Some opinions we have are worth more than others.
But when it comes to our brightest opinions, their potential value actually depends on how we organize our calendars.
If we allow ourselves to schedule meetings or calls every day of the week...
If we take our work home with us constantly — even if it's just *thinking* about work...
If we don't prioritize sleep and intentional rest...
If we don't block time for focused concentration...
We seriously limit the potential value and impact that our opinions can have.
Here’s what I mean:
Among all the opinions being shared publicly, the most valuable ones are published as Op-Eds. (Disagree? We can hash it out in the comments.)
This is true for every one of us: the brightest opinions we have in our head are at a level where the world’s most visible, influential, respected media outlets – the ones with audiences in the millions – would joyfully publish them.
Want to publish that personal essay in the NY Times? Want to impact your industry with a killer piece in the Wall Street Journal?
Here are three types of days
1. Recovery
2. Planning and organization
3. Focused time/performance
(I got this from Dr. Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan.)
Here’s how structuring your days this way will boost the value of your opinions and put you at an advantage for seeing them published by the world’s biggest media platforms:
Recovery time: Spending downtime away from work is often when we get our best insights. Want to turn your opinions into Op-Eds? Spend time in intentional rest, not thinking about work. And when a flash of brilliance comes, WRITE IT DOWN.
Planning and organization time: When you block time just for planning, this is when you can revisit that opinion you wrote down. Do a bit of research. Write down any data that support it. Write down how your personal experience supports it. And, very importantly, what's the counter-argument?
(Besides putting you into Op-Ed range, this work has value on its own because it refines your viewpoints--another reason I love Op-Eds.)
Focus time. If you block your time for deep-focused work, you can use it to put your research into a rough Op-Ed draft.
Here's where this puts you at an advantage of everyone else with an opinion on the same issue: When something happens in the world that suddenly makes your opinion timely — a new study, a new policy announcement, etc--you pull that draft out, update it to relate it to current events, and BOOM.
You've got that article submitted to a media outlet while everybody else who's going to weigh in on the same topic is still working up their drafts.
You not only get your article in fast — you've beaten everybody else to the punch. This puts you at an enormous advantage when it comes to getting opinions published.
If you don't take time off work to recover, if you don't block time for planning and organization, and if you don't give yourself space to get into deep focus, none of this is possible.
Thank you for being a subscriber to Building Deep. Aside from my writing on Substack, I also offer training and coaching for others who want to refine, publish, and share their opinions in a way that creates real impact and advances their goals. If you want to work directly with me and my team, check out our website or get in touch.