Want to dive even deeper into my best tricks for creating MORE free time? Check out my CREATE MORE FREE TIME GUIDE below with a step by step process to carve out two extra hours every day.
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Anyone else feel like there is not enough time in the day? That its near impossible to get everything done and your to do list is never ending? Or just that you would love to spend your time more wisely so that you could spend more time focusing on the things that truly matter to you?
The truth is, you don’t actually need more time. You need some better strategies for getting the work done so that you can take more time away from work AND feel good about it.
Here are my top 5 tips for being super productive in the time you are working so that you can take more time off!
Batch working
This is a technique that is talked about all the time in entrepreneur and productivity land with good reason. Learning how to batch has been something that has freed up more time than anything else on this list.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept, batching essentially refers to grouping similar tasks together and doing them all at once. This works especially well for content creation of any kind.
The reason it is so effective is because humans are bad at multi tasking and when we switch back and forth between different tasks (aka context switching) we lose so much time, energy and momentum. In contrast when we allow our brains to really focus in on one specific task (ex: writing blog posts) we eliminate context switching and are able to get into a fun, creative headspace. When we can zone in to just that one type of task and have nothing else to worry about we are able to work exponentially faster.
How batching has drastically changed my life
What I used to do was sit down once a week to write one blog post then change contexts to write an instagram post, then change contexts again to login to canva and create a few pins to promote the post, then change contexts again to write out an email to send the post out to my list.
Whewwwww that is exhausting just typing it all out.
This was not at all efficient and felt like I was stuck in a cycle of doing the same repetitive tasks every week and I couldn’t get ahead.
Batching has changed that entire process. This is what creating blog posts looks like for me now.
I keep a running list of blog post/content ideas in my google drive. Then once a month I choose a day to dedicate the ENTIRE day to writing out blog posts. The night before I look at my content list and choose 4-5 topics that are speaking to me that I would like to write a post on.
Then on the morning of my batch working day, I go to my favorite cafe, put my phone on airplane mode and get to work. I sit down and pound out 4-5 blog post first drafts all at once. My record so far is writing 8000+ words, 5 posts, in 5 hours.
I’m able to work so efficiently and quickly because I am fully focused on one task. In that one sitting I essentially create all of my blog posts for the entire month. It is a beautiful thing.
I do a similar process with planning out my Instagram/ FB content, except for on a weekly basis.
Every Friday afternoon, as soon as I am done teaching for the day I sit down to re-purpose my blog post into all my content for the following week. I read through and edit the post I am planning to publish the following week. Then I type out 3-4 instagram captions using different tid bits from the post- keeping to a general theme for the week. I outline general ideas for IG stories to film the following week- again keeping to the general theme.
In this sitting, I even create the copy for my email list and my pin descriptions. All of the editing and content repurposing/ tweaking uses a slightly different part of my brain than original content creation. Grouping these like tasks together allows me to plan out all of my content for the week in a single afternoon. With all of my content locked and loaded I go into my week feeling ready to conquer.
I even employ batching in my lesson planning which allows me to finish my lesson plans weeks in advance. Being super productive in this capacity has even freed up a ton of time at my full time job to work on my side hustle.
For lesson planning I sit down and make the lesson plans for an entire chapter at one time. Instead of just planning one week in advance I make one giant PPT with 3-5 of the 40 minute lessons at once. Then I have all my lessons planned out for that grade for the month and then all of my planning periods for that month are freed up.
How you can make batching work for your life
Batching is especially effective if you are a blogger or content creator of any kind. It generates so much freedom when you don’t have to create the same thing from scratch every week and you can actually get ahead on your content. I think batching is one of the keys to feeling like you are working ON your business instead of always working IN your business.
I challenge you to create a batching system that works well for you. You can start with something small- like planning out all of you IG content for the week in one sitting, or even just running all of your errands for the week in one outing. Think about which tasks you do repeatedly that you could group together for more efficient planning.
If you want to learn more about how batch working can work for you check out The Goal Digger Podcast Episode 207 How to Batch Work (and save yourself hours) and Episode 173: How to Batch Your Content for Instagram (and save hours).
4 minute planning session each night
I learned about this productivity gem from Marie Forleo; you can watch her whole video about it here. This is a fairly quick, painless and magical system for being insanely productive and focused each day. The trick is YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO IT.
Here’s how it works: each night before I go to bed, I whip out my planner and look at the following day. I look at all the things I already have scheduled for the day and write down next to them how much time they will take up. This includes all of my classes, coaching calls, group coaching sessions and any other appointments that are in my calendar.
Then, based on how much free time is leftover, I decide on 3-5 tasks I want to accomplish that day (taken from my weekly to do list/ weekly priorities) . Next to those tasks, I estimate how long each of those things will take.
