The First 2 Hours Make Better Use of Your Most Valuable Time

Do your most important work when you are your most resourceful

Are you drowning in email? Overloaded with calendar invitations? Frustrated by wasteful meetings and an ever-growing workload? Then you know that being busy does not mean being productive. Most workers are being asked to take on more responsibilities with less support, advised to simply ‘be innovative.’ But you only have a finite amount of energy and thinking capacity available to you in a day. Most of us are wasting it on things that aren't contributing to our most important work: the activities that require problem solving, decision making and critical thinking.

Developed for business professionals, The First Two Hours teaches you how to design your day, rather than be at the mercy of it. Using research on neuroscience, energy flow and the body’s natural rhythms, it divides the workday into manageable blocks and helps you determine when you are most resourceful, and therefore when you should complete your most demanding tasks.

• Optimize your day in blocks of two hours
• Take back control of your work life by creating a workflow designed for you
• Do your most important work at the right time of day so it gets the resources it deserves
• Decide when you need to be ’on’ and when you can be ’available’ so you can maximise productivity

In a time of near-constant information overload, this practical handbook helps you focus on getting done what you need to get done, when you are best able to do it. By learning to invest your energy strategically, you can be in the driver’s seat every work day and achieve a level of productivity beyond what you thought possible.

The First 2 Hours is the second book in Donna McGeorge’s It’s About Time series. With The 25-Minute Meeting, you’ll learn to give your meetings purpose and stop them wasting your time; with The First 2 Hours, you’ll find the best time of the day to do your most productive work; and with The 1-Day Refund, you’ll discover how to give yourself the extra capacity to think, breathe, live and work.

DONNA McGEORGE is a speaker, author and mentor who helps people make their work work. Using a creative, practical approach, she improves workplace effectiveness while challenging thinking on leadership, productivity and virtual work.
www.donnamcgeorge.com

About the author ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction xiii

How to use this book xxvii

Part I: Why the first 2 hours? 1

1 Discover what affects your capacity(and your day) 3

2 Lay the foundation for productivity 19

3 Design your best day 35

Part II: How to make the most of your first 2 hours 49

4 First 2 hours — Proactive 53

5 Second 2 hours — Reactive 69

6 Third 2 hours — Active 85

7 Fourth 2 hours — Preactive 103

Your First 2 Hours clock 123

Work with me 127

Sources 129

Index 135

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