Guest Posts

How to Find 10 Hours per Week to Work on Your Side Business

When I first started working on my side business, I had a full time job as a programmer, I was studying at the university, and I had a girlfriend as well. I know how HARD it can be to actually find the time and energy for your side business.

That’s why I’m SO EXCITED to have a friend and a long time client of mine, Charles Bordet from Become a Top Performer, write a post on my blog about this exact topic.

Charles has made amazing progress over the last few years – he went from being stuck in a PhD, feeling burned out and without energy, to finding tens of hours each week to work on things that were important to him – including his side business.

Charles, take it away!

***

Last year, when I started to work on building a side business, I didn’t realize is was that much work.

As something “on the side”, I thought it would be easy to find 5 to 10 hours every week to occasionally work on it.

But it wasn’t easy. I was working on a PhD, had a part-time job and was involved in several other important projects. Because of this very busy schedule, finding these 5-10 hours was a big challenge without some sort of agenda management software.

I quickly realized that the strategy “Work when I feel like it” working. My business would never be successful this way.

I needed to make a conscious effort to work on it consistently.

My first approach was to take the habit of working on it every day for 1 to 2 hours. When I was back home after work, I took a few minutes to relax, but not more, and sat down before my computer to work. Even when I didn’t feel like it.

At least, this was what it should have been, theoretically. In practice, it was often very different.

I had the time, that wasn’t the problem. Usually, I spent hours watching Netflix or browsing Facebook in the evenings. I could do less of that and get the time I needed to work on my business.

But, some days, the 15-minute break to relax I took transformed into a break that lasted the entire evening. It was hard to force myself to work when I didn’t feel like it, simply because, well, I didn’t feel like it.

My willpower supply was very low because I used it during my work. If I usually watched Netflix, there is a good reason for that. I was exhausted from my work, my body and my mind wanted to rest.

Even watching the videos of the online business course I was taking was hard. After 10 minutes, I felt distracted and started something else at the same time. It was very hard to stay focused.

After a hard day at work, which one is more compelling?

When I was doing research around my business idea, I caught myself endlessly browsing the internet without finding anything relevant. I always ended up visiting websites that were clearly not related to my business.

From there, I felt discouraged, it was already late, so I surrendered and opened Netflix. Hopefully, I would do better the next day.

I tried hard. Some days I was very productive, that was encouraging, but most days were simply a waste of time.

I could have kept going the same thing over and over, hoping that it would get better, or change the way I was working.

Fortunately for me, I chose the second option.

When are you feeling fresh and motivated to work on your side business?

The main problem that prevented me to work in the evening was that my energy and willpower supplies were empty. This made it very hard to stay focused, motivated and to be creative.

So, when do I have a lot of energy? In the morning, of course! After a good night of sleep, and before spending all my resources during my job or academic research.

But I didn’t have time in the morning. If I wanted to have 1 or 2 hours to work on my business, I would have to get up between 5 and 6 am.

That was SO early to me!

When I tried to do it the first time, I didn’t understand what was happening. I just turned off the alarm clock and went back to sleep.

I know that some people are getting up that early every day, because they start work very early, or they have a long commute, but they have no choice. Here, I had to willingly get up at 5 am.

Nobody was forcing me. It was much easier to go back to sleep.

At night, before sleeping, I thought about all the reasons that I had to get up early. They all made sense, it was a rationally good decision.

But in the morning, when I tried to explain that to my half-awaken brain, it didn’t make that much sense. The will of going back to sleep was too strong.

Another problem I had is that if I need to get up at 5 am AND get 8 hours of sleep, then I also need to go to bed at 9 pm. That is very early. Most of us wouldn’t even consider it.

I remember of a time when going to bed before midnight wasn’t even an option. Much have changed since, fortunately.

Do you feel ready to sleep at 9 pm? Well, me neither. I’m the kind of guy who can feel asleep in less than 5 minutes, but it took me a long time when I tried to sleep that early. That wasn’t a good experience at all!

Usually, at this time, I was watching series, playing video games, or chatting with friends on the internet. I was supposed to stop my activity, tell my friends I had to go to sleep, even if I didn’t want to.

Again, it was hard to force myself to do that. Series are too addictive. Most of the time I just forgot to go to sleep.

The problem wasn’t even that I didn’t want to sleep, it was that I forgot it. I didn’t feel tired enough and I was absorbed in the activity I was doing.

Finally, sometimes I get out with my friends and come back late. I told myself I had to be serious and wake up at 5 am the next day.

Sure. Of course you know what happened. I slept in, I felt guilty, and no work was done on my business this day.

Sometimes I succeeded though. I crawled out of my bed, reached my desk, turned my computer on and tried to do what I had to do.

But, what was I supposed to do by the way? My ideas weren’t very clear. I needed time to get this cloud out of my head. I had trouble to get clarity of what needed to get done.

I thought that working in the morning was better because I would be fresher and more energized. Was I wrong?

I wasn’t. But I was doing it all wrong.

It was a real struggle. I thought I wasn’t a night owl because I wasn’t able to work at night. And I thought I wasn’t an early riser either, considering all the difficulties I had.

Fortunately, I figured out how to make it work. It took me time. Not days, not weeks, but months. I tested different approaches, realized some experiences, and created systems to make every morning a success.

What if You Could Work Every Morning For 2 Hours on Your Side Business?

Today, getting up at 5 am every morning and working on my business has become a habit. My neighbor below even came to ask me to walk more softly in the morning. That’s when I knew it was a consistent habit.

