Tips to Boost Productivity and Manage Your Time

hi I'm Kate Troy I'm a change Management Consultant and I make content about living and working in New York and I attempt to balance that also with traveling content creation marathon training and just having a social life as well so I thought today I would share my top seven productivity tips to hopefully help you take charge of your time and accomplish what you want to do without getting burnt out I'm really excited that this video is sponsored by atlassian who also sponsored a recent week in my life Vlog atlassian has some great productivity and collaboration tools out there so I will be sharing about some of them throughout a couple of tips in this video and if you like this kind of content then please give this video a like And subscribe if you're not already subscribed because I would appreciate it so much tip number one has to do with prioritization having a system for prioritizing your tasks helps you feel more focused and not as overwhelmed especially when you have a long to-do list I tend to organize my tasks as things that I have to get done today tomorrow this week or next week but another great method is the Eisenhower box method where you plot things against urgency and importance so if it's both important and Urgent then get it done now if it's important but not urgent then schedule a time to do it and then forget about it until it's time to do it the act of just making a decision takes up so much energy so this is a way to help you quickly make those decisions and then you can get on with actually getting the tasks done Trello is a great tool to manage to Do's this way because you can create different lists which could be your different categories and add cards to the list which are your to-do items and you can move those between the categories as you complete them or as they change in importance or urgency I love that you can use this for personal tasks and errands that you need to get done you could also use it for work tasks or you could collaborate with a team to help you stay organized and on the same page now once you have your tasks organized and prioritized you need to know how to manage your time so you could actually get the stuff done during the typical work week I'm juggling team meetings and client meetings and actually having time to work on deliverables and of course still finding time to eat and take breaks and exercise for me setting boundaries of time to work on certain tasks is a great way to help me Focus for example if I've decided that I'm going to spend from 10 to 11 am on a certain task then I can declutter my mind of all the other things that I have to get done and just focus on that and it helps me be more efficient because I'm not distracted by other things I'm always guilty of trying to multitask but I'm trying to get better about that because I do notice that when I'm not multitasking I'm able to be more efficient which then is way more productive delegating is another thing that I'm working on and it's important to do this both in your professional life and your personal life in a professional setting I'm always working on a team of some sorts with all of my projects and so I just try to have open communication amongst all the team members so we're all aware of what we've got going on on our plates and I try to just be honest with myself about how much more I can take on and if I really feel like I can't do something then I will ask and see if someone else on the team is able to take it on I think that's the key thing is just being honest with others and honest with yourself about your time and your mental and physical capacity to take on more tasks and it's okay to say no if you really don't think that you can dedicate the right amount of energy and attention that's required to get something done well another thing I'm working on in order to increase my productivity is making time for healthy habits like taking breaks during the work day drinking enough water eating proper meals getting some time outside I definitely get into periods where all those things might fall to the Wayside if I'm just feeling very overwhelmed and stressed but I do notice that if I make time even for one of those things it makes me feel so much better and I'm able to do my work better which means I'm more productive I discovered a cool power up in Trello called streak which helps you track your streak of how many times you are able to complete a habit or a task so for taking these healthy habits for example once you create all the cards for your different habits you add the streak power up to your Trello space and you can even customize how many times week you want to complete the Habit so there might be some things you want to do every day and other things you just want to do a few times a week because that's more realistic for your lifestyle so I just love the versatility of the tool how you can use it for work and your personal life quick shout out again to atlassian for having great tools like Trello to help you increase your productivity as a flexible project management tool Trello empowers teams to ideate plan organize track and accomplish their work and whether you're using atlassian tools personally or with a team or even accessing the atlassian community for support and inspiration from other users atlassian makes what's impossible alone possible together to learn more about how Trello Powers you or your team to be more productive check out the link in the description box below and thanks again atlassian for sponsoring this video we are on tip number five now which is decluttering your space I've mentioned several times about decluttering your mental space but decluttering your physical space is also really key to being productive especially when you're in a small one-bedroom apartment and you can basically see the entire apartment from where you sit it literally takes me less than five minutes to do a quick tidy of the living room area where my desk is I'm not talking about doing a deep clean or anything just tidying things up it not only feels nice but it's also a really easy thing that I can check off my to-do list in the morning that makes me feel productive and gives me momentum to complete other tasks for the day it's similar to like the psychology I don't know psychology philosophy behind making your bed in the morning first thing because that is a task that you can do really quickly in a few minutes and then you already have completed something and accomplished something for the day now when I really really need to get something done I switch off my maximizer or perfectionist mode and I go into satisficer mode for me this means that I'm kind of going on a good enough approach or I have some general guidelines but it's not super strict and ultimately that's going to help me get further of course if I'm working on like a final presentation that I'm sending to a client then I'm going to make sure that that's perfect or as perfect as it can be but if I'm still in the beginning stages of developing something like I'm drafting an agenda for example I'll do a rough pass until it's good enough and then maybe I'll ask a teammate for feedback or maybe I'll take a break come back to it and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes this is important because if you start off in perfectionist mode or are always in perfectionist mode then there are going to be times where you're just spinning your wheels and you can't move forward because you're stuck on making some part of it perfect knowing when to switch between these modes is really important for increasing your productivity like if you've ever looked at a blank page when you're trying to start an essay and you just can't get yourself to move forward go into that satisficer mode where you're just roughly laying things out like a few bullet points for each section of your essay and then that's going to help you ultimately be more productive in writing your essay into its final form and my last tip might maybe conflict a little bit with the first tip about prioritizing your task but something to keep in mind when you're deciding what order to complete your tasks in is your energy knowing what your energy levels are throughout the day and planning your tasks accordingly can help you be more efficient with how you're using your time personally I'm way more alert and active in the morning than I am later in the afternoon or the evening so if I have something that I need really dedicated attention to then I will plan to do that in the earlier hours of the day there's some science behind this too like they recommend scheduling mundane tasks like cleaning up your inbox in like the early afternoon when you've got that post lunch slump and I try to keep this in mind when I'm scheduling things with my project teams obviously the main thing is just finding time because if you ever worked in a corporate team environment you know that sometimes finding time that everyone is available can be very difficult but if I do have the luxury of picking what time of day we can meet I will keep in mind if this is a creative open brainstorming session or is it something where we need to really put our heads together and read through every single word of this presentation and make sure it's perfect like those are two very different energies and depending on the time of day you'll be able to be more productive in either one I think the important thing to remember when you're trying to be productive is it's not about being busy and filling up your time with tasks but being efficient and smart with how you use your time and energy to get them done in the best way possible plus you also need to invest your time in your health and the space around you and keeping it clean things like that which will ultimately help you avoid burnout and be more productive I hope you're feeling a little bit more motivated to feel productive and be smart about how you use your time so you also have energy for things outside of work having worked remotely for over three years now it has been a journey of trying to figure out how to balance working and living in the same space so I hope that these tips help you with whatever your productivity goals may be I would love to know if you have other productivity tips to share so if you do then leave them in the comments below so everyone else watching this video can see them as well let me know what other content you'd like to see on my channel and as always thank you so much for watching I'll see you in the next one bye [Music]