Ahhhh, productivity. You sneaky, seemingly unattainable concept. I love you. Or, I love the concept of you. I think about you. Scratch that. I obsess about you, like a crazy hormonal teenager. I make lists. I imagine me and you, together. Happy. Getting stuff done. Taking on the world. With you by my side, I am unstoppable.
<phone dings> Text from babysitter: Don’t forget the beets!
@#$!
(explanation: I put some beets on the stove to boil and puree for baby food, and told her to text me in 10 minutes to check them.)
Anyway, SO…where was I? Oh yes, productivity. How to be productive. There is a lot of information out there on this subject. Books, blogs, tips, tools, YouTube videos, and probably even a Facebook group out there dedicated to the topic. You could spend MONTHS distracting yourself trying to find the best ways to be productive.
Pureed Beets. Boom, Done.
<phone dings> Text from babysitter: Beets!
sigh.
Here are 7 tips on how to be productive:
1. Don’t check email first
What’s the first thing most of us do when we sit down to work? Open up our email, which then opens up a giant (like buy-in-bulk sized) can of worms. It starts innocently…”I’ll just see what’s there”, you think. “I’ll get rid of the little things, and just take a peek at what I will need to deal with today…”, you reason with yourself. “What if there’s an emergency??” You start to panic…Next thing you know, you’re reading, filing, reacting, fixing, answering, clicking, (and reading a few jokes…after all, everybody needs a laugh, right?) Before you know it, it’s lunch (everybody needs to eat, right?). Then, you have to pick the kids up / walk the dog / do the laundry / whatever your thing is, and the next thing you know – it’s the end of the day, and you’re thinking: “WHAT HAVEÂ I DONE ALL DAY???”
Solution: Pick one thing to do, that takes no more than an hour, and do it BEFORE you check your emails. Make progress on something. Check off a to-do. Just. Do. Something. (besides check emails).
2. Turn off your electronics
Beep. Whirrrr. Ding! (don’t forget the beets!). Buzz. “You’ve got mail!” Twit. Tweet. Pop up windows. Chat. TV chatter. Email.
Erg…Just…turn…them…off. Yes, even your “productivity tools.” Trust me. It will allll be there when you get back. Unless you are a doctor, turn it off. You won’t miss anything. The economy will still be bad. The link to the picture of the cute kitten won’t expire. Nobody will have died (probably). Even if you don’t “check” things as they come in, the beeping, the buzzing, the Justin Bieber ring tone – it’s all a distraction. It clutters your mind. You wonder what the message is. It’s a distraction, even if subconsciously.
Solution: TURN THEM OFF. Yes, really. Even Facebook.
3. Clean your desk
Make your space workable. Clean it up. Take that empty coffee cup back to the kitchen. There really is something to that whole Feng Shui thing. Cluttered space, makes for a cluttered mind. Put stuff away. That’s…pretty much that.
4. Get it done vs. get it perfect
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t get things done because I worry about them being perfect. While the concept of perfection seems incredibly awesome, it can slow you down. Getting things DONE feels great. You can always perfect it later. I *could* have made this post about 8 things…or 9 things…or 21 things…or… you get the point.
5. Hire help
Outsource the things that take up the most time, or that you don’t like to do. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Virtual Assistant.) I’m talking about all the areas of your life – cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking…whatever you can do to make your life easier, do it! I outsource a lot of things for my business – bookkeeping, contracts, some social media, website updates…Boom, done. It’s great.
6. Multi-tasking = anti-productive.
Multitasking. It’s the big illusion of productivity. You think: “Hey! I can get a BUNCH of stuff done at once! I’ll be SUPER productive!” “I’ll cook beets, and write a blog post!” Wrong, Superwoman! (It is my observation that men don’t seem to have the multitasking problem…they generally only do one thing at a time). Multitasking only leads to having a BUNCH of things either poorly done, or not done at all (in most cases).
7. Assemble your snacks
I don’t know about you, but *I* like to snack. And I especially like to snack when I’m trying to be productive. It’s quite sabotaging. It’s the perfect distraction. I get going on something…I get up and go to the kitchen…(you gotta eat, right?). So, when I REALLY want to be productive, I take snacks into the office with me, or put my coffee in a travel mug so I don’t need to get up to refresh it. Pack up healthy brain food that won’t slow you down. Note: Chocolate covered fruit-loops are not brain food.
