10 Core Productivity Tips

Hello Friends!

I am sure you have heard these before, but I will reiterate and describe from my point of view. I wanted to start collecting tips for you, in case its something you have not heard before.

For me Productivity is just sort of how I look at work, it has just always made more sense to me to work smarter not harder. I also naturally question authority and ‘is this the best way’ out of habit, so it works for me.

First, what is productivity:

pro·duc·tiv·i·ty

This means, working smarter not harder. Its easy to forget, depending on your job, why you are doing something the way you do it. Is it really the best way? Or is it the way its been done for the past 20 years. (that was 1997 by the way, if you want to feel old)

Here are 10 tips that I feel make up the basis how productive people thing.

1. Plan ahead

I am a planner girl, obviously. I love my Happy Planner, before that I used Blue Sky and before that I had student planners from the campus or my mother got for free from Scholastic. (teacher samples) I have always had a planner, since I can remember. I like writing out my day, I like recording what happened. I just do. This leads to Tracking which is another great habit to have.

When you plan it out, you are being proactive in a way that leads the day vs. reacting to the day. Even if you make a simple todo list, you are planning what you want to do that day. It may not be as in-depth, but it is just as important. You know XYZ has to get done by 3 PM so you write it down to get it done.

You can plan with a digital calendar too, I just prefer my hard copy. A colleague of mine always says, ‘work IN your business during the morning, and on your business in the afternoon’ – meaning plan your morning and be more reactive and easy going in the afternoon.

2. Take Breaks

Science. SCIENCE says you are more productive and feel better if you take breaks. Don’t skip out on breaks. They are so essential. Take breaks. Take mind breaks especially.

The biggest reason you are tired at the end of a work day is decision fatigue. It took mean years to figure this out in retail. I thought it was just from being happy all day (emotional fatigue is a thing too though!) but I am naturally just smiley, so I didn’t get it. I was the boss most of the time, so having to plan those things, schedule them, deal with customers and make choices on how to help/solve the issue really took a toll. Its really amazing.

To help combat this I suggest making todo list for the following day at the end of the day. I am fortunate that I do not work past 5 (usually) so the last thing I do for the day is review what got done, and what needs to get done tomorrow. It helps so when I get in the morning, I start at the top and we get to right to it.

3. Say “No”

I honestly am not sure who says yes all the time, but I know they are out there. Say no to yourself, co-workers or your boss if you really believe you can’t  take on another task. Its very important to know your limits. Only you know. If you do not know, you need to take some time to think about it, eventually if you have 4 projects going at once, you will realize which ones suffer as a result of your juggling. Its better to pass on a project than half ass the rest of them.

If you have to say no and you are not good at it, say it nicely “I do not think I would be able to devote the time needed to this with my current workload” – They may even ask when you can do it otherwise, simply let them know when your project X finishes you can bring in Y. I have gotten push back on it too, so if you have to you have to. Some companies don’t care. You can only do what you can do.

5. Two Minute Rule

I apply this rule to anything. Essentially: If it can be done in 2 minutes – just do it now.

In email, I star anything I cannot do in two minutes and periodically go back to them when I have time in the day (I use Gmail). In life, I write it down and do it when I am done with whatever I am busy with. Its a simple rule and I think it works. It actually takes me less time to just do it, then refute it.

6. De-clutter your area

Yes, really. A messy area, office or room will make your mind and body feel uneasy. Again, Science. Its also a great way to feel productive if you are stuck – clean.

This one is pretty simple. I am a hot mess personally, and I try to keep my junk out of my line of sight and my house chores caught up.

7. Sleep

Again, pretty simple. I am sure you have heard this a 1000 times. Here are some resources for finding your perfect sleep:

http://sleepcalculator.com/

http://sleepyti.me/

If you are anything like me, sorry and I suggest Melatonin for those nights. For me the last month+ has been terrible for some reason, I was very much looking forward to daylight savings time.

8.  Ignore Alerts & Distractions

You think this would be normal, but a many co-worker is on their phone during the day. Maybe I am j ust not attached to mine as much as others, but put the cell down. Turn it on silent if you can.

I highly suggest this for think sessions or if you are working on a project. It helps you stay in the mood and really make progress. I cannot tell you how insanely rude I personally find it to see people on their cells in a meeting. I get you are busy, then lets get this meeting done and go through the checklist so you can get back to it. Its just a personal annoyance and sadly, nothing I can do for it.

This goes for websites too – cough looking at you Reddit. It’s hard yes, but plan that time. Maybe first thing in morning check all the messages, check the news and then set it to silent. Whatever works for you.

9. Meetings are a time suck

Let me repeat, Meetings are a time suck. I have tried repeatedly to the weekly one we have removed. Or just down to once a month. Its 80% talking of nonsense, 10% going over updates, 5% people getting up or down/being late and 5% marketing news. Just shoot me. And I get to go to them all.

In my opinion, a Productive Meeting should take 30 Minutes max, have an agenda and be kept to that agenda. For us, an ideal meeting would be:

• On time start
• News/Updates (we go around and hear the latest, which is important in our industry)
• Accountability (we set weekly goals for each other, this is to stay on them)
• Marketing Notes
• What worked/What isn’t (again, industry specific)
• Any issues

That is it for us. This would work with most meetings, for us we have to talk about our deals and marketing things that pop up. I think everyone should do an accountability section, rather in its own meeting or touch on it in a group meeting. Set goals, set rewards and set punishments! This is super important as those kids who didn’t do group projects, turned into adults and its just as terrible picking up their slack as an adult as a student – except as an adult they don’t have any grades. Set boundaries and rewards. (for us, if a task go unfinished for 3 weeks, you have to buy everyone lunch)

10. Know yourself

This is very important. Know yourself. Take time to get to know yourself. Know what motivates you, what you like and hate about what you do, where you could improve, what you rock at, where you might be spending too much time. Only you know those inner things. So take some time out and figure that out, find your zen if you need too.

Why? For me, I know I am not getting up at 6 AM to do a morning routine. I am going to unhappily crawl out at 7 – 7:30ish, and go to work. I am quick to get ready and I am typically a pretty happy morning person. When I get here I have a snack, read the news and lay out my day and see where my team is. I know how this works, I got it. I go home  anywhere between 4 – 6 PM – depending on the day and either relax or work on home projects. Its just not happening, no book, person or goal is changing that. I am a night owl and that is just what I am. Yes, if I worked hard I could change that, but where I am in life I am good with it.

Find your happy middle between OMG and Zen.

2b. – if you want another one – Work in shifts (Pomdoro)

I like this technique and I will add it here at the end, it goes with breaks really. This technique, if you Google it, it has a cute video, but essentially this is a technique that says work X minutes, break Y minutes. This works really well if you are doing projects. I do this for our marketing, or if I am particularly unmotivated. You can tell yourself you will work X amount of minutes, usually 50, and then stop and take a break and move on. You use a timer typically and it keeps you in the mood for projects and makes it easy to switch between. This is great for me, as I can write/make a marketing piece/etc for so many minutes then get up and move.

I hope this was helpful, it is a lot of repeated facts if you are into productivity, but I am hoping my POV will give you some ideas how to practice these if you were not already using them. Many of these will be habits if you start them, they are just so efficient it can be hard to stop.

Happy working!