The power hour

The first 60 minutes of your day can be used to achieve almost anything, says writer Adrienne Herbert. You just need to focus your energy in the right way...

What if you could find an extra hour in your day? Think of all the things you could achieve. But writer and motivational speaker Adrienne Herbert says that not only is that possible, she can tell you how to do it.

“Each week we all have 168 hours to spend. The bottom line is that most of us are pretty bad at managing our time and as a result we waste so much of it,” she says.

“If you had one extra hour each day, what would you do with it?”

Adrienne calls this time me your Power Hour, and to o get the most out of it, you need to do it early, she says.

“It’s not realistic or useful to schedule every hour of every day but let’s at least take the first hour of each day to do something ng that’s valuable.”

Early bird

Your Power Hour should be early, ideally before 6am. This may sound like a challenge, particularly if you like to lie in. However, whether you’re heading out to work, dropping off kids at school or starting to work from home, the world typically gets going between 8am and 9am. So if you’re still lying in bed at 7am, then you won’t have much time to spare.

The value of time

People often invest a lot more energy into managing their finances than managing their time. You can make money, spend money, win money, lose money, and you can ask for a refund to get money back, but the same cannot be said about time.

The problem is there will always be demands for your time by something or someone, and if you’re not intentiona intentional about how you use it, it c can be very easy to give

all of your time away.

Reclaim your hour

If you think that taking an hour at the s start of each day for y yourself is selfish, you you’re wrong.

Th The reality is your health, h lth relationships, kids and work will all benefit from you reclaiming time to invest in yourself. You cannot give what you don’t have. One hour might not be enough to revolutionise your entire life, but over time it will make an impact. Doing something once or twice won’t make much difference, you have to be consistent.

Don’t delay

If procrastination is one of your habits, the Power Hour is the perfect antidote for this.

Pick a day, towards the start of the week, and use that day’s Power Hour to do the one thing on your list that you really don’t want to do – the thing you vowed to do last week but that is still not finished.

Starting your day doing something you’re dreading might not sound appealing, but once it’s done, you’ll feel a sense of relief and freedom.

Stay focused

When we try to do two or more things at once, we may think that we are saving time, but it’s actually less effective.

Countless studies have shown that attempting to multi- task reduces productivity by up to 40 per cent.

Each time we shift from one task to another, it takes our brain time to refocus. Before 6am, the rest of the world is asleep and you can focus without interruptions and distractions.

Nobody is expecting you to even be awake, let alone be online or available. Make sure your phone is out of sight, and close all unnecessary web browsers and tabs on your computer. You’ll be amazed at how much you can achieve in just one hour without any distractions.

Set goals

Decide how your Power Hour will work for you. You could spend a full 60 minutes dedicated to doing just one thing. This could be running, reading, admin or even cooking.

Or try two 30- minute sections, such as half an hour focusing on your body and 30 minutes on your mind.

Alternatively, some people prefer three 20- minute blocks. For example, 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes of mindfulness and 20 minutes of doing.

Just make sure you plan it and commit to it the day before, not the night before when you’re tired.

Make sure you have set overall goals. Be specific, set a deadline, tell someone your plans, assess and reflect, and ask for help if needed.

Now it’s over to you to create your own Power Hour: to focus on your goals and create a life you love.

‘‘ Before 6am the rest of the world is asleep and you can focus uninterrupted

Extracted from The Power Hour by Adrienne Herbert (£ 14.99, Hutchinson)