In this episode, hosts Avram and Rachel discuss their experiment with what they dubbed ‘Power Hour,’ a method they tried for a month to boost their productivity by waking up at 4:30 a.m. to work before their child wakes up. They share their motivations for trying this radical schedule adjustment, driven by the need to find dedicated time for their business amidst the challenges of childcare and pregnancy. The couple details both the benefits, such as clearing a backlog of work and dedicating time to marketing their business, and the drawbacks, including the impact on their sleep quality and relationship time. They conclude by reflecting on what they learned from the experience, the importance of planning and prioritizing, and challenge listeners to try the power hour for themselves.

Show Notes

[01:19] The Struggle of Balancing Parenthood and Productivity

[05:07] The Birth of Power Hour: A Radical Solution

[05:45] The Results: Triumphs and Challenges of Power Hour

[13:31] Reflecting on the Power Hour Experience: Lessons Learned

[16:46] A Challenge for You

Mentions & Resources

The Morning Miracle – Book

Oura Ring

Balloon Fiesta

Episode Transcription

Below you will find a transcript of this entire podcast episode. Enjoy!

​

Avram Gonzales: It’s Avram here sitting next to my yogi wife, Rachel. She, uh, has a block here that’s in her chair. Feeling that pregnancy? 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, have to find a way to actually be able to breathe right now. So, um, we’re going to see if it works better this time. 

Avram Gonzales: And if it works out, we will put the picture in the show notes.

Just kidding. Hey, today we got a fun topic. Something we want to share from direct experience that we have aptly called the power hour. And it was something that we did month of January. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, I think so. Mm hmm. Yeah. It’s gotta be January. 

Avram Gonzales: That was pretty powerful for us. There were some pros and some cons.

This episode is really about, I think it is about productivity. 

Rachel Gonzales: Sure. 

Avram Gonzales: I think it’s about trying to rearrange schedules to make things happen. We were back against the wall, not getting what it felt like, not getting anything done for our business. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. I mean, I just think that. Yeah. We found ourselves in a situation that was just not getting better with lack of care for Lincoln, babysitting here and there.

And we had to find a way to get some time and we started asking really creative questions like, maybe, what do you think about getting up at 4:30 A.M.? I have always sworn that I would not be in the 4 o’clock club. If it has 4 in it anywhere, I don’t care if it’s 4:59, it’s still 4. So, I proposed that to you.

And you kind of like, humored me? 

Avram Gonzales: I didn’t humor her, I just about shut it down immediately. I was like, no, that’s not That’s not a thing, but, to take a step back, for a couple months, we didn’t have child care, we 

Rachel Gonzales: On a regular basis. It felt like no child care, completely. 

Avram Gonzales: So whenever I would work, that meant that Rachel would be watching our son and then vice versa, when she needed to get something done for the business, then I would watch him and what that meant is, we are now splitting our work week.

Rachel Gonzales: Well, and it also means that the things that I’m good at, if you have something that you needed to delegate to me to get done, it doesn’t get done because if I’m on a computer, Lincoln wants to be in my lap. If I’m on a phone, he thinks it’s video Lincoln, so let’s watch a video of Lincoln. You know, so, there were a lot of struggles that we were seeing.

Avram Gonzales: We needed a way to get some more time. 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct, 

Avram Gonzales: because it wasn’t happening during the day 

Rachel Gonzales: and guaranteed time 

Avram Gonzales: and guaranteed So we all know how deflating it is to have planned for something and then the day before or the morning of You realize it’s not gonna happen that way. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, 

Avram Gonzales: You know mentally you have to shift but also all of your plans are just 

Rachel Gonzales: well and for me It’s like I love this little boy so much and I want to be around him I I’ve wanted to be a mom for so long all of my life and having him at home has just been such a great thing to see and witness and see all his wonderful things coming about.

And so I’ve, I’ve really had the struggle of, do I want help? Do I not want help? Um, and then if help fell through, like babysitting fell through, then I felt a little bit, actually not a, really angry and upset. Like, okay, someone else’s plans fell through. That means mine has to change. And so I felt deflated over and over and over.

And it was taking a mental toll, mental, emotional toll on me. 

Avram Gonzales: And that’s key. 

Rachel Gonzales: Because I really want to be there for Lincoln. If I’m with Lincoln, I want to be with Lincoln. 

Avram Gonzales: And then we discovered about ourse lves that being pretty motivated people, we like achieving goals. We like doing, you know, knocking things off the checklist when we weren’t having that feeling of forward momentum in the business, in addition to wanting to be present for our family, we got pretty aggravated. We started feeling a little shorter with each other. 

