How to Plan Your Day for Maximum Productivity

I am often asked how can you work from home and get everything done. I often sometimes question it myself. It's why I wanted to show you how to plan your day for maximum productivity. From juggling home responsibilities, mom responsibilities, client projects and then keeping my business relevant… Yes! It can all become overwhelming quick.

Inside the Faces of Collaboration group after asking individuals their struggles and receiving responses centered around planning a productive day, I thought this process would not only help them but you as well.

Plan Your Day For Maximum Productivity

Have you ever looked at other coaches or entrepreneurs around you and wonder, how in the world are they getting so much done with having the same 24 hours in a day, with the same 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute?

Did you know that if we all live to be 60, we will live for 525,000 minutes? Wow, factor, right? So how productive will you be and how will you use your minutes?

Productivity in business is not simply doing something for the sake of looking busy. It’s about doing the right things and not at the right time to achieve maximum efficiency for your effort.

Believe it or not, efficiency is sometimes about doing nothing at all. Taking a break. Recharging your batteries. Mentally preparing for what comes next is always the best strategy for increasing productivity.

The real key to keep in mind is that everyone has unique needs when it comes to optimal productivity.

If your goal is to accomplish more and maximize your time, then you need to make the following 5 steps the foundation of your week.

1. Know your productivity type.
2. Map Your Daily Tasks and Activities
3. Get yourself a simple kitchen timer.
4. Discover Your Peak Energy Time
5. Make friends with your calendar.

Each step is so critical in helping you learn to manage your time rather than being controlled by a long list of to-do items. You know, those never-ending lists that just grow overnight. The ones you can etch across the ceiling as you are trying to get to sleep but can't get them out of your head.

The tasks that cause you wake up to write them down just so you can sleep for a few hours only to begin the next day crossing one off one task item and then adding 3 more to take its place. YIKES! Vicious cycle, right?

It's this lack of productivity insanity that makes it seem like you will never catch up, never have time to relax and worse not spend time doing what we really want to do. However, I have learned, and you will as well that when we get a better grasp on our personal productivity we find that we are not only able to improve the quantity of work we accomplish in the day, but we are also able to improve the quality of the work we perform.

Now, you might be asking, how does all this happen or work?

Well here's a first STAND OUT BE YOU action tip:

Begin to make small tweaks in your habits and mood to get a quick boost in productivity. To have any of this work we have to change our behavior and habits. To do this, we will focus on completing tasks during the hours we are most productive focusing our attention in short bursts of time and scheduling downtime on the calendar to enhance creativity, boost energy and significantly improve our return on investment: TIME. Something so very precious.

It wasn't until I learned how to schedule my tasks that my workload became a bit easier and it's why I am going to talk to you today about how to schedule your workday and increase productivity.

Step 1 Know Your Productivity Type

Make sure you know your productivity type. Are you a Prioritizer
You prefer to stick to the facts? Maybe you are a Planner who is a detailed thinker and is always organized yet thrives on comprehensive plans, lists, and order. Some people are Arrangers with an emotional being that thrives on working in groups, managing meetings, and creating and selling your ideas. You could be a Visualizer, the one who needs to juggle multiple projects at any given time to maintain interest in anything. Which one are you? If you need more detail on productivity types and to download this article, you can do so at the bottom of this page.

Exercise:  Choose Your Productivity Type

Now that you know your productivity type let's get to task organizing…

The initial steps to organizing can be very hard as we sometimes do not like to admit to how much time we really waste during the day.

Step 2:  Map Your Daily Tasks and Activities

Write down all the things you do during a normal day.

Get out your to-do list from the past weeks. Evaluate how much you really accomplished. Make a list of all your personal tasks and business tasks. It's important to write down all the many tasks that come to mind so you can best see where your time is going.  I find it easier to also over the next 2-3 days keep track of everything you do by writing it down as you go.

Exercise:  Keep a time journal.  

Here is an example of activities.  If you would like to have my swipe file on Productivity and Batching you can download it along with this article read below at the bottom of page.

Step 3: Get Yourself a Kitchen Timer

Something a simple as a kitchen timer. It sounds overly simplistic, doesn’t it? The idea that a kitchen timer can help you increase your productivity. However, when I started working online I notice a lot more entrepreneurs online speaking of this.

It is, however, a tactic that has helped many seasoned professionals accomplish so much more in less time and I now stand by it.
You may have heard of it. It’s called the Pomodoro Technique and the philosophy behind it is sound.
You’ve probably heard the old riddle “How do you eat an elephant?”
The answer is, “One bite at a time.”

