“How do you get so much done Jane?”
I must get asked that question about 10 times a day…no word of a lie I get asked it all the time and the funny thing is I don’t even think I get that much done until I notice how little others get done!
Truth is I’m productive despite having 3 kids, 1 husband, 2 dogs and a cat at home I still get shit done and I get more done that most, but how?
Do I have some magic time machine? No
Do I clone myself? No but that would be cool and creepy in equal measures
I just get stuff done and so I thought I’d share with you my top tips on how you can be more productive
1 Use any pockets of time you have
So I regularly walk my kids to school and then I’ll walk home, during my walk home I’ll:
Do a live
Clear my FB messages
Check in with clients
Plan out my sales activity for the day (if I haven’t done this already)
List my content topics for the day (if I haven’t done this already)
That’s about an average 25 minute walk back for me
What pockets of time do you have that you’re not using? It could be sitting in the car while waiting for an appointment or maybe when you’re out walking somewhere. We don’t have to be at our desks or in our offices etc to be able to take some action. If you’re short on time use the pockets of time you have available to you!
2. Try and batch your days
So something I used to be terrible with was I’d have things scattered everywhere, sales calls in between admin work and content work in between client calls and it was just messy not only that I was like a yoyo going up and down all day through different energies because the energy I take to a sales call is totally different to what I’d do during admin work. It can actually be really draining going up and down through the day between energies all the time and it kills your productivity too.
So now I batch my days, I don’t do client calls everyday of the week and I don’t do sales calls everyday of the week, I don’t do admin everyday and I don’t work on all my businesses in the same day either. I’ve got activities that require the same or similar energies batched together because this means I can be more productive but I don’t feel so drained either because I’m not going up and down all day from this to that and then back again.
3. Have clear activities
I’m always talking about daily activities and it always amazes me the amount of people who say
“I don’t have any”
Fact is that there’s daily activities that will help your business grow, move you a step closer to where you desire to be AND ensure you stay filled up to but you have to know what these are. One of the biggest pitfalls I find business owners falling into is they’re spending their days being busy but because they don’t have the focus on what their daily activities are they’re not seeing results because they’re not focusing their activities and they miss out on the activities that actually matter and instead fiddle with their website for hours!
Come up with a simple list of daily activities, things that you need to do on a daily basis to move your business forward and get the sales you desire.
4. Use a timer
Honestly a timer makes such a difference when it comes to being productive, I recommend setting a timer for pretty much everything. I’ve got a timer set right now to write this blog and I’ve got everything else shut down so I’m not tempted to check those notifications and have this blog take 10 times longer than it needs to.
Timers can help you focus and they can also help with not spending too much time on one thing, like engaging that can be a real trap for scrolling but if you set a timer for your engaging then when that timer goes that’s it you’re done and move on to the next thing.
Set a timer, turn the distractions off and just go!
5. Don’t have just one list
I write my daily to-do lists out the night before but they’ll never have more than 5 things on them and usually they have just 3, I used to have one huge list but to be honest I never got anything done and felt constantly overwhelmed now I have my daily activities, my weekly activities, a bonus list and then my daily to-do lists (which is separate from my daily activities) and these are just things that I need to do that day and if I do all of my daily stuff and finish my 3-5 then I’ll go to my bonus list which is usually full of either longer term stuff or things that are more big huge dream goals
Don’t just have this huge to-do list you’ll end up driving yourself into the ground and get nothing done and you’ll feel exhausted just looking at it!
6. Just do it
Honestly you can have all the strategies and tips in the world but you’ll only ever be as productive as you allow yourself to be. If you don’t just have the discipline to throw the excuses away and just do it then you’ll be stuck in unproductive and procrastination mode.
It’s about having the discipline of going “NO” when that voice starts throwing reasons why you can’t do it now or why maybe you’ll put it off till later start playing.
It’s having the discipline to do it and stick to it even when scrolling or watching Netflix might seem more appealing.
Essentially being productive comes down to you just doing it!!
