What is The “Messy Hour”?

Do you often feel overwhelmed by unexpected requests and last-minute demands? I’m Dan Crompton, and today I’m sharing a practical strategy to help you gain more control over your time. Despite having a disciplined schedule, these unforeseen interruptions can throw anyone off track. Here’s how you can manage this more effectively using the concept of a “messy hour.”

Transcription:

Here’s the most common reason why you haven’t got enough time. Now, none of us have got enough hours in the day for all the stuff that we’d love to get done. But the most common reason I hear for that is people saying, oh, you know, I prioritise, and I’ve got my To Do List and I even block my time out. But despite all of that discipline that sometimes happens, I still get all of the last-minute requests coming in. And can you do this? And can you do that? And I need this by the end of the day, all these unexpected requests and demands for your time that come in during the working day that you couldn’t possibly predict.

Now, that might be more common for some industries than others. If you’ve got clients who are used to a very short turn around 24 hours, 48 hours, and it’s much more likely that you’re going to get this sort of request from clients. Or you might be working in an environment where those sorts of requests are coming in last minute all the time. Now, if that is an unavoidable part of your job, that’s a big if, by the way. Then here’s what you can do to gain a bit more control over your time. Use what I call the messy hour.

You actually need more messiness in your calendar and not less. What I mean by that is that you should be time blocking the different tasks and the different actions that you’re doing in any working day. And that includes time blocking a messy hour either in the morning or the afternoon. You might need both. And that’s time blocking all of those ad hoc requests and all those last-minute things that are going to come in that you can’t possibly predict when you’re planning your diary.

So as those messy requests come in, just throw them into your messy hour. Just throw them into that calendar entry. Get rid of them. Don’t let them distract you from the task you are working on, but you know that they’re going to get covered. You know that you’ve got time in your diary to deal with them because it’s the constant switching from this task to this task to this task to that distraction. That’s the thing that takes time.

That’s the thing that takes energy. That’s the thing that eats up your day and your week and your month and your year. So, give it a go. Put a messy hour into your diary every single day and that’s where you can dump all those last-minute requests and I promise you; you’re going to have a much easier ride from now on. Let me know how you get on.

Key Takeaways:

• Incorporate a ‘messy hour’: Schedule an hour each day specifically for handling unexpected tasks and last-minute requests.
• Time block effectively: Plan your day with dedicated blocks of time for your regular tasks and include the messy hour to accommodate the unforeseen.
• Avoid task switching: During your focused work periods, avoid letting ad hoc requests disrupt your flow; allocate them to the messy hour instead.
• Reduce stress and increase productivity: By knowing you have a set time for unplanned tasks, you can concentrate better on your primary responsibilities.
• Improve time management: Regularly implementing a messy hour can make your days, weeks, and months more manageable and less chaotic.

Try adding a messy hour to your daily schedule and see how it transforms your productivity and stress levels. I’d love to hear how it works for you!