It’s meant to show that sometimes tasks seem too big to swallow in a single bite, like the elephant. The Pomodoro Technique helps you break down these monumental tasks into bite-sized pieces.
Rather than attempting to eat the entire elephant in one bite – or complete the entire task in one marathon work session, you break it down into smaller pieces. Using a kitchen timer or the application I have since moved onto is app on my phone called, Focus Keeper.

If you want to know how to break down your HUGE Elephant Goal into a Focused Goal take a look at this mini video webinar from our Faces Of Collaboration Group.

How can a Kitchen Timer Help Your Productivity?

If you’re like the average person, you probably tend to procrastinate with projects that seem too big to tackle. You put them off until it’s do or die time and then you feel like you’ve sprinted an entire marathon by the time you finish.
By using a kitchen timer, though, you can break down the project into short, timed intervals of focused energy. Twenty-five minutes is the recommended interval for this method.

I usually increase my focus time to 45 minutes, however, if you are just starting out I say stick to the twenty-five minutes the first week until you get the hang of it.

Once you set the kitchen timer, you focus only on your project and nothing else until the timer rings. No phone, no emails, no social media. Only a strict focus on the task at hand. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But you can't believe how hard this can be when just starting out. You are in essence breaking habits.

Once you have accomplished your project within designated time, then you take a break. Five minutes is perfect. It’s enough time to give your brain a break but not enough that you get pulled into another distraction. Don’t forget to set your timer here as well. Use this time for a bathroom break, refill your water bottle, or simply stretch your body. Because I go for 45 minutes, I take a 15-minute break.

Once you’ve completed four of these 25-minute sessions, you take a longer break. Make this one a 20 to 30-minute break – long enough to recharge.

Then you begin the process again.

Why is the Pomodoro Technique so Effective?

Maintaining focus is one of the most difficult things people struggle within the average workday. It is hard to stay focused on deep work tasks when there are so many distractions. Email, phone calls, Facebook, and Pinterest are all just a click away when you’re working on the computer and any one of those things has the potential to become a giant rabbit hole you can’t climb out of.

The Pomodoro Technique allows you to indulge in these things in short spurts but

pulls you back into your work quickly when your mini-breaks are over.

Why a Kitchen Timer and not Your Phone Timer?

Kitchen timers are small investments, many costing less than five dollars. It’s well worth the price you pay to avoid the distractions that exist on your phone where you can access games, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. When starting out and before using an app on your phone stick to the kitchen timer. The goal, after all, is to improve productivity, and not to provide an additional opportunity to embrace distractions.

Of course, there are Pomodoro apps available for your phone which block access to your phone during your work time, thus reinforcing the need to focus on your task. Another phone app that I love is Forest, which allows you to set the timer for an interval and a tree grows while you’re working. If you access your phone before the timer goes off, your tree dies; if you continue working until your break, your tree is added to your personal forest. We all want to save trees, right?

Don’t care about growing trees? Check out the many dozens of Pomodoro apps on iTunes and the Google Play Store for Android.

Skeptical if this process can work for you?

Of course, you are.

Exercise:  Try it on for size though and see what a difference it can make for you. At worst, you have a new timer for your kitchen. At best, though, you’ve awakened to a whole new world of productivity possibilities…and a lot of completed projects!

Step 4: Discover Your Peak Energy Time

Have you noticed you seem to be more efficient at your working better during certain hours of the day than others?

Most people have times when their brain is just firing with ideas and creativity. During these times you are revved and ready to roll. You also have times when it’s all you can do to keep your eyes open.  When my kids are around my brain I swear belongs to them which is why my peak times are first thing before they wake and right after I drop them at school.  As for evenings, toothpicks can't even keep my eyes open after 8:30 pm so I use these times to prepare for the next day right after the kids go to sleep.

It isn’t about your natural sleep cycles. Instead, it’s about your peak energy times. Learning to identify those hours when you’re most and least productive can help you arrange your workday so that you accomplish vital tasks when your energy is high and focus on more administrative matters during hours of low efficiency.

Why Are Peak Energy Times so Important?

Your primary mission, when working to improve productivity, is to identify your hours of peak performance and your hours of weak performance so you can use them both wisely. Trying to produce peak performance during hours when your energy is low and your attention divided is like trying to swim against the current. You make little forward progress and find that you’re exhausted and frustrated as well.

