Power Hour | The Productivity Hack

In today’s 100mph world, especially in the creative industry, everyone is constantly fighting against a barrage of emails, notifications and distractions – meaning that it can be challenging to stay focused and get things done. This makes productivity extremely challenging in the workplace; here’s where the idea of a ‘Power Hour’ comes in.

Obviously, this is not my original idea. It has only just recently found its way into my life when reading Graham Alcott’s book, ‘How to be a Productivity Ninja’, where he discusses everything in terms of managing productivity levels, how to automate certain things in your life to be more creative and much more. The practice that stood out to me the most was his idea of a Power Hour.

In the book, he emphasises the importance of creating an environment that fosters productivity. He suggests that one of the most effective ways to do this is by taking an hour out of your day to be incredibly productive with no distractions. This may not work for everyone, as there are other tactics that people often use to be productive, such as:

- The Pomodoro Method | Includes 25 minutes of deep work followed by a 5-minute break. Then continued with some break intervals being increased to 15 minutes. I personally found this method to be the most impactful when needing to do a large piece of work that I hadn’t broken the back of yet. It is particularly useful for those chronic procrastinators so they can look forward to a break as a reward. Sometimes this has its downsides, as it takes a set time to get into a flow of work, and 25 minutes is not enough for everyone.

- The Eisenhower Matrix | This method involves categorising tasks into four quadrants based on their level of urgency and importance. This greatly helps individuals who struggle with prioritising but offers little help in actually getting things done.

-  Another similar method to the above is the Ivy Lee Method | It involves making a to-do list at the end of each day with the most important tasks to complete the next day. It is again similar in terms of prioritising yet offering little help in doing.

Referring back to Alcott’s Power Hour method, he suggests that the most effective way to get shit done is by scheduling an hour out of your day for a specific task, allowing for no distractions. No compromises or excuses or changing schedules, if you think that something could interrupt the hour, change it.

There are also plenty of tips that he provides to help implement this into your life:

- Plan Ahead | As previously mentioned, block an hour out of your day, making sure you can do it with no excuses. Also, make a list of the task (s) that you want to complete during the hour, this will make sure that you are utilising the time effectively.

- Eliminate Distractions | Turn off your phone, close all your tabs that you aren’t using on your computer, and let colleagues/friends/family know that you are unavailable. Get creative, put signs on your chair if you are in an office or on your door if you are at home!

- Time Management | Make sure to set a timer for 60 minutes, either in your view or not; this way, you know that the only thing that will enable you to stop is the sound of the alarm. Also, make sure to take a break after the hour to allow yourself to mentally recover from the large workload.

- Evaluate your Progress | At the end of the power hour, take a few minutes to see how well you did? Did you complete what you set out to do? If so, great, carry on tomorrow. If not, what prevented this? Use this information to improve this in the future.

By implementing the Power Hour daily, you can ‘Eat the Frog’ first thing in the day with ease. This phrase basically means completing your most unpleasant or difficult task first thing in the morning. This will take a huge weight off your shoulders, and help you avoid procrastination and gain momentum for the rest of the day. It could also tap into a competitive streak, not allowing you to break the chain of days you have completed your power hour.

Utilising the Power Hour into your daily life can reduce your overall stress, and make you feel less overwhelmed in your working life. It will stop you from constantly trying to juggle so many tasks all at once and help break your projects into more manageable chunks to deal with much easier. I know this on a personal level as I have allocated an hour to my days for something I had been putting off for so long as things weren’t ‘perfect’, but now am already seeing rewards just a few days/weeks in.

Will you be implementing the power hour?