Episode 16 | How to Improve Your Productivity in the New Year?

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Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family and self care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day. There should be no hesitation.Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you. This episode of the Boss It Podcast is brought to you by the free masterclass, "How to Sell More with Influencer Marketing". Planning your campaign will take time and energy. 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All right, let's get on with our show. Hello everyone. Welcome to another amazing episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. We are going to actually do a series about productivity because as we record this episode, we are entering into December, 2020. And many people want to set the new year, 2021 on a very high note. So what that means is most people want to just become more productive. They want to see more results and they want to just have that self-discipline. But what we've realized is a lot of people have blocks or barriers that might be coming in the way from becoming more productive. What do I mean by that? I feel like people either are having issues with time management, their energy or their focus. And I'm going to walk through a few strategies for each today in this episode. And then we're going to dive deep on each component :time, energy and focus. From my own personal experience, time is my limiting factor and that reduces my productivity, but that's probably because I have so many different things going on at the same time. So I have to be really mindful about how I plan my tasks and how much I can actually take on. The next one is energy. And I find that with energy, people don't realize how much work at the beginning there is when you take on a new project. So for example, when you just start something, the energy level is so much higher because it's not habitual. It's not within your realm of knowledge. So for example, you might be starting a new exercise routine, but you're just so tired after doing like one or two reps and you're just like, why is this so difficult? But as you start getting more into it, you realize, oh my gosh, I totally can do this because the habit has been formed. Your body remembers. And so the energy level actually becomes less for you to do those new and novel things because they're not new and novel anymore. So we're going to touch on energy. And the final thing is focused. I find that focus is a very interesting topic. I think a lot of people don't have the ability to understand that their focus might be causing their problem. The reason why is because focus is a little bit more obscure. You could say to yourself, oh, I'm really focused. But then you realize you sit down for a task and every five seconds, you're drifting over to your phone, for example, because the phone constantly sending you notifications. Or you find that you're sit down to do a task and you continuously check your emails as soon as something pops in your inbox. I think focus is very interesting because if you feel that you should be finishing more in the time that you've allocated, if you really take a deep dive on how you spent that time, you may realize that you're not actually focused. You are doing a ton of other things in that small block of time that you have put out for your actual task. So it's a very interesting topic, that focus one. Let's dig a little bit deeper with time. So with time, it's very obvious when people are lacking time. And a few principles, especially for people who are really busy, that they can actually start applying is the concept of working in the cracks of time. And I know that becomes a bit concerning for people because they're like, well, I don't want to rush what my task is. But for example, if it's a really fast and simple task and you have 30 minutes to spare, I say, why not try to get into it with time? You just need to get started and you just need to try to build the momentum up so you can fill up that 30-minute block of time. Another really great trick is that you can always look at time that you may not be utilizing at the moment. I know it's really difficult because people are like, well, I don't want to give up my sleep. I don't want to give up my family time. I don't want to give up my own personal time, but sometimes if you're working on a project or if you want to complete something in a very time-limited manner, you may need to carve out a little extra time at the beginning or end of your day. Now, a lot of people being busy with their families may consider the beginning of the day, the most opportune time where they can actually get the focus they need, the time they need. And then also they have the energy in the morning. So sometimes looking at your calendar and breaking it down into steps from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, and then having a big chunk in the morning and just seeing where do you have the time? I find that I have a lot of time right in the middle of the day, because my kids they're either off to school or they are busy doing their own thing in their home. They're very interesting. They had a thing called "tublet- o'clock". I don't know if it's appropriate as a parent to have the strategy, but they have gotten to the habit ever since quarantine that at 2:00 PM, they meet their friends on Zoom and literally talk to them on Zoom while playing video games. You know, some people would be like, well, that's not appropriate, but in this day and age, when the kids have no interaction with their friends in person, this is the best that they have. So during the 2:00 PM slot, they're fully occupied. They're not mommying me. They're not saying mommy, mommy, I need you. So that's when I take my time to finish those tasks that really need my focus, my energy, and also my time. So that 2:00 PM slot, I usually even use for recording a podcast because it is super quiet in my house. Everyone is entertaining themselves, doing something else. And even my cat is having a nap, versus at another time of the day, which doesn't work as well is actually in the evening. And I'm sure a lot of people have this problem as well. There's a lot going on in the evening. You may be dealing with children going to sleep, bathing the children, after dinner stuff, homework or my animals. My cat, for some reason, always wants to come and yell at me at 9:00 PM. I'm not sure why, but that's her thing. She has food and she has water. I think she just wants attention at 9:00 PM. So I want people to, really examine their day. And that's my best strategy for time. Look for those cracks of time where you can stick in the odd task and start making it a habit. So for example, what I tend to do with my cracks of time as I go onto social media, and I engage with people either through direct messages, the DMS, or uncommon some posts. I try to make that a habit, so then that way I'm not forgetting about that aspect of social media, the engagement, which we've talked about in previous episodes. 