Inspirational tip: Play beat the clock

Is your motivation flagging at 3:00 pm? Set an egg timer for thirty or sixty minutes and challenge yourself to get as much done as possible. You can always revise this fast-paced work later.

One of my challenges is my habit of working constantly, around the clock. As soon as I wake up, I check e-mail, during the day I make phone calls, and as the rest of the world leaves the office, I continue writing e-mails, reports and articles. No 8-hour work day for me. This is good in the sense that I can take time off whenever I feel like it, and it usually does not matter if I am finished with whatever I am doing at 3PM or 3AM.

The downside is that there are periods of the day – and the week – when I am more productive. And I am constantly trying to find ways to increase my productivity also in the down periods. Beat the clock work great for me. I am not yet at the 60 minutes interval, the 30 minute works wonders for me. I have had to add rules like “No twitter, No e-mail”, and lately also “No Internet”. Then I can focus on what I am supposed to do, and usually I find that I produce quite some results. And that is a great energy booster!

What is your experience with beating the clock? How do games like this improve your efficiency? What variations of this game do you do?