Increase Productivity | List Producer

5 Friends to Boost Your Productivity

March 12, 2017/2 Comments/in Fellow List Producers, Happiness, Increase Productivity, People, Relationships/by Paula Rizzo

Whenever I start a new project or I want to try out a new idea for ListProducer.com I always run it past my friends first. It’s not just for their great advice, but because talking it through can often help me understand what I want from my project or idea.

Friends aren’t just great for advice they can help you to get more done. I’ve written before about having a friend as an accountability buddy, but friends can also push you to achieve more than you thought possible. For example, my friend Terri and I run an online course called Lights Camera Expert, which helps experts, entrepreneurs and authors get media attention. Read more

Bringing Back “Old School” Productivity Hacks

March 5, 2017/0 Comments/in Benefits of List Making, Books, Decision Making, Home, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, List Making, People, Reduce Stress, Saving Money, Saving Time, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

(Source)

As technology gets more and more advanced, we tend to forget how we used to do things.

Think of how shocked kids are when they hear how you did homework before the internet. (No one appreciates the dewey decimal system anymore!)

But are we becoming too reliant on technology? While it certainly makes our lives more convenient, we now bypass certain steps that helped us to stay on top of our organizational game.

Here are some ways kickin’ it “old school” will make you more productive:

Remember the Typewriter – This old piece of tech is symbolic of a whole generation, you’d be hard pressed to find a black and white movie that doesn’t include a typewriter. One of the downsides to the typewriter was that if you made a mistake you had to start over again. As much of a pain as this may be it made you more conscious of what you were typing. Read more

Guide to Getting Last-Minute Tasks Done Right

February 12, 2017/0 Comments/in Apps, Benefits of List Making, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, List Making, Reduce Stress, Saving Time, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

Whether you make a regular habit of it, or you get caught unexpectedly and have to change plans – at some point we will all have a project or tasks that get left to the last minute. So how do you deal with these last minute changes? If you’re a person who’s used to having everything planned out well in advance, (like me) something like this can really throw you off your game.

But it doesn’t have to.

Even when it feels like it’s impossible to get everything done in time, you can still manage your time most effectively.

So what do you do? Read more

Cross These Tasks Off Your To-Do List

February 5, 2017/2 Comments/in Apps, Decision Making, Fellow List Producers, Increase Productivity, People, Reduce Stress, Saving Time, Technology, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

I love outsourcing. I mean who wouldn’t? You get to take your to-do list and hand it off to someone else!

What’s not to love?

However it’s one of the few productivity suggestions that when I mention to people, the response I get tends to be dubious.

The answer I always get is, “Well, I dunno, I like to do things myself.”

Sound familiar?

I’m a control freak, so I get it. Letting someone else be responsible for a part of my business (even if it is only a very small one) can feel scary. But if I can get past the control freak fear, then why can’t other people.

I think that most people actually aren’t afraid to outsource – they just don’t know where to start!

For example, if you asked a child if they wanted to give up their chores, of course they’d be happy. But when you tell them they have to pick just one — the choice becomes a bit more difficult. Read more

Become an Email Warrior

January 29, 2017/0 Comments/in Fellow List Producers, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Saving Time, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

You ever do this? You look through your email – and mark all the stuff you don’t want to deal with as “unread” because you’ll get to it later. But the thing is you never do!

You know you’ve played this game with your email too.

An email inbox is just another thing to get clogged and untidy. I know what it’s like to have thousands of unread emails and it something that can so quickly spiral if you don’t stay on top of it. I even created a whole course around it.

I’m not the only person who has tried to tackle the issues brought up by email. Ann Gomez, a productivity whiz from Canada, has recently published her book, “The Email Warrior: A Succinct, Practical Guide to Help You Corral an Unwieldy Inbox.” Like me advocates trying to keep your inbox at zero – her approach can clear your inbox in less than 3 hours!

I was thrilled when Ann asked me to write a blurb for the back of her book. Here’s what I said:

“As a big believer of lists, there is one list that I do not like – and that is a long list of emails sitting in one’s inbox. I advocate a zero inbox policy with my clients because it streamlines life and makes us more productive. The Email Warrior is a succinct, practical guide to help you corral an unwieldy inbox. Busy professionals who are inundated with email will find this refreshing formula simple and attainable.”

Her book is designed to help you:

Process email most efficiently
Save time for other priorities
Take back control over email
Spend less time on email
Organize your digital storage
Simplify your life
Reduce stress

I hope you’ll check it out and that it helps you finally tackle that stubborn inbox! Let me know what you think if you do.