I?ve taken time to write down 20 of the most effective ways I?ve found useful in keeping productivity at a sustainable level and personal sanity at as high as possible (muy importante). There?s quite a bit of material here, so bookmark this page and feel free to reference it as much as you need.
Here we go!
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Task Blocks & Prioritization
- Chunk your day into 1-3 hour task-oriented time blocks. I cannot tell you how great this approach is. Well, yes, I can. Blocking out my days has helped me be 200% more productive this year than last year (yes, I?ve been keeping track). That?s pretty major!
- Keep times specific and focused. When you sit down to create the time blocks, make sure the task is clearly defined and not a general ?work on project x.? I like to drill down into my tasks / projects and write out specific steps to completion. Some projects aren?t not as easily defined, i.e. initial concepts for design work. For those items, I try to break up the research portion, sketches and wireframes, then move to Photoshop or InDesign to flush out what?s in my head.
- During these times, do not answer your phone (unless making/taking a phone call is the task).
- Stay off of time-sucking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. If you do not trust yourself, there are services available to block you from specified websites for specified periods of time. This is genius for those of us who have SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome). Here?s a great article with several resources.
- When you think of something else that needs to get done, write it down and forget about it until the task at hand is complete.
- Do not, I repeat, DO NOT check your email! Checking email will be the death of your productivity. Only refer to emails that pertain to your task. OR, better yet, take notes from those emails and then close your email for the duration of the task time block.
- Prioritize 2-3 tasks per day. TOTAL. No more. Ever. I?m not kidding. Brains can only handle so much. They are awesome and can be super efficient but only if we keep them from being overload. If you prioritize and only set out to accomplish 2-3 tasks instead of the usual 10, you will be so much more effective and productive. It seems counter intuitive, but it works.
Batch Tasks (daily, weekly, monthly)
Using your task blocks, do things in bulk.
- Daily: Check email only once per day. I set aside 30 min ? 1 hr each day for email. During this time I respond to emails and send necessary updates to clients. Sometimes I use a service for Google Apps called Boomerang (available for Gmail to). It allows you to do two things: 1. Send emails at a later time ? this helps avoid the back and forth; 2. Notify you if they have not responded within a certain amount of time. This helps keep myself and my clients on-task and on-time.
- Weekly: Batch attack your social media (if you?re into that sort of thing). I sit down once a week for an hour or two and come up with content for 2 weeks of social media posts. I use a similar approach for blogging. For each of these tasks, I use Hootsuite.com and the scheduling feature within my WordPress site.
- Monthly:?Get your books up to date once per month. Keep this as a priority over all things (even paid work). This is important! You gots to invoice and you gots to track your cash money.
Healthy Amounts of Work
Here?s one that 99% of my awesome designer friends suck at?keep a regular, non-crazy schedule.
- Do not over commit. Sometimes, this means turning work away or telling people you are booked up for the next 2-4 weeks. That?s okay! This will show people you are in demand and willing to create (and stick to) boundaries.
- Be reasonable in your timelines and pad them.
- No more crazy long days. Those 12 hour days will kill your creativity and possibly any promise of a healthy life outside of work. Limit yourself on how many hours you work per day. Personally, I cannot be doing intense conceptual work for more than 3-4 hours, max. I have to switch gears and work on tasks that are less right-brain taxing.
- Save weekends for fun, not more work. Time away from your work will help your mind to focus on other things and therefore, be more creative in problem solving. Minds and bodies need rest.
Exercise
I?m not going to tell you to start running every day, so please, bear with me.
- Find something active (i.e. something that gets you out of the office chair and gets your heart rate up) that you enjoy doing. Incorporate it into your week. This could be as simple as walking or as adventurous as unicycling. Exercise helps me clear my head, keeps my aches and pains at bay. It also seems to stimulate the creative part of my brain.
Make Time for Food
Don?t forget the bacon!
- When my energy is down, my creativity and my ability to be productive goes out the window. I?ve learned to set timers for my tasks and, literally, schedule when I am going to each lunch each day. Sometimes I will bring snacks into my office if I know I?m going to need the time during lunch to finish a project. I don?t recommend making a habit of this but nonetheless, you must eat!
Quality Time with [fill in the blank].
Getting in a little socialization throughout the week does a designer good. I often have a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head and it helps to talk it out.
- Family Meeting. My husband and I have Family Meeting once a week for 2-3 hours. This covers the obvious scheduling and budgeting topics but we also touch base on side projects and business stuff too.
- Best friend ?Walk About, Talk About.? Another person I intentionally connect with is my best friend. She lives across the state so in leu of face to face time, we walk our dogs and talk on the phone for 45 minutes. Again, sharing ideas and catching up.
- Get a group of like-minded people together on a regular basis. I?ve started meeting once a week with a group of other local designers. It?s starting out small (there are 3-4 of us that attend regularly), but I know it will grow. There are really great things that come out of this type of gathering. Great side projects, collaboration, support, and, in our case, a co-working space.We?re working on finding a place to rent at the moment, but I am really excited about working side-by-side with other designers in a cool space. More to come on this later.
Peaceful Start to Your Day
Rather than waking up and checking your email while you sip your coffee, start out with something quite and inspirational. Skip the overwhelming inbox.
- In the early morning, after coffee but before I officially sit down at my desk, I read. Sometimes I read fantastically inspirational books like The $100 Startup (totally recommend). Other times, I catch up on the blogs I subscribe to, which mostly focus on business and design. I find this time in the morning to be peaceful, invigorating and inspirational.
Making major changes in your day to day can be daunting, so make little changes over an extended period of time. Each week, take one or two of the above items that you find applicable and helpful and take it for a test drive for a couple weeks. There?s no need to change everything at once. I still struggle with these things too.
Somedays, these things just don?t happen, whether it?s a creativity block or low energy. I?ve learned it is better to just go with these and allow them to happen rather than feel guilty all day and not enjoy myself. Now and then, these are okay. When I get these days, I will go to the park with my dog, take a nap, or watch Hulu and Netflix. I have to work hard at not feeling guilty but it is important to remind yourself: this is your f-ing business. You can do what you want.
It has taken me a couple months to get to the point where I regularly incorporate all of the items. I hope these prove to be helpful to you as they have been invaluable to my business? health and moreover, my personal well-being.
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