Chapter 44.
Use Your Best Time for Your
Biggest Challenge

It’s so hard when contemplated in advance, and so easy when you do it.

—Robert Pirsig, Philosopher/Author

It’s so important to use your best time for your biggest challenge.

Of course you can’t always do this. Sometimes challenges have a way of blowing out their own hole in your timetable. But whenever possible, see if you can match up your prime biological (emotional, physical, mental) time with the big job or big communications you have to do.

Many leaders are at their best in the first hours of the morning; others hit their prime in the late morning; others still, in the late afternoon. Whichever is your best time to shine, don’t waste it on trivia and low-return activities. Invest that energy and peak attention into the big challenge you’ve been procrastinating about.

Most of us confuse pleasure with happiness. We find great pleasure in spending our highest-energy state on small tasks, taking them out with relish and flair, blowing away all these minor, little must-do’s with great bursts of energy and good cheer. But all the while, that big thing is lurking, waiting until we’re tired and cranky to be fully contemplated, which is why it gets put off so often.

Know ahead of time what your biggest challenge is. Set it up to be taken out with massive, unstoppable action while you are at your most resourceful and energetic. You do have a best time of day, mentally. Know when it is. Then use it! The ultimate source of a leader’s professional happiness is the feeling of accomplishment you get when you take out the big thing!

The look on your face alone will motivate others to follow you.