Focus as a Bank Account

Lynn challenged me to think of my time as a bank account that never receives a deposit. Your time is a fixed pie and all you can do is withdrawal. This means you best make the most of it and be realistic about what you can accomplish.

So how much can one person accomplish in a year?

52 weeks in a year

-4 weeks for vacation, holidays time off

48 working weeks in a year

48 weeks x 5 business days = 240 working days

240 days x 8 hours = 1,920 hours of work time per year

But my brain doesn’t operate at max capacity for all of those hours. I typically have 3 periods of high focus during the day: 1) 6am to 10am, 2) 2pm-4pm, and 3) 7pm-9pm. These are the times when I exercise my brain for judgement or creativity.

In my case I have 2 states of high focus time during normal business hours. Meaning my focus bank is 480 sessions. We all work a bit extra so you can add a few nights and weekend focus times but then we all travel and have events so you have to cancel those out. A nice round 500 sounds good.

500 sessions of creativity and judgement per year.

Now divide this 500 by your responsibilities and projects. How many focus session are you able to give to your responsibilities? Is it enough or do you need to cut?