Episode 37

Let's Get Productive

October 6th, 2021

Listen


Today we’re talking about what it really means to be productive.
We dive into:
  • The golden question you need to ask yourself to start your week
  • The importance of having things to look forward to
  • Knowing what to say yes to and what to say no to
  • Picking your top three priorities for the day
  • Why it’s time to stop multitasking
  • Scheduling in review time
My Favourite Pomodoro Timer

Connect with Nicole on Instagram.

Visit Nicole’s Website.

Get the Action Takers Guide to ClickUp here.

Join the Take Control with Nicole Facebook group here.

Join the waitlist for The Members Lounge here

———————————————————–

Full Episode Transcription

Welcome to Take Control With Nicole, as business owners, we experienced firsthand the fine line between our personal and business life. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce, overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Hello, hello. And thank you for joining me for this fabulous episode of take control with Nicole. So today, I wanted to share with you a conversation that I had recently about productivity, there is this thought pattern out there that being productive means getting all the things done. And if that means cramming it all into a day and doing hundreds and hundreds of things and check, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, check off the checklist. It’s not a sustainable way of working, being, doing all the things just humaning each and every day. So this conversation is having a chat about that looking at how we can actually create our worlds so that we are supporting ourselves to be the most fabulous people we can be enjoy.

Good morning, everybody out there in Instagram world. I am just coming live here because today we’re going to talk about let’s get productive. So productivity, what does that actually mean? There is obviously the definition about getting more done, being able to achieve more in the day, so that you feel accomplished and you’ve checked those things off the list. And you’re really moving momentum forward as you’re going through your day. However, productivity can really, especially at the moment with everything that’s going on, I’m here in Melbourne, so still in lockdown, don’t know if it’s 6.0, 6.5, 7, who knows can’t keep up. But it’s really about what does your definition of your ideal day look like? What equals success in your mind, if you reach the end of the day, and you have done da da da whatever that might be? How does that make you feel? So let’s talk about productivity. I really think the first thing to do each and every day each week is stop and actually ask yourself, What do you need? So, working all the time. You know, being busy as they say, is that really serving you to continue to grow to be your fabulous self each and every day? Or do you need to just stop, take some time away and actually focus in on rejuvenating yourself. So that when you are ready to come back and tackle those things, you’re able to go full gusto full, Nicole fabulous spayed off Nicole fabulousness, whatever it might be obviously insert your name where I said Nicole.

But it’s really about understanding what you need. And then you can really set up and set your day for success because you’ve already checked in and you know, okay, I’m feeling a little bit, feeling a little bit flat right now. So I’m going to take tomorrow off, I am going to just chill in the sun like I did yesterday. Maybe I might do a couple of little things, but only because I know that I’m okay I feel happy to do those and I want to get those done. So it’s really about checking in with yourself first before you go and try and overload your schedule. Now it might be that when you’re planning your day, and your weeks that you have that day that you day already scheduled, say once a month, for instance, you might like to take that day off, or it could be after a big launch or something like that. Having those like holiday breaks or you planned in you know that you’ve got that thing to look forward to as you’re going through each and every day. So I guess the other thing as well and when we’re looking at that, it’s about understanding not only what to say no to but what to say yes to as well. So when you’re looking at your your planning as well, thinking about Okay, if I say yes to this thing, is that then going to cause additional stress, additional pressures, because I’ve now got all of these other things that I need to be doing by that deadline. Yeah, so. The no, the yes, deciding what and how and where what we’re going to do pretty Important. But if we get down to the day to day operations of your world, and how we can make that feel a little bit nicer, and a little bit more easy, rather than just jumping from task to task to task, there are a few things that you can use and you can do that will help you to, again, bring simplicity into your world.

The first thing is understanding what your main goal or your main priority is for today. Now, they do suggest to pick three priority tasks for the day. And I know that that kind of says, that sounds a little bit of it, Nicole, I’ve got way more going on that I need to complete before bed. But if you just select those three core tasks that are really important that you know that at the end of the day, once you’ve completed them, you’re going to be feeling fabulous, and you’re going to be feeling accomplished because you have checked those off the list. Doesn’t that sound amazing. And then if you reach that, you’ve done those three tasks, and you still want to continue and do something else, you can pick something else off that list, but you know that you’ve already completed those three priority tasks for your day. Now, when we’re talking about three priority tasks, that includes personal stuff as well. So if for you today, we’re talking about what do you need, right at the start of the conversation, if you know today, what do I need, I need to go for a bike ride for an hour at lunchtime. That’s what I need. That is my, one of my three goals today, my three priorities because I know, by doing that, I’m going to be able to do those other two, so much better, because I’m going to be able to know that I’ve reenergised myself. So if it’s a personal goal, if it’s a business goal, if it’s a life priority, whatever it might be, that can be one of those three tasks. Because remember, life is life, we’ve only got the same amount of time, we have the same amount of time, every day, to do all of the things that we are wanting to do in the day. So let’s just be honest about that. And let’s plan our days and look at the way that we spend our time with that in mind so that we’re not still trying to squeeze in those extra little things each and every day.

