The ADHD-customized Power Hour combines the powers of body double, timers, element of surprise, and rewards to make tackling the hardest tasks fun or at least doable for us squirrel-brained folks.
The Power Hour technique is all about focus, discipline and being free from distractions! It requires you to divide big tasks into smaller, more manageable ones that you can dedicate an hour of 100% effort to.
A power hour is a 60-minute window during which you aim to complete a predetermined set of smaller tasks or one larger task. Tasks could be anything: homework, cleaning your room, organizing your papers or computer desktop, writing emails, etc.
Rubin observes that tasks that can't be done at anytime are often done at no time and these tasks, left undone, drain your energy and create stress. She came up with the idea of a Power Hour: an hour scheduled each week on her calendar for focusing on these lower-priority, yet still important tasks.
The Power Hour Defined
In her book The Happiness Project, author Gretchen Rubin discusses the power hour as a set-aside allotment of 60 minutes to complete those nagging tasks one is procrastinating on. It is a type of time blocking. The idea behind the power hour is to remove the drag uncompleted tasks have on us.
My power hour begins at 5am, which I do 5 days/week, vacation time excluded. It includes 20 to 30 minutes of exercise, 10 minutes of journaling, and 10 minutes of either writing, goal planning, or contemplative thinking.
The five-minute rule is a cognitive-behavioral technique that is designed to overcome procrastination and boost productivity. The basis of this rule is that all you need to do is commit to spending just five minutes on whatever it is you're procrastinating, after which you're free to stop if you want.
The Four-Hour Rule states that we'll only be intellectually productive for about four hours a day. Related studies show that after those four hours of deep-focus creative or intellectual work, our productivity can decrease fast and give place to that “fried brain” feeling.
The 20-minute rule is very simple. Next time you dread doing something, set a timer for 20 minutes, and start working on whatever it is you've been putting off. It doesn't matter if you're slow at first, the important thing is that you work on your task for just 20 minutes.
Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes. That's right--you're probably only productive for around three hours a day.
The premise is simple: take an hour each day, normally the first, and set it aside for you. That could be training for a marathon or listening to a podcast, drawing, journalling, learning a language, doing yoga.
Power hours are the name I give to my single, ad hoc coaching sessions. It's an hour of my undivided time and attention with one simple aim in mind; helping you tackle whatever thorny issue needs tackling in your leadership career right now in order to make most progress, most quickly.
A power hour is dangerous because of the sheer volume of alcohol you consume in a short period of time. It is, by the very definition, binge drinking. This is not the same as casually sipping on 7.5 beers over the course of a three and a half hour Red Sox / Yankees game.
How does the 5-hour rule work? The main premise of the 5-hour rule is that regardless of how successful or knowledgeable you are, spending at least five hours every week deliberately learning something new can have exponential long-term benefits.
Then it's time to try the 5 hour rule. This rule involves dedicating at least one hour a day, or five hours a week, to self-improvement and learning something new. Imagine what kind of progress you could make in a year if you dedicated just five hours every week to improving yourself and your skills.
The Power Hour is the solution. This is one hour each night, five nights a week dedicated to study. It is completed in a six subject notebook at home devoting ten minutes to each major subject each night. Within ten minutes time, the student must summarize all the notes/lessons learned in a particular subject that day.
The 52/17 Rule is a time management method that recommends 52 minutes of focused working followed by 17 minutes of complete resting and recharging. This principle was first presented in 2014 in an article for The Muse and has since then been covered by other media outlets.
Specifically, the most productive people work for 52 minutes at a time, then break for 17 minutes before getting back to it (similar to the Pomodoro Method—more on that here). The employees with the highest productivity ratings, in fact, don't even work eight-hour days.
The 3/3/3 method
Three hours per day to work on an important current project; three urgent but less time-consuming things (including meetings); and. three “maintenance” tasks” (for example e-mails, but also micro-learning, etc.).
Food held between 5oC and 60oC for less than 2 hours can be used, sold or put back in the refrigerator to use later. Food held between 5oC and 60oC for 2-4 hours can still be used or sold, but can't be put back in the fridge. Food held between 5oC and 60oC for 4 hours or more must be thrown away.
The 2-hour/4-hour rule is a good way to make sure potentially hazardous food is safe even if it's been out of refrigeration. The rule has been scientifically checked and is based on how quickly microorganisms grow in food at temperatures between 5°C and 60°C.
The new management mindset
Here's what actually works: the 85% rule. The 85% rule counterintuitively suggests that to reach maximum output, you need to refrain from giving maximum effort. Operating at 100% effort all of the time will result in burnout and ultimately less-optimal results.
So first of all, what is the 5 minute rule? The 5 minute rule is simply telling yourself, "I'm just going to do five minutes." You set a timer for five minutes. You start the task you've been dreading, resisting, or procrastinating on, and you can stop after five minutes.
Increasing the ease with which you start a task can do some serious damage to this procrastinating cycle. Enter the 5-minute rule. The 5-minute rule is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique for procrastination in which you set a goal of doing whatever it is you would otherwise avoid, but only do it for five minutes.