Comments on: The Magic Hour

By: New here? Try these! -- Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

New here? Try these! -- Hoover’s Business Insight Zone — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:01:23 +0000

[...] September 26: The Magic Hour [...]

By: Sunday night « Levite Chronicles

Sunday night « Levite Chronicles — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:57:29 +0000

[...] Spend an hour tonight or tomorrow morning focusing on whatever it is that is keeping you stuck right [...]

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:38:53 +0000

Good stuff, Bryan. As I said elsewhere, this week I’ve been getting up extra-early to make sure I get those magic hours of uninterrupted time. I’m glad I took my own advice here — the results have been fabulous already.

By: Bryan Person, LiveWorld

Bryan Person, LiveWorld — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:50:32 +0000

Tim:

I made it through a “magic hour” earlier today, and it sure feels good. I had to do some major brainstorming for an upcoming Blogging 101 presentation I’ll be leading.

Here’s what I did: Using several small slips of plain white paper that I had cut up in advance, I brainstormed for 30 minutes about key points for the presentation. I jotted down one point per slip of paper. I then spent the next 30 minutes grouping and regrouping the pieces of paper. Here’s a snapshot: http://brightkite.com/objects/c0228fd68e4911dd8951003048c0801e

By the time the hour was hour was done, I had completed the outline for my presentation — and all of this was done with my computer powered down (OK, I did sneak one quick peek at my Twitter replies on my iPhone, but I didn’t answer them)!

Thanks for the inspiration, Tim. Maybe I can find a “magic hour” for myself every day.

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:41:54 +0000

All – This is a technique I’ve used over and over. I find it’s especially tonic if I’ve had a harried week; sometimes three quiet, uninterrupted hours on Friday afternoon can redeem a whole week, in terms of productivity.

By: Miz Liz

Miz Liz — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:37:42 +0000

Tim – As Bryan said, all distractions blocked out. Worked for me this afternoon, indeed I achieved the one thing I’ve been avoiding for a few weeks. And can gratefully end the workday early. Hopefully, the result will infuse my days next week.

Cheers.

By: CoolProducts

CoolProducts — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:25:26 +0000

Last night I’m sitting on my couch, my business law textbook is sitting by my side instead of on my lap where it should be, and I am messing around with my router. Of course, I end up changing some setting and can no longer connect wirelessly through the router. I think to myself.. great! Now I can’t check my email, facebook, etc for the night until I fix it tomorrow; this blows! And then I realized something: I was distraction free. As much as I wanted to check my facebook, etc. I knew that overall it was better that I didn’t have those distractions because I could restart my studies interruption free from that point on! I definitely think I will try this “magic hour” again, this time intentionally, and see how it may help things out. Thanks for the post!

By: Mike Wagner

Mike Wagner — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:34:32 +0000

Love this line, ’see if you can get that “magic hour” to infect the rest of your schedule’.

When we are not use to being “alone” with ourselves it can be a bit of an adjustment.

Thanks for stirring things up with this post!

Keep creating…a story worth repeating,
Mike

By: Bryan Person, LiveWorld

Bryan Person, LiveWorld — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:53:50 +0000

Tim:

What a great challenge. Here’s the key in my book, though. For it to be a truly magical (i.e. productive) hour, one needs to block out all distractions, including e-mail and Twitter!

–Bryan Person
LiveWorld social media evangelist