Unlock More Opportunities by Doing Less? 🤔

Having the time to think is so important. Whether it’s time to the your brain “chew” on new ideas, look at a problem for multiple angles, or just letting your thoughts go where they want, it’s been shown time and again that having some of this “down time” can lead to improved results…

Are You Ever Bored?

If we’re constantly feeling like we’re on the hamster wheel and can’t stop moving, we probably need to have some time to be bored.

One of the simplest to explain benefits of this is to make yourself available for new projects and opportunities. If you’re running at 100% already, you won’t be able to quickly take advantage of these projects or opportunities.

I’ll also add in my own opinion that time is the most valuable thing we have available to us. Keeping some for yourself has an incredibly high value.

Of course, it’s easier said than done - keep reading and I’ll get into some actionable ways you can do this for yourself.

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Carving Out Our Time

If you want to carve out time for yourself, there are a few things that you should do first to increase your odds of success:

• what would you do with this time?

“Nothing” is a perfectly acceptable answer! I believe in having some intentionality behind my day and I don’t mind having time set aside for just thinking or doing nothing…if that’s what I want to do.

• what day of the week would this realistically work best?

• what part of the day would this work best?

Choosing a day and time where you’re likely to be successful and have the least distractions is setting yourself up for success. Speaking of…

• what do you need to do to eliminate distractions during this time?

Can you block your calendar? Can you block an extra 5-15 minutes on each side so you get the full benefit? Should you leave your normal work area so you don’t get sucked into whatever you were doing beforehand? Do you need to turn off devices?

Getting this worked out will vastly increase your odds of being able to successfully carve out time for yourself.

• do you need a reminder about this time?

Will you remember it? Should you set up a calendar or email reminder the day before or the day of? Is there anything you might need that you can prepare ahead of time (links to a meditation? link to a doc where you just brain dump and jot down ideas as they come, etc?).

If you go through these steps you’ll be 87.3% more likely to successfully make use of this new blocked time - Ok, that’s completely made up by me, but from personal experience with myself and others, you’ll be MUCH more likely to make use of this time if you do a little prep work.

Give it a shot this week or next and see what you come up with.

Did the free time help you come up with ideas? Did you go for a walk and feel better? Maybe you just enjoyed some down time in the middle of your busy day?

Hit reply and let me know what you decide to do and the benefits you want to see.

Extra Extra

• Reversible and non-reversible decisions. How to choose whether to decide now or take more time.

• File management system for controlling your digital stuff. Interesting alternative/addition to the PARA system.

One quick question 👋

I love hearing from readers, and I’m always happy to hear feedback from active subscribers. How am I doing with the Productivity Academy newsletter? Is there any content you’d like to see more or less of? Which parts of the newsletter (or articles, or podcast) do you enjoy the most?

Hit reply and say hello, happy to hear from you!