Once I finally died to the use of multi-tasking all during my day, things began to get a lot better. The idea of knowing when your most productive work can be done and the blocking of that time for deep work is transformational. Leaving at least 20% open time for new daily inputs now gives me the time to shift priorities as well. This Fast Company post was great:
“How many hours do you work each day? If you’re like most of the U.S. working population, you probably think you get a solid eight hours in. That’s 40 hours a week. Around 1,800 a year (minus 2 weeks’ vacation). Not too bad. The problem with this kind of thinking is that just because we’re at work for eight hours a day doesn’t mean we’re doing eight hours of work.”