{"id":6077,"date":"2014-02-25T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=4904"},"modified":"2020-04-03T18:01:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T22:01:21","slug":"productivity-hack-made-wife-laugh-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/productivity-hack-made-wife-laugh-face","title":{"rendered":"The productivity \u2018hack\u2019 that made my wife laugh in my face"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My life priorities (in order) are my wife, my health, and our business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tell you the truth, I haven\u2019t paid any attention to my priorities in the last few months. In fact, I reacted to whatever hit my inbox or task list, and I was never in charge of my day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still new to this whole \u2018entrepreneur\u2019 thing, but success to me includes a happy home life. I’ve witnessed other entrepreneurs battle burn out, never attain a work \/ life balance, and some have even come close to divorce. No thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back when I was an overpaid and underworked consultant, I wasted a lot of time I could have spent working productively. I\u2019ve dodged meetings, spent hours at long lunches, and took way too many coffee breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I often dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur, so I devoured every business book I could get my hands on. If there were a Certification of Entrepreneurship for reading books and taking no action, I would have earned it. But then again, the books don\u2019t tell you what an entrepreneur really<\/i> does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the last 8 months, I learned the hard way. So what\u2019s the problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a slave to my inbox, I was not in control of my day. I split my time between helping our customers, writing, attending events, lining up podcast guests, trying to improve our products and services, speaking at conferences, being \u2018Coach Claff\u2019, and helping out with whatever I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d wake up with dozens of tasks hanging over my head every day. My to-do list was never close to being done. Here\u2019s what it would look like on a typical day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 a.m.: Forget to eat breakfast
8 a.m.: React to whatever hit my inbox
10 a.m.: Realize I was late for the gym and run to get there
11 a.m.: Head to the office
12 p.m.: Battle my to-do list, inbox and forget important things
1 p.m.: Do \u2018stuff\u2019 and \u2018things’
3 p.m. Realize I forgot to eat, grab some lunch
6 p.m.: Wearily head home
7 p.m.: Jump back online to try and catch up
8 p.m.: Drink 3 beers to relax
9 p.m.: Drink 3 more beers
10 p.m.: Potentially drink 3 more beers, depending on how relaxed I was
1 a.m.: Sleep\u2026 sort of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For seven months, I wasn\u2019t in charge of my tasks. I reacted to whatever needed to be done, and I gained the fabled \u2018Startup 15\u2019. When I felt like it was all becoming too much, I stumbled upon the holy grail of productivity hacks…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife laughed in my face when I shared this amazing \u2018life hack\u2019 with her (and to be fair, I deserved it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started to allocate specific blocks of my day to tasks. I processed dozens of emails in minutes, and I started writing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown of my new and improved day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 a.m.: Blend some vegetable juice and eat some oatmeal
8 a.m.: Check in on with my developer and set him up
9 a.m.: Follow up any urgent issues, finish email batch #1
10 a.m.: Go to the gym
11 a.m.: Head to the office
12 p.m.: Grab lunch
1 p.m.: Create content
3 p.m.: Finish email batch #2
4 p.m.: Catch up with my co-founder
6 p.m.: Go home
7 p.m.: Relax with my wife
9 p.m.: Check in with my co-founder via email
10 p.m.: Head to bed
11 p.m.: Read and relax
12 p.m.: Sleep<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last week alone, I helped my co-founder re-launch our private community for business founders<\/a>, wrote 4,000+ words of useful content, and spent a lot more time with my wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your day sounds like mine used to, try the humble calendar. Your life partner might laugh at you, but it\u2019ll be worth it in the long run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My life priorities (in order) are my wife, my health, and our business. To tell you the truth, I haven\u2019t paid any attention to my priorities in the last few months. In fact, I reacted to whatever hit my inbox or task list, and I was never in charge of my day. I\u2019m still new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1106,"featured_media":34361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe productivity \u2018hack\u2019 that made my wife laugh in my face<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My life priorities (in order) are my wife, my health, and our business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/productivity-hack-made-wife-laugh-face\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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