I want to share with you how I transformed these past failures into a successful system so that YOU can do it as well. You will have absolutely NO excuse for not working on your side business consistently for at least 5 hours a week, even if you have a family and a full-time job.

My system is very personal and adapted to my own habits and schedule. It won’t necessarily work for you, but I will show you how you can gradually build your own system adapted specifically for you.

Also, my system is not something fixed. It was different last month. It will be different next month. Actually, I am experimenting right now with something a little bit different with what I’ll describe.

Life is constantly changing, so you simply adapt your habits and improve them with time. What’s important is that these changes are small. The hardest part is to have the basic system established. Then, you can tweak it from time to time to improve it.

At first, I took baby steps to get up just a little bit earlier. It was easy, and it worked. On the opposite, when I tried to wake up 2 hours earlier at once, it was hard, and it didn’t work.

If I had tried to directly implement the system that I am going to show you, I would’ve failed miserably. It is too complex and with too many new habits to take. Change happens slowly.

The key is to start really small, very easy, and to improve with time.

For example, don’t try to get up 2 hours earlier like I did at first. Try to get up 15 minutes earlier. It’s easy. 15 minutes aren’t a lot to work on your side business, but that’s a start, and you’re moving in the right direction. Next week, you’ll try 30 minutes, and so on.

Hopefully, my system will inspire you to create your own. Don’t feel that you should do exactly the same things as me and expect the same results. We’re different, and I’ll show you how to create your own system.

How to Guarantee You Will Get 8 Hours of Sleep Every Night

As I told you earlier, I struggled a lot to force myself to consistently go to sleep early.

This changed when I started to have an evening routine. The goal of this routine was to insure that I go to sleep at the right time, without me not wanting to or forgetting about it.

My phone is set up to ring at 6 pm to trigger the evening routine. When this happens, I stop working and I forbid myself to work more. I know that if I keep working, I will certainly mess up my sleep schedule.

This rule is very important to me. It also prevent me from getting burned out when I work too late for too many days in a row. At first I’m excited to work a lot, and after a few days I feel exhausted and need days to recover.

This is the first item of the evening routine. Stop working. I actually reboot my computer, so that I have a fresh new session, without all the tabs or files related to work still open.

The second step is to get up, put my shoes on, and go out for a walk. I’m usually still working at home at this time (I’m not always working by the way, but it is often the case), and since I’m at home, I don’t have a commute.

A lot of people hate their commute. But when you don’t have one, there is nothing that separates work and home. I need this separation, so I created it, by just going for a 20-minute walk.

A relaxed walk in a nice neighborhood

I enjoy walking, this is really good for me. It is relaxing. I let my mind wander. In a way, as I have rebooted my computer, I’m also rebooting my mind.

Once I7m back home, I put my orange glasses on. Ok, this is definitely not for everyone. Only for the weirdos like me, and preferably if you’re living alone.

These glasses are made specifically to block the blue light. The problem with blue light (from computer screens etc.) is that it interferes with your melatonin production, which is the hormone that regulate sleep and wake cycles. I won’t go into very deep details, but basically, it’s good for my sleep. A less weird option is the use of f.lux, but this is much less effective.

Not only is it good for my sleep, but the action of putting these glasses and seeing everything in orange also give more strength to the separation between “work” and “home”, because I literally see things differently.

The last action of my evening routine is to clean up my apartment for 15 minutes. Having a clean place is very important to me because when my apartment is messed up, I feel less good, my mind is cluttered by the mess and I lose my focus when I’m trying to work.

By including cleaning in my evening routine, I make sure this is done every day.

After that, I’m free to enjoy my evening by doing anything I want. Because of the routine, I never forget to go to sleep. This is very powerful.

Again, this is something very personal and that’s constantly changing. Eric Conley has a very different evening routine, and he does it right before sleeping (while I’m doing it at the end of my workday), but the principle and the objective are the same.

Here is a summary of my evening routine:

Reboot my computer.
Go for a walk.
Put orange glasses on.
Clean for 15 minutes.
Do whatever I want until I go to sleep.

How to Virtually Guarantee Every Morning Will Be the Most Productive Time of Your Day, Even If You’re Not a Morning Person

The radio automatically turns on at 5 am and wakes me up. What do I do?

I haven’t really found a way to be very energized every morning. Sometimes I am eager to work, and other times I just want to sleep more.

A few years ago, I couldn’t even consider going to sleep before midnight and always got up late. I clearly didn’t consider myself as a morning person.

Today, it’s very rare that I go to sleep after midnight and I now consider myself as a morning person. But I had no predisposition for that, I struggled to become a morning person.

This is not something that is fixed for life. If you don’t consider yourself like a morning person, it doesn’t mean you will never be. But it takes efforts to change.

The way I found to be consistently productive every morning, whatever my mood is, is to have an exciting morning routine that’s awaiting me.

Every morning, I repeat the same things, in the same order, so that I can expect to get the same results, which is a successful and productive morning.

Actually, pretty much everyone already has a morning routine. We naturally do the same things over and over in the morning. The difference here is that instead of stumbling upon a routine, I created mine. And I made sure it is exciting and leads me to success.

At first, after getting up, I turn the lights on (very important) and go to the toilet to pee. Then I weigh, every morning, because I like to have data. Later in the morning, I will enter the data point into a spreadsheet.

Now comes the first very important item of the routine: breakfast.

Every morning I do the same thing. I brew my coffee in a French press and prepare an omelette with bacon, tomato, cheese, and basil, plus a couple of toasts. I love it!

