This Productivity Hack Will Change Your Life
Do you ever discover something and you're like, omg where have you been all my life?!
I've felt this way about a few things:
slip-on sneakers (I was wasting so much time with laces. who knew?!)
champagne in a can
3M hooks/strip things to hang stuff (lazy and don't care who knows it)
The Queen, LIZZO
...I should add my Hubs to that list, too. He does have a British accent after all.
Anyhow. Another thing that literally changed my life for the better is when I discovered “theming” my work days.
What's theming your work days? It's rill simple:
When you theme your days, you batch similar kinds of work together on a single day.
Eg: you could decide: Mondays are for admin work, Tuesdays are for meetings, Wednesdays are for content creation, etc.
Themes create a template for your week, so you can quickly generate your task list each day.
Instead of working on just any task, you have a roadmap of what needs your attention most. And you have the swagger to let go of the rest.
Honestly? I kinda stumbled upon this method several years ago. I was running a brick & mortar at full tilt and needed a way to keep my sh*t together each week. I didn't realize "theming" wasn't second-nature to everyone until other biz-lady-friends started asking how I did it...
1. WRITE DOWN THE TASKS YOU DO ON A REGULAR BASIS.
Yes, everyday is different when you’re an entrepreneur but think big picture. Do you do outreach, like pitching yourself to podcasts? Go to networking events? Post to social media? Write blog posts? Get on calls with clients? Manage accounts and billing? Contact vendors? Create product? Take care of billing and invoicing?
Write that all down and then…
2. UNCOVER THEMES WITHIN YOUR TASKS
Look back at your task list and group similar ones together.
“Similar” could mean the tasks require the same kind of mental or physical energy from you. Like meeting with potential clients or going to networking events.
You could also group tasks that serve a similar purpose. For instance, you might have social media and blogging under content creation.
Once you’ve grouped similar tasks, name each category. These are your themes. Examples could include:
Marketing
Admin
Meetings
Networking/outreach
3. ASSIGN EACH TASK TO A THEME
Now that you’ve created your themes, it’s time to define what tasks go into each theme.
For instance, your “marketing” theme might include social media, blogging and email newsletters.
4. ASSIGN EACH THEME TO A DAY OF THE WEEK.
Some theme groups might take two hours. Others might take two days.
Estimate how much time each group requires and then assign it to a day of the week.
That’s it! Your workweek is now all themed up like a 90s Senior Prom.
Hear me now, believe me later: theme your days and I guar-an-f*cking-tee you'll see greater progress on the work that matters most.