8 Efficiency and Productivity Tips You Can Start Using Right Now
Throughout this book, you’ve seen the occasional productivity tip as we work through the first basic steps in working with a virtual team. We might just have a few more up our sleeves.
1. Start every week with a review.
Find 10 things you did last week that just frigging ruled. Write them down. Tell yourself:
Seem silly? It’s how some of the top performers we work with motivate themselves and remember that thing they were supposed to do that they forgot to write down or tell anyone and remind themselves that what they did this week was meaningful and useful.
This matters when no one else is giving you an annual review, a gold star, or a raise.
2. After you’ve done your review, look ahead. Write down:
Completing tasks 1 & 2 will help you murder the week ahead.
3. Work within your optimal hours.
There are some ideas out there that everyone wins when they get up at 5 in the morning. This is incredibly powerfully not true. If you are a night owl, then you win when you sleep in and have the opportunity to rest, because you were up late last night, creating between the hours of 10 pm and 2 pm (as Admin Slayer founder Krysten does). If you’re a morning person, then you win when you get to bed before 10 and are up around 5 or 6 am, working immediately when you jump out of bed (as Admin Slayer founder Julia does). Create the workspace time that works for you and your industry. You are the boss, after all. Book your important in-person meetings and calls for when your brain is firing on all circuits, whenever possible.
4. At the beginning of each day, set 3 “must do” tasks for the day.
It may not seem like enough, but trust us it is. If you get those three things done today, you win. If you get more done, you’re a goddamn superstar and it’s high fives all around. Leave room for high fives. You need them.
5. Take breaks. This is not a joke.
Entrepreneurs are famous for burning out because they work 60+ hours a week without a break. Studies have proven that we are more creative and more productive when we rest and when we take regular breaks. When we exercise, get up from our desks, and move around. When we eat healthy, sleep well, see our friends, and spend time with our families.
6. At the end of every day, clean up your workspace, and write a list of your attainable tasks for tomorrow.
Remember that most people overestimate their task ability, which can make you feel like you did nothing, you’re a failure, and you should go grovel to your old boss for your job back. You’re looking for attainable the point above which anything more is just gravy.
7. Keep a pair of “work shoes” if you’re a work-at-home person like us.
Put them on when you start work, take them off during breaks and at the end of the day. Don’t ask us why, it just works.
8. Find your jam.
“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast” (The Mourning Bride, by William Congreave). Yes, music matters. It makes your brain happy, it makes your heart happy, and it helps you avoid burning those bridges you so carefully built. Some of our business owners like death metal hey, we’re not judging others prefer classical, and still others like music in languages that they don’t speak. The point is to find something that stimulates your brain without distracting it.