Question for you: What are YOUR best productivity tips? (Put them in the comments – the best, or most unique tip will win a Starbucks gift card, to be announced next week!)
Laurie- Great tips! I love #1, but don’t always practice it! It is a HUGE time saver and mood enhancer though. At least you will get ONE thing done before you dive into email ‘H$%L!’…and, most days, it is! Sheesh!
OK, here is my tip. I got it from you, so I only get 1/2 credit (and you kind of have it covered in #2…)
Only check your email twice a day. Once in the AM and once before you ‘close’ for the day. That’s it, the end!
Now sticking to this can be painful for some of us (hmm..sound familiar?) but try it for a day and see if the knot between your shoulders disappears? 😉
Keep the hilarious posts coming, Laurie. We LOVE them!
Hugs, M
I have a terrible habit of mulit-tasking and it is so true that it really doesn’t serve.
My big thing is just jumping in and getting it done – I tend to put off tasks cause I “think” it’s gonna be hard and once I jump in and get it done …. It gets done!
Email is a big one for me Laurie! A tip I just discussed on my 21 Days of Inspired Action group, is setting a powerful intention every day. It creates clarity, focus and keeps you on track towards your most important tasks of the day. You can ask yourself if what you’re doing is relevant to that intention, and prioritize, letting go of all the distractions, and setting that singular focus when you need it. 🙂
Louise x
My #1 tip is…Take Time Off!!!!! Just when you think you need buckle down and do one more thing on that darn to do list is when you need to take a walk around the block. Coming back you’ll do 5 items in the same time it takes you to do the one time. Just when you think you can’t take a day off because your business will crumble without you, you need to put a vacation auto-responder on your email and go to the beach!!!
Hi Laurie,
Closely related to #3 (Clean Your Desk) is something I love to do, especially when I am wanting to create really great energy for something I am working on. I think of it as making my workspace beautiful – I light a candle or turn on my desk fountain or something similar, to create a scared atmosphere. Ahhhhh…..
Warmly,
Laura
Two words – TIME BLOCKING. This has been one of the key components of my business life for years and when I’m in top form and following it ruthlessly, I AM Superwoman! Here’s the trick: group together tasks that are similar in nature. For instance, from 8:00 am – 10:00 am, write. Write blogs, articles or that next chapter of your book. As long as it’s writing and there’s an order to it, it’s okay. From 10:00 am – 12:00 noon, make prospecting calls for new business. Nothing else. No follow up calls, no taking inbound calls, nothing but looking for new business. From 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, go to in person appointments.. The trick is to block approximately two hours for similar tasks. Less than that (unless you know you don’t need that much time) is not enough and more than will start to cause burn out. I have found two hours to be the sweet spot; long enough to see amazing results and short enough that you are looking forward to the “end”, which is not that far off. One last thing on time blocking, pick a good two days if you work five days to week to block off as “production days”. Don’t make any outside appointments, don’t take any inbound calls if possible and try to stick to tasks that don’t require interaction with other people. These days are all about being proactive with your business, rather than reactive. The other three days, go pedal to the metal with sales appointments/calls, presentations etc. I’ve seen amazing results from giving myself two full days to turn everything off and just w-o-r-k, keeping all people activities to the other three days. This also prevents having to work crazy, long hours everyday. Ultimately, time blocking is really about learning how to control your schedule so that all the stuff that “happens” during any given day, doesn’t control you.
Wow, love all of the suggestions. I am definitely adding some to my scheduling.
And Laurie I love your sense of humor around this challenge. 🙂
You are all so smart and productive.
My suggestion is a piggy-back to Jane’s (and learned through lots of trial and error).
The commitment I finally made to myself was if I didn’t finish a task and it was time to move onto the next one I Moved On. This way I will definitely accomplish some of everything on my schedule and feel productive at the end of the day.
Also, I add into the schedule “stuff time” in between each scheduled item. So, if the UPS man comes to the door and needs a signature or the person you have been playing telephone tag with for two days calls these won’t put you behind in your tasks.