Who can resist, seriously?

This is a big breakfast high in protein that sustains me for hours! I need this because I get up very early and donÌt want to feel hungry at 9 am.

It takes me 20 to 25 minutes to prepare it though. That’s why, for a few months, I tried to do ham, egg & cheese muffins. I could prepare them days in advance and simply warm them up in 1 minute.

Very simple and can be prepared days in advance!

But after a while, I missed my omelette, so I went back to it.

Then, I check my emails while eating my breakfast. This is the only time of the day I check emails. I’m using BatchedInbox, which is a pretty cool tool that delivers my emails every day at 5 am only. It means that if you send me an email at 6 am, I will receive it the next day at 5 am. I’m not bothered by emails during the day.

After that, bathroom time, where I read for 10 minutes, take a shower, brush my teeth and dress up.

I’m also ready for work, but I now need exciting and powerful activities to put myself in the right mindset. These activities build the momentum that makes every morning a productive morning.

The first activity is to go for a walk. Did I say I love walking? It’s even better in the morning than in the evening. The streets are very calm, the sun is rising, the birds are singing! It’s really cool. This is a very beautiful way to start the day.

Yep, even in Winter, that’s a lot of fun!

When I’m back, I write in a journal about anything that I have in my mind. It can be about my struggles, my genius ideas, my successes, anything that I’d like to write about.

This gives me the opportunity to practice my writing every day, even if it’s only 100 to 200 words. It also tells a lot about what I’m focusing on at that moment.

I can later go back and read what I was writing 3 months earlier, what I was thinking about at that time, what were my preoccupations, etc.

It allows me to take a step back and see the improvements I’ve done. Or, on the opposite, it can also help to see that I haven’t made as much progress as I’d have liked to, even if I felt busy. Realizing this is essential and particularly hard to do when we’re busy all day long.

Finally, last but not least, I write my goals. It helps me to increase my focus and gives me the inspiration to kickstart the day.

I’m now ready to work and have roughly two hours for my side business before I need to go to work.

This routine ensures that I’m fully energized and inspired to work on my side business every morning, whether I was initially feeling tired or already excited. Quick summary:

Get up.
Toilet + Weigh.
Prepare breakfast.
Eat breakfast + Manage emails.
Toilet + Reading. Shower. Brush teeth.
Walk outside.
Journal.
Write goals.
Ready to work

It might sounds a lot. And that’s actually a lot. It takes me almost 1h30 to do all of this. It wasn’t like that the first time I tried to implement a morning routine. And If I had tried, I would’ve failed, simply because this is a too big change.

Instead, I recommend starting very easy. Consider what you’re already doing as a starting point, and from there make small adjustments from time to time.

For instance, if you want to try meditation, add a 5-minute meditation in the morning. That’s really easy to do.

Then, you may realize you don’t enjoy meditation that much (I tried meditation for 2 months before stopping for this exact reason, and replacing it with walking), then stop doing it. It’s as simple as that.

After a while, you will have a much better morning routine that you love doing every day.

Step-by-Step Guide to Get Started

Do you feel overwhelmed? That’s normal. I just described the system that I built in months. I don’t expect (nor recommend) you to do the same things tomorrow. First because it will very probably lead you to failure, and also because this is not adapted to you.

Instead, I prepared a step-by-step guide so that you have NO excuse to get started.

Step 1: Where are you right now?

Assess your current situation by answering to these questions:

When are you usually going to sleep?
When are you usually getting up in the morning?
How much time do you need to be ready in the morning?
How many hours do you need to sleep?

Example: I’m usually going to sleep around 11 pm, getting up at 7 am and takes 30 minutes to get prepared. I think I need 8 hours of sleep.

Step 2: Where do you want to be?

Describe what would be the ideal morning so that you have time to work on your side business:

When do you need to go to sleep?
When do you need to get up in the morning?
How much time do you want to work on your side business?

Example: I want to go to sleep at 10 pm, so that I get up at 6 am and have 1 hour to work on my side business.

Step 3: Create a very basic system.

The morning routine is that as important as the evening routine. I noticed that usually, people struggle to consistently go to sleep earlier. That’s why I recommend you keep doing the same thing as usual in the morning.

Instead, create a basic evening routine that contains the following items:

The time when your alarm will ring to trigger the evening routine.
A relaxing activity that you enjoy doing.

Example: Since I want to go to sleep at 10 pm, I will set up my alarm at 9 pm. My relaxing activity is taking a warm bath with a very good book.

Tip: If your computer is a distraction that prevents you to go to sleep, schedule it to automatically shutdown at a certain hour.

Step 4: Improve your system gradually.

Stick to the basic system for a while to get used to it. Naturally, you will want to improve it by trying different activities, different timings, and so on.

If you’re happy with it the way it is, don’t force anything. It means it’s working, so keep doing it and don’t break it.

But if you’re like me, you will want to make a lot of changes very often, because you like experimenting and testing. Be careful with that because it’s easy to break the system when you do too many changes at once. Restrain yourself to one change at a time.

What if I can’t get up in the morning?

When I first tried to get up very early in the morning, it didn’t work at all. That’s why I want to add this extra section with a few tips that will help you to NOT fall back asleep after waking up.

Have a gradual approach

Try to get up 15 minutes earlier the first week. It will be much easier.

Then, the week after, do 30 minutes earlier, and so on.

That’s how I did it the first time I wanted to get up very early. Yes, it took me a month to get up one hour earlier. So what? I succeed. Long term changes aren’t made in one day.

