As you may know, my mantra is “Do Less More Often.”  I often encourage my clients to work for just twenty minutes each day on their acting business.  Though they don’t believe at first, they soon discover how effecient and effective their careers can be when they focus for just a short time each day.

Well here’s an outstanding blog post by Peter Bergman on DailyGood.org.  He outlines how to make the most out of just eighteen minutes.  So, I guess he’s got me beat.  Check it out below and thanks to Peter for the fantastic advice.

Yesterday started with the best of intentions. I walked into my office in the morning with a vague sense of what I wanted to accomplish. Then I sat down, turned on my computer, and checked my email. Two hours later, after fighting several fires, solving other people’s problems, and dealing with whatever happened to be thrown at me through my computer and phone, I could hardly remember what I had set out to accomplish when I first turned on my computer. I’d been ambushed. And I know better.

When I teach time management, I always start with the same question: How many of you have too much time and not enough to do in it? In ten years, no one has ever raised a hand.

That means we start every day knowing we’re not going to get it all done. So how we spend our time is a key strategic decision. That’s why it’s a good idea to create a to do list and an ignore list. The hardest attention to focus is our own.

But even with those lists, the challenge, as always, is execution. How can you stick to a plan when so many things threaten to derail it? How can you focus on a few important things when so many things require your attention?

We need a trick.

Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru, knows all about tricks; he’s famous for handcuffing himself and then swimming a mile or more while towing large boats filled with people. But he’s more than just a showman. He invented several exercise machines including the ones with pulleys and weight selectors in health clubs throughout the world. And his show, The Jack LaLanne Show, was the longest running television fitness program, on the air for 34 years.

But none of that is what impresses me. He has one trick that I believe is his real secret power.

Ritual.

At the age of 94, he still spends the first two hours of his day exercising. Ninety minutes lifting weights and 30 minutes swimming or walking. Every morning. He needs to do so to achieve his goals: on his 95th birthday he plans to swim from the coast of California to Santa Catalina Island, a distance of 20 miles. Also, as he is fond of saying, “I cannot afford to die. It will ruin my image.”

So he works, consistently and deliberately, toward his goals. He does the same things day in and day out. He cares about his fitness and he’s built it into his schedule.

Managing our time needs to become a ritual too. Not simply a list or a vague sense of our priorities. That’s not consistent or deliberate. It needs to be an ongoing process we follow no matter what to keep us focused on our priorities throughout the day.

I think we can do it in three steps that take less than 18 minutes over an eight-hour workday.

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day. Before turning on your computer, sit down with a blank piece of paper and decide what will make this day highly successful. What can you realistically accomplish that will further your goals and allow you to leave at the end of the day feeling like you’ve been productive and successful? Write those things down.

Now, most importantly, take your calendar and schedule those things into time slots, placing the hardest and most important items at the beginning of the day. And by the beginning of the day I mean, if possible, before even checking your email. If your entire list does not fit into your calendar, reprioritize your list. There is tremendous power in deciding when and where you are going to do something.

In their book The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz describe a study in which a group of women agreed to do a breast self-exam during a period of 30 days. 100% of those who said where and when they were going to do it completed the exam. Only 53% of the others did.

In another study, drug addicts in withdrawal (can you find a more stressed-out population?) agreed to write an essay before 5 p.m. on a certain day. 80% of those who said when and where they would write the essay completed it. None of the others did.

If you want to get something done, decide when and where you’re going to do it. Otherwise, take it off your list.

STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus. Set your watch, phone, or computer to ring every hour. When it rings, take a deep breath, look at your list and ask yourself if you spent your last hour productively. Then look at your calendar and deliberately recommit to how you are going to use the next hour. Manage your day hour by hour. Don’t let the hours manage you.

STEP 3 (5 minutes) Review. Shut off your computer and review your day. What worked? Where did you focus? Where did you get distracted? What did you learn that will help you be more productive tomorrow?

The power of rituals is their predictability. You do the same thing in the same way over and over again. And so the outcome of a ritual is predictable too. If you choose your focus deliberately and wisely and consistently remind yourself of that focus, you will stay focused. It’s simple.

This particular ritual may not help you swim the English Channel while towing a cruise ship with your hands tied together. But it may just help you leave the office feeling productive and successful.

And, at the end of the day, isn’t that a higher priority?

Last month, a student asked me for tips on working through the day to day errands that often distract you from your true purpose.

She wrote, “Since I started to practice the principles you teach, I’ve truly discovered what I am most passionate about. Now, I find that tending to necessary errands has become particularly difficult because it is so contrary to my Tao. Can you suggest any tips for making these tasks less tedious and painful, and more fun or rewarding?”

Once you discover your true passion, you certainly want to devote as much time as possible doing what’s most fulfilling. So, how do you manage the day to day busy work that must be done, but isn’t always fun to focus on?

Here are three tips to effectively manage your errands and leave more time to pursue your passions:

Automate
Save time by automating as much as possible. List all of your administrative tasks such as paying bills, cleaning your house, going to the post office, buying groceries, and running general errands. Which tasks on your list can be automated? Most banks now offer automatic bill pay, saving your time and energy. You can also automate your mailings with services like AmazingMail.com. Create a schedule for most of your monthly marketing while you’re at it. Doing so will free your mind up to focus on your craft and your career. The more you automate, the more time you’ll have and the less stress you’ll experience.

Delegate
Don’t forget that it is just another form of energy. If you are willing to spend a little money delegating some errands, you’ll have more time to focus on what you really want to do.

Years ago, I had a roommate who just couldn’t keep track of her bills. She was frequently late with her payments and struggled to establish a schedule she could stick to. So, we traded tasks. I kept track of her bills and paid them each month while she took care of all the laundry. Pretty good trade-off, if you ask me!

Think about what tasks you can hand off to another person. You might be able to barter away some tasks and perhaps pay someone to remove other jobs from your plate. Do what you’re good at and let others take care of the rest.

Appreciate
Like it or not, you will inevitably have to tackle certain jobs that are often unfulfilling, and tedious. You can easily complete these boring, yet necessary errands by identifying how these tasks serve your bigger purpose.

My client, Alicia believed that nothing was as tedious as washing her car. Alicia could list at least fifty things she’d rather do than clean her car. So, she allowed her car to become so dirty that she was embarrassed to be seen in it. Horror overtook her every time she pulled into a parking lot.

T. Harv Eckert brought renewed attention to the phrase, “The way you do anything is the way you do everything.” So, in effect, Alicia’s dirty car reflected the mess in her acting career. Alicia soon connected the dots between her messy car and her acting career. She realized that her car did not reflect the life she wanted to lead. So, she began to treat her car the way she would if she was an A-List actress. Alicia understood that the way she does anything is indeed the way she does everything. Now keeping a clean car is simple for Alicia. Every time she washes it, she knows she’s one step closer to acting success.

When you can appreciate how today’s tedious tasks serve your passion as an artist, you’ll soon fall in love with every job you do knowing that it reflects a brighter future.

Try it out. Automate your errands, delegate some jobs, and appreciate how tasks today serve your passion tomorrow.