Table of Contents
The Golden Rule Of 3
What is the easiest way to plan your workday for maximum productivity and energy?
The answer is quite simple: you need a SYSTEM based on smart tactics and a sequence of habits that reinforce one another.
The reason for that is also quite simple: if you want to make the best use of your time and energy you need to optimize your decision-making process and narrow down the possibilities by excluding those that will not help you move forward.
It seems complicated explained like that, but in reality, the SYSTEM I’m talking about is quite simple, pretty fun, and extremely easy to apply to your daily life. Mostly because it’s practical, but also because it’s based on the rule of 3.
As we know, three is the smallest number of elements required to create a (memorable) pattern. That’s why we see the Rule of Three everywhere:
- the American Declaration of Independence (“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”)
- the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”)
- Historical speeches - ex. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
(“We can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”) - The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.)
- storytelling in Jazz (Setup, Confrontation, Resolution)
- fairy tales (three Bears, the Three Musketeers, the Three Wise Men)
- speech writing (the beginning, middle, and end)
- in the movie industry ( “The good, the bad and the ugly”, “Eat Pray Love”)
So how can we use the rule of three to maximize our productivity and boost our energy levels? Let’s find out!
Morning Is For 3 x M
It’s not a secret that a great day starts with positive morning rituals. While there are many different morning activities that have the potential to put you in an instant good mood, increase your energy levels and boost work motivation, the absolutely top 3 are:
- Morning flow (activate your vital energy)
- Mindfulness practice (ground yourself into present moment)
- Meditation (fulfill your inner satisfaction and peace)
These 3-morning activities bound together create a perfect mix - morning kickstart method that will transform a typical morning into “miracle morning”
Morning Flow - designed to create more peace, balance, and structure in the morning (morning routine, powerful morning rituals)
Mindfulness Moment - designed to ground yourself in the present moment and create a mindful experience to feed your 5 senses (mindful morning coffee, morning walk)
Meditation or Intermittent Silence Practice - designed to feed your brain with positivity, unlock your unlimited potential and reprogram your mind into believing in yourself
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- The Ultimate Night Routine For Better Sleep And More Productive Mornings + free printables and checklists for organizing your evenings.
- How To Create A Simple Self-Care Routine That Will Make You Thrive + Free Printables & Checklists!
Set 3 Main Weekly Goals
The next thing to do when planning your work for maximum productivity and energy is to set your weekly goals. However, I don’t recommend you set new goals that would be completely unrelated to your bigger objectives. Because that would create confusion.
What you want to do instead is to translate your yearly goals into quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals and tasks that would be easier to achieve. In other words, you want to break your long-term projects into small manageable action items.
When setting your weekly goals look at the big picture, think about your major, long-term goals, and break them down into small achievable steps. Then schedule each of these steps into your weekly agenda so that you know what to focus on. This simple strategy will help ensure you work steadily and consistently to get closer to your success.
Establish Non-Negotiables - 3 Top Daily Priorities
Your success in achieving your long-term goals and mastering your to-do list lies in setting the right daily priorities and getting them knocked out in the early morning, as soon as you can when your mind is fresh.
When you have a lot of deadlines to meet it’s easy to mix up priorities or even forget to do important things at work. It happens because when we have a significant amount of tasks to do it may seem that everything is a priority. And when each task seems to be equally important chaos and confusion prevail. To avoid that you should identify your top priorities, write them down and place them in front of you so you don’t forget them.
When setting your daily priorities, your daily Most Important Tasks (MITs) focus on choosing 3 to 5 daily activities that lead to your key goal or goals so that you know you’re focusing on the right things and you’re moving toward your main goals.
This workbook (53 pages) is designed to help you maximize your productivity and increase your effectiveness without sacrificing your life balance.
Whether you work from home during the Coronavirus Pandemic or thinking about starting a side hustle, this workbook can help you build a more thoughtful work-from-home strategy, bring structure to your workday and create a healthy work-life balance.
