10x Your Time
This week I have gotten back into my current read, 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan. I am always fascinated by the topic of the usage of time. I am very aware that time is my most precious resource and something I cannot simply create more of through hard work or increased discipline or creativity. The way we are traditionally taught about time is through a very quantitative or linear model, focused on this idea that busyness and effort are positive measures of progress. This idea puts less emphasis on getting into your flow state, where you can be most creative and productive. Managers – not leaders – want to see people busy. They want to see the pencil moving on the paper; that’s a measure of productivity and time well-spent for them.
“It’s crucial to note that if you’re going 10x, you’re not a manager … Managers don’t go 10x. You’re a visionary and Transformational Leader. Leaders don’t manage. They build teams of leaders that manage themselves.”
Sullivan outlines a more qualitative approach and emphasizes the importance of maker time over manager time. When you play by the rules of maker time, you seek to stack big blocks of open time on your schedule where you can get into that flow state, be creative, improve yourself, consider the feedback you’ve received on your efforts and contemplate new directions for your company to promote growth and change.
“Sound judgement and thinking through bigger and more complex challenges or opportunities require more brain power, more time, more fermentation. You can’t do this if you’re always busy at work. You can’t do this by jumping from task to task.
Being busy is 2x.”
When organizing your schedule, Sullivan points out three different types of work days you need to build into your weekly schedule.
Free days are rejuvenation days. Sullivan stresses the importance of recovery time, and he uses the examples of LeBron James and Bill Gates to illustrate the power of recovery. LeBron James has one of the longest professional athlete careers and is considered one of the premier athletes to ever walk the Earth in a pretty high impact sport. He is known to sleep upwards of 12 hours a day in order to recover. He’s spent millions of dollars every single year taking care of his body and employing full-time staff focused on his recovery efforts. Bill Gates is known for taking weeks or even months off where he completely detaches from his company. He disappears to think and dream about the Microsoft future. During these rejuvenation trips, he has pioneered ways to grow into his company into one of the most innovative companies in the world.
2. Focus days are performance days. This is where the work gets done. In each of your focus days, commit to working on no more than three major initiatives that you want to push forward (that aren’t just busywork). They should be big initiatives such that if you were to accomplish those things, they would take your company to the next level. To be able to accomplish those things, you have to have large blocks of open and protected time. It is critical that you don’t slide a meeting in that would cut that large block of time into two smaller blocks of time. You won’t reach flow and you won’t be as productive as you could be for your company.
3. Buffer days are for organization and preparation. As you are growing your business, you need to have a pretty equal amount of both focus and buffer days. Worry less about that and more about how you structure your weeks. When you structure your weekly schedule, you want to have similar blocks of time organized around each other. If you are going to have meetings with other people, you need to have a day or two a week where you stack all of your meetings. That way, you have 3 or 4 days that you can block large blocks of time to complete the tasks and planning that will take your business to the next level.
Sullivan’s main point is that you owe it to your company to be this structured and productive. You may feel better – in the short term – about taking meetings at any time of the week or day, but that is actually diminishing your value as a leader. The right decision for your team is to protect those big blocks of time in your schedule for you to help propel the company forward in powerful and meaningful ways.
When you are done with your big blocks at the “end” of the day, just call it a day. Completely unplug from work. Start your recovery time. This reminds me of the old quote, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” If you are completely locked-in on work, giving it your all, knocking your big objectives out during the day, and you finish those objectives at 4pm, call it a day – and then go be 10x in your time with your family. Completely unplug so you can recover from your business activities the way LeBron James recovers. When you begin anew the next day, you are then actually refreshed and ready to get after it again.
Sullivan gives us this beautiful gift of what he calls his evening routine, which is the last hour of the day for him.
Step 1: At least 30-60 minutes before bed, put your phone on airplane mode. Detach from the world.
Step 2: Pull out your journal and write for 3-5 minutes about at least 3 wins you experienced that day. When you do that, you are positioning your day in your mind as a win.
Step 3: Write down 3 wins you plan to have for the next day. This allows you to frame the next day as a win, as well.
Step 4: Commit to prayer or meditating for that last bit of time before you lay down to go to sleep. Then you will hit the pillow happy and fulfilled to get restful sleep.
Time is so precious. You owe it to your team to be the most productive leader you can possibly be – and that starts with maximizing your time. You need buffer time for organization, focus time for production, and recovery time for rejuvenation. Make each of these important in your life and do them all well. Don’t just be busy and destroy your value.
Where can you make a gain in your life to implement this 10x mentality??
Written by Schuyler Williamson
REALTOR. Leader. Veteran. Business Owner. Investor.
Weekly Email List: https://www.schuylerwilliamson.com/weekly-leader-note
God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson