Every day we each get 86,400 seconds.
What we do with those seconds literally
determines our entire lives.
So how do we take our time and to become
so productive where we're not just trying
to do all the things,
we're not busy fools, we're not procrastinating,
we're not just drifting aimlessly?
How do we become as productive
as Bill Gates and Sarah Blakely?
I'm going to share with you some amazing
productivity hacks so that you can become as productive
as the most successful people on the planet.
Hello! I am so excited that you're here right now
because I'm talking about something
that is just so important for all of us.
That is how to actually make the most of our time.
Now as you're here, I'm guessing that you are
someone that has got big, big dreams.
I feel like we want to build really successful businesses
and in order to do that we have to be really,
really on it with how we are spending our time.
I think the problem is that we don't know
how to actually manage our schedules
in a way that is effective.
How do we do it without cramming so much
and that we feel totally overwhelmed?
How do we do it so that we actually know
what on earth we should be prioritizing?
So I'm going to be sharing these productivity tips
and hacks with you
and also some really powerful tools you can use,
and these things have helped me so, so much.
So obviously with time, I think the biggest reason
why people don't make the most of it
is because they actually don't have clarity around
where it is they're trying to get to,
what it is they actually need to do.
Bill Gates once said that,
"Time is our most precious commodity.
Money can't buy us anymore of it."
We all have the same amount of time.
So the clearer you get on what you actually want
to make happen with your time,
the more likely it is that
you're going to become super productive.
And so for any of you out there that are in this phase
where you're just not sure, you know you want more,
you want to be more successful or create more,
but you're just lacking a bit of clarity.
I want to share something with you
that I once heard Sarah Blakely say.
So she said that she basically used her manifesting skills
to figure out how to get clarity around
what she was going to make happen in her life.
So she actually wrote in her journal
that she was going to create a product,
sell it to millions of people, and it was going to be
something that would make people feel good.
That is literally all she wrote, all she knew.
She put it in there and she trusted that somehow
the universe was going to deliver an idea to her.
Two years later the idea arrived and Spanx was born.
And obviously it's since become a billion dollar company,
which is incredible.
So if you are at that phase right now where
you're just a bit all over the place,
things feel a bit wishy washy,
open yourself up for getting clarity.
Like if you're a bit woo-woo like me,
ask the universe for help.
Write down what it is that you want to achieve.
You don't have to have the perfect pitch,
you don't have to have the exact idea right now.
You have to have clarity around what it is that you want
to make happen in your life.
So get that clarity so you at least know
what the direction that you're headed in
and then trust that somehow the universe
is going to give you what it is that you want.
I do it all the time and it's unbelievably powerful.
It's insane what can happen when you just open yourself up
to getting that clarity and I swear once you have that clarity,
your life is going to change so much
and you will be able to make so much more of your time.
Getting on to like looking at your day to day productivity
and how you can make the most of your time,
I always say when you're trying to figure out
how to become better at something,
you need to look at where you're at right now
and create that awareness.
So whenever I feel like I've completely
fallen off the bandwagon with productivity
and I'm just like,
"Oh my gosh, I am not getting anything done.
I just feel like everything's a mess
and everything feels overwhelming."
I take a step back and I start to pay attention
to what on earth I'm doing with my time.
I time track. And this is so powerful.
Every time I start doing this,
it instantly shifts in my mindset and I'm like,
“Oh, wow. I can waste a lot of time.”
So it's as simple as going and getting a piece of paper
and tracking everything you do in a day.
From the moment you wake up to the moment
you go to sleep, tracking what you're doing.
So if you wake up and you go make a cup of tea right down
"At 6:00 AM I went downstairs, I made a cup of tea,"
or you'll put 6:00 AM to 6:20 or whatever.
And literally track everything.
The breakfast, calls that you have,
moments of time when you just do nothing.
When you go for a walk,
when you actually do productive work.
And literally as you go through the day
and you're doing something,
just pay attention and just track it.
If you want, you could put a reminder in your phone
to go off every hour just to prompt you, okay,
what have you been doing in the last hour?
And then just write it down what you've been doing.
If you do this, I promise you it will be so eye opening.
This in itself is going to be transformational.
So I often track my time for one to three days so I can see
"where am I spending my time? Where am I feeling stuck?
What is actually going on in my day?"
So try that out and then you can see what's going on.
The next thing we need to do is...
Because for all of us, when we're building businesses
there's so many different areas we're focusing on.
We need to figure out how we're going to
create products and services how we're actually going to
get our products and services out there,
how we are going to actually operate our business.
Looking at building our team, HR stuff.
There's so many different things to think about.
Admin, emails, all of it, social media.
What I found really helpful is to categorize
the core areas that you have to focus on.
So for example,
it might be the content creation is a core area,
marketing / visibility is core area,
calls are a core thing that you have as part of your business.
You've got admin, you've got operations, you've got finance,
you've got your CEO kind of activities;
working on the business, not in the business.
And potentially you've got reviews.
So if you have a team of people working for you,
you've got to make time as well to review what's going on,
assess what's happening.
Those might be some core areas.
So if you have a think about your business right now,
think about what are the categories of work
that you have that makes sense for you and your business?
Sit down and write out what those categories are.
I promise that in itself is going to help you feel so much
better to then organize.
So then, step three
is looking at what do you need to do
on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
What tasks have you got going on?
What things do you have to do every day?
What things do you have to get done every week, every month?
And just sit and make a list of everything
that you can think of from planning out content,
to scheduling social media, to checking on your emails.
Literally what I do is I make a list of my daily actions,
I make a list of my weekly actions
and I make a list of my monthly actions.
And I look at it and I think,
"okay, once a month I'll have to sit down
and go through my finances.
Every day I have to go and check in on my emails
and do admin stuff.
Every day I have to go and do Instagram stories",
whatever it might be. Just kind of have a look.
And then once you have done that,
then look at what categories those tasks fall under.
So is it an admin task? Is it a finance task?
Is it an operations task? Is it a marketing task?
You could start categorizing your work so that
you can actually make time for all this stuff
so you don't forget about stuff.
Once you've done that, the next step is
to break everything down.
You've got your recurring tasks, but then you've got
to look at what projects you've got going on.
What are your core priorities right now?
You might have a project that is to launch
a membership site, let’s say.
How are you going to break down that project
so that you can bring it to life within your schedule?
Bill Gates is...
I've seen documentaries of him talking about
how he time blocks and sometimes...
He's so disciplined with his time.
He allocates literally every minute of the day to something.
And it might be that he dedicates five minutes
of his day to one particular task,
but he's scheduled that time in, so he's going to do it.
It's looking at your time and how are you planning it out
so that you make the most of it?
So you have to take these projects that you've got
and these tasks that you've got and find a way
to break it all down and then time block into your schedule,
into your calendar so that you make time for those things.
If you have a step, daily, weekly, monthly schedule for yourself
of things you've got going on all the time.
So maybe on a Friday you do a CEO time slot with yourself
and that's where you're going to review things
and you're going to look at the big picture.
Where are you going?
Are you in tune or are you on track with your vision?
Every Friday you might have that kind of
booked in with yourself.
So around that you can look at how are you going to
book in the work you've got to do on your projects?
Every single one of us has priorities
and we have to get clear on what those priorities are.
For most of us, as entrepreneurs it depends on
what season of business you're in.
But for most of us, visibility is absolutely a core priority.
We have to work on how are we getting ourselves out there?
How are we getting our businesses out there
and getting more people to discover us
so they want to become fans and subscribers and customers?
So that for example, for me is a huge priority
so a huge chunk of my time each week
is dedicated to visibility.
It's planned into my calendar so that I dedicate that time to it.
Because if I didn't, the days would go by
and I would forget to focus on visibility
and it would fall off the table and I would then not be able
to have the impact that I can have if my focus goes to that.
It's identifying what do you actually need to focus on
and prioritize and how are you breaking that down
into chunks of time that you can set into your calendar
so that you can actually work on it and get it done?
Take some time to map all out.
I personally find it much more helpful to do it
on a big piece of paper and just to kind of get
everything out of my head onto paper.
And then once I've done that,
I can put it into my Google calendar
and have those chunks of time allocated, or into my...
Every day I have my daily planner as well.
So everyday I know what's going on.
Okay. I know I've talked about a lot so far.
How are you doing? Is it going in?
Definitely leave a comment and let me know.
And also let me know if you have questions
around this stuff that you want more clarity with more,
want more help with. I am here to help you,
so I would love to answer your questions.
So the next step is this. Every Sunday...
I love Sundays.
You can decide what day you want to do it,
but every Sunday evening I sit down and plan out my week.
I look at what my schedule kind of looks like
in terms of daily, weekly activities.
I look at my priorities and I figure out
what time blocks I need to allocate for my priorities.
And I literally go through Monday through Friday
and make a plan for each day of what I need to do.
Now, sometimes it's not super detailed.
It might not be really, really detailed,
but it's like, "okay, this two hour timeframe is to work
on coming up with all my Instagram posts for the week.
This three hour time slot is to work on our content
for the next quarter, so I plan it out so it's broad.
It's not really, really specific.
Every week you want to make that weekly plan for yourself
so that you have clarity and you're really on it
and you're organized with how are you going to make
the most of your time that week?
I think it's so important to say at this point
we all need to create wiggle room for ourselves.
None of us are perfect.
I am absolutely not perfect when it comes to productivity.
It's one of the things I struggle with the most,
which is why I have to work on it the most.
And I think often I get to the point where
I pull my schedule together and then I get bored of it
and I'm like, "Oh, I don't want to do the schedule anymore.
I just don't want to do it.