Rachel Gonzales: For sure. 

Avram Gonzales: There wasn’t much time for each other. So the radical idea then was pitched. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. 

Avram Gonzales: What if we got up before the baby wakes up every day? If we get up at 4:30, we can be in our chairs by five.

We can get a full hour before he could possibly wake up. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. And that gave us a buffer of if he wake, if he woke up at at six o’clock, we would still have gotten an entire hour in. 

Avram Gonzales: And so Power Hour was born and before you’re like, look, we’ve heard people talking about Morning Miracle and stuff. Look, this is not what it’s about.

It’s not about Morning Miracle. But I do think that Hal Elrod, the guy who wrote Morning Miracle. Probably created it because he had kids and he just couldn’t get shit done. We have to create the miracle morning because I am going bananas not getting anything done during the day. 

Rachel Gonzales: What do I say? Necessity is the mother of invention.

Avram Gonzales: It is the mother of invention. So the radical idea was pitched. We sat with it for maybe a day or two and it was like, let’s just try it. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. 

Avram Gonzales: So let’s talk about that. So we then decided to try this thing out. Let’s talk about what happened. And then, um, We’ll wrap up some cool lessons here today. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. You know, we tried it and I mean, kudos to us, right?

Kudos to us. We did an entire month. I mean, we were dragging ourselves out of bed. 

Avram Gonzales: We only missed two days that weren’t 4:30. So they might’ve been like five instead. 

Rachel Gonzales: And that was for various reasons. 

Avram Gonzales: Yep. 

Rachel Gonzales: But. I think that we have a lot to be proud of, that we need to pat ourselves on the back because we really had a dedication to it and we just made it happen.

Even though it wasn’t fun and it was really difficult, we found that there are reasons why we actually got off of the schedule. Um, and yeah, And it was actually not necessarily because our bodies were slowly breaking down. Um, it was because Lincoln started waking up earlier and earlier, and then we needed to put him into bed later.

So there were a lot of different things that came about, um, during this time, but we did notice that our sleep wasn’t as good. We weren’t getting as good quality sleep, not as much sleep. There was a lot of things that came. 

Avram Gonzales: Well, the plus side, we didn’t even address the plus side. So the plus side of what came out was we hammered through in the course of a week, tons of things that were piling up in the back of our heads for about two months. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. Well, we just clear the deck. 

Avram Gonzales: Boom. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. Clear the deck. And then I think like a week in we’re like, okay, so now the power hour becomes, marketing for our business. Yeah, that’s what you would do is you would spend that whole hour just doing something for our business.

Avram Gonzales: Well, that’s because we realized that that kind of stuff wasn’t happening 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct 

Avram Gonzales: during the regular day because other things would take that attention. 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct! 

Well, so we have paying clients and they need to get what they’re paying for. 

Avram Gonzales: That’s right And so we realized that the power hour became this somewhat sacred time 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct 

Avram Gonzales: to work on our business instead of spending the time on other people’s businesses or needs.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

Avram Gonzales: Pretty powerful. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, being able to catch up was such a good feeling. Mm-Hmm. , I remember, I mean, , we went, 

Avram Gonzales: we were liberating. 

Rachel Gonzales: It felt like we went from no time working to just one hour, but it felt like 50 . It might have well been same 

Avram Gonzales: time. And, and the sense of accomplishment every morning before the day even started.

And then how that carried into the rest of the, the morning. 

Rachel Gonzales: Right. 

Avram Gonzales: And even the early afternoon now. We were gassed by two o’clock. 

Rachel Gonzales: Oh yeah. But still it felt so much better than gassed by two o’clock and having done nothing. And then it feels like, Oh, well, I guess I’ll punt this ball down the, down the week to maybe the next time we’ll have babysitting.

And then that doesn’t, you know, so we’d gotten really, Worn out by not getting not getting anything done that we just had this huge punch list of things that needed to get done and we got through it in less than a week. 

Avram Gonzales: It was crazy. So power hour worked. Now the thing that we realize is we, there’s no way we could continue doing that.

Rachel Gonzales: Correct. For so many reasons. 

Avram Gonzales: Let’s talk about some of those reasons, right? The upside was this huge productivity boost. 

Rachel Gonzales: Sure. 

Avram Gonzales: And the number of things that were getting done. 

Rachel Gonzales: Sure. 

Avram Gonzales: But we paid for it. 

Rachel Gonzales: Well, I just think that it was a good sprint. 

Avram Gonzales: It was. 

