How to: be more productive
My productivity is probably the most remarked upon trait by my boyfriend and friends. One of my favorite quotes by my best friend about me? “I get tired just thinking about being you.” My boyfriend and several other friends wholeheartedly agreed, ha!
To be honest, it’s been tough for me to write down my tips for productivity because so many of them just feel like second nature: I’m not sure what’s useful and what’s obvious. Alas: when I sat down and started thinking about what enables me to get a lot done on a regular basis, these are the things that stood out. I hope it helps!
Wake up early
Look, I don’t believe in waking up at an insane hour: it’s rare (and certainly not by choice) if I’m up before 6am. I actually find it really weird when people say they want to start waking up earlier and choose an hour in the middle of the night, like 4 or 5am: I can’t imagine it’s very sustainable, especially if you’re not a morning person to begin with. Thats said, I do like to wake up early enough that my mornings aren’t rushed: I usually need to leave for work around 9am, so I’m generally up by 7am.
But I also know that early morning plans are the hardest to cancel–when I have a particularly busy week, I’ll usually try to squeeze in a morning Pilates class or coffee date. Checking something off my list, whether it’s exercise or social or even blog-related, before I go to work is an adrenaline rush that fuels me. Because of that, I usually try to schedule (at least) one morning activity a week!
And perhaps the most important part of this: I generally wake up at 7am on the weekends and my days off, about the same time as I do during the week. Having a dog has definitely helped with this: I’m in charge of mornings with Gert, and she’s used to being taken out between 7 and 7:30am. But even without a squirming pug as motivation, waking up on the early side on the weekends means that I have a FULL day to spend exactly as I please (aka: #ProductiveSaturday).
Multi-task…
When people ask how I balance a full-time job and a blog, the simple answer is: a lot of nights with my laptop. And it’s true: the majority of my blog posts are written while I’m on the couch with something on the TV and a pug on my lap. Although I definitely enjoy a few TV shows, it’s rare that I’m ever vegged out on the couch watching: usually it’s in the background as I blog, answer emails, prepare lunches for the week, make dinner, do the dishes. Other standard things that I multitask: picking up dry-cleaning/taking Gertie on a walk, editing photos/listening to a podcast/riding the subway,
…but schedule time to single task
That said, I know I’ll go nuts if I’m always trying to do a million things at once. I do try to be intentional about winding down and getting enough sleep, reading my book without any distractions, reading the newspaper while drinking coffee, not taking my phone on the first morning walk of the day so that I can enjoy the sunrise and quiet streets.
Along with that, I meditate for 20 minutes every morning, and although that seems like it would time taken away from getting things done: I actually find that it centers me and makes me much more focused for the rest of the day.
Swear by to-do lists
I’m the biggest believer in to-do lists, and I’m pretty picky about how they’re executed. I prefer a single piece of paper divided into quadrants. Most often, those quadrants are labeled to do, to get, blog and work/wedding/online/whatever in particular is going on. I find it really helpful to delegate in this way, although there’s often some overlap. I basically make a new to-do list whenever I’ve completed all or most of the tasks on the current one–and have very satisfyingly crossed them off with a pen! Although I don’t usually use an app, I do have Clear on my phone–it’s helpful if I’m headed to the grocery store or on the subway and want to make a list without access to paper.
Schedule everything
One of the things I love about working out with ClassPass is that I have to schedule my workouts in advance–and because they’re at studios where classes will absolutely sell out (and I get charged if I cancel too close to the workout time), there’s pressure to actually show up. Because of that, I make sure to schedule my exercise classes and I always show up–they’re sacred in my schedule.
I have a similar mindset when it comes to coffee dates, errands, writing: I try to block out time well in advance and write it down in a paper agenda (although I’m getting better about using Google Cal, since my office culture is one of “open calendars” where we put down all of our daily activities on Google Cal and our boss/colleagues have access to it–so they know if I have a Pilates class booked that I can’t miss!). Once it’s written down, it’s rare that I’ll miss it.
And along with that, I try to be really efficient with my time when it comes to running errands or doing activities all over the city, like grouping certain things in the same neighborhood. A lot of times writing everything down on a to-do list helps me to visualize what the priorities are–and where things are located–so that I can get more done in one outing.
Establish daily priorities
Whenever I get to work in the morning, I make a list of the five things I absolutely need to accomplish that day. It’s a trick that I learned in my first job and I still swear by it: essentially, there are always going to be a million things that need to get done, and you’ll be completely overwhelmed if you’re always trying to check everything off that list every day. Learning how to prioritize is incredibly important, and I often use this trick in my personal life: i.e. what are the five emails that must get sent tonight, and what else can wait until tomorrow? I send those five, and then I close my computer.
Templatize everything
One of the things that makes me much more efficient when it comes to work and blogging: templates! I’m not a big believer in reinventing the wheel, and once I figure out something that works, I stick with it. It saves me a ton of time and headspace in the process. The Of the moment posts are the clearest example of this on the site: once I came up with that format, I decided to do it every week (and so far, people seem to like it!). On the back end, I have a basic email template that I use to reach out to brands and destinations that I tweak just slightly based on the ask–and I have a very similar process that I use when it comes to the outreach I do in my sales job. Other uses of templates: thank you notes, postcards, inquiry emails, any communication where the message needs to be about the same but it’s going out to multiple people.
Know how to say no
This might the be the hardest and the most important when it comes to being productive. I find that in order to get the things done that I know need to be done (see above re: prioritizing!), I have to say no to other things. Although my schedule can seem packed to the gills, I’m conscious of what I can and can’t handle–and I’m not afraid to cancel or start declining invites if it feels overwhelming. I usually need to work in at least two nights at home every week to a) not go crazy and b) not fall super behind on blog stuff. A “Blue Apron night” generally counts as booked in my calendar, and gives me some key time to recharge.
Are any of these helpful? What are your best tips for productivity that I missed?