I just want to kind of be more creative
and let inspiration strike.” And you know what?
It's totally fine to go through those phases and to change it up.
I just think we're not robots.
We have to do what works best for us.
So for me, I know that I have periods of the year
where I'm in more of a creative mode
and I'm more easygoing.
And then there's other times when I've literally
got to get so much done and I need to get really organized
and disciplined with my time and I have to get
really structured with myself and my time.
So I just think give yourself permission for it
to not be perfect, for this to not be something
that you have to be so rigid about all the time.
Okay, some of us have personalities where
that actually really works but I think for a lot of us
we are creative and we reach a point
where we're just like, "Enough of this.
I can't do this anymore.
I need a bit of a break from it."
And I just think that it's fine.
I think it's also good to book in time throughout the week
so that it's not all completely jam packed
and that you have got room for unexpected things that pop up.
Room to be creative, room to just do other stuff
that isn't necessarily really planned in.
So yeah, that's really, really important.
Aside from sitting down and actually
making a plan for the week, every single evening
I make a plan for the next day and that plan is really detailed.
That plan is email this person, message this person about this,
go and look at this document and review it,
go and have this call at this time.
So that's where I actually use my physical planner
and I create that schedule for myself
so I know what I'm doing at what time,
and I've got my list of things that I actually really need
to get done that day. So it's a lot more detailed.
That really helps me to be super productive in a day
because I know specifically what I have to get done.
So I do that the night before.
If you do this and you kind of work
that plan based on where you're trying to get to,
what the picture, what the vision is,
you know what your priorities are,
you know what your recurring tasks are
so that that's already factored in,
it just makes life so much easier.
It's not like every morning you're starting
and you're just like,
"Oh, what am I doing today? I don't really know."
Or you're not even beginning at the beginning
of the week to plan out the week thinking,
“Oh, I don't even know where to begin!”,
because you already do know
where to begin cause you already have it categorized,
you already know what your priorities are,
that you're working on right now.
And then everything else is fed through from that.
So it makes it so much easier.
Aside from that, there are some really great tools
that I use that help me to become more productive
so I want to share some of those with you.
One of them, which I find really helpful
and really time-saving is a little extension
you can add into your browser.
It's called Toby and basically it's a page.
So when you open a new tab on your computer,
all of your pages, web pages that you need to access
on a day-to-day basis are there for you.
For example, for me, I've got a link to the member's club,
I've got a link to my email inbox, I've got a link to my calendar.
And then on Toby you can actually organize and categorize.
So this is everything that I ever need
to access for the members club,
this is anything I ever need to access on an operations basis.
That might be Asana, Google drive, email, calendar.
And I've just found it so helpful in saving me time
where I'm not like,
"What's that link? I'm faffing around wasting time
and trying to get links that I've got right there.”
For me that is really, really good.
Another thing that I absolutely love that I actually heard
on a Tim Ferris podcast was to speed up
your mouse on your computer.
You actually can go into the settings on your computer
and change the speed of your mouse.
Mine is now set to go the fastest it can go.
And at first when I changed I was like,
"Oh my God, this is insane.
Who couldn't cope with the mouse that's going this fast?"
And now when I go to a normal computer
or someone else's, I'm like,
"What the hell is wrong with your mouse?
Why is this so slow? It's so annoying.”
I know that's the kind of a silly one,
but I swear even that saves me so much time
because my mouse goes faster.
Another thing that is really amazing for staying
Another thing that is really amazing for staying organized for me is a Google calendar.
organized for me is a Google calendar.
It's so handy. You have it on your phone,
I've got it on my desktop.
I think practically everyone uses Google calendar
so when I'm doing meetings and calls with people,
all that's booked in and it's shared with them.
And it's just really helpful for time blocking
and changing the colors of stuff.
And for me that's been really, really helpful.
Another helpful tool is Last Pass, which I use for passwords.
Again, it's just really useful in saving time
because I'm not faffing around with trying to figure out
what my passwords are and I can't remember
and I'm logged out and now I can't do this thing
I really needs to do because I can't get into it.
And that used to be the story of my life
before I used Last Pass.
So that is really, really helpful as well.
There you have it; some really amazing tools that you can use.
I know that so many of you will use lots
and lots of other different tools for productivity,
saving time, all that kind of stuff.
I would absolutely love you to leave a comment
and let me know what your favorite productivity tools
are that you use in your business to help you
to get more out of your time.
I know I have covered a lot in this episode
and hopefully some of these things will help you so much
to become so much more productive.
If you want more help, I have a free printable
that you can download which is going to help you
to really take back control of your day and your time,
so definitely check that out.
And also, I'm going to link to two videos,
one is all about how you can overcome procrastination
and another one is really focused on
taking back control of your day.
If you've enjoyed this video, then definitely make sure
you subscribe and like and definitely leave a comment.
I would love to get back to you
and answer any questions that you have
and I will see you next time!