14 and 15 were all about promoting on social media and engagement and direct messages is very important for your customer service and also for your reputation as being one of those customer centric brands. The last tip I'm going to give you today about time is how to identify if you are using your time optimally as either a business owner or even just at home. There is such thing as called busy work. And what I mean by busy work is that work that's really not pushing the needle and providing you with the steam to move to the next level. So busy work, you can identify as something that is not promoting your business. Busy work as something that essentially you need to do in your business and needs to get done. But you don't necessarily need to do it. So what I did is I went and I identified the things that were considered busywork. One of the things that I identified was pick and packing my packages, which is essential for mailing a products to my customers. But I can delegate that to another company to do or another body of individuals. And that's exactly what we did. We got rid of that big chunk of busy work and we've moved it off to somebody else. Of course, that costs money. And it's an investment in my opinion, because now I've bought back my time. Another form of busy work for many homeowners is cleaning. Everybody needs to get it done, and nobody really wants to pay for a cleaner, but if you can afford having somebody in your house just for even two hours to do whatever they can to help, dust or do the bathrooms or mop the floor, vacuum, whatever that saves up two hours. And then you can tell yourself, I'm going to now use that two hours to go get the next lead. Or I'm going to take that two hours to maximize on my project time, whatever your goal is. If it's to start a YouTube channel. Start a podcast. If it's to start a business, you need to maximize your time. So I would also go through your schedule and and see where your time is being taken up with the busy work. Okay. And remember, busy work is important. You need to get it done, but someone else can do it for you. Okay. So that's on time and we are going to do some episodes specifically about time and dive even deeper because that is a very important pillar of productivity. And I don't want you guys to miss those episodes so make sure you hit subscribe, because we're going to use our own experiences to really layer on why we feel time is like the most essential thing for your productivity, and you really need to own your time. You need to maximize it. And I'm not saying to work yourself to the bone. I'm saying to just diligently choose how you're going to use your time. And then you can obviously block off a big chunk of time for family for self care. Cause you know, that's what we're all about and just really owning your time. Okay. The next thing we're going to just speak about is energy. Energy is a really important topic as well, because if you don't have the energy and you have the time, you're not going to be really able to execute as well without that level of energy. So for example, I used to have a vitamin D deficiency and I didn't know it until we did a blood test. And us being up here in Canada, we don't get a lot of sun, especially from the months of October all the way to April. I was pretty vitamin D-deficient. And I realized this after a blood test and I started to really level up my vitamin D with supplements. After that, I had so much energy. Now I'm not giving medical advice here, but if you have low energy or you feel something is wrong, I highly encourage you to go visit your primary care physician and get a blood test done so they can really help optimize your physical wellbeing. And that in turn will actually increase your energy and then your energy can be used for as much productivity as you would like. That is a big key component. Another big key component is amount of sleep that you actually need. A lot of people suffer from insomnia primarily due to the fact that they're in front of their screens all day long up until they're going to sleep. And that blue light is really not good for you and your sleep patterns. It actually reduces melatonin, which is the hormone that you need for waking up and going to sleep. And so the circadian rhythm gets all messed up and it's really not good for you. So great sleep hygiene is really, really important. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in the episode, when we focus on energy. Another thing that you need to look at besides your physical health and your sleep hygiene is your nutrition. I know a lot of people are addicted to caffeine and they don't eat breakfast. And unless you're doing something like intermittent fasting and you're being intentional about it, you need to have a solid breakfast. You need to have a solid meal at the beginning of the day. And if you're going to do something like intermittent fasting after consulting with your physician or a registered dietician, that's fine. But you need to take those calories and eat them throughout the day when you're supposed to be eating. I find so many people are starved, either of nutrition or they're starved of proper calorie intake, and they're just living off the caffeine and then they become anxious. Last thing I'm going to say today about energy is how you actually incorporate better energy when you make something a habit. We did allude to this a little earlier about habits and how it takes a lot more energy when you're starting a new habit and you need to account for that. So for example, we spoke about your gym routine. I know 2021 is right around the corner and people are going to be like, "I'm getting in shape", especially after the year we've had with 2020. COVID has really caused a lot of