For so long, I believed I was soo productive with my time and was doing everything I could to achieve my goals.  In reality, I wasn’t achieving them, but I did feel completely burned out. 

 

When the dreaded C-word affected the whole world and how everyone was (or wasn’t) working, this is when I realised I was busy, not productive.  I knew I needed to really focus and implement the top productivity tips. 

 

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Being busy and being productive are two completely different things.  

 

Anyone can be busy and fill their day with meaningless jobs so it looks like you’re doing the most.  Being truly productive means you spend less time completing each task, but results in you moving forward and being closer to achieving your goals. 

 

Hopefully, with these top productivity tips, you’ll also be ticking everything off your to-do list and will be one step closer to achieving your dreams each day. 

 

Top Productivity Tips

 

Concentrate on your top 3

 

Which 3 tasks do you absolutely have to do today? 

 

These should be the top 3 tasks you can’t go to sleep or leave work without doing.  

 

Completing these tasks should bring you closer to achieving your overall goals.  Even if it’s connecting with new clients / customers, writing a new blog post or taking the first step to building your own empire. 

 

Once you have your ‘top 3’ list, complete these tasks first.  Then if something else crops up or if you lose steam mid afternoon, at least your most urgent tasks are complete. 

 

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Time block

 

My best productivity tips is to time block.  

 

It always amazes me how often I hear, “I don’t have time”.  Now, of course, some women have more to organise and take care of on a day to day basis than others, but time blocking can really help eliminate any distractions and help you achieve your goals so much quicker.

 

You can block out any length of time that suits you.  But I usually time block for either 30 minutes or an hour.   I’ll simply schedule this time in and decide each morning what I will be focussing on in that hour.  Of course, this is based on my top 3 tasks for the day. 

 

By scheduling dedicated time to your goals each day, will help you be so much more productive and achieve what you have set out to do.  

 

Also because you’ll know exactly what needs doing in that hour, you won’t find yourself with some spare time and then waste it deciding what you should do. 

 

To help me time block and schedule my entire day, I use daily schedule planner inserts so each day I can see exactly what needs to be done and when. 

 

Group similar tasks together

 

This is one of the most common productivity tips shared, but how often do you actually put it into practice on a regular basis? 

 

It’s super simple to implement and can really save you time and effort in the long run. 

 

If you have a few tasks which are all similar and need to be completed, try to do all of these in the same afternoon or other time slot that works for you.

 

For example, when I work on my blog, there are certain activities that are regular and reoccurring.  This includes, writing blog posts, replying to emails and creating images and pins to promote the post. 

 

Instead of changing from task to task, I batch all my similar tasks together and whilst in the same focussed mindset I can complete everything much quicker. 

 

So, I’ll write 2-3 blog posts in one day. The next day, I might create all the images and graphics for the blog posts and the next, I’ll complete any admin type tasks, for example replying to emails. 

 

I find that if I’m in a creative mood and then change half way through to answer emails, I’m far less productive than if I kept going with any creative tasks that needed doing. 

 

Stop multi-tasking 

 

For the love of life, please stop multi-tasking.  You’re not helping yourself or being any quicker at finishing what you need to do. 

 

I promise, you’ll be more productive and achieve so much more if you’re laser focussed on one task until it’s complete. 

 

If you solely focus on one task and give it your all, not only can you complete it quicker, but you also won’t be coming back to a half-completed task trying to remember what you were doing. 

 

Avoid distractions

 

There’s nothing worse than sitting down for your productive hour, only for the girls group chat to suddenly erupt with gossip and discussing what everyone is having for dinner. 

 

This is the same for trying to work with the TV on or with a podcast playing in the background.  If you’ll find it to be too much of a distraction and won’t allow you to fully concentrate, then it simply has to go.  Of course, only until you’ve finished what you needed to do! 

 

Make sure you have everything

 

To be your most productive self, make sure you have everything that you may need with you before starting.

 

Whether this is making sure you have a working pen, your phone charged up or just your diary to hand. 

 

You’ll find it so much easier to be productive and breeze through your to-do list if you have everything you need in front of you from the outset. 

 

Take breaks 

 

Have you ever been completely stuck on something, given up and then come back to it after a lovely cup of tea, only to realise the answer is staring right at you the whole time? 

 

Or, if you’ve plodded away all morning on something, had your lunch break and all of a sudden, what you would have thought would take you all afternoon to complete, actually took you no more than an hour? 

 

This is exactly why it’s so important to take regular breaks. It allows your body and mind to rest and reset.  

 

Unless I’m really in the zone, I rarely ever do anything for more than 40 minutes before taking a break.  

 

Alternatively, if I am working on something which I know will take me a few hours, I make sure to plan in a 30-60 minute break after 2-3 hours to really relax and well, just do nothing before going back to it. 

 

I hope you found my top productivity tips helpful and I can’t wait for you to implement some or all of them so you can achieve all your goals and live your best life.

 

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