Take Back Your Morning: The Power of the 11 AM Rule

“The inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system for other people’s priorities.”

– Brendon Burchard

“How do you do everything you do?” In one of his audio messages, renowned productivity expert Brendon Burchard spoke to this question, which he said he gets asked all the time. He talked about his 11 AM Rule, where he doesn’t even look at his inbox before 11 am. Why? Because as he said in this now infamous quote, our inboxes are just a convenient and efficient list of other people’s priorities.

That’s so true, isn’t it?

If you make the mistake of looking at your inbox first thing in the morning, your best-laid plans will go out the window in a hurry! Have you ever had that happen? Yeah, me too…all too often! And then I wonder why I’m not making real progress on the things that matter most to me and my business. That’s why I loved what Brendon had to say and why I decided to give it a try.

Instead of checking your inbox first thing in the morning, he recommends using that time to work on YOUR priorities, the things that will move your life and business forward – your morning self-care routine, reaching out to potential clients, following up with leads, generating business, connecting with employees, doing the proactive work that keeps your life and business moving in the right direction. Sure, true emergencies will come up now and then, but those who need you will have an alternate way to reach you, e.g. text or phone call. The people in your inbox understand that life is busy and will be happy to get a response from you by noon, so don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking everyone needs to be responded to immediately at the expense of everything else in your business. It’s just not true. If you can adapt this rule to the start of your day, you will quickly find more forward movement in your business than you imagined without sacrificing anything else to do it.

How to make the 11 am rule work for you:

• Communicate your Boundary – Communicate your inbox boundary with those closest to you, so they know when to expect a reply. Some people put a note in their email signature, indicating when they check and respond to emails. Do what works best for you and your clients.
• Designate Emergency Contact Method – Make sure those closest to you have an alternate “emergency” contact method, e.g. text message. Things will come up that require immediate attention before 11 am, and in those cases, the alternate method should be used.
• Do an Inbox Search – If you’re expecting an email from someone that relates to your proactive work, instead of perusing all your emails to see if one came in, do a search and find it that way. If you let yourself review the entire inbox looking for that one email, you’ll likely find yourself reacting to all the other emails, and your focused efforts will fly right out the window.
• Reply by Noon – Realize that most people don’t expect you to drop everything and immediately respond to their email. If you respond by noon, that will generally meet everyone’s expectations.
• Be Proactive – Use the pre-inbox time to work on proactive and income-producing activities for your business – things that will keep moving your business forward. This is time for you to work ON your business instead of IN it.
• Do what works for you. Maybe yours isn’t a 11 am rule, maybe it’s 9 am. Maybe you need to allot one hour of pre-inbox time each day to start, and then work yourself up to the amount you need. Don’t let someone else’s parameters become a roadblock to you even trying. Adapt the idea to your situation and commit to making an effort.

What do you think about this approach? Does it make you freak out just a little bit?

It made me a little nervous, too, but I could see the massive impact this change in behavior could have on my ability to spend quality time on my business, so I tried it…and I have to say it feels good and is very freeing. I’m an early bird, so my time isn’t 11 am, but those details aren’t what matters. Do what works for you. You might want to start out by waiting at least an hour past your morning start time to dig into your inbox, then work yourself up, depending on your needs. If you have the experience I did, you’ll immediately feel a sense of purpose and accomplishment for having made progress toward the things that really matter to you.

If you’ve got a tip that works for you, or you decide to give this one a try, I’d love to hear from you.