Ultimate Guide to Productivity
I attended my first Strategic Coach workshop in 2015 and fell in love with Dan Sullivan’s time management method for small businesses and entrepreneurs. At that time, I was working 12-hour days, waking up in the middle of the night to reply to emails and sleeping in the office to meet short deadlines.
I was holding time by a leash, scheduling even my bathroom breaks and refusing to leave the office because the elevator commute felt 'too long.'
I began to spiral out of control. I barely saw daylight in the week, my relationship with my partner suffered, I began to develop eating disorder behaviors and lost touch with my family. As hard as I worked, my to-do-list continued to grow and I never felt like there was enough time.
Below I share how adopting a new mindset about time management became my saving grace.
I use TheWeeklyPlanner as an important reminder that a successful work day should not only be about productivity, but also preparation and downtime. So if you are struggling with maintaining a work-life balance and managing your time, try breaking up your day into three time stages: focus, free and buffer. This includes the following:
FOCUS time (70%) is used to grow the business or build your career. These are small action items aligned with your top three goals for the week. Dedicate this period to tackling the most important tasks (MITs) such as following up with existing clients, enhancing new relationships, business strategies, and marketing.
BUFFER time (10%) is used to strategize and brainstorm daily or weekly priorities. Do not forget this one, if you do you'll be running around with a chicken with it's head cut off. You want to be efficient, not productive. Think, what outcomes do I want this week? I like to write this at the end of each day so I know exactly what needs to get done when I get out of bed the next morning.
FREE time (20%) is just as it sounds, and it's needed at least 10 minutes of every hour, stop working. You are no longer being effective. Ever noticed that when you are working on something for hours at a time, you’ve lost all focus? Use this time to connect with colleagues, get out of your workspace, and recharge.
If you’re anything like me and have struggled with taking on too much, this method will help you feel accomplished by focusing on the priorities. In addition to the Weekly Planner, I focused on working "SMART”.
5 helpful tips to work SMART:
Lean on an partner or coach to keep you accountable to reach your goals
Get your most important task done before 11 AM and then deal with the miscellaneous tasks
Do not multi-task, studies show that people who multi-task are 40% less effective and multitasking leads to short-term memory loss
Remember to treat yourself when you achieve your goal
Stop, pause and reflect throughout the day. Are you on track to achieving your MITs?
How do you break up your day? Are you struggling to feel productive? Share your story below or schedule a free consult with me here to learn practical tips on how to feel both productive and efficient while maintaining work-life balance.