Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video you're going to learn some time
management techniques that i've learned in my freelance and creative career that you can take
into your business so you can start getting more stuff done and moving the needle in your
business now time management is something that most people struggle with certainly freelancers
and entrepreneurs working for themselves because they have to be self-disciplined now me personally
i work in waves and there are times that i go through where i'm extremely productive
and then there are times when the wave comes down and i'm not productive at all but i've learned
over the years a few techniques to extend that time extend those waves of productivity so i'm
more productive for more of the time and when i do have those pitfalls that i quickly recover
and i get back on track so that's what i'm going to cover in this video some techniques that i've
learned over the years that i've used to increase my productivity and get more stuff done number
one time block everything now depending on how bad you are at time management will depend on
how long you're able to time block into the future you might be able to just time block for a day or
you might be able to time block out a month or a quarter in advance me personally i do it on a
week by week basis and then on a day-by-day basis so i sit down at the start of the week and i time
block all of my tasks for that week and i actually have a template that i use every single week now
not every single week is the same so at the start of the week i'll adjust that template and i'll
adjust it for the upcoming week and then every day i'll have a look at those time blocks again just
to make sure that i'm on track and i know what's ahead of me number two use productivity software
now you don't have to go out and spend money on software there are free software's out there or
you could just use your calendar if you wanted me personally i use trello and i've been using
trello for a long long time now i really like it because it can make your tasks visual and you know
given that i've got a creative background i am a visual person and if i'm able to see my tasks in
these blocks then i know what's ahead of me and that helps me to organize my my day and my week
in my head and if i if i if i am organized in my head then you know the voices are not going to be
as loud and i'm going to be able to get stuff done because you know i know what i'm getting done this
week so if you do have a budget for a software you can go out and buy more expensive software but to
be honest you don't really need it i've been using the free version of trello for a long time now and
it's great and as i said i just sit down and work out my week and work out my days and i'm able to
pop my my jobs into the individual lists and then the individual cards within each cards i
can take notes i can create checklists and i can liaise with my va as well so we work off the same
board and we're able to see those tasks as well so i really advise getting yourself a
productivity software and if you ask me trello is the one to go for number three
close everything else now this one is absolutely huge now i don't know about you but on a normal
day if i was to leave on all of my notifications i'd be getting notifications on my email i'd be
getting notifications from my reminders on my phone from my apps and all of these reminders
all of these notifications are opportunity for me to be derailed in what i'm doing so
you really need to be conscious of all of these distractions and it's not just the distractions
themselves it's actually the the dark hole that you go into once you get distracted once if you
jump onto your email because an email notification has come up and then you read an email and that
email has told you about something that you need to go and do now well then you'll probably go
and do that task and to be honest there have been times where i've gotten distracted by an email and
all of a sudden two hours later on their doing tasks that i hadn't scheduled and i look back
and i asked myself what have i been doing for the last two hours so you can if you don't control
those notifications it's not just the the single notification it's where that leads you as well so
make sure you turn off all those notifications and just concentrate on what you're doing number four
leverage momentum now this one for me personally is absolutely huge now i've been working for
myself for many many years at this point but it wasn't until about two years in that i started
to realize something about myself and that's how much i rely on momentum now this can be on
an hourly basis a daily basis a weekly a monthly or even a yearly basis depending what on what i'm
working on but i know that once i get distracted then it can take me a long long time to recover
from that period of momentum and it can take me a lot longer to get back into
the swing of things to get back into that momentum and i know that when when i do have that momentum
when i do have that wind behind my back i know that i can just keep going and get so much more
done so i really tried to keep the distractions away from me now as i said that can be
on an hourly basis a weekly basis and if i do see these kinds of distractions whether it's
within my personal life or whether it's within you know day-to-day tasks i try to keep them
at bay because i know that once i get derailed it takes me so much longer to recover and really pick
up speed again so think about a train it takes a train so so long to really pick up that speed
and if it gets derailed it takes all of that time to get back up to to pick up that speed again so
for me personally this one is huge and when i realized how big this was for me then i was
able to to fix that and be very conscious about it in my day-to-day work and my week-to-week
and month to month work as well so really be conscious of the role that momentum plays in
your day-to-day operations and make sure you protect that momentum number five focus on the
one thing now i read a book a few years ago called the one thing by an author called gary keller and
it really did help me in my productivity now the book itself it does talk about the one thing focus
and it does base that one thing focus on anywhere up to five years and beyond so really focusing on
you know a five-year timeline and asking yourself what is the one thing that you want to achieve in
that five years and then chunking everything down to a yearly basis to a quarterly basis a monthly
basis a weekly basis a daily basis and the reality of this is that it takes a lot of discipline
