A short book that packs a good punch. This book was NOT written by Michael Hyatt but by his team at his company. It bears mentioning, that MUCH of the book stems from Hyatt’s teaching and the examples given to illustrate are of him. To make this Book Reflection easier, I will refer to the author(s) as Hyatt.
Set up in three parts, Hyatt differentiates between HABITS, RITUALS, and TEMPLATES.
He also calls HABITS “self-automation” because they are actions we automatically perform without much (if any) thought. He writes: “Self-automation is the process of putting some of your daily decisions and actions on autopilot, so they happen without conscious thought. This allows you to manage important details of your life while freeing mental bandwidth to focus on other priorities” (p.12). Hyatt argues that high-achievers often struggle from “decision fatigue” (a scientifically verified fact that “the more decisions you make, the less energy you have to make good decisions” (p.26).
We all have habits. We simply want to be thoughtful and directive of our habits so that they move us closer to our dream outcome in life…and free us to be more creative since we no longer have to make as many decisions (as in what will I wear, what will I eat, what will I drink).
Instead of battling our temptations to distraction, we need to learn to side-step (or avoid) them.
Hyatt then explains the HABIT LOOP of ACTIVATION TRIGGER > RESPONSE > REWARD > REPETITION. I have written more about this in other places.
He also offers a very helpful and intriguing list of candidates for self-automation such as personal grooming and daily debriefing.
RITUALS, he argues, are “habit chains”. That is, we string along several habits that serve as triggers for subsequent habits, which, in turn, move us closer toward our desired outcome. There are 4 RITUALS he cites that need to be identified and thought through: MORNING, AT THE START OF WORK, AT THE END OF WORK, NIGHTTIME. Such RITUALS aid in Improved Creativity, Consistent Self-Care, Increased Efficiency, and Continuous Improvement.
TEMPLATES of our days, weeks, months, and years are built once we are clear on our RITUALS. Once you have time blocked off for your 4 RITUALS during the day, you are able to fill in the white space with to-dos and deep work. Of note, Hyatt identifies 3 Contexts we need to be tend to for maximum productivity and conservation of energy: In the Business (routines in work like email and meetings), On the Business (systems and operations high-level), Out of the Business (personal life).
He then touches on energy chronotypes—which are ways of characterizing when we are most energetic and focus. Everyone is different and needs to be aware of when they have a lull in their energy and focus and go about tasks that will help them work with those energy lulls (rather than powering through them).
He ends his discussion of how to manage the white space on the calendar by encouraging readers to Batch like tasks so there is little dipping into different parts of our brains to accomplish disparate tasks—i.e., you don’t want to be responding to emails and trying to write an article.
Overall, this was a good synopsis of Hyatt’s tested and tried and practical Full Focus Methodology.
For more, you can visit his website: Full Focus