Increase Your Productivity by Identifying Time Leaks

At the end of the day, do you feel productive or frazzled / frustrated because you didn’t get the things done you wanted?

Do you want to learn where you can be more efficient by creating more structure and single-focused blocked time?

Do you want to stop wasting time and draining energy through "all over the place/multi-tasking"?
 
Do you want to confidently declare new/modified business hours (aka set boundaries)?

Do you want to learn optimal days of the week and times of day to schedule certain tasks using time-blocking / repeating events (i.e. best time of day for admin tasks, writing, client work, etc)?

As a Productivity Strategist, I help female entrepreneurs convert chaos to success, overwhelm and inefficiency to freedom, more space, growth and productivity.
 
SET BOUNDARIES
 
Setting and protecting boundaries isn’t always easy when you’re a business owner (of one or more than one business!!). But knowing when and where you work best helps with time-blocking tasks that are similar and can be grouped together.
 
WORK ENVIRONMENT
 
Knowing the environment that you work the best and what time of day tasks come easier than others helps in setting a more ideal schedule for getting work done. If you are toast by 2 pm in the afternoon, make sure you’re working on important client work first thing while your mind is fresh.  If creativity flows when you’re at a coffee shop, then schedule time to work from there when you’ve got writing or content creation to do. You’ll gain time with the ease and quickness in completing your project.
 
USING APPS EFFICIENTLY
 
A common place for streamlining is using tools/apps that support you in tracking work without complicating things. Having multiple tools that do similar things can create complexity ... too many reminders, multiple apps to keep straight, visual overwhelm with badge notifications, etc. Schedule time to take inventory, listing pros and cons of each and decide which tool/app will serve you best and remove the others. You’ll gain time with the simplicity.
 
TIME BLOCKING
 
Sometimes for more efficiency it’s about time-blocking. Sometimes it’s about knowing when to say NO. Sometimes it’s about knowing when to start delegating, off-loading or outsourcing. By listing ALL the things you do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, it’s a great way to see tasks that can be batched – perhaps setting aside one day a week for Admin tasks (i.e. NO client meetings). Focusing on similar types of tasks keeps you focused and in the same lane so to speak – less multi-tasking and hopping from thinking to doing to creating – more efficiency, more ease, more productive. Also, when you’re delegating work to a team member, believe in their capability to do what you hired them to do. Yes, oversight is still necessary but trust your decision in hiring someone to get the job done. You hired them to gain time for you to work more in your Zone of Genius. Let them work in theirs.
 
USING AN EGG TIMER
 
Keep yourself on task by using a timer. With much of our time and work on social media, it’s pretty easy to ‘get lost’. That time is gone and can create a domino effect of being behind schedule coupled with unloving self-talk. Set a timer for allowing yourself some social media surfing. If your work is on social media, be intentional about getting in there, doing what needs to be done, then surf later - with a timer.
 
BUSY VS ACTUALLY DOING
 
Be aware of your to-do list...and those tasks that you put off and then move to the next day...that get put to the bottom of the list the 2nd day and then gets moved/rescheduled to the 3rd day. You’ve been thinking about this task for 3 days. Add up the minutes that it’s been on your mind. When you complete it, how long did it take you? It is one of those 30 minute tasks – that you spent 3 days and 30 minutes thinking about? If that was a billable task, you billed for ½ an hour but you’ve spent much more of your time than that. Life will happen and there are days that all of what you’ve planned just can’t get done however when you aren’t efficient in scheduling and batching your work or you are putting off a task because you don’t like doing it, it ends up being more time and more energy consuming than necessary. When you have an encouraging conversation with yourself to stop thinking about it and commit to doing it, you’ll feel good about completing the task and increasing your productivity! Remember, there’s a big difference between being BUSY and being PRODUCTIVE.