Rachel Gonzales: Because the sprint got us so much further ahead. It got us in a different place emotionally and mentally about what we were doing and how we were accomplishing things.

And when it came down to it, that is really what we needed. And then we just needed maintenance after that. We didn’t need to continue to have this be our life. Um, that meant we went to bed very, very early.  

Avram Gonzales: We made this joke that like, you know, even monks aren’t going to bed this early, or, or, or, or, no, no.

So we’re, we’re like monks. We’re going to bed. We put the baby to bed and then we’re in bed. And then, and then somebody said something like, well, like monks aren’t sleeping together. Or no, whose joke was that? 

Rachel Gonzales: There was something. It was hysterical. There was this whole thing. 

Avram Gonzales: The whole thing about the monks.

And, uh, yeah, we were in bed by 7, like the baby would go down at 7:30 and then we would go down. 

Rachel Gonzales: No, no, he was going to bed at 6. 30 at that time. 

Avram Gonzales: Oh, that’s right. 

Rachel Gonzales: We went to bed at 7. 30. Then he moved to going to bed at 7. 30 and that foiled our plans. 

Avram Gonzales: The point is, is we basically like finished putting him to bed.

Maybe did some dishes. Yeah, and then we were we were getting ready for bed and we were down 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, 

Avram Gonzales: that was it. So we had no time for ourselves, 

Rachel Gonzales: it annihilated time to connect with each other so many different things but 

Avram Gonzales: We also 

Rachel Gonzales: we got a lot 

Avram Gonzales: we got a lot done. We also do sleep tracking with the Oura Ring I’m gonna put that in the show notes because I probably should talk about it more online.

I’m obsessed with my Oura Ring

Rachel Gonzales: That’s to put it lightly. 

Avram Gonzales: That’s to put it lightly. So, the science even showed us by tracking our sleep just how slowly our bodies degraded over time. Simply because we weren’t following our circadian rhythms. 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct. 

Avram Gonzales: So just because we would go to sleep earlier and then wake up earlier and have the same amount of time in bed, did not equate to feeling rested the same way.

And the science backed it up. 

Rachel Gonzales: Well, and then I’m pregnant. So then I sleep. There’s a lot of things that actually influence the sleep and. Um, not having enough time in bed was a big thing for me. That’s actually through Oura. I found that the amount of time that I need in bed, eight hours is like really crucial for me.

Avram Gonzales: More than. 

Rachel Gonzales: Sometimes nine, because then I might get seven hours 

Avram Gonzales: of actual sleep. 

Rachel Gonzales: So it is very important for me. So we were noticing these trends and things. And we are looking for longevity. We’re not just looking for a quick fix, but that was a solution for a time 

Avram Gonzales: So it’s just it’s just crazy the same amount of time in bed just did not correlate with being more rested 

Rachel Gonzales: Correct 

Avram Gonzales: and just there’s just that shift of like an hour.

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah 

Avram Gonzales: hour and a half for us. We saw it 

Rachel Gonzales: well, and I think also like a really good thing that happened for us is that you know, we um, We shifted the focus in that power hour to us For our business, and then even after we got rid of that power hour, we have retained that. We’ve actually kept that as a, as an entire thing on our schedule of one hour being all about marketing our business.

What does that look like? If we’re doing Facebook ads, or testing something there, or we’re doing something else, but it’s an active thing that we’re doing. It’s a blog that we’re writing, or a video that we’re doing and producing, or something. 

Avram Gonzales: It showed us just how much nurturing we deserve to have. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yes.

Avram Gonzales: By taking care of our own stuff and making it the priority, because then everything else takes care of itself. 

Rachel Gonzales: And then it’s non negotiable. It became a non negotiable for us that we didn’t actually have in our business, in the makeup of what we were doing. 

Avram Gonzales: So, quick summary. What do you think we learned?

Rachel Gonzales: I mean, gosh, we learned a ton. Like, sometimes, just because it works on paper doesn’t mean that it’s gonna actually work. It worked on paper for a while. 

Avram Gonzales: Look, that schedule looked pretty squeaky, and then we were going through it. After time, it just, like we mentioned, it just was hard to maintain. 

Rachel Gonzales: It was so hard.

The month was, I feel like we got through that month and we were just, Champions and then it just went down from there. Yeah. Um, we had a couple of different factors, like I mentioned like Lincoln was waking up earlier, so then we would get up earlier just to have a baby waking up earlier, and that was getting really frustrating because the whole point was get work done get work done. Yeah, so 

Avram Gonzales: well you mentioned this as well. This was really good for a short sprint right or a season so I would super recommend power hour if there’s like a project or something that just keeps getting pushed But it is important to you. You got to carve that time out man that morning time that you can find is extremely powerful and you can sustain that and blast through a lot in just a short period of time.

