As much as we would all love to have another 2 hours added to every day, the 26 Hour Day is not happening anytime soon. We all have the same amount of time in each day. Yet some of us can’t seem to get as much done.

We take longer on projects, we can’t finish as quickly as our peers, and we always seem to be one step behind “that guy” across the hall. Productivity can be very elusive to many of us unless we are deliberate about it. I guarantee you Productivity Man across the hall is very deliberate about his actions.

Productivity Man

Nobody that is considered productive has ever come out of the womb that way, they had to work at it! Self-discipline plays a big part, but so does planning. I gave out my Top 8 Productivity Tips back in November, but here is how to squeeze 2 more hours of work out of your day with a few more productivity hacks and plans.

Wash the Dishes

Before you settle down to get into a big task or important work, take some time to do the dishes. It gives you a mindless activity that will allow you to start thinking about your upcoming task(s) without having to put action into it. By the time you settle down to actually work, you have already been in the mindset for 15 minutes and it’s like you got a running start!

That’s an interesting idea, Mike… But I work in an office & we don’t have a kitchen!

Fair enough… I’ll admit, this is kind of tricky if you don’t have a kitchen in your office or work from home as I do. This just have to be a little more creative in how you get things done:

• Clean your Desk (see next point)
• Rearrange your Desk/Office – This will also give you a creativity boost from changing up your sceneary
• Clean off your Desktop on your computer – *REVISION* This will not speed up your system unless you uninstall programs and delete unnecessary files, but it can still help you get warmed up for the rest of your day.
• File/Delete/Clean your email folders (NOT YOUR INBOX) – If that email about a PO from 2 years ago hasn’t been useful yet, it isn’t going to be anytime soon. Delete it and let yourself be liberated of it!

Most of these will only take 5-10 minutes. They will allow you to breeze through big projects afterwards you may have gotten stuck on without that running head start.

Clear Desk = Less Distractions

Have you ever noticed that Productivity Man usually has a clean desk? That’s not a coincidence.

People who are productive have systems in place. They know that their strength does not come from knowing everything, but rather from knowing where to find everything. Ipso facto: they have a place for everything.

Their offices have files, folders, and cabinets. Their inboxes have folders, sub-folders, and categories (any decent email system, including Outlook, has a search function anyways). They know that it will take some time to get setup in the beginning, but once it’s done they can give a “home” to everything as they come in contact with it.

What, you’re not a naturally organized person? That’s fine, most people aren’t. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Eliminate Clutter – The less around you, the less there is to distract you. Look into minimalism, it will help you stop holding on to junk.
• Create files/folders for repeatable things – Do you receive a lot of emails from one customer? Make a folder for Clients and then a sub-folder for that person/company. Put ANYTHING you get from them inside, no matter what! It’s OK to have some catch-all folders, just make sure that whatever you put in there is labeled with key words/terms so you can find it amongst other things.
• Saving Old Stuff – We all have that nostalgic piece of paper with our original goals on it that we can’t bring ourselves to throw away. That’s fine, keep it. But put it in a drawer or frame it on the wall, don’t let it migrate all over your desk so you occasionally see it, coffee stains and all.
• Get a Whiteboard – It helps to jot down ideas/reminders and it’s much more effective than an army of sticky notes all over the place.
• Get a Notepad – These cost $1.50 at Staples and I would pay $10 for them. Keep all your to-do lists and doodles notes in this notebook and take it with you everywhere. Label the front of it with the date you opened it and add major topic headings like “3/28 Performance Review Notes” so you know what it contains. When it’s full, write the closing date on the front and put it in a file cabinet somewhere you can reference if need be.

DISCLAIMER: This is all helpful stuff, but if you are just out to “get organized” in one day it’s not going to happen. I’ve seen people take an entire day, eliminate clutter, create files for everything, empty their inbox, and then go back to letting stuff pile up on their desk as soon as their office looks clean.

You have to stick with the filing systems you put in place, that’s what the key to this process is. If not, all you are doing is wasting time to get your head clear before you sit down to do your real work. Having good systems in place can eliminate 15-30 minutes each day just by knowing where everything is that you need to access.

Stare Your Objectives Down

How many times have you sat and stared at your computer thinking “What in the world was I just doing before I took that call?”

It has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit. Here’s how I combat that blank stare: Write down your daily objectives.

