Skyrocket your Productivity with the WET Method
Work, Energy, and Time Management Principles to live by.
The WET Method helps you improve your productivity holistically by providing a foundation of work, time, and energy management principles to help you make better decisions.
Holistically improving productivity isn't just about getting more things done; it's also an opportunity to build the life you want consciously. By taking a closer look at our relationship to our work, where we spend our time, and our state of mind and how we feel, we can decipher what to change in order to help us live a more productive life we look forward to leading and experiencing each day.
The Principles
Work Management
Visualize your work
Limit how much work is active at one time
“Stop starting, start finishing” prioritize completing existing work before new work where possible
Break down bigger projects into smaller chunks so it’s easier to get done
Reflect on what’s working and what’s not regularly
Work on things that are important or urgent or both
Align your daily activities with work goals and life goals
Celebrate your accomplishments!
Energy Management
Try to get 8 hours of sleep each night
Make time for activities that restore, elevate, and replenish your energy and inspiration
Prioritize your health and wellness as a way to be more productive, creative, and fulfilled
Cultivate gratitude, appreciation, and connection with and for others
Respect your circadian rhythm
Design a work and home environment that supports your goals and aligns with your values
Participate in some form of exercise each day
Listen to the signals and feedback your body gives you
Take care what foods, beverages, and supplements you consume
Breathe regularly and continually (Credit - The Alston Method by Joseph Antoine Alston)
Time Management
Treat your time and attention as your most precious resource
Envision how you will organize your time to reach your goals and live a meaningful life
Use an ideal calendar to make sure high-priority, value-driven activities make your calendar each week
Use an “ideal calendar” to make sure high-priority, value-driven activities make your calendar each week
Leave space for transition time between events on your calendar
Organize and plan work activities with time blocks on your calendar daily
Respect your time constraints
Why all three?
Applying work, energy, and time management principles in concert can help you regularly have productive, consistent days, with energy left over and the motivation and momentum to keep going tomorrow.
We've all been in situations where one of those three things (work, energy, time management) wasn't in lock and step with the others.
Sometimes there’s just not enough time in the day to get something done, yet we choose to squeeze things in, working a 12-hour day or a 16-hour day, ending up burnt out.
Or we've got plenty of time but we're exhausted.
You might have enough time from a theoretical standpoint, but you're just done. And then there are other times where you've got enough energy, you have enough time, but you might work on something that's not a high priority and it doesn't make a big difference, even if you're working all the time.
Or you're not clear on what the next steps are.
So you spend two hours back and forth in email chains waiting for somebody to respond to something just so you can move work forward, and gain clarity on what you're supposed to do and its impact. You’ve got the time and enough energy but no clarity on what step to take next.
And then there’s the feeling that you have enough time in the day to not go crazy. You actually have a little bit of work-life balance and can spend time on the things that you're passionate about that recharge you in addition to your regular work.
Hopefully, you have some overlap where you're able to work on the things that do fill you with passion, but you know you have to get things done that don't necessarily align with your passion all the time.
If you are an entrepreneur you are likely motivated by the fact you can set your own boundaries and schedule around your daily responsibilities and happenings.
With the potential to have that freedom comes a lot of responsibility to manage these things when traditionally, another organization, or, your bosses, or your manager or teacher might hold you accountable in at least two of these three areas.
And oftentimes they won't help you with energy management. Certainly, if you come in exhausted for two weeks straight, somebody is going to say something and tell you to probably go sleep.. Or write you up or just fire you, but that's a different problem.
That’s why these three areas of personal management and productivity are important to synchronize.
The power of the method for entrepreneurs
As business owners, we have more potential to set our schedule, choose how we approach our work, and where we spend our time.
Having control over our time, what work we do, and how we manage our energy is something an entrepreneurial life can afford us.
We have a bigger say in shaping our everyday experience which is a double-edged sword. Done effectively, we can transform our lives. Done poorly, we actually get in our own way.
If we are careful to not over-commit to things, to avoid the “golden handcuff” scenario for ourselves, that freedom allows us to really be creative and intentional in these three areas.
This can be effective for anyone in the areas that they can implement, but the magic happens when you can apply all three and really embrace the full potential of the method
At our core, we are problem solvers.
We can design our week and life to better suit the season of life we are in and work towards a more ideal state of life we would regularly want to experience and live each day.