Like many early risers, popular executive coach, Ron Sharma, considers 5 to 8 a.m. every morning as “prime time or “the Golden Hours” and those who join him members of the esteemed “5 a.m. club.” Others prefer to work what has been coined “the second shift.”  They finish their regular work day, grab dinner, then jump on the computer for a couple more, often highly productive, late night hours. you are a night owl or an early morning riser, the significant take away is not when you do your best work.

It doesn’t matter what time of day you are at your best.  It is this: The more impact you wish to have in your career and personal life, the more you will need to set aside time for uninterrupted strategizing and planning, as well as activities that are mentally, physically and spiritually restorative.  You will also need to use this time to schedule the fourth restorative domain, the only one not accomplished in solitude- maintaining healthy social connections.

Here is the leader’s paradox: You cannot be your best alone but great leaders must carve out significant alone time.  As Michael Hyatt, productivity and leadership coach, said recently: “If your goals do not require a team, they are not big enough.”

The top business leaders I know all set aside specific time just for thinking. Some get away one day a month, a couple of days a quarter, and all certainly spend time developing yearly goals.  But, at the same time, they also all sit down in some fashion weekly to renew, review and strategize their next seven days.

The One Percent

Over the past six months, in preparation for focusing more on this topic in the new year, I began to informally pole each of my corporate seminar audience members asking the following simple question: How many of you have written goals?  On average, just 5% raised their hand.  In a group of medical professionals recently, not one hand out of 50 was raised.  Although, my sampling may be far from random, the conclusion is clear:  If you set written goals, you are instantly putting yourself in a very small minority of your peers. If you hold a WPBM you are certainly in the 1%!  The question is, does it matter?

How to Host Your Own Weekly Personal Business Meeting (WPBM)

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