Yes, this sounds ridiculously simple. So simple in fact that you may think its unnecssary. That you can just plan this out in your head and there is no sense in writing it down. Don’t make that mistake.
To harness the power of this method, you must actually spend time the night before writing these things down. The true magic of this approach is making the tough decisions about what to focus on the night before. Then the next day, you spend zero time deciding WHAT to do, you wake up focused and ready to go. When your free time comes around, you know exactly what you will work on.
It is literally wild how productive I am when I actually take the time to do this. For some reason I think it is easier to make decisions about WHAT to do the night before. When I wait until I’m in the moment to decide what to work on, I end up feeling overwhelmed and like I don’t know where to start. So set yourself up for success and plan out your tomorrow, today.
Focus in on the end result
One thing that really helps me be productive is that I am results focused. Every time I add something to my to-do list I ask myself questions like- “What is the purpose of this task?” “What is the result I am hoping for by completing this task?”
This helps me focus in on why I am doing this task and allows me complete it with the end result in mind. When I was up leveling my coaching business one of the things I knew I needed to do was create more structure for my current clients, but this task seemed super vague and I kept putting it off.
In order to finally get started on this task, I needed to know WHY I was doing this. So I sat down and got super clear on the WHY- what is the purpose of creating more structure for my current clients?
I realized I needed structure in order to create a sacred container for my clients. One where we could both feel incredibly clear on the goal we were striving towards and the purpose of our work together. Then I asked myself – what systems do I need to create in order to produce that end result?
Immediately, I knew the answer. I needed to create forms for my clients to fill out before each call to focus them in, a loose outline/ structure for the calls themselves and I needed to elicit more specific goals and vision for each client. Within two hours I had created 2 google forms, 1 google doc with a structured outline and emailed out all of my current clients with the structural changes.
Getting clear on the end result is super helpful for moving yourself forward. I literally do this anytime I sit down to do anything- even write a blog post. I start each blog post by writing out “what is the purpose of this post?” This focuses my writing and speeds up the content creation process. Clarifying the purpose of a task and the desired end result helps guide any task more easily to completion.
Set a time limit
This is something I learned while studying in med school: your work expands to fill up the time you give it. If you give yourself a whole day to “ design/ write your About Me page” on your website, you best believe it will take up the entire day.
Since you have the whole day for the task, you will find ways to distract yourself and fill up the time. You will end up on youtube watching cat videos, catch yourself 45 minutes deep into an instagram scroll, and spend hours looking through all of your friends about me pages.
Essentially you will find ways to allow this one task to take up your entire day. Don’t let that happen.
Set a strict time limit. Decide that you will spend an hour writing your About Me page. Then just sit down and do it. Set a timer. Plan something fun you get to do afterwards once you are finished. Set a lunch date with a friend that you can ONLY go to once you finish your About Me page.
This may sound daunting. You may say, “but I don’t know how long its going to take me to do this,” or “I don’t want to feel rushed”.
My suggestion for you is to treat this like a game and just give it a try. Set yourself a time limit (based on your best estimation) and do your absolute best to finish in the allotted time. I guarantee your work will be more focused and efficient than ever before.
Low ball yourself
Nothing kills productivity more than feeling discouraged and ultimately giving up entirely. Whenever we are discouraged our motivation suffers and that feeling over time can ultimately lead to throwing our hands up and calling it quits.
In her interview with Marie Forleo, Lauren Vanderkam says “the secret to long term productivity is, in the short term, lowering your expectations for yourself.”
When we make a to-do list a mile long and then inevitably fail to complete the entire thing, we feel discouraged. And when we are never able to cross off everything on our list, over time we start to feel like a total loser. Even worse, when we have an impossible amount of things to complete, we feel overwhelmed and avoid starting altogether.
Lets stop setting ourselves up for failure and instead start working with a manageable amount of to-dos. When we do every single thing on our list for the day, we feel like such a champion and those positive feelings create a ripple effect that leads to lasting productivity.
To make my to-do list more manageable, I set limits. Your to do list doesn’t have to be every single thing you have ever wanted to do (you need a master task list for this). It should be a highly curated set of tasks that you actually plan to complete for the day or the week.
When I make my weekly to do list, it usually takes up about half a sheet of notebook paper. When I set my daily to-dos, I plan 3 major to-dos each day.
Yours may look different and in order to find your sweet spot, I urge you to pay close attention to what you are able to get done each day and start to build your list around that reality.
Lower your short term standards so that you can slowly and steadily chip away at your dreams.
Those are my 5 best tips for becoming the most productive person you know. Which one is your favorite? Do you have any tips for how to be more productive? Leave a comment below and share. I’d love to hear from you.
Want to dive even deeper into my best tricks for creating MORE free time? Check out my CREATE MORE FREE TIME GUIDE below with a step by step process to carve out two extra hours every day.
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