When I was working in real estate, I spent a lot of time daydreaming about leaving the corporate world and running my own business. I fantasized about the freedom to take midday workout classes, afternoon naps and working from the couch in my PJs.
Well, as they always say, the grass is greener on the other side. I seriously couldn’t believe how much trouble I had with all my new “free time.” Almost immediately, I found myself craving the routine that my 9-5 job brought me.
After three years of running my own business I cannot say that I’ve gotten accustomed to my new ‘routine’ because a routine just simply does not exist. What I can say is that I’ve developed tools and techniques that help me have some majorly productive days.
I’m talking about those “computer days,” when you just have so much work to do at a desk that requires sitting down in front of your laptop for hours. Funny enough, after desperately wanting to leave a desk job, these are the days that I look forward to the most. Not because I like sitting on my butt all day, but because I can stay put working on things I am actually passionate about and use my creativity without having to run around the city from meeting to meeting.
Working from home has its own host of challenges. From laundry, to cleaning to….napping…I had to majorly up my productivity game in order to avoid these distractions. But even if you don’t work from home or run your own business, these productivity strategies can be applied to getting any type of work done. Read on for my top 5 productivity hacks:
- Use your calendar wisely
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’m obsessed with colour coding my google calendar. I even wrote about how it helped me get into the habit of working out. But I don’t just use my calendar to book in workouts or meetings. I schedule everything I am working on. What you want to do here is spend a few hours before the new week to take a look at projects, deadlines, meetings, etc. Then take stock of your to-do list. What is important, what takes priority and how can you get these things done. The idea is to productively schedule in your white space (the parts of your calender that have nothing in them). You want to be honest with yourself about how long certain things will take and allot yourself the right amount of time. And then you get specific. For example, don’t just allot of chunk of time on Tuesday to “work at my desk.” Instead, schedule in exactly what it is you are working on, for example, brand strategy, new blog post or SEO. The more details, the more ready you’ll be to take on this task when it’s time. It’s also important to not overschedule your day. I sometimes do this and realize I didn’t give myself 30 minutes to eat lunch!
2. Get a good day planner
As much as I love using my digital calendar on my laptop and phone, I also must have a day planner. This is where I write my daily to-do-list. And let’s be honest, there is nothing more satisfying than crossing an item off of your list with real pen and paper. My planner is for both business and personal items, so things like ‘send an email’ and ‘water my plants’ will be on this list. This daily list also comes in handy with e-mails. A lot of the time, I will go through my emails and certain daily tasks will come up that I then add to my planner. Things like signing and sending back a contract, sending statistics from a campaign or redrafting a blog post. Reactive items that I couldn’t plan for the week prior. When I choose my planner before the new year I make sure that is fits the following criteria: It has to be pretty, because duh! It has to be a good size that I can carry around with me to meetings and coffee shops. And it has to have ample space to write daily tasks and notes. I use this exact Hobbry Journal from Indigo.
3. Time block/batch
Just like celery juice and Marie Kondo, ‘time blocking’ or ‘time batching’ is trending hard in 2019. It probably deserves it’s own blog post but in an effort to keep this short and sweet, I will give you the basic breakdown. Time bocking is simply dedicating a set amount of time to one specific task. The goal is to avoid distractions like e-mail and social media in an effort to get sh*t done. So what you do is choose your task, decide how long it will take, schedule it into your day and use an alarm or timer so you have a hard start and stop time. This technique can be applied to anything you have to get done like writing an article or cleaning your closet. When I time batch, I like to use my apple watch to keep track of time because it will vibrate on my wrist when my time is up! I will also turn my devices on airplane mode and go at the task with full force and attention. I have found it to be super effective and practice it a few times a week for household chores and computer work.
4. Create a work-friendly environment
You may remember this post all about designing my home work space. Having my own office to keep my files, packages, technology and receipts was seriously game changing. But I’m not always the most productive there. Sometimes it gets super messy, papers pile up, my laundry is hanging and I don’t really feel motivated to get work done in there. What I realized is that having an office and keeping it work-friendly are two different things. When my desk is cleaned off and I’m not tripping over packages I find it much easier to be productive. The same goes if you work in a corporate office. Having your desk clear of clutter and distraction is key to a productive day. I also realized that I need to switch up my environment from time to time. Some of my most productive days are in coffee shops. I’m even writing this post from the cutest new bakery, Brod Flour, in Toronto where they are playing the Beach Boys and I’m just loving the vibes. Getting out of the house also removes me from the possibility of procrastinating on things like home chores. Scheduling in at least one coffee shop work date per week has been game changing for me and is something I am going to try and continue this year.
5. Set rules around social media
Have you ever grabbed your phone to quickly text your mom or boyfriend one simple thing and all of a sudden 10 minutes have gone by and you’ve been mindlessly scrolling on Instagram? Ya…it’s called muscle memory and it’s kinda scary. Our fingers have gotten to used to going straight to the social media apps on our phones that we don’t even realize we are doing it! This muscle memory has thrown me off track so. many. times. I’ll be deep in the work zone and then need to send a photo from my phone to my computer and all of a sudden I am procrastinating like crazy on social media. I’ve caught myself doing this so many times that I have had to set clear rules around using social media. I go into depth about my first rule in this vlog, but the basic gist is that I don’t consume social media for the first two hours of the day. I find it sets me up on the right mental path and I don’t waste time in the morning. My other rule is more of a mantra…create before you consume. I also talk a lot about this in the vlog. The goal is to only use social media to create what you need to before consuming other people’s content. That means filming a story or posting a photo and putting your phone down RIGHT AFTER. Other things that help with social media boundaries are putting your phone on airplane mode while you are working, leaving your phone in another room, or putting the app on a different page so your muscles don’t know where to find it. These boundaries have helped me steer clear from procrastinating a lot.
As always, with implementing new tools and strategies into your routine, you want to start small. Don’t expect yourself to start doing all five of these tips today and be a productivity queen. After all, it has taken me several years to get the hang of this and my most productive days are still few and far between. Try finding one tip that you can add to your week and then go from there. Do you have any other productivity hacks? Let me know and share your wisdom by leaving a comment below!
xoxo