The Power Hour Book Review

What is The Power Hour? 

Having recently discovered the high value of creativity in both personal and professional fields, I set myself a challenge last week to find some “me” time for creative acts, such as reading and writing. And it was just by chance that I came across this book, the Power Hour by Adrienne Herbert, which suggests waking up early every day to indulge in a full hour of whatever your heart so desires in order to achieve your personal goals. It sounded great, so I bought the book and got stuck in!

My Reading Challenge!

What with the arrival of my little one (LO), though, I have little time to even leisurely peer out of the window, let alone read a whole book! But I wanted to at least give it a try and see what happens. So the plan was to read a chapter a day (there are 7 chapters plus an introduction) over eight days. However, I went into it somewhat unsure WHEN/WHAT TIME the magic was going to happen!

If you are curious to know how I got on during the 8 day challenge watch the videos here:

My Reflections

The first thing I noticed on this short journey was that in order to accomodate the possibility of waking earlier, I went to bed earlier, which I liked.

And with that mind shift, and possibly with the advice and encouragement I was internalising from the book, I immediately started to think about how to make my day more efficient. You see, I tend to work in little blocks of time and break that up with non-work activities such as cleaning, tidying and eating throughout the day. Instead, I started to do focused or deep work in bigger blocks. And I turned my phone to airplane mode so as to avoid any distractions. The result was getting my main work done by mid-afternoon, leaving time to do the cleaning etc. later, before going to collect my LO. 

Overall, I really enjoyed following that new schedule. Especially as one of my biggest issues is being able to separate and prioritise important tasks (In my mind, everything is important!) from menial tasks. And it was like, at that time, my mind was relaxed and open enough to naturally slot things into the right place. 

Since finishing the book, though, I have already reverted back to my old ways. So it seems that it will take some time and effort to get myself into a new routine. 

Your Power Hour

So do you prioritise time just for yourself every day? Is it in the morning or evening? What do you get up to during this time? Are you using the time to (eventually) achieve a specific goal?

Photos by Me!