How to Make Productivity Work For You

11 Oct

“ It took a long time for me to get comfortable with making my hours work for me, which was the main reason I wanted to work for myself. The 9-5 just wasn’t for me.”

— Jess, Co-Founder

Not too long ago, I was guilty of being one of those people who firmly believed you had to be working at least 8 hours a day (often substantially more), in order to be working “properly”. Back in my corporate career, it was commonplace for me to work 12-15 hour days without even batting an eyelid. What was the culmination of doing that? Total burn out.

When Laura and I started The Doers, I made an active decision to develop my productivity skills. It took a long time for me to get comfortable with making my hours work for, the main reason I wanted to work for myself. The 9-5 never really worked for me. I’m far more productive in the evening than I am the mornings. I have an energy lull almost every day mid afternoon. And I’ve always been that way. Working for myself meant I had the flexibility to create a structure that worked for my productivity schedule.

One of the biggest learnings I have made so far, is that eliminating water cooler moments, pointless meetings and periodically closing emails/Slack/social notifications etc, means that I can get the bulk of my work done in 4 hour work days. If you think about your time in an office structure (if you’ve worked in that environment), and count the time you spend making coffee, chatting to colleagues, sat in meetings that seem utterly pointless, endless catch ups vs the amount of time you spend actually doing your job, I bet you’ll land on roughly the same time frame.

Working smartly and efficiently with my time opens up more opportunity to work on growing The Doers, networking, learning, taking time for myself, resting, travelling and ultimately creating the best work/life balance I’ve ever had.

Whilst I’m still very much at the start of my productivity journey, here are some of the things I’ve learnt so far that might help you start yours:

Eliminate pointless meetings - make sure every meeting put in your calendar has a clear purpose. Will a project you’re working on move forward off the back of that meeting? Will you learn or gain something to better your work? Will you pass on knowledge that will help someone else with their work? If not, hit decline.

Switch off all notifications for at least an hour a day - choose your most productive time of day and within that time frame, close your emails, turn off your social media and Slack notifications, put your head down and get through the bigger tasks lingering on your to do list. Do this every day and you’ll never have an unproductive week.

Give your brain breathing space - working under pressure rarely works out well for your mental health. Take that walk. Go to that gym class. Cook a meal. Do something that helps switch your mind off when things feel too much. This might feel counterintuitive but will give your head more clarity when you sit back down at your laptop and you’ll find yourself working more efficiently as a result.

Tackle your biggest task first during your productive hours - don’t put off the big stuff. Aim to get one big thing off your to do list a day and you’ll end the week patting yourself on the back.