Hey Reader,

We’re in the final full work week of the year and I want you to think about what it means to finish your year strong. Do you want to spend your precious time, energy, and attention focused on checking everything off your list or on making real progress on what’s most important to you?

If you went through the project cagematch process I shared last week then you’re ahead of the game. From your cagematch you should have a list of priority projects. Take a few minutes to review your list and figure out what chunks of those projects you could move forward in a focus block.

🔎 How Many Focus Blocks Do You Actually Have Available?

Focus blocks are 90–120 minute blocks of time where you’re especially creative, inspired, and able to do high-level work. I’ve got good news and bad news when it comes to focus blocks:

The bad news is that most people have a hard time creating and using more than three per day because of distractions, interruptions, daily routines, and a lack of intention.

The good news is that you can get a lot done with three blocks per day, and accepting the constraint will make your life a lot easier and happier.

Focus blocks fuel your highest-value deep work. Without focus blocks, no finished deep work. It’s really that simple.

The number of focus blocks available in your schedule is the limiting factor to how quickly and steadily you’ll make progress on your highest-value projects.

So before you plan your week you need to know how many focus blocks you have available then you can plot out project chunks to fit the blocks.

First, click to download the Focus Block Planner. Now take a look at your upcoming calendar and count the number of focus blocks you have available. Look for 90-120 minute windows of time where you will be most energetically primed to focus and able to block out distractions and interruptions (no meetings, no email, no social media, etc).

Now you know your capacity for focused work as the year closes and can plan accordingly.

When you know how many focus blocks you have and when they are, you can have a realistic conversation with yourself, your team, and your family about what you can reasonably get done in these last 2-3 weeks of the year.

And don’t forget to get those focus blocks scheduled on your calendar!

🍞 Leave Your Future Self Breadcrumbs

So you might be wondering what to do with those projects that didn’t win out in your cagematch. Come January it’s going to be difficult to remember what needed to get done on these now cold projects.

And the colder the project trail is, the harder it is to get started again, making us avoid our best work entirely. Leaving breadcrumbs amounts to making an easy path for yourself to get back there.

So before you put your other projects in cold storage for the next few weeks take some time (this would be a great use of a focus block) to create a “return to” list that includes:

• A SMART description of the project goal to help remind you not just what you were aiming to do but why.
• Links to where to find your project files when you are ready to get back into the project.
• The first 2-3 logical next steps of each project to get you going again.

Taking the time now while everything is still fresh in your mind will save you countless hours in the new year. Your future self will thank you!

🙌 Bringing it all together

Let’s put the pieces together from the last two weeks. You have a prioritized list of projects and a plan for the week. Now identify your focus blocks and schedule your important projects in each one. Finally, leave yourself some breadcrumbs on the projects you’ll need to revisit in the new year.

Stand Tall,

Charlie

🕳️ Go Deeper

Here are additional resources to help with time management at the end of the year.

1. ​Productive Flourishing Guide to Time Blocking​
2. ​Podcast: How to be Intentional During the Holidays​
3. ​Podcast: Get the Right Things Done with Mike Vardy​

📰 Other News & Features

🌴 Join us in February for our first Level Up Your Life and Leadership Retreat. This week-long retreat on an island off the coast of Mexico will be a mix of “suncation, winter respite, chill-recharge-dream, get your 10x work done, once-in-a-lifetime” event with up to 15 other friends you haven’t met yet. Early registration and pricing ends Monday, December 19.

🎙️ Charlie is one of a rotating lineup of mentors on Jonathan Fields’ SPARKED podcast, which explores how to find and do work that makes you come alive. We’re on the lookout for special guests and “wisdom-seekers” to share on the moment they’re living through, and to pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust, to be answered “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” to the show, click here.

📱 Are you a Momentum app user? Join us this Wednesday, December 14 for our new webinar series, Getting Started With Momentum. Our very own Momentum Skills Coach, Maghan Haggerty, will walk you through the basics of getting set up in the Weekly Planner app view, and why it’s the best planning horizon when starting out. Register here.