Make it harder to fall back asleep

Put your alarm clock far from your bed, so that you have to get up to turn it off.

Some alarm clock propose you to solve a small problem, walk a few steps, or do an addition, before it turns off. Give it a try if you struggle a lot.

What If You Want More Than 10 Hours Per Week?

Getting 2 hours to work on your side business every morning is really good. It means 10 hours per week if you’re doing it consistently every weekday.

But what if you want more? More time for your side business. More free time every day.

Because even during the day I had a lot of work to do, between with PhD, my part-time job and my other academic projects, I developed systems that helped me save more than 4 hours every day!

I used these hours to get progress faster on my projects, but also to have more free time and spend it hanging out with my friends.

I share these systems in my ebook Get An Extra Hour Every Day. It will help you to save at least one hour a day, but probably more, like it had for me. With just one extra hour, you can:

Go out with your partner, forget about business, and don’t worry about ANYTHING.
Send extra pitches to the websites you want to contribute on but never find the time to.
Make progress quicker on your business and increase your income.

If you liked this article, you’ll love my ebook Get An Extra Hour Every Day!

What Jeff Bezos, LeBron James, and Arianna Huffington Have in Common

By Primoz Bozic 26 Comments

If you could incorporate the common thread between Jeff, LeBron and Arianna that guarantees success, would you do it? Of course you would (but almost nobody does).

All three are the absolute best at what they do, but what is the ONE thing that ties them together?

Do they work 24/7/365 to stay ahead of the competition?
Did they have a personal coach that pushed them at the top?
Do they possess more “passion” towards their craft than anyone else?

The answer is no, no and no.

We need to dig deeper.

Of course Jeff, LeBron and Arianna have an undying hustle. But hard work alone is just your ticket to the dance — you’ve still got to get the girl.

And each of these three built their empires through a collection of personal mentors and coaches. In fact, their first comment whenever receiving praise is to give gratitude towards those that helped them along the way. But many people have coaches / mentors — this doesn’t guarantee success.

Lastly, following your passion is horrible advice. Jeff, LeBron and Arianna have a constant yearning to be the best in their field — but so do all of their competitors.
So if it’s not 24/7/365 hustle, personal coaches or passion, what is it?

The (Not-So-Sexy) Secret to Success

What ties Jeff, LeBron and Arianna together in their success is bland and boring — but absolutely essential.

The common element between them is the age-old (often ignored) advice of getting a good night’s rest. That’s right, all three of them prioritize sleep, especially when their best performance is required.

In today’s post I’ve invited my friend, Eric Conley, to debunk the fallacy of high-profile CEOs and athletes burning the ‘midnight oil’ to get ahead. He’ll dig into the habits of Jeff, LeBron and Arianna and how they propelled their careers to achieve true mastery. And perhaps most importantly, he will teach you the secret to unlocking your hidden potential (note, it’s not simply getting enough sleep).

Eric — take it away.

Cutting Sleep May Bring Success, but at a Cost

Ranjan Das is by all accounts an overachiever.

As the CEO and Managing Director of SAP for the India Subcontinent he led all the market-facing functions. His responsibilities included crafting the go-to-market strategy, driving customer satisfaction and managing the profit and loss for all revenue-generating functions[1].

His relentless work ethic provided him the reputation of driving SAP India’s business ahead of its rivals in the country[2].

In addition to his success at work, Ranjan was a health freak — he ate perfectly, worked out daily and ran marathons to satisfy his competitive spirit. His ambition to succeed trumped everything. He even refrained from bad habits like drinking and smoking with little bongs.

So why is it, at the ripe age of 42 Ranjan died from massive cardiac arrest?

The 4-Hour Sleep Myth

In today’s culture a lack of sleep is a form of braggery. We often associate sleep deprivation with success or superhuman abilities.

Candidly, I used to be in awe of people who are uber successful who claim to get by on 4-5 hours of sleep.

But stories like Ranjan’s are becoming more and more frequent.

If you haven’t guessed already, Ranjan’s death is cited towards his sleep (or lack thereof) habits.

He boasted he “only needed 4 hours of sleep”. Sadly, his position on sleep became a vicious downward spiral — each time he was quoted on his late night routine he was applauded from peers and rewarded with continued success, eventually becoming a leader in the juggernaut company that is SAP.

To Ranjan, the fallacy of less sleep equaling success led to an early death, despite his reputation of being a “health freak”.

What’s unfortunate for Ranjan is that the consequences of sleep deprivation (including his death) were overshadowed by the lifelong societal and career praise he received.

Keep this in mind the next time you overhear a co-worker boast that “she was up all night” to complete a project. Her decision to do so caused WAY more harm than good.

How Jeff Bezos, LeBron James and Arianna Huffington Use Sleep to Catapult their Success

Jeff Bezos

Amazon.com rivals Wal-Mart as a store, Apple as a device maker, and IBM as a data services provider. Founded just 20 years ago and with revenue expected to hit $90 billion this year, Jeff Bezos is the posterboy for self-made success[3].

Yet night after night he dedicates 8 hours towards sleep.

This is quite admirable, considering the ruthless pursuit by Bezos into making Amazon an e-commerce powerhouse.

“I’m more alert and I think more clearly” as a result, Mr. Bezos says. “I just feel so much better all day long if I’ve had eight hours.”[4]

The key lesson here is to prioritize clarity and focus to achieve your best work over being fatigued, but busy, with directionless tasks.

LeBron James

And when athletes combine sleep with nutrition and exercise their results skyrocket.