I also schedule a time for lunch and for a couple of 10-15 minutes breaks in between so I will continue to feel as fresh and ready for the last task as I did for the first.
My tip is to create a daily priority list. I just saw this great tip that says to assign a length of time for each task. Set a timer and DO IT. No distractions, no email, no facebook, no answering the phone til it’s done. I’m trying it this week and I’m flying through the things on my to-do list.
WOW! Some really good tips here. My favorite is to be very clear about the high priority to do business activities. They go on the top of the list, time limited, and get tackeled before anything first thing in the morning. The last task I do before I close the office is to create the next day priority list, so there is not the question what should I do today as I set the plan for that yesterday!
Great tips Laurie!
Definitely agree that multitasking is counter-productive!
As for email – rather than blocking off one or two times per day to check my inbox (which can sometimes be counterproductive), I developed a process to make it flow. Check email all you want, but only to DAFT it. <-stands for Defer Act File Toss. The DAFT system ebook is available for free from my website: http://www.legaltypist.com/DAFT
Lots of VAs have tried it and give it high marks. Perhaps it will work for you/your readers. 🙂
Wow..you’ve got it all covered in these posts.
Laurie- I am a big follower of your tips 1,2,3. I even stay away from joining chat groups (BB chat, Whats App chat)…you can be chatting forever!
Here is a daily routine i practice to stay clear headed, productive, and in alignment
1.I take time each morning to clear away the clutter in my head using EFT (www.eftthailand.com). All those feelings of overwhelm, frustration, worry, concern, doubt, fear about past, current or future situations and about those long 2do lists. These resistant feelings keep us from being a 100% productive. Also, knowing the Law Of Attraction… what we hold on to, we attract more of…. .
So once I clear out the resistant feelings,
2. I set positive intentions for the day…have a watch here…my 6 year old doing Intention Tapping to set have a great day at school…….http://www.eftthailand.com/videos.html
So once I “tap away” all the “resistance”, I feel clearer, more peaceful, more alignment, things seem to flow just so much better. I find myself accomplishing much more than I thought I could.
3. I work from home, so I make sure to regularly keep my space clear of clutter…
4. Also feel like everyone goes through “a period of expansion and contraction”. The times when we generally feel good, positive and so more productive. And we have a contracted phase where we aren’t feeling too high, too energetic and all those wonderful feelings. I make it a point not to push myself when I am in that contracted phase. Instead I choose easier things to accomplish during that phase and respect my body’s need to slow down and not beat myself up.
5. What always works for me are a taking mini breaks…getting away for a day or two…on weekends..to the beach, nature…it’s always refreshing and when I’m back I’m all inspired 🙂
Wow, such great tips here! Well, what has ‘recently’ been working for me has to do with point #1. Now I check emails at 11am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. I may check it AFTER hours and on the weekends, but I don’t respond. I put a line in my signature in italics that I ‘read and check’ emails at 11am and 4pm, Monday to Friday only.
So not only is it helping my productivity that I check email only at certain times. It also trains those persons who I communicate with via email, when they see my signature that my time is structured. I have to say, so far so good.
Email also encourages ‘reactivity’ instead of ‘proactivity’ which is not good for productivity.
Hi Laurie. Great tips! I have two tips that changed my business. First, I set up a gmail account and forwarded all of my business email addresses to that account except one private email for my colleagues, coaches and private clients. I also had my mass emails go out from the gmail address (or one that forwards to it). The gmail account stays open all day, but I did not connect it to my Mac Mail program (similar to Outlook). By doing this, I no longer am inundated with emails. I check them about 3 times a day and respond, flag them for later or the like. This took me out of the email-responding-wasting-time mode I used to operate in.
The other tip was that I located my “background noise” and eliminated it. I found that I spent tons of time and energy thinking about that I should be cleaning my house, will have to clean my house, don’t want to clean my house, can’t stand it that my house isn’t completely clean, etc. I hired a cleaning person to come every two weeks. This small outlay of cash completely changed my life! It’s such a relief and I’m so much more productive. So my tip would be: what is lurking in the background, draining you of energy? Identify that “thing” and take care of it NOW. It will free up your energy and time!