What Would You Do With 48 Hours?

by | Best Life, Productivity

48 hours, productivity, routine
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Forty-eight hours. When you spend them doing something you love, two days probably fly by too quickly. But spend two days doing something tedious (did someone say ‘taxes’?) and the hours might seem endless. 

I’ve been thinking about what I can get done in 48 hours because of something I recently saw on social media. It’s a virtual event called the “24 in 48 Readathon”. Participants try to read for a total of 24 hours over the course of a single weekend. (In the most recent event, more than 1,900 readers plowed through more than 2,100 books, all in the course of 48 hours!) 

Okay, so reading for 10 or 12 hours straight isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. But I’m guessing that, if you had 48 free hours in front of you, you could find a way to use them that would bring you joy and renewal. I want that for you – and I would bet that you want it for yourself! 

Striking a Balance 

Even for people who absolutely love their work, finding the time to take a break can be a real challenge. Last year, in an Enterprise Rent-a-Car survey of 1,000 Americans, two-thirds of respondents said that they connect to their workplaces on a typical weekend, even if it’s just checking emails. Sixty-one percent of people surveyed said that they have a hard time not thinking about work over the weekends. 

Of course, not everyone works a 9-to-5 job. (It seems that most office jobs are more like 8 to 6 these days, anyway!) Your schedule may require weekend work, night shifts and/or unpredictable hours. But no matter what your schedule is, I want you to be able to regularly carve out blocks of uninterrupted personal time. 

It’s not just because I want you to enjoy your downtime (although I do!) – it’s because of something I tell my overwhelmed clients: 

If you can’t practice taking short periods of time off from work, you’ll never be able to take a real vacation. To truly unplug from work, to rest your body and mind, and to recharge before returning to the grind.  

And yes, I use the word “practice” intentionally. If you were struggling to play a new instrument or learn a new language, presumably you would expect that it wouldn’t happen without effort. Creating boundaries between work time and personal time is a skill, and mastering that skill takes practice.  

Set Yourself Up for Success 

So, back to my initial question: what would you do with 48 hours of uninterrupted personal time? Getting that time starts with one very simple concept: routine. Creating routines that delineate when you are “at work” and when you are “not at work” and practicing them, allows you to to build the habit of regularly separating work time from non-work time, and that’s an important step in becoming more productive while you are working.  

Committing to routine is a great way to get more focused and cut down on feelings of overwhelm, but I know it can be challenging to keep the momentum going. Need more support? Join my Jump Start Your Productivity program!  

I’ll help you to: 

  • Create daily and weekly routines that help you achieve your goals
  • Learn the tips and tricks that help you stick to those routines
  • Identify the obstacles that are keepingyou from moving to the next level in your life 
  • Become more productive and waste less time

I’m here to help!   

Want to SAVE 50%? To give you a little bit of extra support this summer, I am offering a 50% discount on this program if you enroll by July 31st, 2018.  

Here’s the deal, Use the promotion code SAVE50 when you register for Jump Start Your Productivity and you’ll get 50% off if you register before July 31st, 2018.   

I only do this promotion a couple of times a year, so register NOW if you want to take advantage of the discount!

Sarah Reiff-Hekking
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