Dan Sullivan, President of The Strategic Coach, created a great system, called The Entrepreneurial Time System. It divides all of your time into three kinds of days: Focus Days, Buffer Days, and Free Days.
Focus Days
A Focus Day is a day in which you spend at least 80% of your time operating in your core genius, or primary area of expertise — interacting with people or processes that give you the highest payoffs for the time you invest. To be successful, you must schedule more Focus Days and hold yourself accountable for producing the results.
Buffer Days
A Buffer Day is a day when you prepare and plan for a Focus or Free Day — either by learning a new skill, locating a new resource, training your support team, or delegating tasks and projects to others. Buffer Days ensure that your Focus Days are as productive as possible.
Free Days
A Free Day extends from midnight to midnight and involves no work-related activity of any kind. It’s a day completely free of business meetings, business-related phone calls, cell phone calls, e-mails, or reading work-related documents.
Start scheduling
The key to getting more Free Days and Focus Days in your life is to sit down and schedule them. By jotting down how many Focus Days, Buffer Days, and Free Days you spend every month right now, you can work to increase the number of Focus Days and true 24-hour Free Days on your calendar, and reduce the number of Buffer Days. With this kind of schedule, you’ll find yourself creating greater results at work, enjoying more fulfillment in your personal life, and experiencing more balance between the two.
* Source: The Success Principles by Jack Canfield