It is the end of another work week; we are bursting with so much excitement as we
look forward to the weekend. Here’s our recommended read to help us relax and unwind this weekend even as we look forward to the next week;
Make Time: How to Focus on what matters every day
Our calendars are always full, but do we always feel fulfilled? For most of us, the answer is no. It’s very easy to slowly fall into the trap of very busy schedules, time and again. This is why today’s suggested read is teaching us how to deliberately make time.
Most of us spend interacting with and consuming media, and you have a schedule that’ll always leave you worn out come Sunday. Despite really loving their jobs, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky also suffered from this problem. The solution they came up with was as simple as it was effective: Make Time
The authors (Jake and JZ) are product designers and self-proclaimed geeks who helped to build services like YouTube, Gmail, and Google Hangouts. Realizing how busy and distracted they were, they started to experiment with ways to make time for themselves and to improve their focus and energy levels. Through their experiments, Jake finally found the time to start writing (something he’d wanted to do since young), while JZ finally started to live his dream.
By deliberately creating space in their lives for the projects they really wanted to tackle, eliminating distractions, and prioritizing their health, they turned unmindful reactiveness into mindful proactivity.
In the book, three key things were highlighted that aid the process of making time.
- Pick a highlight for every one of your days that’s either important, meaningful, or brings you joy.
- Minimize distractions from fake entertainment by designing your environment.
- Do things you need to do each day to stay healthy and full of energy.
Making Time methodology consists of four elements: Highlight, Laser Mode, Energize, and Reflect.
Highlight: You choose one activity that requires your attention. The activity shouldn’t take more than 90 minutes to accomplish. The Highlight can be any activity such as reading and answering many emails, preparing a marketing campaign, writing an article, developing a new feature in your app, cleaning the apartment, or fixing your car. When there is a highlight, your mind is more in a happy state. After you finish your Highlight, you’re done. Whatever else you’re doing will be much more straightforward.
Laser: During your day, your laser focus will be on your Highlight. To increase your laser focus, you have to eliminate distractions. Social media, TV series, and news are everywhere, and we are usually not aware of them taking our time. These days, we can neither block all of them and live in a cave nor spend our life around them. There is a balance, which requires being mindful and adjusting how we use these technologies.
Energize: Cutting out time from the distractions is alone, not enough. Your body needs the energy to focus. That’s why you have to take care of your physical and mental health with exercise, food, sleep, quiet time, and face-to-face social interaction.
This is a must-read to ensure we have all necessary information about being productive and also prioritizing our entire well being Mentally and physically.
Happy reading!
Adapted from candost blog.