[Transcription]
Can you believe it? It’s day 21 of the Time Mastery Challenge.
Rob Brown here.
We’re going to finish the official 21-days of the challenge by spending one more day talking about how to build your ideal day. As you might recall, we’ve been building the ideal day throughout this program…in particular during the last 4 or 5 days of the challenge.
Here’s what we covered…
- We’ve talked about clients coming first, putting them first in your daily activities.
- We’ve talked about planting seeds daily, making sure client acquisition is part of your regular daily routines.
- We’ve talked about the importance of scheduling time for you so that you can do the prep work for those appointments, the prep for those prospect calls, the research that you need to do.
- We’ve talked about daily planning.
- And then yesterday, I talked about filling in the essentials, some of those other key success habits that we addressed earlier in the challenge like…
- your morning routine
- daily stand-up meetings
- midday breaks
- time for returning calls and emails.
We needed to include these success habits in your ideal day so you truly have the ability to get the most important things done, to be more productive…
…to get more done in less time.
This is what a day might look like or at least one example (see chart). As we’ve talked about throughout the challenge, sometimes it’s good to have your days look the same. That repetition keeps you on track, keeps you focused. For other folks, doing the same thing everyday is more of a challenge. It comes across as being or feels like monotony and that can drain your productivity. So, perhaps you schedule different activities on different days. So, that’s how we set up the ideal day, the ideal week so far.
Today, I want to talk about the final element and it’s why I’ve been leaving Friday blank on the calendar all throughout the challenge because here’s what I want you to plan for next.
I want you to schedule a free day every week
Let me repeat that, I want you to schedule a free day every week. So, no matter which way you do your calendar, whether you’re doing the same routines day in and day out from Monday through Thursday or you’re mixing it up on Monday through Thursday, you can just take Friday completely off. You can make that your free day. If Friday is not the best day to do it, make it Monday, make it Wednesday. It really doesn’t matter.
But you need to schedule a free day every week.
I was reading an article in Psychology Today and it said,
“Sometimes people’s ability to think about information in new and unusual ways (in other words to be creative) can actually be hampered when they wield too much brainpower.”
You know, it’s sometimes hard to come up with good, new ideas if we’re trying to look for them. We’re scratching our heads thinking “how can I fix this problem?”.
In reality, our best ideas oftentimes come when we least expect them.
I know it happens to me on a frequent basis. I have a challenge or a problem or an idea in my mind that I want to help bring forward and if I really sit down and concentrate on it, I can’t get it done. But then, when I’m away from my desk or away from the office…it might be in church on Sunday, I might be playing golf, I might just be relaxing reading a book…the idea comes out. I finally get to it because sometimes when our brains are at rest, we get those really good ideas when we least expect them.
So, that’s why you need to plan for that free time. I suggest you make it a full day each and every week. Maybe, at first, you won’t be able to build in a full day each and every week. You might start with a half day. Most importantly, your ideal schedule needs to include free time. And that means during that time, there are no calls, there are no emails, you’re not doing business-related reading, you’re not checking in with the office or fixing problems.
This is time for you to clear your brain.
To really make this happen, I want to give you a few tips. First of all, you have to plan ahead. You can’t just say I’m going to take Friday off on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock because you think you’ve worked it out. Plan it ahead. Think about the same day every week whenever possible. Second, it’s really important to keep your team in the loop, let them know that you’re planning for this free day and why it’s so important to you and to your business. And third, if your clients demand a lot of attention, tell them what you’re doing, tell them how you do it. Some of the most successful business owners, executives, athletes and artists make sure that they build a free day (or more) into their weeks.
So, I really want you to be thinking about how to really get away from those calls and emails, get away from your business and the office.
- Plan it ahead
- Keep your team in the loop
- And, if you need to, tell your clients what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
And so, what do you do on those free days?
There are a lot of different options, but, again, this is time for you. You could read. Again, not a business book but what are some things that you’ve been wanting to read but you haven’t gotten to them and set aside. You could take a class that’s not related to your business. You could pursue a hobby. You could volunteer. You could spend time with family and friends. You could play golf. There are a lot of things that you can do on the free day.
It doesn’t matter, this is your time.
So, my final tip in the official 21 days of the 21-day challenge, as you finish building out your ideal week, is to schedule a free day every week.
Thanks for listening…there will be some bonus videos in the coming days. Take care.