Here we are about to end this course and to tackle
the final project which is going to be creating
your playbook and that means creating two weeks of your calendar of your example
calendar and the
gathering of all your notes observations and reflections that is going to be your go-to moving forward
if you fell off the wagon but to start we're going to take the day before your work week start
as a starting point in my case is sunday i start my work week on monday therefore for me my fun day is actually the sunday so on sunday i just sit for around 30 minutes and make sure that i get
ready for the next couple of weeks
so maybe sunday is your day as well maybe it's another day if your work week starts i don't know on thursday in that case you will be doing this on wednesday for me it's gonna be sunday i guess for most of you as well so welcome to sunday fun day and let's get ready to set up your calendar for the next two weeks
you can compare number one with the one or two days that you did in the lessons before so we can complete your two week calendar moving forward now something that is very important and as well i think very interesting you are going to notice as i go through my calendar that there might be things that
you didn't notice
during the previous lesson for example as you will see i divide my distractions into two categories
distractions and inbox zero that is my email as we mentioned in previous lessons email is a distraction but it's a productive distraction and it is a tool it's a way of work so i need to allocate time for that but it is a distraction so you're going to notice that when you see my calendar and we're going to go through some of those spaces what to do with them so you can build the formula that works for you
again my calendar is an illustration it's an example you'll have to build yours so just take this again as a learning as a practice and you will probably schedule something for the next two weeks and during those two weeks you will be changing things you will be testing again
trial and error and maybe after the next two weeks you sit down on a sunday or whatever is your equivalent to the sunday and you will build another
two weeks if those are your perfect two weeks those will be the ones that you leave for your final playbook those will be the ones that you print out that you always look at as an example alongside your notes and reflections so let me show you my calendar this is kind of my first week in my calendar i'm gonna share with you all the details don't worry i know that maybe if you see someone else's calendar and you see all these boxes it might be overwhelming
but i'm assure you as soon as you get it it's gonna be super easy and your calendar is gonna look a lot like this one so you know give me a second we'll get there this is the first week what you're gonna see here is that i wake up early and i dedicate my mornings to personal stuff typically training well-being and whatnot i use the green color for anything related to
time fitness and so on so at a glance and this is why i was telling you at the beginning color coding is awesome at a glance you can see that during my week i typically dedicate my mornings there's some space in the middle of the day which is typically my cooking i always cook for lunch if i can unless i need to order or we go out but typically i cook especially because i work from home most of the days i cook i have lunch and i walk the dog
so you're gonna see that space and then you're gonna see space at the end of the day obviously you know night time something interesting as well i like to walk the dog kind of mid afternoon and it's also a great way as well to get movement right throughout the day if i didn't have a dog sometimes i don't have the dog he's in you know it's with a walker or whatever it is i will still keep that space and just substitute it for going for a walk but as you can see i have like you know throughout
the day before after hours i have three times for movement first thing in the morning movement and well-being and personal time right first thing in the morning lunch time mid afternoon and then the end of day that is all green so as you can see i do have a lot of green i hope you too green or whatever is the color that you choose so that is the first thing that you see at a glance right and also i do plan for two weeks so especially for training i
follow some sort of a schedule and training or whatnot so as you can see for example in the morning i have lower body strength training on the monday then i walk the dog then i have a shower and then i dedicate around 30 minutes to meditation and reading and that is my morning and note that i put it all in the calendar even the fact that i'm gonna walk the dog and shower and i know that this seems like a lot but it helps meaning you know i'm gonna walk the dog for around 15 20 minutes
i'm gonna take a quick shower 10 15 minutes that's all i need and i put it there and then i'm gonna meditate and i'm gonna read around 30 minutes in total meaning by eight in this case on this monday i'm gonna be ready to work and my first thing is actually going to be a distraction and it's gonna be my inbox why because i want to make sure that i start the week with an inbox zero meaning by monday right which is the first day of my working week i make sure that my inbox is clean
i've dealt with everything that i had to deal with so this is very important i schedule time for distractions in this case my inbox my productive distraction my email work email first thing on a monday why as we mentioned before not something that gives me a lot of energy but i'm super fresh after all my training my meditation my reading so it's all good so i check my email and right after as you can see here in kind of a more orange color
that i don't like so that is the first part of the morning that you can see here and you can start getting used to the color coding that i'm using in my calendar so we've seen three colors so far green all the good stuff this kind of purple for destruction related to inbox mail management so as you can see look i have this thing typically first thing in the morning then i have another space dedicated to it midday right before lunch
and then i have another space by the end of the day so i try to be very disciplined and check my email only three times a day it is a big distraction it is a tool sometimes there are things that are important in my inbox so i just check it three times a day that is me maybe you need to check it more often you still need to allocate it to your calendar so that is the second color that we see here and then look at the third color that i'm introducing to you so far the things that i don't like
the admin the meetings that are not productive or they are draining my energy things that are going to drain my energy in general i have it in this orange color so look at how i'm organizing my time here things that refresh me energize me some distraction that i need to take care of things that i don't like and that is something that works for me i've observed my energy i've observed my distractions i know for how long i can typically focus
so that is what i'm putting in my calendar and that is how i'm putting order to different things that i have to do then after that i'll try to get a productive meeting productive meetings which is this fourth color that i'm introducing are meetings that i really like having are meetings where i'm working with others to get work done and they're typically an energy booster and for example i follow that by solo work making a presentation by myself organizing
stuff whatever it is but it is both of them in this case they are
energizing okay and that is important and also something to notice once i put my solo work i take note of solo work and then in the details i will include things like i don't know build a slide eight to
ten on pitch deck number one for example that might be my solo work
or it could be research on the newest ux for fintech for example i'll take note of what i want to do during that solo work and that is important if you don't have clarity into how you're going to use that time you will probably fall into your distractions so this is a great discipline this is going to help you a lot believe me so yes it's just five minutes again on your sunday okay
am i gonna do during that solo work awesome then i will just set up some difficult meetings some difficult tasks as well then i'll set up some time for distractions as you can see here and then again inbox zeros and a lunch time look that in this monday morning i've used all my color codings so the green the destruction for inbox zero the things that i don't like the things that i find productive and look at this light blue here for the distractions meaning social
media etc etc what you're going to notice now that you understand how i work on my calendar is that for example on monday morning simply because i'm super refreshed after the weekend my energy levels are generally up i'm very well rested i don't put distractions until actually quite late in the morning 11 45 you're going to notice that that changes as the week goes why because i understand myself and i know how i work and you know what happens to me
during the week you get more tired you get more needs to get distracted so for example tuesday morning by the same time i've already scheduled two slots for distractions so notice those differences and i keep those two slots in the morning for distractions pretty much throughout the week again this is something that you can change you can change things during the week but what i try to do is on sunday to leave something there that makes sense and i really
try to be very disciplined to accomplish following this schedule again i've done this for a long time i'm very disciplined i've built that muscle and i also know how it works so i know exactly you know when to put my distractions so that is also something for you to notice maybe you need distractions right away and you schedule i don't know three slots from 8 to 12.
