4-Steps Lead to Increased Productivity
Weekday Themes and Blocking Your Calendar
Productivity in your business can make a difference between "spinning plates" and "checking things off". Planned Focus time is a must.
It can be difficult to find the time to get everything done during the workweek. Between client meetings, conference calls, and project deadlines, it often feels like there's not enough hours in the day.
With a little bit of creativity and organization, you can make the most out of your weekday schedule and productivity will begin to flow. Try implementing one (or all!) of these tips to help streamline your workflow and increase your productivity.
I opened VA-a-GoGo, LLC in 2008. I was a solo-preneur and had to find ways to organize my work week to stay on track. I tried all kinds of task to-do programs both paper and digital version. Nothing seemed to keep me on track. Around mid-2009 I started to bring on team members to help support my growing client list. I had to find a way to keep us all focused and on track and it came to me, if I was not organized how will my team be?
I sat back and found a plan that worked for me, my team, and even some of my clients took on the week work plan!
I generated a weekday theme plan. A set of labels that would indicate what tasks for my own business I would focus on. The team would use these labels to then breakdown our client task work and BAM! A plan was in place.
To generate a weekday theme plan you just need to come up with daily themes that work for you! Here are some examples…
STEP ONE: Create your work weekday themes!
Now that you have your work weekday themes in place, it is time to make work blocks on your calendar. Organizing your day with everything noted on your calendar is a vital part of productivity! You need to put your everyday tasks and appointments on your calendar in order to KEEP order! No matter if it is personal or family related, if it takes you time to complete it mark that “busy” time on your calendar. I even have my Bible study times blocked on my calendar. You can include your bill pay dates on here as well in a time block, so you have scheduled time to go pay those. By having everything blocked on your calendar it allows you a visual of “open space” or lack of it!
STEP TWO: Create Personal & Family Blocks on your calendar!
Now that you have your calendar blocked with your personal and family tasks it is time to start to organize your To-Dos…
STEP THREE: Brain Dump your business task list
Grab a piece of paper and start a brain dump of all the tasks that you know need to be done for your business. If you successfully use a task tracker, pull the list from that. If you have a partner or team in your business have them review your list and add any missing items, they might come up with. All tasks should have DUE DATES associated with them. If they don’t have a due date give them one even if they are not crucial, they also need to be completed. By having due dates in place, it allows for a completion schedule for things hanging onto your list that you keep looking at keep moving and not finishing.
STEP FOUR: Organize your task list by due date and then by work weekday theme
Now that you have those together, it is time to plug in your business work blocks with tasks on your calendar. Generally, it is best to create a block of time for 3+ hours and then split that into needed tasks. By organizing the tasks/projects you have already committed to along with routine business tasks you will see if you are OVER committing yourself an not allowing for proper personal & family time. When you first do this, you might need to do some crunch days to get things done on time. BUT when move forward and you follow your calendar blocks of times moving forward when scheduling meetings, planning for errands, creating tasks that need to get done you will have full control over your work weeks and begin to feel less stressed over what needs to get done.
If you want to be productive, take the time to block out your calendar. Choose a day of the week and dedicate it entirely to working on one task or project. This way, you won’t be distracted by other things that come up during the week and can focus completely on what you need to get done. And don’t forget to take breaks! Productivity is all about finding a healthy balance between working hard and taking care of yourself. Have you tried this method for blocking your calendar? What worked well for you? Let us know in the comments below!
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