Raquel’s Tips for Staying Productive

When I’m out speaking or doing a presentation for someone, this question ALWAYS gets asked:  “How do you find the time to do all this stuff?” They are typically asking because I’ve just told them about social media and it seems overwhelming, or, I’ve given them some tips on how to build and implement a marketing plan and they think there is no way they can find the time to do these things. Well, you can.

My disclaimer here is that… this is what has worked for me. I’m not a productive guru, I typically have lots of emails in my inbox and I never scratch all the things off my to do list. When it comes to my work, though, I do make sure that what needs to get done does.

1. Don’t watch T.V. Yep, it’s odd, but I just don’t. I rarely like the shows, I cannot sit still that long and I would rather be doing something else. Not watching T.V. gives me gobs of time that most people use for viewing the box.
2. Block time. I block time together well. On Tuesdays, I am typically out of the office because I’m out meeting clients, meeting prospects, networking, etc. When I need to sit down to do some design work, I make sure I have a few things that need done and I knock those all out at once.
3. Line time. When I am in line somewhere, anywhere, I reply to email. When I get back to the office, it’s most likely already in process or done. This helps when you have an awesome team like I’m lucky to have.
4. Exercise. That doesn’t seem productive, but for me, exercising keeps me sane, happy and healthy… which allows me to be my best when it’s time to sit down and work.
5. Use the phone. This one has taken me a long time to get use to, but I use the phone a lot more now than I ever have. It’s just quicker to handle something and be done with it than to respond and wait for an answer, i.e. which for me translates to use up brainpower on something I cannot control.
6. Do one more thing. I play a trick with myself during the week days that when I’m ready to call it a day, I make myself do one more thing. Obviously I’m  not biting off a four hour project for this task, but I do one more thing I can get done today instead of adding one more thing on my plate tomorrow.
7. Learn in the car. I rarely hit the road without a purposeful CD read to go. That’s not saying it’s always work related, but it’s something I want to make time to know more about or hear the story. Car time is a great time for that stuff. My husband schedules conference calls on his drive time. I don’t like that so I stay away from that type of activity, but maybe it will work for you.
8. Do what I want first. Here is where I’m going against the grain – lots of people say Eat That Frog or do what you hate to do first. Well, I try never to do something I hate doing, so that takes care of that. If I have a frog that needs eaten I plan that out for a dinner sometime later. I make time for that specifically when it’s best for me to do that work.
9. Use your network. If I don’t know how to do something, I typically call a friend or ask on social media for help. You can easily spend hours or days trying to do something, but it’s much easier and productive to just phone in a favor. People like to help, let them help you.

Please add your productive tips in our comments section. I would love to hear your tricks!