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Use 3 Kinds of Days to Dramatically Multiply Your Productivity

By
Will Mancini
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One of life’s precious resources is smart people who get exposed to other smart people and then share what they learn. In a recent newsletter  from Bob Buford, he shares an insight that stuck with him over the years.  (Bob Buford is the founder of Leadership Network and Half Time.) The nugget of wisdom came  from a coaching experience with Dan Sullivan an executive coach. The advice is to organize every day into:

  • FREE DAYS
  • FOCUS DAYS
  • BUFFER DAYS

Here is a short explanation from Bob.

Sullivan taught us to organize our time using six words: Free Days, Focus Days and Buffer Days. A Focus Day is primetime for work. For an NFL Quarterback, it is time to suit up and get your game face on – time to concentrate. Buffer Days are for practice, preparation, fulfilling promises and cleaning up all those loose ends (dental appointments and email responses). A Free Day is a 24-hour period dedicated to rest, recharging and recreation. On my 62nd birthday, I gave myself a gift of one more Free Day a week. As my antidote to burn out and full time retirement, I chose to chill out, go to the Farm one day early  and return refreshed on Monday morning.

Here are a few quotes on the topic of FREE DAYS from an article by Dan Sullivan entitled, 10 Strategies for Developing a Multiplier Mindset:

  • When any day can be a work day, you find yourself working all of the time.
  • Fatigue, burnout and a lack of energy decrease communication, originality and risk-taking.
  • If you really want to grow your business [ministry] you must get away from it.
  • You never know how good your team is until you leave.
  • Take more time off even if it is a leap of faith at first.

This advice parallels my own journey. I have found that the most dramatic steps forward in my own creativity, content development, and strategy development come when the FREE DAYS are not just guarded but increased. What about you? How will you increase your FREE DAYS in 2011?

Read Bob Buford’s Newsletter

Get Dan Sullivan’s Strategies for Developing a Multiplier Mindset (How to Get to the Top and Stay There)

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willmancini@churchleaders.com'
Will Mancini
http://www.willmancini.com/
Will Mancini emerged from the trenches of local church leadership to found Auxano, a first-of-kind consulting ministry that focuses on vision clarity. As a “clarity evangelist,” Will has served as vision architect for hundreds of churches across the country, including such notable pastors as Chuck Swindoll and Max Lucado. Will holds a Th.M. in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary and has authored Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement; he also co-authored Building Leaders with Aubrey Malphurs.

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