Rachel Gonzales: Well, I just think that also we may bring this back like a week at a time. 

Avram Gonzales: That’s right. 

Rachel Gonzales: In the future. If we find ourselves backlogged in one way or another and not keeping promises to ourselves in marketing and keeping up with what we need to do to grow our business. I could see ourselves doing this for a week or so.

Um, but just being aware, you know, I’m six months pregnant right now. And all of the things that are, that go into building this baby here is, is a lot. And sleep is so important and sacrificing that is very, very difficult. So being realistic about where you are in your life and being realistic about where your business is and seeing if those two meet and if this could work for you.

Avram Gonzales: That’s right. I think the other side benefit that we got that we didn’t see coming was Recognizing just how important it is to plan the, the next day at least. If not the next week ahead of time. Because if you wake up and you don’t have it really clear what you’re gonna do during that power hour, you waste it.

Rachel Gonzales: Oh, gosh. 

Avram Gonzales: So quickly. And then you’re frustrated because you, you woke up early for what 

Rachel Gonzales: Exactly. Yeah. So we, during this time, we got really, really good at scheduling out at least a week in advance and then being really good about, um, getting it done because we already knew what needed to be done. But also, um, in one of the last episodes we talked about, you know, priority is so important. The, the order in which you do things and managing those priorities is so important. And planning really helps you manage those things. So if you have a regular thing that comes out, like we have this podcast and a newsletter, we need to make sure that we’re doing that at least a week or two in advance, depending on all the things that go into it to get done.

Avram Gonzales: It really forced us to plan better and then we just have retained that and put that into what we do. It’s been pretty cool. 

Rachel Gonzales: It’s just been great. It’s been amazing. We’ve learned so much about planning. And how to really tweak it throughout the week to make sure that, like, if something didn’t get done on Monday or Wednesday or whatever it is and it’s Friday, that you bring those things to that day, you get them done, and then you can finish the week off feeling accomplished.

Avram Gonzales: I’m just gonna say it, I challenge you to do the Power Hour for a month. 

Filler: Sure! 

Avram Gonzales: Because I think there’s something cool that you learn from any kind of challenge that you do, and it’s all the stuff that you wouldn’t imagine until you find yourself. Walking through it yourself, like all these things that we learned, I think you go out and you try this and apply it to some kind of project or thing that you’re working on right now, and you’re probably going to come, come back with a set of different things that you learned, but I think there’s just a lot that comes with being consistent, crushing something out.

I’m doing something that’s way out of your comfort zone or something that you said you would never do. I mean, we said we would never wake up that early. I’ve said that a lot in my lifetime. There’s only a couple things I wake up that early for. 

One of them is Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque. You’ll wake up at 4:30 for Balloon Fiesta. 

Rachel Gonzales: Well, I think it’s just really important to, uh, the thing, something that I got from it was, wow, we did that. It’s a huge sense of accomplishment. Um, I mean, one day, yeah, that’s cool, but for an entire month? Moving past the discomfort and the, the not wanting to do it and being tired in the morning and just pushing through, you know, my, my method of getting up in the morning is what I call toast and Avram’s method is three or four pushes of the snooze button.

Avram Gonzales: No, no, you can’t do me dirty like that on the, on the podcast. 

Rachel Gonzales: I’m giving you a bad time. 

Avram Gonzales: You are. 

Rachel Gonzales: No, it is way worse. I’m making it way worse than it is. It’s like one snooze, maybe. But for me, it’s toast. So when I say I’m going to get up at 4:30, I am up at 4:30. And then we have these other things. So it’s just a huge, huge, huge, huge sense of accomplishment to, to do that for a whole month.

Avram Gonzales: Yeah, we challenge you. Let us know if you’re down. Find us on social media @babiesandbizpod. Let us know. I’m taking the challenge. You can email us. Hello@babiesandbiz.com. We we do get all those emails and we just love to see if this is something that you learn from or get challenged and fired up by um with that.

I think that’s that’s a wrap. Yeah. 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, that’s it We’d love to hear from you. 

Avram Gonzales: Yep. Get us on Apple Podcast rate this podcast five stars. Let people know what they’re missing out on what The Babies & Business Podcast those reviews mean a lot We’ll catch you on the next episode. 

Rachel Gonzales: Bye for now