Key takeaways
- Simplicity is the key to success if you want to have the perfect day.
- Keeping the steps to accomplish something, like the perfect day, limited to three makes it manageable.
- The three steps to a perfect day are: take time for yourself each week, set your sleep and wake schedule to prepare you for optimal productivity, block out one to three hours to engage in deep work.
- Accomplishing these three steps will take your days from mediocre to great.
I like to keep things kind of simple so I can keep track of them. For instance, the concept of three steps to do, achieve, or get something appeals to me. When it gets beyond three steps, it’s tough for me.
I have three steps to share with you today. It’s called “The Perfect Day Formula” and it’s actually a book written in 2015 by Craig Ballantyne. Recently, I read an article about this book, and there have been many more articles discussing it in the past. It goes through the three things you can do to have the perfect day.
3 steps to a perfect day
Believe it or not, the very first thing he talks about is relaxation and rejuvenation. This means taking time for yourself — for free time. Typically, you’d do this on weekends. If you’re married, you schedule a date with your spouse. Plan to do those things that help you rejuvenate and relax. Without this time to renew yourself, it gets really difficult to do the things at work that lead to productivity.
The second step is to take a look at things that affect productivity. For instance, set the time you go to bed and the time you get up, then have a reverse alarm. What’s a reverse alarm? One hour before bedtime, the alarm goes off and that signals you to turn off electronics and the TV. You could do some light reading or something else that prepares you for a good night’s sleep. It’s important to know when you’re going to wake up. Then you’ll be ready from a productivity standpoint.
The third step talks about a concept called “deep work.” Cal Newport actually wrote an entire book about this in 2016, aptly titled Deep Work. Taking this third step involves scheduling something like a one to three hour block of time, depending on what’s best for you, to do the thing that’s most productive for you. Often we refer to this as your Unique Ability(R) — a term we get from the The Strategic Coach(R) Program. It’s about being in the place that you’re most productive. You schedule that with this third step. After that, fill everything else in. It doesn’t really matter how or when. The rest of the things that take up time in your schedule are meetings and other events that happen throughout the day.
If you get these first three steps right, you’re going to have really great days. Maybe they won’t be quite perfect, but they’ll be very fulfilling and you’ll get so much more done. You’ll feel like you’ve accomplished a lot and as if you’re making progress each day. Until next time, enjoy.
Gary
