Andy Neary uses his minor-league baseball routine to explain time-blocking: pick three priorities each night, schedule three 90-minute blocks the next day, and tackle your most important task first when distractions are lowest. The brain can't focus beyond 90 minutes, so breaks between blocks matter.
Questions this video answers
15 minutes
Three priorities
Three 90-minute periods
In the first 90-minute time block of the day
About 90 minutes
Chapters
Hey. Hey. Welcome back. It is Friday. You know what that means. It is time for Friday Bullpen sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 14. One of my goals each and every week with this content is to share tips, ideas and strategies to help you get more done in less time doing what you love. But before we dive into this week's episode, I just want to make a really quick announcement. If you're a business leader out there who is struggling with productivity right now, having difficulty balancing home life and work life, leading your team in a two dimensional world, know your mindset is not where it should be. I'm excited to announce that I am opening up some new coaching programs. I've got extra slots available for one on one coaching. So if you want to work on your mindset so you could uplevel your personal and professional results to gain that clarity you need, I've included my calendar in a link in the notes above. Go there, click on it, hit me up and let's jump on a call. All right, back to this week's episode. So today I want to talk about a very relevant topic and that is productivity. I'm having an overwhelming number of conversations right now with clients, with prospects, with friends on this topic. So many people are struggling with productivity right now, especially if you're working from home, right? You're in a new environment, you're playing multiple roles, you're a professional, you're a leader of a team, but you're also a husband and wife. You're a father, a mother and. And so balancing this throughout the day has been a very, very big struggle for many. Therefore, what's happening is I'm seeing a lot of people still work that seven, eight, nine hours, but not really getting anything done. They're just kind of meandering throughout the day and that's no way to be productive right now, especially when you're working from home. So I've got a very great tip today. A kind of a hack for you. I hate the word hack, but I'm going to say it anyways that I think could help you really start getting more done in less time in this environment. And I'm going to use example again from my baseball career to serve as the basis for this. What I'm talking about today is the art of time blocking. So when I was in pro ball throughout the regular season, what people don't see in minor league baseball is you are literally spending 11, 12 plus hours a day with that sport. Meaning here's what my typical day Looked like living in Helena, Montana, playing for the Helena Brewers. About 8, 8:30 in the morning, we were to report to lift to exercise at the local gym. So first thing I had to do every day was get up, get my butt ready, and get to the gym for our daily workouts. That lasted about an hour. 8:30 to 9:30, roughly. And then it was time for a break to have breakfast at the clubhouse. So you'd report back to the field, you'd eat breakfast, put the right food in your body so that you can be healthy throughout the rest of the day, and then after breakfast, we actually would go into practice. Yes, even though we played games every day, we also practiced every day. And practice sometimes could be upwards of two to three hours. And then once practice was over, you'd come back in the clubhouse and you'd have lunch. And then when lunch was over, you'd go back out. And now it was time to take batting practice in preparation for that night's game. And then after batting practice was over, you'd come back in, have a little dinner, and then it was off to the game. And so every day was a repeat of this.
Schedule where you were literally focused on baseball for 11, 12, 13 hours a day. Now, those that couldn't be focused and present during those time blocks struggled.
Sometimes didn't show up for lifting because they didn't feel like it. Sometimes they weren't present during practice. They were kind of going through the motions. But those that excelled in baseball, those that probably elevated themselves quickly through the minor league systems, they were the ones who literally focused on each and every time block, whether it was lifting, whether it was a breakfast practice, batting practice, or the game. And they were present, and they knew exactly what their priority was. They worked to get as much done in that time period, each of those time blocks as they could to be the best they could be every single day. And that's my advice to you right now. What are you doing to leverage time blocking to your advantage while you work from home? Here's my advice. If you don't feel like you're being productive right now, what I want you to do is the following. Number one, I want you to spend 15 minutes every night figuring out what your three priorities for the next day are going to be. Then I want you to look at those three priorities, and I want you to figure out which one is the most important.
Because each one of them holds weight. But there's going to be one that's more important than the other two. Next, I want you to look at the next day. And I want you to block out three 90 minute periods of time. So for example, for you it might be from 7:30 to 9 in the morning, followed by 10:30 to noon, followed by 1:30 to 3 o'. Clock. And I want you to throw those priorities in each of those time blocks. Now the most important thing is to take your most important priority and put it in the first time block of the day. Here's why. If you at least start your day when you have the least amount of distractions and you get that number one priority done, the rest of the day can go to hell. And it doesn't matter. You got your number one priority done.
Here's the other reason why this is key. You'll notice you're not working back to back to back or just working straight for eight hours. You're giving yourself the space to take a break, to recharge, to hang out with your kids, hang out with your spouse. These are unusual times, guys. These are different. You have to give yourself the break to recharge so you can come back re energized for your next time block. And here's the most important thing. The brain can't work for longer than 90 minutes anyways. It can't focus for more than 90 minutes. So you have to give yourself the space to recharge. And when you do it, I promise you, you will get more done in those four and a half hours than you probably do right now with eight hours lacking structure. So use this effective time blocking tool to maximize your days working in a virtual world. Because you know what? We may not go back to the way it was. This might be our mode of working for at least the near future, if not permanently. So you need to figure out what you're going to do to maximize your life, your days in a 2D world. So you can bring your best into each and every day. So figure out what your three priorities are. Which one is the most important? Schedule three 90 minute time blocks the following day. Put the number one priority in that first time block and I promise you, you will be recharged, you will be re energized and you will be getting so much shit done, you will be excited. Hope that helps. Guys, till next week. Have a great weekend and live life to the fullest.
