Just like adventures, work doesn't just happen unless you schedule it! The trails are there all day, everyday. When do you get out there? When you plan to.
Tony Robbins said it best: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
So you've got your WHY. You've figured out your WHAT. You've listed out the HOWs and applied the 80/20 rule. Awesome! Now you've gotta figure out WHEN! And you have to put it in a calendar. It does not matter if it's on your phone, your fridge, your wall or your desk. It just needs to be visible and/or come with reminders.
When will you do the most important work that puts mileage between where you are now and your end goal? Like most things it depends, so let's breakdown how I find my when.
As much as I don't like the idea of being a morning person, I just can't be beat the peace and quiet of 4:00 - 6:00am. I schedule all of my top 1-3 tasks for each day to happen before 8:00am. I have a day job that starts at 9:00am and I have a team that I need to start working with. So for me the quiet hours allow me to take in a diet of high quality knowledge, spend time meditating, focus on complex tasks, develop strategies, breakdown my projects, write, and just generally think without being interrupted.
Some considerations:
Is this work part of your job? Will you be working during business hours or is this your hobby that you do after work and on weekends?
What are some of your immovable objects in your calendar? Kids pickup and drop off? Caring for family? Recurring appointments? Work hours that you have to be available?
Do you do your best work or have an easier time focusing early in the morning, midday or late at night?
Do you like to work in small 20 minute chunks or settle in for hours of batch work?
You don't have to answer all of these however, you do need to understand when you get your best work done and what times are yours so that you can schedule your most important tasks in those hours. This will result in getting the biggest gains towards your goals.
Additionally, there may be certain times that are more conducive to certain tasks. If you need to be able to have peace and quite while you focus and you live in a busy house, early morning and late night are going to likely be best, or maybe there is a time when everyone is out of the house. You may have to make phone calls and therefore need to do it when the other person is available.
Let's use a MetaphorX4 to put this concept into action. You want to go wheeling at a 4X4 park that is 6 hours away from where you live and you want to hit a few trails on a weekend trip. Your most important work is getting there and back, next most important is being able to scout a good campsite, scope out the trails, and setup in the daylight. When do you drive, arrive, and wheel?
If you chose the typical path you might leave work early on Friday and drive out. You'll be hitting Friday traffic, scouting camp and setting up in the dark. Another less conventional option would be to go to sleep early Friday, wake up at 2am and drive out, arrive at 8am, have breakfast, start wheeling and scout for camp sites while you explore. You'll skip the traffic, arrive in a pretty fresh state, have time to rest and stretch a bit before you wheel, then scout for camp and setup in the day light. Two options and two very different experiences. Bonus if you have kids! Leaving in the middle of the night almost guarantees they sleep most of the drive, that alone will change the mental state you arrive in.

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