• Step 1: Write down (with a pen and paper) your top 3/4 most important things to do for that day only.
• Step 2: Keep your big “To-Do List” somewhere hidden so it does not distract you (I put it on another page of my notebook). The only thing you need to focus on are those 3/4 tasks. If there is other stuff you need to focus on, than you should have picked a different top 3/4. Productivity Man doesn’t work on multiple things at once, he focuses all his energies on one task at a time.
• Step 3: Put that list right in front of your face all day long. Some people use a sticky note, some people use a white board, and I use a notepad (with a good pen) flipped to a clean sheet of paper.
• Step 4: Do not check your big to-do list, rifle through emails, or check Facebook until you get those 3 things done for the day. If you can knock those off your list before 11:00 AM you have the rest of the day to put out fires, waste time with your email, or take a client out for a 2 hour lunch.

When you have these looking you in the face every minute, there is no way to get off-track. You can easily waste 30-45 minutes each day by just trying to figure out what to do next. If it’s already laid out, you can stay focused easier waste less time.

Batch Similar Tasks

Picture this, your to-do list has a few minor things on it like returning a couple calls, checking your email, drafting a cold email, and then 2 major work projects that will each take you an hour +/-.

Some people would probably jump on the calls and emails first. They see it as, “this is how I warm up for the day.” I see it as a waste of your valuable brain space. See above if you want to “warm up” before diving into work.

Taking on those smaller, mundane tasks will sap us of our creative energies and will make that hour-long project turn into a 2 hour project if we’re mentally drained. And on top of that, putting back-2-back hour-long projects together is basically saying that the second project doesn’t matter to you.

By the time you get to number 2, you are totally empty. It takes twice as long to do something we don’t have the energy for. We take more breaks, we look for distractions, and we draw out the work.

*Some people will have urgent calls/emails, but most of the time it can wait for an hour*

Productivity Man would take one of those hour-long projects and dive right into it, setting a timer on his work to cut him off when an hour hits. He’d put a great hour of work into the task and let himself get lost in it without distractions. Then to regain his strength, he would take on those smaller tasks all at once.

Productivity Man understands that his strength lies in doing one task well with full concentration, not doing 48 things halfheartedly. 

Unless they are major calls and he hasn’t checked his email in a week, all of that will probably only take him 30-45 minutes. He can then take a quick break. Maybe get some coffee, maybe text the wife, maybe take walk around the building, it’s up to him.

Then he can sit down and be refreshed to tackle the second hour-long project he needs to work on. Batching similar tasks allows us to focus on the bigger projects with less distractions. That focus allows us to get more done in shorter periods of time.

We all have mundane tasks to take care of, it’s when we allow them to determine our schedule that we really waste time. This can save you 30 minutes to an hour every day!

Plan for the Next Day

A big part of productivity is planning. Having a plan allows us to not waste time doing frivolous activities. And when we have a plan, we are able to go from one task to the next without lag time.

What does your morning routine look like when you settle in for work? Some people check email, then get up and get coffee, then get distracted and check their voicemails. And then after an hour or so, they settle into their work for the day.

BOOM! There goes an hour (or more) of your day!

Take the time the night before and plan out your day. As I mentioned above, write out your top 3 things to do that you cannot waiver from. Think of them as “do or die” tasks that if nothing else got accomplished, you can point to those to keep your paycheck.

Since everyone’s job is different, here are a few other ideas to get ramped up for the next day’s success:

• Pre-type emails so all you have to do is proof-read them
• Prepare forms/documents for meetings so you don’t scramble around right before, allowing you to work right up until the meeting
• Pull out study materials you may need
• Pull out customer records if you have to make cold-calls
• Clean the meeting space if you are hosting clients
• Pack your briefcase/backpack/laptop bag if you are working out of the office
• Check the weather
• Write out your top 3 most important things to do
• Set up the coffee machine so all you have to do is hit “Brew” when you walk in

In the beginning, these tasks may feel like more work for you since they are new concepts. But when you can begin to put them into practice and make them habits, your work will begin to flow and you will jump seamlessly from task to task without skipping a beat.

Productive people sometimes seem like they aren’t as busy as the rest of us. In reality, they are just getting more done and not wasting time in between their work. If you have a plan to take you from Activity 1 to Activity 2, you are much less likely to get distracted and waste your day.

What other productivity hacks do you use to help you get more accomplished in a day?

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I’d love to hear what you have to say about freelancing and building a business from this process. Leave me a comment below or chat with me on Twitter: @mikemccann3

Have a great week!

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