Increase Your Productivity

As a mom + business owner, it’s not always easy getting everything done. If you work full time and feel like you are constantly struggling to be productive, girl - I FEEL YA.The reality is, as women, we set super high standards for what we should be able to do in a 24-hour period. And heaven forbid we ask for help getting all the things done.First of all, one thing you need to do is LOWER YOUR STANDARDS. If you think I cross everything off my to-do list on a daily basis, you are sorely mistaken. I’m lucky most days to get 1 or 2 things scratched off my to-do list. It’s OK to not get it all done - give yourself permission to be flexible with your to-do list and get the day’s priorities taken care of FIRST - and maybe only.If you’ve ever watched my Facebook lives, you’ve heard me talk over and over and over again about how much I absolutely LOVE my Day Designer planner. Of course, if I designed it (ummmm, this WILL become a reality someday… just you wait), I would have it setup a little differently. With that being said, the one thing that I LOVE is that there is a place to write down my Top Three tasks.That’s it. Three things that you can get done today.As I am writing this, I’ve already got done 1 and by writing this, I am working on number 2 for the day. And, truth be told, this blog post was actually something I was supposed to get done yesterday, but I had to reconfigure my priorities for the day, and I pushed it to today.THREE THINGS.Next thing when it comes to being productive with your time - and this is HUGE and so, so hard - you have GOT to set BOUNDARIES.Like my Day Designer Planner (OMG, I swear, I am NOT an affiliate for them, I just LOVE the planner that much - and I’ve tried out A LOT of planners…), another thing I am obsessed with is Brendon Burchard’s book High Performance Habits. He has an entire chapter on productivity, and the one thing he talks about that I am really passionate about is setting boundaries with your time.Y’all, if you’re trying to read this with a million tabs open on your browser, you ain’t getting sh*t done. Multitasking is NOT a thing. #sorrynotsorrySo, what do I mean by boundaries if I can’t multitask?I mean, you need to find a way to FOCUS on ONE thing at a time. This is really difficult because a lot of times it’s hard to shut our brains off from a task (and Brendon Burchard has multiple tips on how to do this in the book) in order to focus what’s in front of us currently.I realized this hardcore early in January. Despite my best efforts, I would get really distracted by my phone. If an alert came through - especially from a client - I would feel this urgency to check it.Y’all… unless it is a call from my husband or my parents regarding someone being in the hospital, it’s NOT urgent.I realized that I was struggling to be PRESENT with my family because I was constantly being distracted by work. And when I was working, I was struggling to focus because I was constantly being distracted by notifications, whether it was emails or messages. I just couldn’t seem to focus on one thing at a time.I realized I need to set HUGE boundaries for myself and stick to them.For me, this meant both physical + mental boundaries. Here are a few I implemented…1. Our bedroom is a “no phone zone” for me. My phone does not even get to come in the room at night. I plug it in out in the living room for the night. For me, I was using my phone as an alarm, which meant I was looking at it first thing in the morning. And guess what else I was looking at? ALL THE NOTIFICATIONS. I was starting my day by reacting instead of being proactive.Now, I look at my phone to check the weather before my run (but usually, I catch the news the night before so I know what to expect) and turn on a podcast, but that’s it. The first thing I get to do in the morning is kiss my husband instead of looking at my phone - the way it should be.2. My phone is ALWAYS on Do Not Disturb. If you’re an iPhone user, I HIGHLY recommend doing this. I can allow specific calls to go through (like I said above, if it’s not from my mom or my husband, it’s probably not too important) by utilizing my favorites; otherwise, all calls, text, notifications are muted throughout the day.I used to think people were crazy for doing this, but now I can’t even imagine hearing my phone ding all day long. Try it for a day and let it change your life.3. My screen time is on from 3PM to 9AM (basically, my apps function only during my working hours). So, why isn’t DND enough for me? Do you KNOW how many times you pick up your phone throughout the day? I would say for me, it’s probably close to 100. If I have a purpose for getting on my phone for some reason and see a notification, guess what? I totally forget why I was going to my phone because I got distracted by the notification!With Screen Time, I can disable my apps so I don’t receive ANY notifications during those times. And believe me, I had to set higher boundaries for myself with it. I used to have them disabled from 3PM to 8PM, but what I found myself doing was going to bed completed distracted because of a notification that went through right before bed. Or seeing a notification first thing in the morning when all I wanted to do was check the weather.Now, I only get notifications during my working hours. And it. Is. Glorious. It has allowed me to be more present with my family. I sleep better. I DREAM. I’m happier overall. It’s been a game changer for sure.So, if you want to be more productive, you have GOT to eliminate distractions and set some boundaries for yourself.Tell me >> Are you going to try to implement these? And if you do, I would love for you to report back with how you FEEL now!