Reduce Stress and Unlock Your Most Productive Workday
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BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
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Finding new ways to motivate yourself, stay focused, and be productive throughout the day can be tricky. Between working from home, hybrid work, and stress, there’s a lot that can hold you and your employees back.
I was interviewed for two free seminars at Entrepreneur.com by their Digital Editorial Director Dan Bova. We chatted about common workplace stressors and solutions to decrease stress and get the right things done throughout the day.
Here are four tips from my Entrepreneur webinars.
1) Eliminate Common Distractions.
Communication is so important. (Especially when working from home.) Discuss when you have meetings with the other people in your home. Block out your work calendar.
Give yourself focus time and let people know you’re unavailable.
Another great way to eliminate distractions is to use a distraction placeholder. The bottom left hand corner of my to-do list is empty for this reason.
Before I answer the phone or answer the door or whatever is interrupting me, I pause. I ask myself, “what am I in the middle of doing?” and then I write it down in the distraction placeholder spot.
So when I return from the distraction, I know exactly where to jump back in.
For more on how to eliminate distractions check out this episode of Inside Scoop.
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2) Tap Into Your Personal Productivity Style.
You have to know yourself.
When do you feel most energized?
When do you get the most done?
Once you know what time you work for you, you can protect it and plan your day accordingly. If you need a little help I have several exercises in my book Listful Living to get you more familiar with how you work best.
Place the things you need more energy to do at your most productive time of day.
Check in with yourself about how you feel after you get things done. How much energy did you use? How do you feel? Use that information to help figure out which tasks to do at what time of day and which tasks to eliminate.
Knowing your productivity style is extremely powerful.
3) Schedule Shorter Meetings (Or Don’t Have the Meeting at All.)
Meetings can become incredibly long with small talk or at the end when everyone keeps bringing up “one last thing”.
Having an agenda allows everyone to know exactly what to be prepared with and what will be covered. This will keep them running on time and eliminate wastes of time.
Another way to cut down on meeting time is to not have meetings! Send videos or voice memos instead!
It is easier to say things instead of writing an email sometimes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have a call or meeting. You can send videos through programs like Vidyard or voice memos through different programs (I use Slack also) and say what you need and people can listen or watch whenever they have the time. (Instead of you becoming one of the distractions in their day!)
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4) Mastering a To-Do List.
People ask me all the time what pen or what notebook I use. I’ll let you in on a secret…
It doesn’t matter!
It’s less about your tools and more about setting up your list in a way that works for you and your productivity style.
And also about building rewards into your day. Take breaks. Give yourself a treat throughout the day. It will help you feel better and stay productive.
Another great tip is to time your tasks. Knowing how long things will really take you will cut down on procrastination and prevent you from adding too many things to your to-do list. (You only have 24 hours in a day!)
After some trial and error, you’ll be able to use your list to set your boundaries and protect your time and have a super productive day.
For more productivity tips to reduce stress throughout your work day check out the full webinars “Simple Productivity Tips to Reduce Workplace Stress” and “Five Keys to Unlocking a Truly Productive Workday” at Entrepreneur.com.
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BONUS FREEBIE: Want even more ways to stay organized, productive and less stressed? Click here to get access to my List-Making Starter Kit. It will boost your efficiency and get you back to doing more of the things you love.
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