Today I received a message from a new client who hired me to help her get on track with growing her service based business. Her greatest challenge is knowing how to streamline her efforts to accomplish more in a shorter period of time.
Like many people, she is busy all day long, but not necessarily productive.
There’s a saying, “In order for things to change, I must change.”
A primary reason people hire a coach is to change the way they are doing things to be much more productive.
If you hire a coach and continue to do things the same way you’re wasting your time and money.
With productivity in mind, I recently tasked a few of my clients to keep track of their daily activities for a period of one week with the focus on the first hour of their workday. I call this the Hour of Power.
The Hour of Power, when used right, can be an incredibly productive time for you. During this hour you do only those things that monetize your business. What this simply means is this; any activity during this hour results in bringing money into your business.
- Lead generation
- Follow up on leads
- Product creation
- Email promotions
- Proposal writing
- Product launch
The process can be somewhat tricky. This is where complete honesty comes in. You must quit lying to yourself.
For example, if someone is always in the product creation phase, but never launches, then product creation is a time waster rather than a good use of time.
Another example is when someone uses their phone calling time to touch base with family and friends. Nope! That’s not what the Hour of Power is used for.
Recently, one client proudly sent me her list of what she did during her first Hour of Power. She had at the top of the list, “Catch up with my Facebook messages.”
“That is NOT a productive use of time,” I immediately told her.
Why? Because nothing was done to bring money into her business. What she did was create busy work, not money-generating activities.
Here’s the deal; building a successful business takes discipline. Anyone who tells you otherwise is likely not running a successful business.
There are things you have to be willing to let go of and other activities you absolutely must incorporate into what you do on a daily basis.
Ready to implement your own Hour of Power?
1. Commit to an Hour of Power for the next three days. The reason it is only three days is to make it manageable. If you commit to much more than that you might convince yourself it is more than you can do.
2. Spend the first hour of your day 100% focused on revenue generating activities. This means you do nothing for that hour but what’s in front of you to make money. No email, no social media, no watching cute videos, nothing.
3. You may need to set your alarm to get up an hour earlier than usual in order to complete your Hour of Power activities.
4. Keep track of what you accomplished over the three days during your Hour of Power.
By starting your day with only those activities that add revenue to your bottom line, you will be amazed at how quickly things can (and will) change. But again, you must be completely honest about what you are doing.
It’s a matter of letting go of the time wasters (and being really honest about that) and incorporating money makers.
If you’re not sure you will stick with it, enlist the help of an accountability buddy. Still not sure? Then maybe you’re not serious about wanting things to change and you’d prefer to keep lying to yourself.
Where do you find yourself lying about how productive you are? What needs to change for you?
Find out how dozens of successful entrepreneurs have built their business with the Power Up for Profits Podcast show. www.powerupforprofitspodcast.com
Dear Kathleen,
I read a lot of your posts and this one HIT home big time.. Thank you for your straight forwardness. I am committing to the power hour!
Corinne
So glad you liked it Corinne. It was sparked by an all too common behavior I notice in people.
Thank you so much! Great timing, exactly what I’m working on right now, for me! You helped to clarify what has been a bit murky for me. Love the Hour of Power. Adding it to my daily list! Enjoying your podcasts!
Thanks for all that you do
Thanks for your feedback Robin. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.
This post so hit home with me. I recently lost my job as a case manager and as a 59 year old nurse I don’t want to have to go back into the hospital setting and instead am putting my focus on my freelance writing and my fabric shop and design business. It is overwhelming because it hard to get past worrying about the money coming in. I now will try the three days of one hour productivity time and see where it leads.
In three days you will likely be amazed at what you can accomplish if you are 100% committed to the process. Let us know how it goes.
wow. Yes, indeed, this post hit home. Thank you for dropping in EXACTLY the right post when we needed it – Robert and I are trying to revamp our business day – which has to have routine but be flexible enough to include the fact that we are performing artists and that one of our major products is a two-person show. This gave me the tool I needed TODAY to help move us forward. Thank you!!
Rock on Carol. Thanks so much for sharing your insights. Much appreciated.
Great reminder Kathleen I used to do a power hour and I do one for me and my health and spiritual growth , now i will add the power hour back for my biz. thanks for the inspiration
I love taking time very first thing in the a.m. to do my spiritual time. It lays the foundation for the remainder of the day.
Thanks for your reminder! 🙂
As usual, Kathleen Gage cuts right to the chase! Great advice.
So here’s the sticky note now on my computer:
HOUR OF POWER – 8 – 9AM – ONLY . . . .
Lead generation
Follow up on leads
Product creation
Email promotions
Proposal writing
Product launch
Nice list Lynn. Thanks for sharing.
“Spend the first hour of your day 100% focused on revenue generating activities.” There is so much wisdom in this. Earlier this year I tracked how I spent my time for five days and I was shocked at the results.
I was being productive, but not in MY business. Where I thought I was spending time in my business, I was actually spending more time taking care of clients’ online projects rather than my own so I had to do a re-evaluation and re-organization. I like your Hour of Power recommendation, Kathleen, and I’m going to consciously track that.
Thanks so much for your transparency Yvonne. You hit the nail on the head on something most of us have done at some point in our business. Appreciate your insights.
Kathleen- I enjoyed your post! I do work similar to you, and I really think you are spot on about the problem you are describing AND the solution. Starting with 3 days of “hour of power” is brilliant because some personality types can get overwhelmed if the initial commitment is too high. Then, they can build a track record of success, and re-commit.
And yes- perfectly good income-generating activities can be UN-productive and actually hiding or procrastinating if the business owners aren’t honest with themselves! Spot on.
Thanks for your input Danielle. The three days model is manageable and when someone achieves the first three, they can go for three more.
I always sit down in the morning and do other things like check email, look at social media etc, but now I’m going to do the hour of power everyday. Great blog post, thank you!
It makes a huge difference. You will love this strategy.