The 5 am club

Tactic #3: The 60/10 Method
The Insight:
Research supports that the greatest performers don’t work in a
linear way—working harder and longer with the hope of arriving at stronger
and better results. Instead, the way elite creatives do what they do is by
understanding the power of oscillation. They structure their work cycles so
that they alternate bursts of deep focus and ferocious intensity of performance
with periods of real rest and full recovery. In other words, they work in a
balance—and cycle awesome output with times to refuel their assets of genius
so they don’t deplete them. Armed with data concluding that human beings do
their most astonishing work when they are fresh and relaxed versus exhausted
and stressed, genuine pros dedicated to the glorification of their genius
operate in a mode of pulsation, operating more like sprinters than
marathoners.
The Implementation:
After you’ve run the 90/90/1 segment of your workday,
use a timer and work at your best for sixty minutes straight while sitting or
standing quietly, in your Tight Bubble of Total Focus. Train yourself not to
move. Just concentrate. And create the highest results you can possibly make.
After your sixty-minute productivity sprint is done, refuel for ten minutes.
Ideas for this recovery cycle include going for a quick walk in fresh air,
reading a book that will advance your leadership or personal mastery,
meditating, visualizing or listening to energizing music with headphones on
like many championship athletes do before they step onto the court, so that
their brain’s attention shifts from the ruminating and worrying behaviors of
the left hemisphere into the creativity and flow of the right section. After ten
wonderful minutes of regeneration, go back and perform your next sixty-
minute work segment, full of inspiration, excellence and ingenuity. And then
your next ten-minute cycle of renewal.