Consider the following:

Tennis players get a 42% boost in hitting accuracy
Sleep improves split-second decision making ability by 4.3%
Football players drop 0.1 off their 40-yard dash times by sleeping more

And most impressive, a 20-30 minute power nap improves alertness by 100%[5].

The advantages received from increased sleep can be the difference maker for professional athletes.

That’s why LeBron James, arguably the best basketball player, repeatedly gets 12 hours of sleep a day.

At just 30 year’s old, LeBron is in his 12th NBA season and has accumulated 34,332 career regular season minutes (14 among all active players)[6]. Sleep — perhaps more than anything else — is the reason he is able to perform at an MVP level everytime he steps on the basketball court.

Arianna Huffington

As the President and Editor-in-Chief of Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington leads a busy life.

So much so that in 2007, Arianna passed out from sheer exhaustion. She broke her cheekbone on her desk and got five stitches under her right eye[7].

This was her wake up call — no pun intended.

Since the incident, she gave a TEDWoman Talk, “How to Succeed? More Sleep” which has received nearly 3 million views.

In her speech, she negates the boasting, one-manupship of sleep deprivation stating:

“..f you try to make a breakfast date, and you say, “How about eight o’clock?” they’re likely to tell you, “Eight o’clock is too late for me, but that’s okay, I can get a game of tennis in and do a few conference calls and meet you at eight.” And they think that means that they are so incredibly busy and productive, but the truth is they’re not, because we, at the moment, have had brilliant leaders in business, in finance, in politics making terrible decisions. So a high I.Q. does not mean that you’re a good leader, because the essence of leadership is being able to see the iceberg before it hits the Titanic. Ad we’ve had far too many icebergs hitting our Titanics.”

Huffington admits that by making sleep a priority she’s had to say “no” to good opportunities — but the benefit of doing so is profound.

Unlike her former zombie-self, she is able to focus on the critical business decisions she makes at HuffPo AND have energy for family time and playing with her kids.

In her own words, “As I got more rest, I could work and come home — and become the human jungle gym again”[8].

If Arianna, one of Forbes most influential women for 2014, allows adequate sleep in her life, couldn’t you?

How Sleep Unleashes Your Inner Genius

I recently went on a week-long trip back home to Ohio. While staying there, my little sister was kind enough to let my fiance and I sleep in her full-size bed — a little snug, but much better than the couch.

And let me tell you, I went WAY beyond my normal sleep routine. Night-after-night I slept for at least 10 hours and woke up whenever I wanted to.

My body quickly adapted with the late to sleep / late to rise routine almost overnight. What’s odd is that I found myself tired in the afternoon — even though I slept in.

Not only did I have less energy during this interim period, but I also shortened my days:

Normal Routine

Rise n’ Shine: 5 AM

Bedtime: 10 PM

Total Waking Hours: 17

Ohio Routine

Rise n’ Shine: 9 AM

Bedtime: 11 PM

Total Waking Hours: 14

Did I miss my alarm clock while in Ohio? Absolutely not.

And I didn’t go back home to be productive — I came to relax and enjoy time with my family.

But during this time I realized just how valuable my *normal* routine is. I make sleep a priority and turn off all electronics, including my work iPhone, by 9 PM — no excuses.
To the contrary, when I was in Ohio I stayed up late to watch movies that I’d already seen multiple times.

This reminds me of the advice I found on Reddit:

“If you wouldn’t wake up early to do it, you probably shouldn’t stay up late to do it.”
The moral of the story: It’s 100% acceptable (and encouraged) to stay up late every once in a while. But if you continually watch late night TV or have your eyes glued to your iPad you need to ask yourself, “Would I wake up to catch the next episode of The Walking Dead or scroll through Kim Kardashian’s latest Instagram pictures?

And although the intent behind this question is to keep you mindful of your priorities (i.e. sleep) we know that knowledge without action is useless.

With that, I’ll share with you my personal, advanced Stop and Snooze Routine to ensure you wake up with creative energy to complete your life’s work.

Stop and Snooze Routine

The Stop and Snooze routine begins with a simple, but profound idea — an evening alarm on your alarm clock.

You are probably using your alarm clock to wake you up in the morning, but you haven’t considered using your alarm to help you get to sleep.

Setting up your evening alarm is easy — just work backwards from the time you wake up.
For example, if you want to have seven hours of sleep (recommended minimum) and need to be awake by 6 AM, then you’d need to fall asleep by 11 PM the night before. To be asleep by 11 PM, you’ll need to set your evening alarm to 10 PM to trigger your Stop and Snooze Routine an hour before sleep.

A Day in the Life

Ninety percent of the time, I’m asleep by 10 PM during the week. I get at least seven hours of sleep before I wake up at 5 AM for CrossFit.

To help me get to sleep by 10 PM, I have my evening alarm clock prompt me to begin my nightly routine at 9 PM:

Pack gym bag with office clothes
Set workout clothes and shoes out in the living room
Have boiled eggs (peeled), oatmeal with blueberries and a protein shake ready in the fridge
Drink Sleepy Time tea
Read until I fall asleep

As mundane as this routine might seem, I get excited anticipating my 9 PM alarm. Even if I’m working on my laptop, I know that when 9 PM comes around, it’ll be time to quit. The rest of the evening is “my time,” and I get to cap it off with reading — something I always claimed to “never have time for.”

And when my 5 AM alarm goes off, I’m out of my bed and out the door in less than 15 minutes because I had set everything up for myself, leaving me with zero excuses to miss a workout.