to be able to stay on track with that but that's not to say that this book is not
useful it's very useful and it's really helped me in my day-to-day operations where i go with
as far as this book is concerned is probably up to a monthly basis i identify what i'd like
to achieve within this month but really where it comes into its own for me is on the weekly
and the daily basis when i know what i need to focus on and i put that right in front of me then
my sole focus is on that one thing and that's really the key takeaway i had from that book so
when it comes to you getting your tasks done and when it comes to you scheduling and time blocking
your tasks for the week each time you do that well then think about the one thing that you would like
to get done within that week and then schedule your tasks around achieving that number six
stop multitasking now this is a follow-on from the last point and this point actually came from that
same book the one thing and within that book they identified that multitasking is not something that
goes hand in hand with productivity because when you multitask you actually turn your focus and
split your focus between both tasks so you don't have the same brain power on both tasks in fact
what you're doing is you're splitting your brain power between the two so essentially what you're
doing when you're multitasking is that you're doing multiple things half arsed so if you do
want to multitask then understand that you're not going to have your your total brain power on that
task at hand on those multiple tasks so it's best to just time block just focus on that one thing
and stop multitasking number seven prioritize difficult tasks first now i've noticed that when i
do go through these periods where i don't have my momentum and i am stuck in a bit of a rut when i
sit down in the morning i'll tend to do my easier tasks first and then my harder tasks i don't get
started on until later on in the morning or maybe even in the afternoon and then by the time the end
of the day comes i haven't finished those and they'll spill on into the next day so the next
day comes i sit down and the first thing that i have to do is to finish off that hard task from
yesterday and what happens you have a snowball effect there that you know these harder tasks just
get pushed out and edit out but i've realized and i've learned from my mistakes that you know when
when i am in in that phase i need to quickly acknowledge it and start getting back on track
and the best way to do that is to start doing your harder tasks first and then it makes the
afternoon easier once you've done those hard tasks in the morning you can feel better about yourself
and give yourself a pat on the back and then you can work on those easier tasks so prioritize those
harder tasks first get them done and then do the easier tasks in the afternoon number 8 put a timer
on your email now for me without a doubt one of my biggest productivity killers is my email and i've
mentioned this already when i get into my email there could be any kind of task or request that
could send me in any different direction and that can end up with this pinball effect where you just
just jump from one task to the next so if i don't keep an eye on that clock and i know this about
myself if i don't keep an eye on that clock then you know my whole morning will disappear so what
i do now is i break my email up into three chunks of 15 minutes so i'll do 15 minutes in the morning
i'll do 15 minutes at lunch time and i'll do 15 minutes at the end of the day and if i can
actually avoid that morning 15 minutes i will if i can jump straight into my tasks and get them done
then i'll do that because i know that even though i'm keeping an eye on this clock there are some
things that i will just have to do because of that email and i i won't be able to work
as productively because i've seen that email so if you can't avoid that morning block and jump
straight into your tasks then i'd advise you to do that but certainly keep an eye on that clock
when it comes to your email and look at your email as a productivity killer if you have it open and
you're in there looking at emails well then you're not doing tasks that are going to move the needle
in your business so put a clock on that email and keep an eye on it number nine incentivize yourself
now i'm not one for giving myself a pat on the back i i don't tend to do that and i certainly
don't do that on a day-to-day basis but i do know that if i have a project or a goal that i want to
achieve and you know i say to myself that if i achieve this goal then you know i'm gonna
do this for myself then it does give me something to work towards and i have done this successfully
before i don't do it all the time i have to say but if there's something that i really want to
get done if there's something that i really want to achieve well then i'll have a think about what
i want and what i can reward myself with and you know that can help with that motivation as well so
whether you do this on a daily basis a weekly basis a monthly basis per project
basis it's entirely up to yourself but if you do put in in place an incentive for yourself it just
gives you that added momentum number 10 keep your tasks varied now as a solopreneur an entrepreneur
a freelancer you wear many hats and you do pretty much everything within your business so there are
a variety of different tasks that you can be doing on any given day and if you back yourself up with
tasks that are taxing on the brain then you know those days can be very unproductive you can get
tired by the end of the day and the task that you set for the end of the day doesn't get done
it spills over onto the next day so really keep in in mind the variation of tasks that you can be
doing on a given day so you might want to do some design in the afternoon and do some of that more
administrative or writing work that will tax your brain a bit more so just keep that in mind
the variation of tasks and don't back yourself up with too many tasks that are going to be too
taxing on your brain number 11 take breaks and rest now i used to really buy into this
whole hustle culture that you know if you're not working every waking hour of the day well then you
know you're not going to be moving the needle in your business and you don't want it that bad and
what i learned about that is is it had a big impact on my life i had a big impact on you
know how productive i was how tired i was the time that i got to spend with my wife with my kids and
you know it it really took a lot out of me and and i was doing that all last year i was really
