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So you have a million things to do, but you have no idea what to do first and you start to panic because you feel so overwhelmed with the amount of work in front of you. “But wait, where do I start again?…Oh let me go on Instagram and do a post for the day…Hm, while I’m thinking up my caption, let me go look at my email real quick…Shoot, I never responded to xyz…Ok let me do that really fast…” Sound familiar? You never thought managing yourself would be so hard and then when you employ yourself for your business, the struggle is real to just get things done.
Below are 5 things you may not be doing that can help you get yourself organized and increase your productivity.
No. 1: Write down a weekly schedule
This seems pretty obvious, but I bet if you’re self-employed, chances are your schedule got eaten by your dog or you just…never actually wrote it down. I was guilty of this and there were days I would sit at my desk wanting to do work but was just spinning my wheels in reality. I never thought the simple task of drawing out my weekly schedule (elementary school throwback anyone?) would drastically change my level of productivity. But of course, it did. We learned that in elementary school for a reason.
No. 2: Know your rhythm
Are you a morning person or a night owl? Are you delightfully creative in the morning or do you surprise yourself with brilliant thoughts in the wee hours of the night? Our body goes through a peak of productivity, a troth (i.e. a fancy word for low level of productivity) and a rebound throughout the course of the day. The order of these 3 things is different for everybody (I didn’t make this up. If you don’t believe me, go check this out). Know your rhythm and schedule activities that need a lot of creativity and brain work during your peak of productivity and busy work during your troth. It would be unwise to plan on writing your blog post when your body is dragging you to go take a nap, right? Right, so don’t do it.
No. 3: Allow yourself to take breaks
Can we stop with this feeling guilty Schananagan when you take a break during your work hours? If your eyes are getting heavy looking at your computer screen, it’s not because you’re lazy or unmotivated, it’s your body telling you that it needs a break. Take an afternoon walk or simply stand up to make some tea or coffee is a great way to hit the refresh button so you can resume your work with a higher level of energy and productivity. A lot of times, we can be so harsh on ourselves and expect ourselves to constantly be ticking things off the list. Understanding that one needs to have some down time to unplug in order to be more productive gives you a peace of mind to completely rest instead of feeling guilty during your whole break time.
No. 4: Group similar tasks together
Putting tasks that require the same line of thoughts together allows us to gain momentum on getting them complete. For example, I designate a whole day of the week just for Instagram planning because I know that it takes a lot of time to think of thoughtful captions and schedule them in accordance with other activities like a corresponding blog post. Once I’m done with a week worth of content, I don’t have to worry about it until next week rolls around and it’s a great peace of mind to have during the week.
No. 5: Use apps that make your life easier
Isn’t there an app for everything?? Take advantage of them. Apps can take away so much of that busy work that just takes up so much time without yielding meaningful progress. I love using planning apps for social media, for example, because I can rest assured during my work week that my content is scheduled at optimal time and in a visually pleasing way. Click here to download 5 Apps I Cannot Live Without As An Entrepreneur.
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