4 Hacks to Be More Productive This Year

A new year means new beginnings, new plans & new goals! I decided to share my tips and tricks for staying productive and motivated even if you’re still working from home!

DITCH THE PAPER PLANNER

This year I opted for a digital planning system that I can use on my iPad, Mac and Phone. I purchased it from a shop on Etsy and downloaded it into an app called Goodnotes. (Goodnotes is a note taking app that allows you to use your apple pencil and if you want, will even convert your handwriting to text! You can also type as you would on your phone or computer.) I love this eco friendly solution that allows me to be creative, is super easy to edit and I can peak at wherever I am from any of my devices. It even syncs with your calendar! This completely eliminates the need for me to carry around a paper planner since I can view everything from my phone! I will link some options below!

DESIGNATE A WORK SPACE & LIMIT DISTRACTIONS

Right now I’m struggling with this myself… I mean… as I’m writing this I’m sitting on the couch with a blanket and friends is on in the background! LOL My office is a complete wreck right now and is in the process of being re-done so my workspace has become the couch! Just keepin’ it real. If you can I highly recommend finding a space that you can designate as the space you go to WORK! It’s more of a mental head game if you know what I mean… you can trick yourself into being more productive because that is the place you go to get *ish done! Ya feel me?

DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST

This is something I learned in my corporate days. Each day I would make myself a list of the things that were most important to get done and I made sure to do those first so that I wasn’t stressed out later if they didn’t get accomplished! This helps your sanity and makes you more productive because you’re motivated to get those important things out of the way FIRST and you can rest easy when the work day is over knowing your top priorities are completed!

TAKE A BREAK

This may seem counterintuitive but I swear… it works. If you’re anything like me, after sitting down to tackle my prioritized to - do list I start thinking about other things that need done. I might be typing up a blog post and look over and notice the floor needs to be swept or an email notification pops up from a someone important and I feel compelled to respond right then. When this happens I get super anxious (honestly just typing that made me anxious…) and what I have found that helps is to just take a step back. Some ways I do this are taking the pups for a walk, going to get a snack or reading a few pages of a book. Just something that will help me get out of my head so that when I sit back down to work I’m re-focused!