I just got done my morning ritual, which includes getting some reading in before my inbox comes alive with emails and my day attempts to spiral out of control from me.

The book that I’m reading at the moment is Tim Ferriss’ new one, Tools Of Titans, and something stood out for me from it:

The concept of “offense vs.defense”

There’s a story in there about Chris Sacca (investor, entrepreneur, and recurring guest shark on Shark Tank.) About a decade ago, Sacca moved away from San Francisco and bought a cabin in the middle of nowhere – far away from where the action was happening in his world.

His rationale?

He felt like he was playing defense every day – forced to do endless coffee meetings and dinners that he didn’t want to do. He said:

“I wanted to go on offense, I wanted to have the time to focus, to learn the things I wanted to learn, to build what I wanted to build, and to really invest in relationships that I wanted to grow, rather than just doing a day of coffee after coffee after coffee”

By moving out to the boonies, Sacco could choose who to invite out to his cabin for a weekend retreat, and he considers the cabin a great investment.

With the new year fast-approaching, and people setting their resolutions, a great one is to mimic Sacco and control your day.

Offense, not defense.

I’m not saying that you have to buy a cabin in the woods, but you can set up your own barriers to keep control of your day.

Maybe it’s a ban on social media before 9 am, or after 6 pm … or no emails on the weekends … or no coffee meetings with people who just want to “pick your brain”

It’s your business, and you can set it up however you want to.

Don’t feel guilty about creating and enforcing boundaries – it’s smart business.