INCLUDED:
- Tips for Working from Home Effectively
- Tips To Stay Organized & Motivated
- Tools for designing your own schedule, rock your to-do list and create an ideal daily routine
- Time Management Tips (The Eisenhower Box, The Pareto Principle worksheets included)
- Yearly, Monthly & Weekly Goal Setting (+ Goal Progress Index)
- Yearly, Monthly, Weekly Planner
- Daily Plan & Schedule
- Monthly & Weekly Organizer
- Time blocking method schedule
- Daily Routines for successful entrepreneurs
- Work Task Checklists
- Powerful Work-Breaks Planner & Checklist
- Yearly, Monthly, Weekly Project Planner
- Creative Worksheets
- Password Keeper
- Healthy Meal Planner
- Flow State & Mindful Motivation Checklist
- Professional Skills Development Tracker
- Healthy Habit Trackers
PERFECT FOR:
- Entrepreneurs
- Small Business Owners
- People currently working from home due to Coronavirus
- Work from home Moms & Dads
- Direct Sales & Network Marketing
- Online Shops
- & more!
Manage Your Energy, Productivity & Motivation Levels
We love to think that we can be ultra-productive, insanely motivated, and highly energetic all day long to get at least twice the amount of work done than we’ve planned. While this Perpetuum Mobile kind of productivity would be great, it’s not within the reach of anyone. So instead of striving for the impossible ideal of non-existing 24/7 productivity mode, you should focus on managing your energy levels during the day.
Productive flow, mental focus, and energy levels are constantly changing during the day. That’s completely natural. Most of us experience peak productivity hours in the morning and try to get through the midday slump to get the work done by end of business today. In other words, our workday is nothing but a mathematical sine wave in terms of our mental and physical energy levels. And we should use it to our advantage instead of fighting with our natural tendencies.
The best way to do that is to balance your time with energy-giving activities and energy-taking activities so that you give yourself the opportunity to restore your energy and recharge your batteries after finishing a difficult task. So basically all you need to do when creating your epic to-do list is to mix productive tasks with restorative tasks.
Energy-Taking Tasks: writing a report, administrative work, responding to emails
Energy-Giving Tasks: physical activity, Mindfulness practice, delicious coffee break, listen to a podcast
Plan, Prioritize & Simplify
Without planning you’re going to make the wrong decisions and taking the wrong action that not only will not get you any closer to achieving your goals but also will make you waste your valuable time. And that’s not an option if you consider yourself a productive and effective person.
With an effective plan, on the other hand, you’re able to make the best possible use of your time, manage your energy levels and focus on what pays you the most instead of making everything equally important. So the choice, in this case, is pretty simple. You should PLAN!
Success is determined by your daily agenda. So instead of waiting for things to happen, take a proactive approach and plan out your work week, day by day, in advance. Take some time on Friday evening or Saturday morning to make an effective schedule for the upcoming week.
Once you plan all the things you need to get done, create a prioritized to-do list and simplify your tasks so you can reduce unnecessary complexity and focus on what’s truly important (and what pays you the most).
3 x B (Blocking, Batch & Break)
3 x B method is my bulletproof strategy designed to optimize my productivity levels, increase my mental energy and create a healthy work-life balance. Behind this name, there are 3 insanely effective time-management techniques:
- time-blocking
- batching similar tasks together
- powerful work breaks
that bound together create a perfect mix - bulletproof productivity method.
Time-Blocking
Time-blocking or calendar-blocking is an extremely effective technique where you define specific time blocks for particular tasks, activities, or events. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task so that you know what to focus on and how much time do you have to get this thing done.
This simple time-management method will help you to develop laser-like focus, build momentum and put yourself in motion for success. Not to mention that if you dedicate each time block to a certain task you will reduce the likelihood of mindless social media scrolling, binge-watching Netflix, or overeating of boredom.
Batching Similar Tasks Together
To avoid procrastination and stay focused on your professional tasks when you work from home you need a strategy to create momentum. From my personal experience, one of the best methods to achieve that state is to group similar tasks together and doing them all at once. Trust me, it works wonders for both pleasant and extremely boring tasks.
