039: 5 Time Management Tools That Will Transform Your Productivity

Now, the 42-minute hour is a dual-track time tool based on a 60-minute framework meant to focus on moving the needle forward in two parallel areas.

You set your hour aside.

You identify the primary and secondary goals.

The primary goal is tasked for 42 minutes, and then your remaining 18 minutes is set for your secondary goal.

Now, one thing we haven't talked about for a while is how many 42 minute hours should someone set in a row? Well, that really depends on you.

It depends on several things.

How much time you have available in your day, how much energy you have, and honestly, what the goal is.

I remember when I was writing one of my books, I think it was the third book in my romantic suspense series, Untangled Vines.

There was one day when I really wanted to get more work done on the book.

And the only way was to isolate myself down in the office.

but in order for me to set aside five 42-minute hours in that day, I had to make sure to communicate with my whole household that this was a priority for me.

Once that was communicated, then I needed to make sure that I had everything I needed.

That included a dry erase board where I broke down each 42-minute hour in primary and secondary goals so that as the day continued I was able to stay on track and make those check marks count.

I had my coffee and my favourite Beethoven timer and carved out space where I could truly make every minute matter.

Now each one of us needs to find things along the way that you know, gives that spark of joy internally while we're doing some of the hard work.

Well, for me, it's a good cup of coffee and alternate timers that make me laugh when I set my minutes.

I have everything from Beethoven timers that when it rings, it plays for Elise to my chicken and bumblebee timers.

Oh, and my latest visual timer that I'm using right now is a rainbow timer that flashes when the time is up.

We all need a little bit of entertainment.

I think that while we're doing our work brings our heart a little bit of joy.

Just keep in mind, though, that during the process of setting aside a day for the 42-minute hours, you have to work in lunches and breaks, especially if your secondary goal isn't focused on relaxation or anything along those lines.

But like for many of us, we rarely have a full day to do this kind of focused work.

So in a regular timeline for regular people, if we're able to set aside maybe one or two 42-minute hours on a project in one day, that would be fabulous.