grinding last year and i really did didn't give myself any kind of break even at lunchtime i'd
run out i'd grab something to eat and i'd sit back down at my desk and i'd eat at my desk i didn't
want any moment to be lost if i was doing the dishes i was listening to a podcast and i never
switched off and you know that it's not good for you if you continue to do do that and burn the
candle at both ends then you're gonna burn out so give yourself a break give literally
give yourself a break and take those breaks that you need to take your break at lunch time take a
break in the evening and spend some time with your loved ones whether you have kids or have a wife or
you know even even your your your flatmates or or your family whatever it is take the time
with them to just switch off and and you know be yourself away from everything else so you know
give yourself that freedom to take those breaks and make sure you do because when you come back to
your task you'll be a lot more productive you'll be a lot more mentally fresh number 12 structure
your individual tasks now when you're working on individual tasks whether it's your designing
your writing your wireframing whatever it is there's different levels to that and you want to
make sure that you're focusing on the right level at the right time for so for example if you're
writing well then don't be trying to edit at the same time really give yourself the freedom just to
get that writing out there and you can edit later on same with designing when you're thumbnailing
don't try to polish everything don't you know take that thumbnail and bring it on to illustrator
straight away and try and try and polish that up if you're thumbnailing just give yourself the time
to thumbnail so you get all your ideas out so make sure you structure your individual tasks
so that you're focusing on the right level at the right time number 13 creates standard
operating procedures now when i first started out freelancing my tasks my productivity my
scheduling was all over the place i just i just i was winging it every single day and when i did get
a project to work on for a client i could jump on to thumbnailing i'd be on thumbnailing for
three to four hours i wouldn't be looking at the the time i'd do the same with finding inspiration
for my designs and then all of a sudden i'd be eight hours in and the budget didn't allow for
it so make sure that you document your standard operating procedures and allocate a certain amount
of time for each of them and adjust that based on the budget of the project that you're working on
so when you do sit down to work on those projects then you know what you're doing and this goes
across the board of your whole business whether it's your design whether it's your writing or your
administration if you know the task at hand and if you know all of the steps within those tasks
well then you can keep an eye on the time and you know you don't get sidetracked with individual
tasks that you you you know you're not spending longer on them than you need to so make sure you
document your tasks in an sop number 14 use time management software now i use toggle for all of my
tasks and basically i create all of my projects within the dashboard and toggle and i have
the little app sitting on my dashboard there and i just hit play when i'm working on a given task now
the software itself records all of my tasks and i do have the added advantage of being able to
report on that but personally i don't actually use that what i use the software for more is
really from a psychological point of view if i know that i'm recording my tasks every day
then i can look at that piece of software at the end of the day and and i can see that i worked
you know eight or nine hours today i can see what tasks i accomplished during that day and it's
really just peace of mind for me that you know it kind of keeps me on track if i'm not documenting
if i haven't pressed play on that software well then i'm not doing something productive so
for me it's less about the reporting side of things although if you do want that you can have
that but toggle for me is the software that i use and just having that little widget on my dashboard
is just a little reminder that if it's not playing then i'm not doing something productive so
that's my recommendation for uh software that can help you to manage that time
and number 15 acknowledge procrastination now one of the things that i realized about myself
when i realized this thing about momentum was that when i did fall into a rut then i could
be in there for days or even weeks without realizing that that's what i was doing so
what i learned to do is to acknowledge procrastination and to say to myself listen
you're not in the right frame of mind you're not in the right place at the moment
take some time so you know if you can get out for a walk into the national park or you know just go
and do something go and exert energy go to the gym go for a walk off for a swim just do something and
just acknowledge the fact that at this point in time you're not at your best and you need to just
switch your mindset and the next day you come to work you sit down and you keep that top of mind
that you've been in this rut and you need to get out of it so acknowledging that procrastination
and realizing that you're in a rut is a great way to get out of it now look we're all different
we all work in our own individual way and some of these techniques that i've listed here will
work perfectly for you some of them might be the exact technique that you've been looking for but
some probably won't because as i said we're all individuals and we all work in different ways but
the important thing to remember when it comes to productivity is that it's all about managing
obstacles there are obstacles that are thrown in your way every single day that are keeping you
from your tasks and keeping you from getting the needle moving in your business and the better you
can identify what those obstacles are the better you can become at removing those obstacles and
that's what productivity management is all about at the end of the day but i'd love to hear from
you what is the number one killer of productivity within your business i guarantee you that if you
put it in the comment box below then other people will have the same one or what is your
biggest challenge what would you like to overcome when it comes to your productivity if you've got
any questions or challenges at all in relation to productivity or time management let me know in the
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