Ever notice how much you get done right before a trip? One of the CEOs I work with said the same thing—he couldn’t believe how productive he was before heading out. Deadlines got met. Tasks got delegated. Decisions got made faster.
It got me thinking: why are my two most productive times right before a trip and when I’m traveling? Why do breakthrough ideas, game-changing strategies, and better ways to help our clients come when I’m on the road?
Here’s what I figured out: time limits force results.
I get more done before a vacation because I have to. I know there’s a hard stop, so I delegate the small stuff. I set real deadlines. While I’m traveling, I can’t take every call or jump on every email, so I have downtime—and in that space, I think more clearly.
So I ran an experiment.
For 90 days, I scheduled all my meetings for Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays? No meetings, no calls—just focus time. Then I tightened the screws: no meetings on non-meeting days. No exceptions—unless it was a sales call. I forced myself into hard deadlines.
I just had the most productive 90 days of my life.
The Big Lessons:
- Block your work time. One-hour chunks. No distractions. Have a clear goal for each block—get XYZ done, no excuses.
- Think in terms of getting everything done—not just the “most important” stuff. This shift forces better delegation.
- Look at your top three high-impact tasks each morning. Ask yourself: Am I the only one who can do this? If the answer is yes, ask why?
- Figure out HOW someone else on your team who can do it. You’re the bottleneck more often than you think.
Bottom line? Doing less forced me to be more productive—and my team, too.
Change takes effort. It doesn’t happen by accident. Start blocking your time. Set real deadlines. And keep them. You’ll be shocked at what happens next.
Level up your 2025.