Just interrupting this episode for one little message. If you have been listening and love what you hear and want to come in Connect, we have a tight control with the Facebook community right over there on Facebook that I would love to invite you to come and join us. We are a supportive community, we are looking to really take action in our businesses and change the way or evolve the way we’re working right now. So I invite you to come on over and join our community and connect with us of community is the essence of everything in business, being able to really build those relationships that you can nurture, and grow and support and celebrate each other are how fabulous, I hope to see you over there, pop on over to Facebook, take control with Nicole See you soon.

So once you’ve already selected what your focus is, after today, we want to be able to now set you up to actually achieve those without again going jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping around, you know that all kind of saying that, you know, multitasking, I think I’m a great multitasker. I don’t think anyone’s really a great multitasker. Because if you think about it, if you’re trying to achieve 10 things at the same time, are you actually going to finish one of those to the best ability and the best best level that you would actually like to be doing that. So let’s focus on it and let’s change the way that we’re doing let’s move those distractions away. If they’re, you get distracted by social media, we’ll have a time that we do that. Let’s close them down. If you get lots of phone calls, or your emails are a thing that keep distracting you close them down, put your phone on silent, flip it over, and you’re going to be able to focus in right on that action that you’re doing that you need to complete today. I use the Pomodoro method which you would have heard me spoke about before speaking about before. It is fabulous. If you haven’t already know about it, I’d love you to give it a go today. So what you need to do there is a tomato timer I will pop the link below once you some This goes back onto the IGTV so you can see it’s my favourite one. It’s a little tomato with a laptop. And what you do is you select your task. You set that timer and you press go and it’s 25 minutes of focused in tend to work in time. As you go through at the end of that you get the little chimes that happen, have a break, five minutes at the break time or have a break five minutes, get up, go to the kitchen, get another coffee, go outside, get some fresh air, it’s beautiful here at the moment in Melbourne. So pop on out there, see that sunshine that we’ve all been waiting for, to come back and share our lives super exciting. And what you do after that short break, come on back, you either continue with that task that you selected, or pick another one. And then guess what, press go on that little laptop tomato again and offer guides for 25 minutes. Repeat that four times, that’s what a pomodoro spring is. At the end of the four, you set that longer break timer. And again, you can have do whatever it is you want to do in that time. If you want to come back and do another set of four, how fabulous, you could work pomodoros all day long, if that’s the way that really helps you to focus in and get those things done. I know with my clients, when I’ve suggested to use the Pomodoro, they come back to me so excited with telling me that had the most productive day they have you ever had by using this, this short, short process or this short method of closing down those distractions, focusing in getting that stuff done taking action to get those things happening. super exciting.

So yeah, that’s just a couple of little things in there with your productivity. It’s really about moving the distractions, clearing up the information. So if you’ve got a project management tool that click up, or you’ve got an email, it’s overflowing, that automatically is going to start to pull your focus away if you allow it to do so. So being able to have those methods in place that’s going to keep that data clean. So in your planning, are you allowing some time to do your email review, to review your list sync, click open, prioritise those tasks so that you know, next week, this is your focus for the week, this is your focus for each day. So every morning, you’re going to wake up and you’re going to know I know exactly what I’m doing today. And let’s go set that tomato laptop. Let’s make it happen. So exciting. Rightio, have a fabulous day, everyone. And I look forward to seeing you soon. Bye.

So what does productivity actually mean to you? After hearing some of those ideas and those tips and and methods that you can actually introduce into your world? Do you feel that you can walk away today and start to implement those into your business into your world into the way that you work each and every day. I know for me that when I have all the things happening, I am an entrepreneur. So all of the ideas are happening all the time, it is so easy to fall back into that old routine of trying to do all the things all the time, and ending up feeling like we haven’t actually accomplished anything. So I would love you today. Just to stop right now. whatever it is you’re doing for just a second, a moment in time. Be present in this moment, and ask yourself, what is it that I actually need today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom by now.

Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on social shares? If not, please come on over Say hi, I’m on all the platforms at the artisan solutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I would love it if you could leave a review. And of course share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week and until next time. See you then


Partners

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.