Written by: Justine Beauregard, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
How would you rate your productivity? Do you believe it’s great, fair, or in need of a significant overhaul? Don’t just consider the actions you take but also how easy it would be for you to add something new to your plate. The results your actions produce. How happy you are with your schedule. How much you’ve pared down your task list in the past few months. How much money you’ve saved or made by auditing and improving your process.
One of the most common questions I get as a Marketing Coach is “how can I do less and make more,” and improving your productivity is one of the best ways to achieve this result. If you’re struggling with feeling productive or simply feel like you have an opportunity to improve your productivity but aren’t sure how these hacks are for you!
Productivity Hack No.1 Group Related Actions When Possible
Assembly lines work for a reason. Grouping like-tasks together to accomplish more in less time expels less energy than the alternative. Why? Because switching from one thing to another requires changes to your body and mind. Think about it. When you “find your groove,” you tend to work much more efficiently. It’s repetitive and requires less energy and thought.
Let’s say you need to schedule a bunch of social media posts, write an email campaign, and design some content pieces. If you were to toggle between these things, you would have to open and close multiple applications, shift your mindset from analytical to creative and back again, and hold your place with each mentally.
What if, instead, you focused on one task at a time? You’d be more productive, right? The reason why I added “when possible” to this one is that we don’t always have the luxury of batching our work. Sometimes, we’ve got an hour to write, design, and schedule an email or social media post. In this case, I recommend creating an awareness of your process and schedule. To actively seek out ways to automate, outsource, or simplify to gain more freedom or flexibility. This is just as productive as batching your work.
Productivity Hack No.2 Set Healthy Boundaries
I know you’ve heard this before but be honest, do you truly have healthy boundaries and honor them? Most of us let this one slip by us so quickly, we almost miss it. Especially in the most chaotic of times. If you’ve told yourself you would stretch after you complete a task or take a walk on your lunch break, do it. Consistently. This is not a negotiable if it’s important enough to set an intention around doing. You deserve to rest your brain, and your productivity will only improve when you do.
Boundaries will also keep you from getting distracted as easily. They allow you to focus more intensely on each task you set out to achieve. You can waste hours per day simply by sitting in one place for too long. Staring at the same line of an email. Sitting on your phone in the bathroom. Going overtime on calls with your customers.
Practicing mindfulness is a great way to create more productivity. You’ll feel more excited about the work you do and get more done when your boundaries are clear and set. You may even enjoy your work more when you truly respect your time and schedule. Try it and see what happens!
Productivity Hack No.3 Get to Know Your Body
Are you a morning person or a night owl? Do you feel most creative right before bed or when you get a second wind after lunch? Do you ever experience an afternoon slump? Knowing your body helps with productivity. If you know, for instance, you feel tired around 1:00 PM, you can schedule a break around that time. You may even want to practice self-care or take a power nap, so you don’t fall down a rabbit hole and beat yourself up about it, still feeling tired after.
A healthy mind begins with a healthy body, too. Drinking water, for instance, works wonders for productivity. It may sound off-topic, but how great do you feel after you eat well? How about after you take a walk to get some fresh air on a nice weather day? Guaranteed it’s better than you felt while staring at a computer screen for hours on your fifth cup of coffee in a day. You know you best, and when you play to your strengths in any way, your results improve.
Productivity Hack No.4 Lower Your Expectations
You don’t have to be original all the time. You don’t have to be first. You don’t have to be the best. You can even make typos and survive. Let that sink in. I know how easy it can be to set your expectations high and desire to show up at your best, always. It’s a beautiful, admirable mission. It can also feel very defeating and depleting.
I recommend lowering your expectations. Having a baseline of what you know you can accomplish easily will make you feel great and produce steady results. This isn’t meant to work against you, so don’t take this as an opportunity to phone it in. It’s meant to relieve the pressure you place on your own shoulders as an entrepreneur. You’ll have bad days. These baseline items are the systems you put in place to account for them. Anything above and beyond is welcomed, but extra. Breathe a sigh of relief with this, then keep showing up in ways that feel good to you. The results will speak for themselves.
You can work so much on creating a fresh, new perspective but tried and true ways also work great! There’s a reason they’re tried and true, after all. Instead of constantly reinventing the wheel, simply take a new spin on an older perspective or piece of content. Also, be consistent. If you find a certain type of content performs well, use templates and automation to get it done more efficiently. This will help you stay focused, build trust, and keep your audience engaged.
Justine Beauregard, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Justine Beauregard is a Marketing Coach for compassionate entrepreneurs worldwide. She uses the skills she's learned as a marketing and sales training expert since 2008 to empower her clients to thrive in their zones of genius + joy to maximize their net impact and income. Since 2015, she has launched two 6-figure businesses of her own and developed a unique marketing process that allows you to be yourself, do what you love, make an impact + still feel like a human who cares. It has been used by hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide to grow up to 6x revenue in as little as 30 days.
Her work and expert opinions have been featured in major online publications such as Brainz Magazine, CIO.com, FitSmallBusiness.com, and Business2Community.com.
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