Tweak Your Week: Take Five
Tips, tricks and tweaks to help founders each week. Commit to trying one tweak each day for a week. Be your own guinea pig. You’ll be surprised what a difference these tiny experiments can make.
Good morning Upsiders!
You’ve all heard of the 4-day week that is gaining traction at the moment. For some, it’s great, for others…well…nope.
This week, we’re presenting you with a far more practical and universal tweak that will help you recover, recharge, and reset several times a day.
Say hello to the 55-minute hour!
Yes! Scheduling your work hours to last for 55 minutes this week means you will have five minutes per hour, every day to focus on you.
That’s 5 full minutes to breathe, walk, brush your eyebrows, gaze at the wonder that is your navel, stretch… whatever you want or need to take you out of the stress of back-to-back tasks or meetings and into a small but very significant moment of mindfulness.
Here’s how to do it:
Head to your digital calendar settings and shorten your default meeting length.*
Obey your calendar.
*For Google: menu>settings>event settings>select speedy meetings
*For Outlook: menu>settings>calendar>events and invitations>select shorten duration for all events
A variation on this approach is the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. You break your workday into 25 minute chunks separated by 5 minute breaks. There are mechanical timers and dedicated apps to help if you want to take it that far.
Whatever method works for you is the right one. Our goal in this post is simply to remind you to take regular 5 minute breaks. Give them a try!
Notice a difference?
Tell us how you go. Share your experiences - ‘mazing or meh - with the Upside community.
We’re all a work in progress.
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