four slots that is up to you again my formula is not your formula
it's the
practices that matter okay so right before lunch as you can see i tend to check my email just make sure that i go for lunch in peace and with peace of mind cook lunch walk the dog all that distractions right after you will say man just have lunch you just walk the dog still you know right after lunch i kind of need a break before getting my brain working again and then typically i set up a complex meeting right after lunch and look because it's after lunch and i know i get
to where i tend to get a little bit more distracted i would put a distractions again right after then i'll set up a proactive meeting walk the dog another proactive meeting checking my inbox kind of at the end of the day or close to the end of the day some distraction time and it's a good chunk i would schedule a good 30 minute i have my solo work and then i have dinner at home seven to nine something very interesting here again the first thing that i will do on that sunday is to set up
all the greens all my personal time if my partner is next to me i'll actually do the exercise of saying okay what do we want to do together this week and i'll make sure that is the first thing that gets into my calendar just so you know that is my priority yours could be completely different it could be time with your kids it could be time for you like i don't know maybe you go to crossfit do tennis classes just watch netflix who cares just make sure that you
allow for that time to happen and that is the first thing that you should look so look at different things that are happening here for example on the tuesday i'm gonna cook on tuesday so i'm stopping at 6 30 and i'm gonna cook
and i'm gonna make dinner however there is something that i need to take care of that is work related so i will actually put in that i have to do solo work from eight to nine and i will let my partner know so it's like listen you know i'm gonna be cooking
and by the way this is terrible since i know that i'm gonna have to stop for work at 8 p.m because i have something to do whatever it is i make sure that that day i cook a delicious dinner right so it's you know just giving a little bit of balance right there so i don't lose any points with my partner so that is important as well the only way that you can get to do this is if you plan ahead this is why using this time box
is so important and something to
to focus and that's not the reason why it's working for you even though you are parameters
um that you know the level of complexity you're gonna have so put things in an order that makes
sense for you what else can you notice here let me show you for example thursday what do you notice
on thursday imagine that you get requests for meetings that you accept and whatnot and you get
to thursday and look at this i have really quite a complex morning the one thing that you should
ask yourself is this reasonable or should i move one of these complex meetings to another time and slot in there other type of more productive or energetic work this is what you need to reflect on and analyze when you are planning your week ahead does this make sense for your energy and your focus that is the challenge here in working with this type of time box methodology you will also notice that have blanket spaces that is
great that means that i have nothing scheduled there what does it mean you can use this time for something else to work out to train to watch a movie to whatever it is to maybe say you know what i'm gonna move my solo work to instead of doing it at 4 15 p.m on the thursday i'm gonna actually do it at 3 p.m and i'm gonna
also put my inbox zero earlier on so i finish my day early that could be the case as well it's not that you need to have every single
minute booked it's more about again how do you manage your energy throughout the day and when you have spaces where oh listen i have a completely blank space you can decide if you want to move something in there or actually if you want to have a full hour of distractions relax disconnection whatever it is make sure you also put that time in there and maybe what i will do is like great you know what i'm gonna extend my distraction time an hour
energy you own your distractions you just need to be disciplined practice and test a lot what works for you and what doesn't something very important here as you go through this exercise you create your schedule and you test because that is very important you test you're flexible you would change things that's all good you're gonna need a couple of weeks if not more to actually get to your
calendar there is something very important your success
metric is not the minute it's not the time your success metric is were you able to focus for as long as you wanted to focus on each task so at the end of the day what i want you to do is to really observe could i focus
so i said that i was going to focus for 30 minutes or that i was going to be in a productive meeting for 45 minutes
was i focused on that or was i immediately distracted take note of that because that is going to allow you to optimize your calendar as you go you won't be able to get to this perfect week that i have here in front of me if you don't observe and if you don't take note of those little things if you realize that for example you were not capable of focusing for more than 30 minutes never ever ever ever then you know that next week when you optimize your calendar you're going to try
to book slots that are not longer than 30 minutes and maybe you need more distractions around that is going to be part of your observation for the next days as you try this out now being successful at this is not about the time allocation success is something else let's see it in the next lesson