When you learn to work with your peak energy times rather than against them, you will begin to feel as though you’re moving with the flow and the current is actually carrying you through some of your tasks for the day – even tasks you might ordinarily procrastinate taking on.

How do You Identify Peaks and Valleys in Your Energy?

The first step in understanding your peak energy times of day is to observe yourself as you go about your day. During what times of the day do you feel more creative, energized, and ready to go?
Some people stumble into work in the morning in search of the nearest cup filled with coffee. Seriously, it takes that much to get them going while others seem to be chipper as little squirrels scurrying about. Don’t you envy them?  Well, that's me…lol.

People in the earlier group are obviously not in their peak performance patterns during this early part of the day. It may take them a little more time to get going and ready to work.  While the latter group is off to the races and ready to topple dictatorships – or the latest technological issue, whichever presents the most complex problem. Needless to say, this group of people is operating at their peak efficiency in the morning hours. On the flip side, they are probably in a nearly comatose state once the 10:00 pm news comes on television.  Yep, just told you what I'm doing at 10 pm.  Watching the back of my eyelids for sure.

If you’ve never paid attention to these peaks and valleys before, start taking note of how you feel during certain parts of the day. Make notes in your journal or in a memo app on your phone. Also, take note of how you feel after meal times because your diet can also play a part in your energy supply. After a few days of note-taking, you’ll begin to notice a pattern and can learn to capitalize on those peaks.

To learn more on how to capitalize on your Peak Energy Hours download the ebook on how to schedule your workday and increase your productivity.

Exercise: Schedule your tasks according to your peak and valley energy hours

Step 5: Make Your Calendar Your New BFF

You may look at your calendar constantly every single day when working, but are you making it a useful tool or do you mostly take it for granted? It’s something that is always there and, quite frankly, underutilized by the masses. Don’t make the same mistake so many others make. It could undermine all your efforts to boost productivity and squeeze better results from your workday efforts.

Using Your Calendar More Efficiently

Greater efficiency is an important goal. It often begins with mastering the fine art of scheduling your day. That requires you to become closely acquainted with your calendar…the right way.
Unfortunately, many people go about the process all wrong and wind up viewing the calendar as more of a stumbling block rather than the efficiency-boosting tool it really is. These pointers will help you get better results from your calendar efforts.

Use One Calendar

This calendar will be your lifeline for personal and professional appointments, errands, to do lists, and more. If you try to keep separate calendars for business and personal appointments one or the other of them will eventually become a tool for frustration.
Use a calendar that syncs with all your devices, so you never need to worry about missing an appointment. If you’re worried about keeping business and personal appointments separate, consider color coding so you can prioritize and, when necessary, delegate. Google Calendar also allows you to sync calendars with your family members so everyone has access to each other’s schedules. No more guessing about who’s picking up little Sam from school or driving your teenager to their job.  In my household because we are iPhone users we use the icalendar to sync all activities.

Record Appointments Immediately

Don’t wait to record an appointment. Waiting increases the odds that you’ll forget a key detail about the appointment or forget to record the information altogether. Besides, it’s simply a good habit to get into – personally and professionally. Consider using an online appointment program where your clients can see the times you’re available and book their appointments online, no matter the time of day. Very often they will book a time and then it’s added straight to your main calendar.  I have tested different schedules and moved from Calenderly which seems to be quite popular to Acuity Scheduling which is so much better and integrates with most online tools.

Schedule Work Time Too

Sometimes, you simply have to pencil in time to get your work done. Otherwise, your world will become one meeting after another with little time left over to work. Pencil in blocks of time each day to focus on work (take advantage of peak energy time for work and utilize lower energy time for meetings whenever possible so your best hours aren’t wasted).

Make Your Calendar Public

When others in your organization see what hours you have blocked off for productive work and the hours you have available or “free” for appointments, there will be fewer conflicting events. Online project management services, such as Basecamp, allow your dream team support staff to log their vacation time or days off; likewise, they can log in and see when you scheduled entire days for media interviews or client work.  In addition, I use Basecamp to manage my client's schedules so they can have a high-level view of projects and more.

Sometimes, a tool as simple as a calendar can help you establish boundaries, keep your schedule in check, and boost personal productivity and job performance.

Need more tips and strategies to plan your schedule and to receive my templates and files?  I have compiled everything articles article for maximized planning coupled with my templates and swipe files.

How do you plan your tasks and weeks?  Share with us your best strategies for maximizing your productivity…