Method 90-90-1 is the new religion of hyperproductivity. It is only common sense with mystical numbers

The 90-90-1 method was popular by Robin Sharma, the author of books like ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari‘. Sharma is not holy of my devotion – its self -help literature sins of industrial optimism typical of the genre – but the formula of this method starts from something reasonable, and that made me look at it.

The proposal is dedicate the first 90 minutes of every day for 90 consecutive days to a single objective. Something that, he says, will transform your life.

This formula is the last incarnation of our cult of personal optimization, wrapped in the seductive promise that happiness is just three months away.

The formula is elegant in its simplism. Researchers from the University of Nottingham discovered that The self -control is at its peak just after awakeningand then gradually exhausted during the day, something that explains my strong sports discipline at dawn and my desire for dusk.

Sharma calls the first hours “Platinum time“And he suggests that they are the optimal time to work on what matters most. The method is based on circadian rhythms and the theory of human chronotypes: Each person has natural moments of greater energy that can be used strategically.

The interesting thing of 90-90-1 is in what omits: it is a psychological trick disguised as a system, not a complete methodology of time management. Sharma himself warns: “There is so much available distraction that, if you are not very careful, it will dominate your days.”

So The method works not by revolutionary, but for forcing a behavior that should be obvious: concentrate on the important when we have the most mental energy.

But there is a trap: if we concentrate for an hour and a half it is difficult, it is a common place in productivity literature to start with shorter blocks, and increase them little by little.

• If the mornings do not work, adapt it to another moment of the day.
• If you interrupt you, have a plan B.

The 90-90-1 can become Xyz and that each one adjusts it to their convenience. But when something is so flexible that it adapts to anything, it ceases to be a method. It is rather a sophisticated excuse to do what we already knew we should do.

90-90-1 is not useful for its magical numbers, but for its function as a ritual of initiation to disciplineblessed word often shunned that in fact is not verbalized in a method dedicated to it.

Like any productive fashion, promises personal transformation in exchange for willpower to follow a formula.

Life is rarely bent before such orderly formulas.

• The objectives change.
• Priorities change.
• And rigid systems are usually the first to collapse before real life.

90-90-1 does not go as much to optimize our time as the collective need that someone tells us when and how to work on what matters.

In Xataka | The little great jewel of productivity is a simplest method: the rule of the “two minutes”

Outstanding image | Yasmina h in Unspash