I got done, I just want to keep going. This has been most beneficial with my freelance writing work as it requires significantly more concentration for me to write than it does for me to schedule Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram posts for the blog.
While I may use this for my side hustle work, it would be just as beneficial when at my full time job. I don’t usually have issues focusing there but on the days that I do, it’s nice to have this little tool in my back pocket!
So to go over the process again, here are the simple steps:
- Grab coffee, water, tea, whatever
- Turn phone on Do Not Disturb or airplane mode, close email and social media accounts
- Set alarm for 1 hour
- Get to work
Don’t knock it until you try it!
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Do you ever do power hours? What are your top productivity hacks?
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