Do you feel like life is more demanding than ever, and that effective productivity is hard to achieve? Workdays (and too often, nights) are packed with back-to-back meetings and Zoom calls, Slack notifications and email alerts. Productivity can be elusive.
Maybe you feel like you’re doing more but accomplishing less that rewards you. Increasingly, we’re seeing toxic productivity, where pressure to meet unrealistic expectations zaps physical and mental energy, damaging motivation and self-esteem. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
As a certified professional organizer® and productivity coach, I work with clients who are struggling with feelings of being overwhelmed, focus challenges, lack of flow and procrastination. However, some simple strategies can counteract these obstacles, maximize results and improve quality of life.
Defeat Feelings of Being Overwhelmed by Concentrating on Priorities
Start by doing “a brain dump.” Everyone knows that panicky feeling of having too much to do and no idea where to begin. But you can’t plan until you’re clear on where you want to end up. If you have competing obligations with differing priorities–whether that’s two managers with conflicting expectations or too many exciting directions in which to take your own business. Write down everything you need and want to do. (A digital list is more flexible, but paper is fine.) Once you get everything out of your head, you can focus on context.
Apply the Eisenhower Matrix to weigh the relative value of tasks and obligations. Slot tasks in one of four quadrants identifying what is important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, or neither important nor urgent. (Recognize that a task’s urgency increases as deadlines approach, and importance can vary as workplace goals change.)
Plan each day the evening before so that you can eliminate anxiety over the unknown. Schedule important tasks for when you have the energy to complete them. Yes, unexpected urgent and important tasks may force you to rearrange your priorities on some days, but by analyzing importance and urgency up front, you’ll never rush to put out a fire and find that it’s only just a firefly.
Consider the 1-2-3 method. Identify one big thing (determined not by the amount of work but the immensity of the potential result), two medium tasks, and three small things you are going to do tomorrow. Remember to list executable tasks, not entire projects. It’s not that you won’t accomplish (many) other things throughout your day, but a short list keeps your eyes on the prize for the day’s intentions. If it won’t fit on a sticky note, it won’t fit in your day!
Protect Your Focus
Whether we’re vital cogs in a corporate machine or the chief cook and bottle-washer in our own business, so many sensory inputs compete for our attention. Our success is at the mercy of how willing we are to be gatekeepers of our time.
Guard against interruptions by setting boundaries. If you were in a meeting with your most important client, you wouldn’t interrupt the flow of conversation to answer a text or check notifications. Think of yourself as your biggest client, and prioritize protecting that relationship from distractions.
Turn off notifications. If not all of the time, try this at during your high mental energy periods where you stand the biggest chance of achieving your creative goals. Set global do-not-disturb functions on your computer and mobile devices to achieve uninterrupted focus. If you have an office door, close it. Open floor plan? Try noise-canceling headphones.
Communicate your boundaries to set expectations. Your outgoing voicemail message and email signature block might reference that you are unavailable from 10-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3:45 p.m. but that you will check and respond later. Nobody needs to know you were in a meeting with yourself.
Be intentional about where you place your attention and efforts, and you’ll feel more inspired throughout your day. Do you really need to be in every meeting or on so many committees? Do you schedule meetings that could’ve been emails? Would your direct reports appreciate more time to do their work and less time having to discuss it? Recognize that to each activity to which you say, “no” gives you an opportunity to say, “heck, yes!” to ones more in line with your values and priorities.
Don’t let your inbox determine your to-do list. Learn how to use your email platform’s rules function to move newsletters, mailing lists, and lower-priority messages to subfolders; if you’re afraid you’ll forget to check what’s not right in front of your eyes, set a daily alert (and block time) to review those sub-folders.
Create Flow and Conquer Procrastination
Many of us instinctively respond to requests to serve others. We’re less adept at sticking to commitments to ourselves. Three of my favorite strategies (used in concert with prioritization and good boundaries) can help you keep the mojo going and stay in the zone.
Implement time blocking. Rather than reacting to other people’s so-called emergencies, proactively plan your schedule by creating blocks of times for specific types of work in accordance with your energy patterns.
After scheduling fixed obligations that aren’t under your control, you might block 90-minute appointments with yourself for creative tasks (like blogging, writing presentations, creating videos or podcasts) on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. Extroverts who need to rev their engines by interacting with others could slot candidate interviews or one-on-one meetings in the mornings.
Group related tasks (like marketing, financial tasks, or responding to calls or emails) together so you can build on small victories and achieve flow, a mental state where you are immersed and have focused energy. Regularly scheduled blocks become rituals and habits, conditioning you to anticipate success, reducing anxiety.
Slot time blocks in your week for physical, mental, and intellectual self-care so that you are always in peak condition to face work and life.
The Pomodoro Technique is a stellar way to create flow and dispel procrastination. At its most basic, you identify a task goal and set a timer to work on it for 25 minutes. (Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, the shape/design of traditional Italian kitchen timers.) At the end of 25 minutes, take a short break, and then do another 25-minute Pomodoro. Lather, rinse, repeat.
If you’re interrupted or get distracted, begin anew. It may seem silly, but it’s a great way to trick your brain into getting you into the flow state. It’s similar to how we may avoid doing a workout, but once we get even five minutes in, our attention is on the physical experience instead of why we were avoiding it.
Body-double with an accountability partner to crush procrastination. This technique, borrowed from attention deficit disorder coaching, has individuals quietly work side-by-side on similar projects, like studying or writing. You and a colleague can decamp to the conference room or set up a video meeting and mute your microphones. While you work toward your own goals, your brain sees this as a partnership and strives to uphold your end of the bargain. There are even “work gyms” like Caveday and Ultraworking, which facilitate group accountability sessions.
Eliminate Tangible Excess and Remember What Matters
As a professional organizer, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two additional keys. First, time management systems work most effectively when your analog and digital workspaces are decluttered and organized. If you know where your resources and information are, you can quickly pivot when circumstances change.
Second, remember that productivity isn’t really about doing more; it’s about doing more of the things that help you achieve your goals, so that at the end of the day, you can walk away from work and toward the people and activities that fulfill you.
Julie Bestry is a certified professional organizer®, Evernote certified expert, and president of Best Results Organizing in Chattanooga. For 20 years, she has helped her residential, home-office, and small business clients save time and money, reduce stress and increase productivity. In addition to working one-on-one with clients, she teaches workshops and webinars, has blogged as Paper Doll since 2007, and is the author of several books, including “57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business,” “Do I Have to Keep This Piece of Paper?” and “Tickle Yourself Organized.”