What’s more is that when I workout in the morning I virtually guarantee myself to have a great day. I’ve been compiling notes in my Five-Minute Journal for months and there is a definite correlation between CrossFit in the morning and increased productivity / happiness for the day.

Action Steps

Determine what time you want to wake up in the morning. Count backwards the number of hours you wish to sleep plus one and set your alarm (i.e. wake up at 5 AM while getting 7 hours of sleep requires a 10 PM snooze time and 9 PM evening alarm).
When your evening alarm (i.e. 9 PM) goes off, begin taking care of all the items you would normally put off till morning and get them done now. This includes picking out your clothes for tomorrow and setting out your breakfast items (dishes and preparing your food) and shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes. Even as someone who preaches good sleep habits, I’m never motivated first thing in the morning. Why fight against yourself in the morning when you can get your morning tasks out of the way at night?
After spending 15 minutes getting your things ready for the morning, it is now “your” time. Enjoy it reading, meditating, taking a warm shower, talking to your spouse — whatever! This is your guilt-free time, and you can choose to do whatever you like, just make sure the lights are out by 10 PM (or whatever time allows you to get the hours of sleep you need).

How YOU Can Fall Asleep in Minutes

We’ve seen how poor sleep habits (allegedly) brought a high-profile CEO to an early death, even though he was considered a “health freak.” Unfortunately, this story will be forgotten. The culture we live in praises sleep and believes it is required to get to the next level.

Luckily we have three of the most influential people on the planet to model after — Jeff Bezos, LeBron James and Arianna Huffington. All three of them sleep MORE than the average person and attribute their success to a good night’s rest.

It’s time to stop making excuses. Let’s use sleep to launch our own success and get started right away by using my advanced Stop and Snooze Routine.

And if you’re trying to go to bed earlier, but find yourself tossing and turning for hours on end, download my FREE e-book How to Fall Asleep in Minutes.

This book will help you:

Stop worrying about the endless list of thoughts racing through your head so you can fall asleep quickly.
Avoid the snooze button in the morning and wake up at 6 AM to get hours of work done while your competition is still asleep.
Have consistently high energy while others struggle with the afternoon slump.

Sleep is a force multiplier for everything in your life, and will effectively double the results for all of your work and health goals.

When you’re ready, download my e-book How to Fall Asleep in Minutes and get started today.

Learn How to Use Automation And Dominate Your Work Today + free Automation eBook

By Primoz Bozic 2 Comments

How would it make you feel if you could get work done in your sleep or while you’re grabbing drinks with friends? And what if I told you that that’s actually much easier as it sounds, regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur or if you work in a 9-5 job?

Hint: It feels awesome when you wake up and there’s already work done and waiting for you. And this doesn’t have to be hard or cost thousands of dollars.

So what is this sorcery that helps us get work done in our sleep and doesn’t require us to own our own team of people or clone ourselves? This sorcery is called automation, and I know just the right person to show you how to learn the art of automation. You will learn the magic of creating systems that run on their own and get work done for you, regardless of what you’re doing and how motivated you are.

This person with a magic wand is my good friend Frank from Amp Your Results. He’s the person I go to whenever I want to automate something or make my systems run smoother, because he has knows exactly which tools to use to create awesome systems that run on their own.

Frank was very generous and agreed to write a very detailed post just for the readers of Skyrocket Your Productivity that will show you the basics of automation and answer these questions:

What is this automation thing?
How does it look like in action?
What can I automate in my own life?
How do I even get started with automation?
Which tools can I use to automate with very little effort?

So without further ado, I’ll let you read Frank’s post. Happy automation!

-Primoz

Enter Frank:

Don’t work uphill. Life’s already pretty tough, ESPECIALLY for ambitious people.

If you’ve been relying on your discipline to achieve your greatest goals and you’ve failed — there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. Your approach is what’s throwing you off. You’ve been working uphill. There’s a smarter way.

Take it from the people you know in your life who always seem to be productive no matter what. Isn’t it frustrating? You could be working 100x harder than they are, but they seem to pull further ahead! We can do this too by learning HOW they do it.

It’s not genetics. It’s not money. It’s not the breaks. It’s not even being surrounded by successful people… how do you think they became successful to begin with? It’s their habits and mindsets that got them there.

Here’s what I’ve learned from these successful people:

The only way to make consistent progress on your goals is by building and improving the systems in your life and eventually automating those systems

Take Honda for example. How long do you think they would last if they had every car built by hand? That’d be ridiculous – no two cars would look the same, the workers’ energy would be SHOT after a few months of this strenuous work, and they wouldn’t even be able to get very many cars out the door in time.

So what do they do? They’ve built automated systems to build these cars with precision and very little (human) energy.

If a company has capitalized on systems and automation to make THEIR success easier to achieve with less energy from their employees, why are YOU, the CEO of your life, allowing your “company” to work uphill?

It’s just not the way to live.Here’s what we’ll cover:

What systems and automation are and why you should care
What your life can look like once you’ve automated the boring out of it
How you can ease into your work without scurrying around for what you need to get started
The systems and automation mindsets that will help you pave a smoother path to your goals
Action items you’ll be taking after this article to get started (you’ll only choose one and it’ll take 5-10 minutes to get started depending on how fast you can click)
The tools and services you can start using to get started TODAY

My goal is to give you a few different angles on how to approach your work and your chores. I want you to walk away from this thinking “How can I make this repetitive task easier? How can I automate this thing that I do every day anyway?”

