Yay! The new year is here and everyone is back at work. Sort of. This is a weird post for me because I diligently woke up at 6am ready for my “work day”. I’m trying something new this year and instead of rolling out of bed straight on to my computer I’m forcing myself to drink a glass of water, eat breakfast, catch up with news and THEN get the day going. That bit isn’t weird. What is weird is that my Player 2 hasn’t gone back to work yet so I had to tip toe around the house trying not to wake him up. I forced myself to actually take a break this year and the result is that I’m now bashing this post out trying to think of a zillion excuses as to why I should climb back in to bed and cuddle!
I’ve seen a bunch of posts go out from my favourite bloggers highlighting their 2018 goals. I also recently asked on social media for questions and answers so I could record some QnA videos. One of the popular ones were:
What are your goals and plans for 2018
Truth time: I don’t have any. I mean I want to try get healthier, keep doing my own thing and not go back to a “real” job, possibly travel a bit… But I don’t have specific goals or something I absolutely have to achieve in 2018. I just want to be happy. I’m not sure if that is completely odd and strange or if I’ve finally “grown up” but that is really all I’m aiming for this year.
And in order to be happy I need to start managing my time a bit better.
Last year I worked from 6am to 8pm daily. I worked weekends. I had almost zero personal time. Change is afoot! I’ve implemented three new ways to help me be a bit more productive and also manage time a bit better.
These are my three tech tips to help you be more productive – feel free to add suggestions to the comments as well so we can all help one another!
Switch social media push notifications OFF
This one is really simple. I don’t get push notifications to my smartphone any more for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram…. any social media accounts are now silent unless I log in and check them on my phone. I am easily distracted by the ping of my phone and constantly glance down at the screen to see what comment or tag I’ve missed. Switching off social media push notifications mean I’m oblivious to those distractions during the day. It also means on weekends when I need to have actual face time with friends I don’t end up constantly looking down at my phone with social media FOMO.
Switching off push notifications on an iPhone – go to Settings > Notifications > Relevant social media app > move slider to off
Switching off push notifications on an Android phone – go to Settings > Application Manager > Relevant social media app > remove the tick on the check box next to notifications
Bullet journals
Apparently these are all the rage right now. I’ve seen insane Instagram posts of beautifully decorated journals and people going bonkers for bullet journals. I’ve been using this system for years and really find it helps me stay productive. I don’t do the whole over the top decoration and planning. I’ve got a page per day diary from Macaroon and I start each day by making a to do list which I scratch out as I finish each task. You can use a normal notebook to do the same. I have similar lists of blog post ideas and video content in a plain notebook. I prefer hand writing because it helps me remember what needs to be done but if you’d prefer to keep it on your device – Google Keep is a rad post it note app for that. I make my shopping lists on Google Keep but you can use it for Bullet journalling as well. When using the bullet point post it in Google Keep simply tick the check box when you’re done and the app will cross it off your list. You can also colour code notes which I love.
Book out your online calendar
This year I’m making a little change and booking out actual ME time on my calendar. Madness right? Mondays are now content creation days. So every Monday for the rest of year is booked out. This way I can’t be tempted to book meetings on that day. By booking it out on my online calendar it is a constant reminder that I need one day to do content. Thursdays are live stream days so I’ve done a similar book out. Before you start your work year book out key times for the next 365 days that are important. Whether it be booking out entire days so you can do content creation or just a time once a month to give yourself a “ME” moment – book them now. The reminder online calendars give you will also guilt you in to sticking to it come March when we’ve forgotten the positive January motivation!
So these are my tech tips for being more productive. Do you have any?