Written by: Linnea Etzler, 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.
Are you treating your time as the most valuable thing you’ve got?
Everyone in the world has 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Why do some people manage to complete more work than others? There are two ways: put in more hours or work smarter. I prefer the latter. Personal productivity isn’t rocket science, but it does require effort. This article will walk you through 7 simple but effective strategies for increasing your personal productivity.
1. Get clear on your priorities
Most probably you have a long list of projects and activities that you want to complete this month. If you haven’t already put them in order of priority, you’ll most likely complete the ones that are urgent or requires little effort but not the most important ones. Put your activities in priority order but don’t forget to include non-work related activities that you’d like to spend time on. Some months your family might be the highest priority, sometimes it might not reach the top 3, that’s fine as long as it’s your intentional decision.
2. Learn to say no – often
There is no way you will be able to say yes to everything you love and have time for your priorities as well. When you say yes to someone else it often means you say no to yourself! Why is it so hard to say no? We are socialized to be nice and accommodating to others (especially as women). We don’t want to let people down or be seen as ungenerous. But think about it: if you go through life saying yes to most requests around you, there will be no time over for what really matters to you!
As Warren Buffett put it "The difference between successful people and really successful people is those really successful people say no to almost everything." When the answer is no, then just say no. No need for long explanations. Practice it ahead of time: “Thank you for thinking of me, but no.” or “I’m not able to make it happen but thank you for asking!” No need for long explanations or excusing yourself. Just no.
3. Delegate
Delegating work today, usually doesn’t mean hiring an employee or a full-time consultant. It doesn’t necessarily mean getting help from someone you know or even someone who’s based in the same country as you. The possibilities to get help online are infinite. So how do you define what to start delegating, ask yourself these questions:
Which reoccurring tasks are you performing? Delegating those means minimum effort from you in teaching someone and lot of time saved for you on a regular basis.
Are there tasks that you really don’t enjoy that someone else could do? Delegating those will improve your well-being which automatically increases your productivity.
Which tasks do you perform that could be done by anyone who knows how to use a PC and speaks English? If you are a successful business owner, there is no reason for you to still do these tasks, unless you really enjoy them.
If you’re a recovering perfectionist like me, before delegating think through what quality level you expect. Things will not be done exactly as if done by you, but if you set clear expectations chances are high that it will be good enough and will save you a lot of precious time!
4. Stop multitasking and minimize distractions
No one is great at multitasking, not even women. Of course, we can do two things at the same time but if we allot 50% time on two tasks the output will definitely not sum up to 100%. There’s a lot of scientific proof from the Agile/Lean community that reducing our work in progress will exponentially increase our productivity. You will drastically increase your productivity if you do one thing at a time which leads us to how to minimize distractions.
Our phone is the biggest distraction for most people today. To know if this is true for you, go into “Screen Time” settings on your iPhone or “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls” on Android and check how much time you spend on non-work related apps every day. If the number is higher than expected, turn off all notifications for a week and check the number again. You will see a significant reduction in your screen time and a great increase in your productivity. But make sure you tell people who might need you urgently that you will not see messages the instant they are sent, texts and phone calls are great options.
Some tasks will need more brain power than others. When you need to focus 100 % on a task, put your phone in another room. Just having it on your desk is proven to be a distraction to most people. Turn off the notifications on your computer. Distractions from people around you are best managed by signalling “don’t disturb” by shutting your office door or putting on headphones if you’re in a shared space as well as telling your co-workers, family or whoever is nearby that you are not to be disturbed for a certain time span.
5. Get great at time estimation
The tasks you perform often are the ones you want to estimate first. Write down how much time you spend on the tasks that you do at least once per week. You can use any time tracker app or just pen and paper. Track how long you spend on the most time-consuming and the most frequent tasks. This will give you a good picture of where you spend your time overall. Getting conscious about how you spend your time is fundamental if you want to become truly productive. Time estimation is a skill, and it will improve over time.
6. Create your might-do-list
Once a week sit down and do a brain dump of everything you could, should and would like to do the coming week. This list is your “might-do-list” because you might decide to do those things but you might also decide not to. Most probably you’ll do some of them later on, do some partly and you’ll decide to skip some altogether.
7. Have clear goals for your week
Yes, planning is boring to many. But it brings so many benefits so you just cannot skip it if you want to be productive. Start small by committing to planning once per week. Look through your might-do-list and mark the things you need to complete the coming week.
Which deadlines do you have? Can any of them be postponed?
Which of the points are most important to you? Which are the ones that you are looking forward to do?
For which activities could you reduce the scope, or lower your quality standards?
Which could you outsource? And which ones could you actually skip doing altogether?
Now you have your to-do-list which you will use when you plan your week. Set a time of the week when you do the weekly planning. Most of my clients prefer Friday afternoon or Sunday evening. This is when you will schedule your to-dos in your calendar by blocking time. Identify the number one priority for each day and make sure you schedule enough time on your calendar to ensure you complete it. Your time estimation skills will come in handy here. Put all your tasks in time slots on your calendar. Remember to put in breaks, especially during those days when you’ll have lots of energy-draining tasks or that you don’t enjoy. Each week, evaluate what went well and what to improve for the coming week. Continuous improvement will increase your productivity week by week!
Do you have your own productivity tips to add to this list? Contact me on LinkedIn or YouTube and I’ll be happy to include it in my future content on how to stay productive!
Linnea Etzler, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
After dedicating 15+ years in the corporate world supporting leaders and teams in improving their productivity and managing change, Linnea Etzler now coaches high-performing women to become more productive and sustainably grow their businesses. Thanks to her analytical mind combined with a passion to understand people, she is highly successful in helping high-performing female entrepreneurs find ways to streamline their businesses and increase their performance so that they can focus on what really matters to them. Linnea Etzler is a Certified Coach; a Project Management Professional®️ holds an MSc in Engineering and a PhD in usability. She was born in Sweden, has lived in several European countries, and is currently based in Italy. This proud mom of two energetic boys coaches women in English, Italian and Swedish to help transform their lives as business owners into an enjoyable, successful, and fulfilling experience.
