Nige’s new book is out this month! Co-written with EC member, Martin Gladdish, Build Your Business In 90 Minutes A Day shares the secrets of super-productive entrepreneurs to optimize how you work. It reveals seven simple 90-minute rules that can catapult your business forward, explains the powerful and the productivity-boosting science hidden within each 90 minute period and tells the inspirational stories behind the 90 minute chunks that have changed the world.
It was even planned, pitched and written by Nigel and Martin in 90-minute slots and is designed to take only 90 minutes to read! To celebrate, and to get you hooked so that you absolutely, right now, this second just have to get your hands on a copy, we’re giving you a sneak peek at the foreword and first chapter right here…
Foreword
Time is indisputably the most precious resource available to today’s busy entrepreneurs. The wisest amongst them would pay a high price for more of it. Yet despite the fact that time itself is absolute and there is no way for us to create more, many smart people still strive to fill the time they have with ‘busyness’, rather than using it to enhance their productivity. Whatever strategy or strategies you’ve been employing to get your business to where it is today, there is no doubt that it would be in an even better position if you had more time available to you.
But what if a ‘type of’ additional time was available and delivered to you in a manner that saw you at your most productive, brilliant best each day? Imagine what a difference that would make!
Well, that is exactly what this book has been designed to reveal to you. So hold tight as we take you back through the richness of antiquity, blast you up to the edge of space and walk you through the lives of some extraordinary people to discover the secrets that lie within the time you already have. We promise you adventure, intrigue, science and real-life, proven wisdom that might just change your life forever. So read on and enjoy the journey.
The book has been designed to be read in 90 minutes.
In fact, we conceived, planned and pitched the idea of this book during a 90-minute chunk of time, and wrote it across a series of pre-planned 90-minute time slots. In it, we share amazing stories of how the great and the good changed history in the space of just 90 minutes. It even delves into the science behind such achievements.
Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, it gives insight and education into the 90-minute milestones that led to success and new horizons for business owners just like you and me. If you are prepared to test and take on board its message, it will help you to find and use 90 minutes of quality time each and every day to build your business.
We sincerely hope that you embrace its lessons, enjoy its wonderful stories and are inspired by all of its other content and contributors.
– Nigel and Martin
The Foundations Of A Great Nation Built In 90-Minute Chunks
Some 200 years before ‘1066 and all that’, the nation we know today as Great Britain was being planned, presided over and fought for by the only English monarch to ever be given the title ‘The Great’. And he did it by meticulously segregating his day into small chunks of time.
Alfred the Great was born into the royal household in Wantage, Oxfordshire, in 849, the fifth son of Aethelwulf, King of Wessex. By the time he was made king in 871, he had already forged a reputation as a great warrior and administrator (think of him as an early Vladimir Putin), fighting off the invading Great Heathen Army and assisting his older brothers in their kingships.
Alfred’s regal reputation, and the reason for his grandiose title, will always be associated with his military brilliance, totally restructuring the country’s legal system, his commitment to education and his selfless efforts to improve his people’s quality of life (perhaps not so Vladimir Putin after all).
The first ever 90-minute chunk timer
But it is the secret of how Alfred managed to achieve so much during his 28-year reign – and how he was able to lay the foundations of a great nation whilst continually fighting (physically, politically and religiously) against the Vikings – that is of the greatest interest to us as entrepreneurs. During this time, he also suffered from a painful, highly-debilitating and untreatable condition, now thought to have been Crohn’s disease, which significantly reduced his activity and ability to concentrate for long periods of time.
Despite a lifetime wrought with personal hardship, war and opposition, Alfred’s remarkable achievements were made possible through an inspirational timekeeping idea that originated in China in the sixth century.
And being the brilliant innovator and leader that he was, he turned this early scientific breakthrough into a powerful planning strategy. Alfred the Great created the first ever 90-minute chunk timer using candles.
His candle clock consisted of six candles of uniform diameter and each measuring exactly 12 inches high, made from 72 pennyweights of wax. The candles were marked at every inch and had been timed to burn for four hours in total, so each mark represented 20 minutes of time. It’s widely reported that Alfred would usually work on each separate project for four or five 20-minute chunks at a time – in other words, an average of 90 minutes.
This ingenious device and unquenchable thirst for education and achievement underpinned the colossal amount of organizational and planning work that made Alfred so famous. This discipline became a part of his daily routine, enabling him to repair castles, restore life to ruined cities, set up civic governments, revise the laws of the kingdom, fight wars, negotiate international politics, commit time to personal learning and apply sweeping reform throughout a rapidly growing nation.
A staggering legacy born out of 90 minute discipline
Alfred’s responsibilities were so vast that it is hard to imagine how it would be possible for someone today, even with our gadgets and technology, to achieve all that he managed to do. He was able to build a nation without the aid of computers, in a world where even parchment was a scarce and valuable resource, and the ability to write was a rarity. He did it through pure organizational discipline and exceptional time management – and his legacy is quite staggering.
In short, without his candle clock, Alfred would never have been called ‘Great’ and, potentially, neither would Britain.
It’s just a shame he never used his candles to measure the time it took to bake cakes…