Now we could get started with examples, but I don’t think you’ll benefit long term. Sure, I could teach you how to build specific systems, but then you may not be able to do this on your own. You’d walk away, have a cute little system, but then never know how to REALLY bring home the results. So let’s cover the fundamentals first.

You know the old saying “give a man a fish, you feed him for a day… teach a man how to build an automatic fish snare contraption, feed his entire village for centuries.”

Get it together, buddy.

A DAY IN THE AUTOMATED LIFE

“This sounds awesome. But what would MY life look like with automation?”

Let me take you through a day in my life to give you an example.

The other day, I started the day brushing my teeth, shaving, applying deodorant, you know – the hygienic works. Part way into getting ready, I found that my deodorant stick was on its last legs. I snapped a picture of it and upload it to Dropbox, which triggered my IFTTT recipe (more on this later). Later that day, I would get an email confirmation from my Fancy Hands virtual assistant that they purchased the deodorant for me at the lowest price possible online.

I went to the kitchen and prepared some scrambled eggs, yerba mate tea, and vitamin complex. I haven’t successfully automated these yet* but I’m getting there.

I was starting to run low on yerba mate, so I snapped a picture of it and uploaded it to Dropbox, which triggered my IFTTT recipe. It forwarded the photo to Fancy Hands as well as instructions on how to find it for the best price online. They found it for me and sent me the links to it a few days later.

Note: I created this IFTTT recipe when Fancy Hands’ payment processor went down. Since they couldn’t buy it for me directly, I had them price hunt for me, which still saves me time and energy. Their processor is up and running again today, so my new IFTTT recipe will have them buy it for me.Once I sat down at my computer, my Windows batch script had already activated all the tools I needed before I even sat down – my favorite text editor Darkroom, my Internet blocking software Anti-Social, my timer for a quick burst of writing, and my music playlist on Grooveshark.

A screenshot of my computer before I sit down to write.I quickly go through my Flow checklist to get into flow and write for an hour. I finally posted my article, which again triggered an IFTTT recipe to have Fancy Hands proofread and ensure my links are working.

This was the email I got from Fancy Hands, with notes for proofreading.

Then it was 8am — time to head out for work.

—

I got to work and sat at my desk. Again, all the tools I needed were already there, including:

– My morning checklist, which reminds me to take some time to set up my workspace before I sit down, which includes sit down

– Anti-Social

– My playlist on Grooveshark – can you tell I love my music when I work?

– My timer program to start the day with a quick burst of work

My morning work scriptSometimes you need to make a system on the fly. After lunch, I read my email and saw many shipping notifications for parts I had ordered. Since these notifications usually don’t require action, I made an Outlook Rule right away.

Essentially, the mindset I use to automate is:

IF <commonly occurring situation>, THEN <pre-determined action>

IF I get a shipping notification, THEN move it to my Order Info folder.

IF I get a shipping notification that doesn’t contain IP, THEN send it to my Evernote.

Now, if my boss ever asks me for the receipts for certain purchases, I can either find it myself or have Fancy Hands find it for me in my Evernote.

Now it may be easy to dismiss some forms of automation as “cute” or “just for fun”. When I tell most of my clients and friends about how I automate buying stuff by just taking a photo of it, they usually say something like: “Well, that’s neat. But why not just write that you should buy it on your to-do list or shopping list?”

First, I personally like to minimize the number of errands I run. I don’t consider myself lazy, but if a task can be streamlined or automated, like grocery shopping, I’d prefer to automate it and spend that extra hour or two doing whatever I want to do. Second, sure, I could’ve added buying my yerba mate on my to-do list. But when you consider all the problems with putting a low-importance task on your to-do list, it’s worth it to automate it instead.

Think about how you work with your to-do list now… or any list for that matter. Have you ever avoided your to-do list just because it looks so intimidating? Tons of tasks vs. one you. If you have, you’re not alone. If you haven’t, you will soon.

Adding low-importance tasks like these “water down” your to-do list, making it more difficult to quickly see what’s important and what’s not. All you get is a long list of tasks. And long lists don’t get done.

Another subtle point is discussed in the book, The Paradox of Choice:

The more choices you have, the LESS likely you are to choose ANY of them (you procrastinate) and the MORE likely you’ll feel unsatisfied with your final choice.

Have you ever stared at your to-do list, knowing you should get started, but then go on Youtube or Facebook instead? Ever had a day when you only got one or two really important things done, but you STILL felt like you should’ve done more? Both are examples of this Paradox of Choice.

By automating these choices, you eliminate these psychological barriers.

BUILDING YOU, INC.: PERSONAL SYSTEMS AND AUTOMATION

Now let’s start implementing systems in your life. Before getting started, burn these three mindsets into the back of your mind. They’ll help you save tons of time and energy as you experiment.

1) Use your high-energy times to automate and systematize to make riding out your low-energy times easier.

2) Stop spending time converting bad results from ineffective systems into good results. Spend that time on building good systems and the good results will follow automatically.

3) Use automation & systemization to take advantage of Structural or Digital Willpower, both of which are infinite, instead to your own willpower, which is VERY finite.

—

1) Use your high-energy times to automate and systematize to make riding out your low-energy times easier.

Everyone has “on” days, where you’re extraordinarily productive, knocking off long-scheduled to-dos. But sooner or later, we’re faced with the other side of our energy coin, the “off” day. Days when we’re mentally distracted and drained of energy.

The traditional approach to work is to work during our “on” days and feel guilty during our “off” days. This is a shortsighted strategy.

