Personal Productivity — Utilizing the Power Hour

What obstacles do you face in meeting your daily goals? For those who work from home, the temptation to abandon schedules and procrastinate on less appealing tasks can be strong. Establishing a structured routine is crucial in a remote work setting, and implementing a focused “power hour” can significantly boost your productivity.

What is a Power Hour?

A power hour is when you buckle yourself into your chair and do what needs to get done. No distractions, unrelated calls/texts, negative self-talk, unnecessary breaks, unproductive time on social media, or anything not directly related to the task.

Try scheduling a few power hours into your day. Think about this for a minute: If you invest one hour in your day to tackle specific projects you have been avoiding, you would accomplish those tasks in short order, and they would no longer taunt you from your to-do list.

Let’s talk about where you can utilize power hours.

Working From Home

• Get ready for work as if you were going into the office.
• Prioritize your tasks ahead of your power hour so you know where to focus your time.
• Try to create a designated “work” area for yourself. Working from the same space in your home every day helps your mind stay focused and not wander off with distractions around the home.
• Silence all devices, chats, and email chains. Your power hour isn’t the time to take Zoom meetings or phone calls. This is a time for you to focus on your creativity and finish high priority tasks.

Here’s an example schedule to fit into your day. You may need to adjust depending on the number of hours you work per day, time of day you need to be available for work, etc.

Homeschooling Tasks With Kids

• Kids’ attention spans are different than yours. Maybe their power hour is actually broken into four different 15-minute increments, and that’s okay.
• Stick to a routine. Your schedule will be unique to what your kids’ online learning requirements are, but try to have “school” at the same time every day.
• Give them as much structure and predictability as you can. It’s easier to get buy-in from your kids to do a worksheet or writing time if they know what to expect, rather than surprising them with a request to do an assignment they weren’t expecting.

Schedule example:

Exercising at Home

• Give yourself an uninterrupted power hour to be physically active.
• Exercise lifts your mood, which is critical when faced with the challenge of staying inside and finding alternative activities to do to substitute for some of your usual ones.
• Exercise helps you sleep better and manage stress better, which can both be difficult when schedules are disrupted.

Here’s a quick home workout you can do:

It takes time to get used to a new normal, so give yourself time to adjust to your new work life and make the most of your unplanned time at home. Going about your work life in a new way can create positive shifts and growth. This unique situation gives you the opportunity to rethink all areas of your life.