“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” — Aristotle
Your Outcome: Add Power Hours to your week and use your best energy for your best results. By guarding your peak hours throughout the day, and applying them where you need it most, you dramatically improve your ability to achieve faster, better, and easier results.
Welcome to day 17 of 30 Days of Getting Results based on my book, Getting Results the Agile Way. In day 16, we learned how to use metaphors to find our motivation. Today, we learn how to increase the number of power hours we have throughout the week. By adding Power Hours, we keep our energy strong and we achieve more than would normally be possible.
Out of your week, how many hours are hours where you actually feel like you are on top of your game and getting your work done or making your ideas happen? Many people I know get the bulk of their work done in a short period of time. They have to. They only have a few uninterrupted hours where they can fully focus and produce their results. They’ve mastered their Power Hours.
The beauty of the Power Hour is that It’s a small block of time. It’s YOUR peak hour and it’s YOUR force multiplier. You can deliberately turn more of your hours, into your peak hours to multiply your results.
If you’re already working on the right things, the right way, I can’t think of any stronger multiplier to your day than using your best energy to amplify your results.
3 Keys to Results
Here is a simple mental model for thinking about how you can impact your results:
Here is a simple mental model for thinking about how you can impact your results:
Basically, you can throw more time at something, or you can change your approach or your technique, or you can change the energy or effort you apply. The key is to spend the right time, on the right things, the right way, with the right energy. That’s the true secret of faster, simpler, easier results.
Power Hours are Your Peak Hours
A Power Hour is simply an hour where you are “in the zone” and at your best. It’s a term I heard often while growing up, whether it was somebody having a “power hour” when they worked out, or having a “power hour” on the job. On the job, a “power hour” meant that you are firing on all cylinders, clearing hurdles with ease, and plowing through your work in an unstoppable way, with energy and zest.
A Power Hour is simply an hour where you are “in the zone” and at your best. It’s a term I heard often while growing up, whether it was somebody having a “power hour” when they worked out, or having a “power hour” on the job. On the job, a “power hour” meant that you are firing on all cylinders, clearing hurdles with ease, and plowing through your work in an unstoppable way, with energy and zest.
Why Power Hours
Not all hours are created equal. Some hours are better than others throughout the week. There are many reasons to add more Power Hours to your week, but here are a few:
Not all hours are created equal. Some hours are better than others throughout the week. There are many reasons to add more Power Hours to your week, but here are a few:
- Power Hours are the key to exponential results They are your force multiplier. I’d rather have four Power Hours, than forty non-peak hours.
- Power Hours are exclusively yours. They are your peak hours. Your batteries are charged and you are ready to go.
- Power Hours refuel you. They help you renew, refuel, and build momentum throughout your day and throughout your week.
- Power Hours help you conquer your mountains. They help you blast through your work or better deal with your worst hurdles or challenges in work and life.
- Power Hours are the secret to working less. They are the key to working less, while achieving more.
The main reason to add Power Hours to your week is to get leverage from the time and energy you already spend. If you’ve ever thrown time at your problems, or had your work feel like it stretches on and on, or you’ve gone through the motions but didn’t feel like you were getting anywhere, then you know exactly why you need to add more Power Hours to your week.
3 Steps to Adding Power Hours to Your Week
Here are three ways you can add Power Hours to your week:
Here are three ways you can add Power Hours to your week:
- Step 1. Find the Power Hours you already have. We all have them. Some of our hours are way more effective than others or we feel way more alert and alive. Simply identify throughout the week, which hours are the hours where you feel you are at your best, and you could do your best work. Don’t confuse this with when do you actually do your work. This is like knowing when you feel hungry versus when do you actually eat. In this case, simply identify your best hours of energy in the week.
- Step 2. Guard your Power Hours. Find ways to block of your Power Hours as if your life depended on it. In fact, your livelihood might depend on it. Now that you’ve actually identified when your Power Hours are, protect them so that you can spend them where you need it most. What some people do is they create appointments with themselves. They stop setting up meetings with other people during those times. They push back on meeting requests for those times. Simply by protecting the Power Hours that you already have is the fastest way to add Power Hours to your week (or, to put it another way, it’s how not to ruin the your peak hours.)
- Step 3. Spend More Time in Your Strengths. You can add Power Hours by shuffling your schedule around to spend more time in your strengths. For example, I deliberately added activities like brainstorming or having lunch with my mentors as weekly routines to add more Power Hours to my day.
When I first counted up my Power Hours for the week several years back, I found I had around four. I was pretty upset until I checked with other people and found out they were lucky if they had that. I can happily say that by deliberately focusing on adding Power Hours to my week, I have a minimum of four Power Hours per day. This helps me achieve a lot more with less time, and spend my best energy where I need it most. This was my key for exponential results.
Today’s Assignment
- Identify your current Power Hours for the week. Find the recurring rhythms and patterns. It might be just before breakfast or right after, or maybe it’s after lunch. Look to where you feel your best during the day.
- Guard your power hours. Find a way to free those Power Hours back up so that you can use them either for getting your work done or making your ideas happen or blasting through barriers.
