Periodization and Prioritization

DEEP DIVE

If you’ve had any entrepreneurial or self-improvement aspirations in your life, then I’m sure your social media feed has been riddled with influencers such as Alex Hormozi, Chris Williamson, Tony Robbins, and so on.

The list is never ending. . . .

While I think there are a ton of downsides in the “self-help guru” world, I do come across solid advice from time to time. 

I was recently watching Chris Williamson interview Alex Horomzi and around the 5:30 mark, Hormozi makes a solid point about work-life balance.

In essence, some of us think about work-life balance at too much of a micro level, like how much we’re working vs. relaxing each day.

But sometimes it’s helpful to view this from a more long-term perspective and ask ourselves how much we’re working this year vs. next year.

If I know I’m getting married next April (yay!), perhaps I want to prioritize work for the next six months so I can lay off the gas come April and enjoy my wedding, honeymoon, and newlywed status.

This concept comes back to periodization and prioritization, which I’ve talked about before as it relates to SEO (see here).

Now, I’ve thought about this before as it relates to fitness on a micro level, for example, I don’t try to gain muscle while losing fat at the same time. Instead, I prioritize one then the other and gain muscle for three months, then shift to losing fat for three months.

But I’ve not implemented this on a macro level. I want to have a thriving business AND be amazing at jiu jitsu AND be strong in the gym AND be an amazing husband AND . . . 

I’ve been trying to do all the things at once when I should be periodizing my year and hyper-focusing on one particular area during specific time frames.

It’s the age-old quote that I repeat in this newsletter time and time again . . .

Now this all sounds well and good, but who knows if it actually works.

Let’s do as SEOs do and test. 

Below is exactly what I’m doing so I can hyper-focus on work and be phenomenal in this one aspect of my life. 

Work

Between October 20th and November 27th, I’m planning to go hyper-focused on work. 

I specified these dates to plan around events already planned in my life.

• October 3rd–6th I’ll be in Austin, TX, for Austin City Limits.

• Then I’m going to Florida until October 13th.

• Then Homecoming at my Alma Mater on October 19th.

Once these events are out of the way, I have a social break where I can dedicate some solid time to building my websites and figuring out what the future of content marketing looks like for me. 

Saying no

Once October 20th hits, I’m saying “no” to anything that doesn’t involve websites I have ownership in.

This means no

• Lazy Link Building cohort

• Consulting

• Agency work

• Podcast interviews

• “Quick calls to chat”

• LinkedIn posting

• And anything else that pops up

I’m even going to have my executive assistant screen all DMs and messages to let people know I’m unreachable during this time frame.

If you can’t tell, I’m serious about this shit.

People swear by periodization and prioritization, so I’m taking my best step forward and giving it my best shot.

I’ll still write my newsletter each week and share what I learn along the way, but that’s all you’ll hear from me. 

How to quantify work

I’ve been tracking my time spent on deep work each week for about four months now.

On average, I spend about 28.25 hours each week getting deep work in.

Goal is to get this number to a minimum of 40 hours per week. That said, I need to be mindful of not filling my time just for the sake of hitting 40 hours. A full 40 hours of deep work is a KPI, not the end goal. 

To hit 40 hours each week, I’ll need to cut time from elsewhere in my life. Which brings me to my next point.

Fitness

Fitness is a big part of my life but it also takes out a good chunk of time and mental energy.

The idea here is to drop everything to “maintenance” volume. When it comes to weights, jiu jitsu, steps, and anything else, the amount of work required to maintain is significantly less than one might think.

Here’s how my schedule will look:

• Monday: Jiu Jitsu (90 mins)

• Tuesday: Gym (30 mins)

• Wednesday: Jiu Jitsu (90 mins)

• Thursday: Gym (30 mins)

You don’t know my schedule from before, but just know I’m saving 3–4 hours each week with this new set up. 

I’m going to the gym only twice per week and workouts are only thirty minutes long.

The idea is to get in and get out.

I’m also switching my nutrition plan to maintenance so I don’t have to worry about calories so dang much. I’ll still weigh myself each day to make sure I’m on track but I’m not worried about meal timing, frequency, gaining weight, losing weight, etc.

Also, each day I try to get 10,000 steps in and I’m lowering this to 7,500. It’s easier to hit yet still keeps me active.

I have to be pretty adamant to hit 10,000 but 7,500 steps I get naturally without thinking too much about it.

To sum up, I’m devoting less time, energy, and resources to fitness during my work-focused period. I’m going to make sure I don’t lose any progress, but I’m not trying to gain right now either.

We’re chillin’.

Friends

Friends are 100% taking a backseat but I can’t kill myself working. In my mind, I need to hit that 40 hours of deep work each week before I can chill with the homies.

If I haven’t hit this, no friends. But again, I need to be mindful and make sure I’m not hitting 40 hours just so I can hang with friends. It needs to be deep, intentive work.

Family

While all the above sounds great, my fiancée is by far the biggest priority in my life. I can wholeheartedly say none of the above matters if I don’t have her.

So, if you’re looking to join me on this journey or are thinking about doing something similar, I suggest you openly communicate your plans with family, friends, or lovers.

I’m also not taking any time away from her. I’ll cut out time around friends and fitness before I ever remove my time with her.

A complete 40 hours of deep work each week is a lot. But I can do this while still spending significant time with my fiancée because I’ve removed time from other areas of my life.