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By Dan Sullivan Working Smarter, Achieving More [Page 2 of 2] The best Free Days are planned in advance -- and are protected, inviolate, and non-negotiable. When you learn to disconnect from the stream of demands and information (much of which is soon irrelevant) and invest attention and care in the other aspects of your life, you start making choices against a broader backdrop. Your life becomes more integrated, less a tug-of-war between conflicting elements. In 2003, Babs and I are taking 150 Free Days. We booked them before the year began. Imagine the trust in our team that this demanded of us! But until we made the commitment, we couldn't have a team equal to the challenge. Now, our free time is devoted to rejuvenating ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. When we return to work, we're able to be more creative, confident, and productive, and the whole company benefits. Focus Days. A Focus Day is a 24-hour period, again midnight to midnight, in which you spend 80% of your time on the activities that create results for your business. To use a sports analogy, these are "game days." On Focus Days, you concentrate on your most important business-related activities, relationships, and opportunities. If you've planned your Free Days strategically, you will be rejuvenated and thus able to be fully "on" and "present" for your performance on Focus Days. By communicating to your team in advance that you'll be "focusing" on a particular day, you will enable them to clear a path for you, setting up whatever you need to help you be your most productive and achieve results. What should you be doing on your Focus Days? Think about what you do personally that makes the greatest contribution to your company's bottom line. Pick the three activities that create the best results for your company. These are likely the activities that also energize you personally, because you feel a sense of progress and accomplishment when engaging in them. Imagine how productive you could be if you could spend a day attending to just these tasks, without interruption, and with full preparation and support. This is what Focus Days are for. Buffer Days. If Focus Days are for performance, Buffer Days are for rehearsals. On Buffer Days, you handle all of the details that would otherwise distract your attention on a Focus Day. You use these days to catch up, clean up messes, delegate, and learn new skills. You use them to maintain and restore simplicity and order in your life -- what could be more satisfying than clearing a week's worth of phone calls to return from your to-do list? Most importantly, you use them to do the necessary planning that will ensure that nothing intrudes on your Free Days and Focus Days. THE GOOD LIFE. Consider the emphasis and breakdown -- Free Days first, then Focus Days, and finally Buffer Days -- in a ratio of roughly three, three, one. Now, imagine applying this system to your week, your month, your year -- indeed, your life. What would you have to change, physically and mentally, to make it work for you? Is there anything you would lose as a result? What would you gain? Thousands of entrepreneurs have learned this system in The Strategic Coach Program. Many struggle initially with the seeming paradox of working less yet getting better results. Time and again, though, I've seen individuals surpass all their previous business achievements while finding new satisfaction in their lives, because they now have more freedom than ever to do what they feel passionate about, to be with the people they love, and to enjoy a richer array of experiences. Dan Sullivan is co-founder and president of The Strategic Coach. A visionary and innovative creator, Sullivan has more than 25 years' experience as a highly regarded speaker, strategic thinker, resource, and coach to highly successful entrepreneurs. His strong belief in, and commitment to, the power of the entrepreneur is evident in all areas of The Strategic Coach® and its coaching programs, which work to help entrepreneurs reach their full potential in both their business and personal lives.
 Entrepreneur's Byline comes to BusinessWeek Online readers courtesy of EntreWorld.org, a resource for entrepreneurs that is sponsored by the nonprofit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
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