
Solid Yellow Lines...Quadruple Productivity?
By Evan Nehring
Another staggering claim from Dr. Lerner is that he can achieve “160 hours of results in a 40-hour week”.[1] While there’s some shock value there, he’s also onto something.
Dr. Lerner’s method for quadrupling your productivity is to maintain solid yellow lines between sections of your personal schedule. So, for example, Dr. Lerner schedules 45 minutes each morning, before his patient visits begin, to work on his author life. By keeping that daily commitment, he is able to maintain a career as an author, effectively providing him with 40 hours/week results from a five hour investment.

Similarly, Dr. Lerner schedules two hours each day between 11 am and 1 pm for his consultant career and one hour each night from 9-10 pm for his lecturer life career. Voila! Four careers in one work week!
Do I buy it? Yes, I do. Dr. Lerner has resources at his disposal to delegate and hire out many of the daily tasks we would do ourselves, but you and I can work toward that.
I am carving out a writing/speaking/blogging career using basically the same method. My family life doesn’t allow me to be as rigid with the solid lines as Dr. Lerner. I make up for that, though, with tenacious commitment to following through with each career goal each week.
Yes, we have to maintain a certain flexibility in order to stay true to the core values of a Jesus-follower, but let’s not make excuses for our lack of ambition! Let’s setup our solid yellow lines and make it happen!
[1] Dr. Ben Lerner. Body by God (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), cover.
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