Frequent Breaks
There’s a tendency to think that taking frequent work breaks ruins workflow and triggers procrastination. When in fact, the opposite is true. Several studies have shown that taking regular breaks at work is a powerful strategy for increasing self-motivation, boosting productivity levels, and accelerating your results.
3 x S Is The Prescription For Success
Are you getting quality sleep on a regular schedule, nourishing yourself with healthy food, and working out on a daily basis? Or quite the contrary, you train yourself to get by on less sleep, you buy only ready meals because it saving you time and effort, you actively avoid relaxation and you struggle to reach 10,000 steps a day?
If the second phrase describes you best it means that you’re not making your health your No. 1 priority and it’s time to change that and become HEALTH-WISE!
The reason for that is quite simple: if you want to be highly productive, self-motivated, and ridiculously focused on your goals you need to prioritize your health and wellbeing. Otherwise, you won’t be able to reach your full potential, live life on your own terms, or even focus on simple tasks.
Giving yourself time and space to truly rest, nourish yourself from the inside out and move your body a little bit will not only boost your productivity and motivation o work hard towards your goals but also will significantly improve the quality of your life. And to help you with that I’ve created 3 x S formula for becoming health-wise while working from home.
The 3 x S formula states for:
Self-Care routine (daily activities) - designed to rest, relax, reset and restore mental, physical, and emotional energy
Stroll routine (or any type of physical activity you enjoy)- designed to move your body and ditch a sedentary (work from home) lifestyle
Sleep (Night routine) - designed to get quality sleep on a regular basis
The 3 x 8 Rule States For Work-Life Boundaries
Home to many of us is associated with a comfortable, cozy, and relaxing place, where you can unwind and recharge internal batteries after long hours spent working at the office. But things change when your home is your workplace and you need to figure out how to set crystal clear work-life boundaries. Otherwise, you will be constantly mixing your personal and professional responsibilities which can easily create w work-life blur ruining both your workflow and family life.
It may not be that obvious but remote working creates the risk that the lines between personal and professional lives will be blurred if not completely eliminated. And when it happens your physical health and mental wellbeing will be affected.
If you don’t want “work-life blur” to become a real issue for you, you need to set crystal clear boundaries between personal and professional life. And what better way to do that than by applying the rule of 3 to your daily routine?
- 8 hours for WORK
- 8 hours for productive ME TIME
- 8 hours for quality SLEEP
1.Work
Dedicate 8 hours a day for work. Of course, you don’t have to obey these 8 hours religiously. Just make sure you’re not over-scheduling your work. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being productive. (Remember about The Pareto principle!)
2. Productive Relaxation (“me time” on a purpose)
Dedicate 8 hours a day for relaxing activities. But don’t spend 8 hours laying on the couch and watching TV. Instead, find your ways to relax productively, for instance, go to the gym, develop your skills, learn something new, gain inspiration or spend quality time with your loved ones.
3. Sleep (quality rest)
Dedicate 8 hours a day for a quality rest. Don’t sacrifice your sleep to accomplish more work in a day because it won’t make you any more productive. Compromising sleep will negatively affect your mental and physical performance. So make sure that you get enough quality rest.
Grab Your Free Printable Workbooks
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- Use best time management apps to keep you on schedule at work
- Organize your day around your goals
- Use the Eisenhower Box to identify your top priorities and avoid the urgency trap
- Create and maintain a powerful morning routine
- Develop morning rituals to make your motivation flow effortlessly
- Create motivation through action
- Start before you are ready
- Improve your decision-making process
- Overcome your self-limiting beliefs that block your progress
- Balance productivity and happiness
- Cultivate self-care routine
- The 3 x 8 rule for Perfectly Balanced Day & Life
- Create rituals to induce a flow state
Stay positive
Be Mindful
and
Plan your work for maximum productivity and energy!
xo Kate