people to gain weight because we're not getting up. We're not going out. We're walking a lot less and we're at home and we're enjoying snacking, of course. So 2021 is going to bring about a lot of people who are ready to get back into the healthy lifestyle. And they're going to be surprised that a lot of energy will be taken from creating that new habit of going and walking. The gyms are shut in our area. Maybe going to the gym in areas that are open. But whatever it is, my point is when you have a new habit or a new ritual. It's going to take more energy. So being conscientious of that. And in future episodes, we're going to dive really deep into energy and give you some strategies on how you can optimize your energy so you can become more productive. Okay. The last thing we're going to focus on today is focus. I feel like a lot of people, they will. carve out the time they'll have the energy. And then all of a sudden they're, like, they can't focus. They can't focus. They can't focus. And why? Because they either have too many distractions in their vicinity where they're trying to work. They have their emails popping up. They have their notifications going. They have all these other noises that might be interrupting their train of thought. You need to remove your distractions. You need to turn off your email and you need to turn off your phone or remove it from the room. If you're the type of person who constantly wants to check the phone, I'm sorry, but it's not going to work very well, if you're going to block off your time and have the energy, and then you're only spending about 50% of that time on the tasks at hand. One strategy I have, and some people might think this is a bit stressful, but what I do is actually set a launch date or a timeline for whatever project that it is I'm trying to work on. By me going and telling other people that I'm going to do this by this date, I'm being held accountable. And when I go and do my focus work, because I'm on such a tight timeframe, I actually execute much quicker. So that's a strategy that you can try if you feel confident that you can make it happen. And even if it fails, even if you commit to a launch date or you commit to completing a project by a specific date to an accountability group, be it at your best friend or your parents or your siblings, your husband, wife, whoever it is, know that you've at least taken that first step and you've made that commitment. And I feel sometimes just being able to commit externally will put you into focus. So those are my two tips for focus. Try to remove all your distractions out of the room when you're actually sitting down for focus work. And then my second tip is you should definitely. Let other people know of your plans, your dates, your goals, and this will help you stay accountable. This will really push you into gear and you'll be like, no, I need to get this done. I need to put everything away. I cannot dilly dally during this time because I only have X amount of days to complete this project. Awesome! So we've gone through three big pillars of productivity. We spoke briefly about time, briefly about your energy level, and then briefly about focus. So I want you guys to really ensure that when you're going through and analyzing your day that you have the time that you required to finish your project, you have the energy level, and then you also have the focus. Another thing that I'm going to speak on briefly is the intertwining of all three. You need to pick the time of the day that suits all three pillars. So for example, I touched on the fact that my 9:00 PM is not a good time of the day traditionally to do focus work because not only as my energy level, a little bit lower, but I have a lot of distractions with meowing cats and children that need me before bed. And then finally, I may have the time carved out for doing the focus work. But if the other two components, the focus and the energy is not there, then that's not a really good time in the day to do that piece of work. So my suggestion is when you analyze your day, when you go through and you're like, okay, when's the best time of the day me to do this particular work; you need to have all three components, all three pillars of productivity lined up. Now in future episodes, we're going to speak to each one of those pillars of productivity. We're going to have a separate episode on energy, separate episode on time and a separate episode on focus. And I want you guys to catch each one of those episodes and then work diligently through the things that we suggest. So that way you can optimize your productivity for 2021 an accomplish your goals. Okay guys. So what I suggest you do now is go through your schedule. If you are the type of person who wants to become more productive, if you have goals and you want to achieve them for 2021. Best to start now and analyzing your schedule best to own your time, best to pick the time of day that works best for your energy and pick the best time where you have the optimal focus that you need to complete that project. Go through your day and analyze it; time you wake up, till the time you go to sleep, really own your schedule, go through it and analyze it. See how your day looks like. And also when you're doing that exercise, I want you to focus on how your energy levels are. If your energy levels are dwindling, don't put a task that's going to require high focus at that time. I'm going to go deeper into each one of these pillars of productivity in future episodes. So make sure you hit subscribe and make sure you hit follow on whatever platform you're listening to this podcast on. You can also head over to Bossitclub.com and subscribe to our newsletters. We're going to be releasing free master classes on productivity in 2021. And if this is a topic that really resonates with you, then definitely don't miss out. Okay guys, that's all we have for today. Thanks again for listening. And remember, make a plan and take action and yes, you can have it all. So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now is time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story and tag us @BossItclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our Top 50 Tips for Starting and Scaling a Business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers. So don't miss out. Now remember bosses: make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes you can have it all.