Last night I returned from a weekend conference (JVALERT LIVE), which was really fantastic in terms of the quality of speakers, the connections and the learning opportunities. One problem I find however, is that I get overwhelmed with the amount of information that is tumbling around in my head! YES, even the “experts” experience overwhelm at times! This week’s theme is going to teach you some steps that I use in order to be more productive and efficient.
I LOVE acronyms…I just do. Can’t help it, I think it’s the probably the teacher in me. So, for the purposes of this week’s post we are going to use the acronym F.O.C.U.S. Today’s tip will focus on the “F” word….(pun definitely intended!)
F is for Find the Time– Finding the time is the critical 1st step in using your time productively. And what I mean by finding the time is a purposeful use of your time. This means creating some goals about what is going to occur, how long is it going to take and what will the end result look like.
When I got home last night, I sat down for 15 minutes, created my “big picture” plan for the week and then started working backwards on what the details of the plan would look like day by day. This means figuring out what tasks are high priority or “high value” and how much time you are going to carve out for each one.
This can sometimes be difficult as if it’s a new task or something we are unfamiliar with, we’re not sure how much time we need to allot. I like to use the “Golden Hour” rule. This means that 1 hour gets devoted to one particular task. This is easier for some tasks than others.
For example, this morning I devoted exactly 1 hour to article writing. Some days I can write 5 articles in 1 hour, sometimes 2 is a struggle! (Quick tip: templates can make this job MUCH easier and there are lots of free ones out there.) But the point is 1 hour is all the time I’ve allotted for that task. Set a timer so that you are aware of when the hour is up. Reward yourself with a stretch or a cup of coffee, a Hershey kiss, whatever for 10 minutes before moving onto the next task.
STOP trying to multitask! Most entrepreneurs have a difficult time with this concept. You will be much more productive if you see one task through to completion OR within a certain time frame rather than trying to write articles, answer email, the phone, tweet…etc. you get the idea.
That’s it for today…tomorrow is the “O” factor! Any guesses on what the “O” stands for? If you guess correctly, you’ll win a 30 minute complimentary call with me to discuss where you need help focusing:-)
Warmly,
Danielle
The Toolbox Teacher
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