Instead, it’s wiser to spend your high-energy times to make it EASIER to get the job done once your motivation wanes. I write all about this mindset here.

And I promise you. Your motivation WILL eventually drop. It ebbs and flows for all of us. We’re not robots – we’re people. Energy cycles are real and they don’t always work the way we want them.

The graph above shows your day-to-day productivity given these two strategies. Relying on motivation means you only get things done when you “feel like it”, leaving you to begin where you started the next time you “feel like it”.

When you automate, you capitalize on that work for days to come. Think about one thing you’ve done over and over again. How would it feel if that task took HALF the time to complete because last month you made a system? How would it feel if it got done on its own because you automated it last week?

Compare the above graph to where you are right now. How much did last Monday contribute to your results today?

2) Stop spending time converting bad results from ineffective systems into good results. Spend that time on building good systems and the good results will follow automatically.

Too many people spend time at work tending to urgent tasks. But sometimes it feels like after you whack one urgent problem, two more pop up.

Now stay down!!!Sometimes, you have to put down the mallet, get to the root of the problem and determine how you can improve the system that’s causing these problems.

Most times, just like it’s wisest to fix a hole in a ship first THEN bale out all the water, so too is it wiser to improve that system before you fix all the smaller problems. But let’s say you absolutely MUST tend to this one problem immediately.

Here’s what to do: Put a strict TIME LIMIT on how much time you spend fighting fires. Use my Flow Formula to achieve Flow as quickly as possible, set a timer for 25 minutes to work, take 5 minutes to rest, work for another 25 minutes, and let that be all the firefighting you do for the day.

Spend the rest of your day identifying WHY that fire started, identify the system that spawned that fire, and improve that system.

3) Use Systems & Automation to take advantage of spending Digital Willpower, which is infinite, instead of your willpower, which is finite.

We have a limited amount of willpower every day to spend on non-routine or emotional tasks. This is why dieters who rely on willpower typically break down around dessert time. They spent most of their willpower throughout the day RESISTING those foods they wanted!

A dieter who systematizes their diet may simply throw away all the junk food in their house, replace them with healthy snacks that they also enjoy, prepare 5 healthy lunches in their fridge, and leave their credit card at home when they go out.

This is “automation” in its purest form — through changing their habits. By taking these steps, they:

– Made it easier to do the behavior he/she doesn’t routinely do (i.e. eating healthy, eating her lunch)

– Made it harder to do the behavior he/she doesn’t WANT to do (i.e. harder to buy junk, harder to cave in the evening)

When you put barriers in place in real life, I call it Structural Willpower. When you use computers & software to accomplish the same thing, I call it Digital Willpower.

Another example: I can’t think of a situation where I wouldn’t want to pay my rent on time. So, rather than rely on my memory to pay that bill AND spend the time writing and mailing a check, I’ve automated my finances. I use my bank’s Bill Payment feature to automatically send my landlord a check every month on the day its due.

My benefits are two-fold: First, I don’t have to think about these payments and can instead focus on other important things in my life. Second, I’ve made it harder to NOT pay my rent. So naturally, I won’t NOT pay my rent.

TAKE ACTION TODAY — START IMPLEMENTING AUTOMATED SYSTEMS NOW!

To get you started, I want you to choose ONE of the following and do it RIGHT NOW.

1) Create an account on IFTTT, a service that connects two services together, and use one of my recipes to automate some of your work.

2) Sign up with my favorite virtual assistant service, Fancy Hands, and give them one task to complete for you.

3) Write out one procedure you’ve done at work on a repeated basis and save it to Google Drive or Evernote so you can get easy access to it.

If you’re stuck on which one to get started on, go ahead and start with #1 first. Why? Several reasons:

– I don’t want you getting into Analysis Paralysis by worrying about which one is “best” to get started on. You can always do the other two later – so let’s get started with one first.

– It’s REALLY easy to get started with IFTTT. It’s only takes 10-15 minutes, so there’s no excuse for “not having time”.

– You can get the results of automation immediately with little time invested. Small, quick victories are very important for motivation. And the better you feel about using automation in your own life, the more likely you’ll eventually do all three of the above.

– It’s a gateway into programming for those who have absolutely no programming experience. Writing code is probably one of the highest leverage skills you can learn to make things easier at work.

To help you get started, I’ve prepared my Automation Toolbox just for you.

Click the book below to get your own guide on getting started in automation, systems, and outsourcing.

Not only will it go even deeper into detail for each of those steps, but also it will introduce you to some of my favorite automation tools.

Examples include:

Where I find contractors to do minor work for $5 per job — tasks like writing code for me, designing logos, and other minor design work.
Getting all your programs and apps you need in the morning to pop up automatically before you even sit down, like in my examples earlier.
The formatting I use to create Playbooks that not only help me save time and energy on repetitive tasks, but also help me outsource those tasks when I don’t necessarily need to be the guy doing them.

I’m not affiliated with any of the services I’ve shared with you. I’ve just had a GREAT experience using that tool or service.

* Fun Fact: I had tested automating my breakfast every morning by using an outlet timer and placing eggs in a water boiler. Later, that was replaced with some Arduino-powered behemoth of a contraption. I really don’t suggest either to anyone who doesn’t want to be awoken by a fire alarm…

Frank Magnotti is the founder of Amp Your Results, a new twist on productivity where automation and constraints are more powerful than sheer willpower and discipline.

Frank covers topics ranging from automation to psychology in a way that’s fun, easy to take action on, and use to prepare yourself for the next big leap in your life – be it a promotion, starting your new business, or leaping into a new career.