How To Be More Productive And Get More Done

In today’s busy world we’re required in more places than ever and seemingly have more roles than ever too.   Have you noticed though that some people seem to be more productive than the average gal on the street and seem to accomplish way more too?

They are like supermen and women ticking off tasks and goals like they are going out of fashion!

Well you don’t need to look on with jealousy in your green eyes any longer as we share five ways to be more productive and get more done.

Lights, camera… you know the rest!

Prefer to read than watch our awesome video?

Each to their own… here’s the transcript!

How To Be More Productive And Get More Done

Hi everyone,

Ryan Power here, beauty business coach and in this video I am going to give you five ways to be more productive and get more done.

So, kicking straight off with number one and it’s a bit of an obvious one really.  I have found that one of the keys for me getting more done and being more productive was getting up early.

1. Get Up Early

Now I know that seems so obvious but it is true; I find that if I get up early then I just get more done and part of the reason for that is because there are far less distractions.

I like to get up around 5 o’clock – sometimes even earlier – and the reason why is because you don’t get any telephone calls, you don’t get any instant messages come through, you don’t even get any emails.

And I find between the hours of sort of 5 and 7 I can get more done in that time than maybe the rest of the day combined!

Now, do I have to sacrifice something for that?  Yeah, absolutely.  I generally have to sacrifice an hour or two of my evening meaning I’m going to bed that much earlier.

But, think about what you’re really doing in those hours after 9pm.

Most people are watching crappy, junk television which is no way helping their lives unless you wish to call it ‘entertainment’, which much of it isn’t very entertaining anyway.  So I would rather be in bed and be able to get up the next day and boss my day.

So the second way to be more productive which follows on from that is to have a morning routine.

2. Have a Morning Routine

Now your life is going to be made up by the habits which you have, so think about what you do each and every morning and work on a routine which works for you.

There are obviously hundreds of books and videos on this topic and so much has been written about morning routines.  It’s taken me a long time to nail down my own as I’ve tried lots of things, some of which have worked well and some which haven’t.

I find that I like to meditate in the mornings, I like to run through affirmations, I like to check out my day’s plan so I know exactly what I’ll be doing and  absolutely essential for me is to do some exercise as it gets the blood flowing and it really helps me get switched on for the day.

And of course, drink lots of water to get hydrated.

There are so many other things you can try but experiment with your morning and see what works for you.

My third way and this is an absolute beaut.

Something I recommend to all of my coaching clients and that is to plan out a weekly timetable.

3. Have a Weekly Timetable

Now think back to when you were at school your day was determined and dictated by your timetable.

You knew exactly where you had to be, you knew exactly what you had to be doing and exactly how long you’d be doing it for.  And then as soon as we leave school the first thing that happens is that the timetable goes out of the window.

I would recommend to you that you consider making yourself a timetable.

Because actually sometimes we have too many choices of how to use our time especially as business owners particularly if it’s only you working in the business because you have so much stuff to do.

So what I would recommend you do is actually timetable out your week.  And it’s really important to divide it up to make sure that everything has a fair chunk of your time which is important to you.

So, for example, you don’t just timetable in your working hours but also you should be timetabling in time with your family, maybe a date night with your other half, maybe time to go and help your kids with their after school activities or taking them to the cinema or whatever it might be.

For me, walking the dog, that’s timetabled in every day – it could be anything, maybe it’s going and visiting an elderly relative you want to see more regularly.

Anything that is important to you should be timetabled including you time.  So whatever you like to do to really enjoy your life and relax and unwind you must timetable that in and you must stick to these appointments as importantly as if they were paid appointments with a client.

Your downtime is important, it will help your sanity and let’s be honest it’s part of the reason why we are running our own businesses in the first place.

To be able to then have the freedom and the time and the money to enjoy what we enjoy doing.  So you’ve got to make sure you schedule that time for yourself.  Really important that one.

Okay, my fourth way to be more productive and to get more stuff done is that when you are working within your time blocks, just focus on one thing.

4. Focus On One Thing Only

Don’t have 16 different tabs open trying to work and flip between lots and lots of things at once.

There have been loads of studies to show that multi tasking doesn’t work, the human brain cannot process multiple tasks at once, it has to flick between them and even though that may only take a very short period of time so you think you’re doing two things at once actually you’re not.

So my recommendation would be to focus on just one thing.

And of course it should be the most important thing, the thing which is going to take you closer to where you want to go.

Whatever that task, as you know, is probably the one you don’t want to do!  But you’ve got to force yourself to do it, instead of doing those little piddly tasks which actually are pretty inconsequencial when it comes to your overall goals.

If you can get in the habit of focussing on that big thing and working on that relentlessly until it is done, you will start to become a productivity machine.

And you will just get so much more done.

Now finally my fifth tip which again follows on whilst you are focussing only on one thing is to turn your mobile phone off!

5. Turn Off Your Mobile Phone

Nowadays there seems to be this idea that if people don’t respond instantly then there is a massive problem but let me tell you something, your business is not going to fall apart and your world is not going to crumble if you don’t reply to a text message immediately.

So if you really, really want to get productive then when you are working in these time slots get your phone turned off.

Turn off messenger, turn off messages or use your do not disturb feature if you have an iPhone – if you think some important calls might still come through then you can do that.  It means you’re not going to get bothered by nonsense coming through off Facebook or WhatsApp or Instagram or what have you.

So there you go, they are my top five tips to be more productive and get more done.

I’d love to hear what your top tips are so please leave a comment underneath stating your top tip or which of those has really resonated with you.

I’m Ryan Power, see you next time.

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Read Ryan’s last blog post here, all about your positioning and authority.  It’s another good one!