How To Be Productive
Do you ever finish your workday and think, what did I even accomplish today?
I know I feel this way when my husband comes home and I try to tell him what I did and I immediately justify what I accomplished by saying, “It’s a lot even though it doesn’t sound like it!”
Then you immediately start to question yourself. Did I do a lot today? Could I have done more? What did I spend all day doing?
So I want to share my tips on how I stay on track to get the things I need to get done, so I’m not feeling disappointed at the end of the day for not completing something or staying up until midnight to get things done. If you read my blog last week about staying healthy as an entrepreneur you understand why it’s so important to get your sleep!
Now these are tips and tricks I do to stay on task, but I’m going to be up front with you. There are days where I do not stay on task! I will get sucked into Youtube or Netflix or just basic online shopping. I don’t want you to think I’m on task all the time and if you aren’t you are failing. So not true.
1. The Pomodoro Technique
You might have heard about this technique before but I find it really usefully when I’m lacking motivation. Especially in the middle of the week when you are just getting exhausted and you just don’t feel as productive.
This technique has you set a timer for 25 minutes. For 25 minutes you work on a task and nothing else! No interruptions. No checking your phone. 25 minutes of sheer focus.
Once your time is up take a short break. Stand up to stretch. Take a short walk. Refill that coffee! Just do something for about 3-5 minutes that isn’t work related. This is your break.
Then repeat the 25 minutes work and 3-5 minute break for a totally of four times. Then you will take a 20-30 minute break. This just allows you to be more productive for your next time block. Giving your brain a break allows it to “reset” and not become so overwhelmed and burnt out.
Now if your anything like me, I won’t take the full time allotted for a break because I feel like I need to get back to work. But do what works best for you. Just take a small break so you can regroup and get back to working effectively.
2. Block scheduling.
Now this I do A LOT of! I like to group my similar tasks together and plan to work on them in the same block of time. For example, I save all my blog post writing for Tuesday morning. It’s a quiet time in my house and I am able to concentrate more during this time.
I will block Thursday afternoons for filming videos. The sun comes into my room nicely in the afternoon and again it’s a quiet time in my house to focus on filming.
I will also do smaller blocks of time like interacting in Facebook groups. Usually I will do this in the morning andI will set aside 20-30 minutes to catch up on Facebook groups and interact with my friends there. Once the 30 minutes are up I will move onto the next task whether that’s creating graphics, editing videos are social media planning. But once the time I set aside for that specific task is up I will move on.
3. The rule of 3
Each day plan 3 tasks for yourself to complete. By only writing down three tasks you are more likely to set yourself up for success. Is it just me or is it so depressing to see this giant list of things you need to complete in a day and you have only checked off one thing. Having this long list will start to mess with your mind and productivity.
You start to think, “I’ve only complete one thing on this giant list, I will never get anything done, why even try!”
But if you have only 3 tasks each day to complete, and you complete them, you immediately feel like a success! Once you’ve completed those task you can move on to other things you have listed for the next day or catch up on some busy work like administration duties.
You will feel much more accomplished and get much more done if you keep your list simple and manageable.
So how do I plan my day?
Every Sunday I will sit down and write a long list of things I want to get done during the week. It’s basically a giant brain dump of all the things that pop into my head that I want to complete.
Once I have my list I will then start to group similar tasks together. I use different colored high lighters for each day. Blogs that need to be written will be highlighted one color, videos to edit will be another color, videos to film another color and so on.
Once I have all my tasks color-coded I start to plan which days I will work on those tasks. Like I said, Thursday afternoons are always filming. Blog writing I tend to do on Tuesday mornings since my daughter is out of the house. On Monday’s and Wednesday she is at the house so I generally have more distractions on those days.
I have a cute little note pad that has each week listed with lines and check boxes to write down tasks. I then move my tasks from my big list into smaller, manageable day lists. I also tend to make the beginning of my week loaded with more tasks than the end of the week. This way it leaves me time to catch up if I fall behind. Which more times than not I do!
While I’m working during the day I will make a conscious effort to stand up and either walk out to the mailbox or walk around the house every hour. It just gets the blood flowing again and wakes me up.
And that is basically how I manage to get done the things I do in a day. If you would like to see me do a vlog type video where I film my entire day and show you all my process throughout the day, make sure you let me know in the comments that’s something you would like to see!
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