Do MORE in less time with 2 skills
Productivity is one of the first topics to arise when people start looking into self development. The problem is that most people think of productivity in the context of having to “be more productive” which equates to “I need to be doing more.”
No no no no no.
Productivity is about efficiency. And the more efficient you are, the less time it takes to accomplish something.
There are 2 skills you need in your arsenal to be more efficient at everything you do. Keep reading for three actionable items you can use to get yourself started on honing these skills today.
These are skills I started honing before I even knew I was doing it. These are the skills that made it possible for me to finish studying for exams days before I had to take them; let me work two part-time jobs while attending school full-time; and, back in the day, be posting 2 YouTube videos, one blog post, and daily Instagram posts while working a nine-to-five. All of THAT while doing the normal day to day stuff like getting groceries, running errands, and keeping my house clean.
Once I became aware of exactly what those 2 skills were that I was using every day to make me so productive, it became a lot easier to stay productive or get back to being productive if I’d fallen off the wagon.
Let’s get locked in here because here they come.
The first skill you need to master to become more efficient is time management.
I know you’re disappointed because you feel like you’ve heard this one a thousand times but hear me out.
I used to have a friend who could not learn time management to save her life. When we would get together, she’d be like, “we have to do this, this, and this” and I’d be like, “but we have a dinner reservation at such and such time”. And she’d look at me completely serious and say “what, that’ll all take like two hours”.
She was NEVER right.
And if she ever did manage to cram our to-do list into two hours, everything was done sort of half-a**ed with cut corners. It ultimately created a rushed, unsatisfying experience for both of us.
You need to be realistic about how long it takes you to do something. Then set yourself up to be able to complete a task in that amount of time, or find ways to do the task in less time without sacrificing the output.
Which brings me to the second skill you need to be more productive and that is organization.
People underestimate the power of organization all the time, but hear me out.
There is one example of organization that every single person can relate to. Are you ready for it?
TRAVEL.
Whether you are that person or you’ve seen that person, the highly organized traveler is always having an easier time of it than the disorganized traveler. The person who has found the perfect airport bag, and the perfect cord keepers, and makes good use of the apps to streamline the security check-in and boarding processes.
When I see those people I am taking NOTES about the things they’ve found to get more organized and take the stress out of traveling.
If you can apply the same idea to your entire life, everything becomes more efficient. And I mean that both in terms of ease, and in terms of time-saving.
You lose so much time throughout the day when things that you need aren’t where you need them.
The shirt you want is still in the laundry. You’re trying to make a meal and the stuff you need is still in the dishwasher or the drying rack. Your drawers are just a jumble of stuff you have to paw through and detangle to get to what you need. You don’t know which purse has which lipstick in it. Your coffee mugs are on the side of the kitchen opposite the coffee pot.
Every little thing you can do to make tasks easier to complete will reduce your stress, save you time, and make you more efficient.
This is why so many people eventually stop using day planners, too. You take the time to plan your day and the things you want to accomplish, but even if you have the focus, discipline, and time management skills to get it all done, disorganization will undermine your time management every single time.
So in that sense, organization is even more important than time management.
To help you get started with this, I’ve identified 3 top organization tips that will give you the most forward momentum.
The first is to implement the concept of having a place for everything, and returning everything to its place.
Understand here that this doesn’t mean you need to have a minimalist aesthetic where there’s never anything on surfaces and drawers never get cluttered.
What it does mean is that you should identify a convenient home for everything you use while you’re working or creating, and make sure it gets returned there when you’re done with it.
A big one for me is my filming setup. I don’t have a dedicated filming space in my house, so every time I want to make a video I have to set up my tripod, get my camera lens, battery, and SD card, position my seat, set up my microphone, adjust the lighting, etc. before I can even get going. When all of my equipment is stuffed in a closet, or I have everything stored in different places, or haven’t returned my SD cards back to their bin at the end of the last filming session, I waste time trying to locate all of my equipment at the start of each setup.
Figure out where you’re going to need things, and make sure they get there.
The second thing to do to get yourself organized is a room reset. This is expanding upon the idea of having a place for everything and everything in its place. It means that whenever you’re done using a room, reset it to how you found it. Put the TV remote back on the coffee table and fold the sofa blanket when you get up. Make your bed in the mornings. Put your beauty products away after you do your hair and makeup in the morning.
Some people will argue that leaving everything out and about is more efficient because it’s already out the next time you need it. But that is only true if you are putting things down in the same spot all the time, know exactly where that spot it, and never need to move it out of your way.
A room reset is like restoring a space to blank canvas status; it’s ready for whatever activity you intend to conduct in that space.
And the third thing to do right now to be more productive and efficient is to figure out what kind of planning keeps you most on task.
For me, it’s simple lined notebooks I’ve been buying for years. I brain dump in them every day. They’ve got my to-do lists, workout plans, food tracking, content ideas, and shopping lists. You name it. It’s just what works for me and every time I’ve tried something else this is what I always come back to.
Some people love phone reminders, digital planners, apps like Goodnotes and Zinnia or Notion. Try a couple of different things and see what you enjoy actually using, what you’re most likely to pick up day after to day to make sure you’re staying on plan.
And a bonus tip for you here to wrap things up that goes along with that is to identify your “productivity gear”. If you need to get a planner, download an app, get a better bag for your commute, a different desk that has the appropriate cubbies for your work life. Whatever it is, you are definitely losing time every day trying to make the wrong productivity tools work for you.
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xo
Kelly
