This week I’ve had a lot on my plate, plus a lot of great things going on creatively. We relaunched the site, and I started brainstorming a project I want to work on in the coming months. It’s been great, but the truth is, I have a ton of freelance tasks to get through. As inspiring as my jobs can be, it’s weeks like this that I just want to take a long walk, brainstorm in my notebook, and plan the whole rest of the year! But the reality is… I have stuff to get done.
Do you ever have weeks like this? Where you have to not only be productive, but extra productive? It happens a lot with those of us who work in social media too. When you have holidays or vacations planned, you actually have to do twice the amount of work the week before you go MIA, because posts and updates still go up during those times! Thinking about this, I wanted to share the ways you can actually fit in way more work than usual during those “cram” times (oh man, sounds like finals week in college!). This week I’ve followed this, and I’ve been able to finish assignments AND work on my side projects. I might even get *some* of the weekend off too! Here’s my 3-step plan for productivity on days you really need to catch up or get ahead, but seriously don’t want to.
3 Changes That Will Boost Productivity
Ignore what doesn’t specifically pertain to the task at hand
It takes a bit of mental convincing—convincing yourself that you don’t need to spend 30 minutes writing a daily schedule, or for me, going on that hour long walk. There are things we do each day (those of us who are self-employed/freelancing), that are helpful practices, but when you really need to focus, you have to eliminate some of them. Instead, wake up and dive right in to the first task. I love going to cafes to work, for example, but I spend a lot of time traveling to and from, getting set up, dealing with wifi issues, etc., so during weeks I need to get twice as much done, I have to spend my mornings in my home office. Tweaking my routine (just for now!) and disrupting my café routine saves a lot of time over the week. +1 hour a day
Be vocal about your need to limit distractions
Start with the highest priority task. It might mean ignoring email for a few hours—something that always gives me anxiety. I’ll tell people I work with that I’ll be able to get them x in a few hours, which makes me feel more comfortable signing off for a bit—now they know what’s going on. That way, you aren’t switching between projects at once, which is the ultimate killer of productivity. Multitasking is not the answer to your productivity problems! Instead, dedicated time to specific tasks makes you more efficient and accurate. +2 hours a day
Make every break productive
I’m all for breaking every 90 minutes. Working through breaks = a fast track to burnout. However, if I don’t get on track during a tough week, it will snowball into the weekend and the next week, so there are just times I can’t afford to break as often as I’d like. One of the perks of working for yourself is being able to break, but it generally evens out when you need to hustle! I suggest making breaks count. What I’d normally take as a coffee break, for example, I decided to use to draft this post in a notebook yesterday. Besides coffee, I usually reserve breaks for walks, and this week I didn’t have the time. Instead, I used it to type up those creative brainstorms I was talking about. Then, midweek when I had powered through all the things I needed to, I was able to go on a short hike in the afternoon. +1 hour a day
These “breaks” worked because I used them to do “me” stuff—stuff that’s still necessary for a blogger/writer but not those deliverables. It broke up monotonous tasks I had to get through yet remained productive.
So that’s how I was able to hustle this week, and for me it means a much more relaxed Friday and weekend. I know a lot of bloggers talk about the hustle as a career path—but for me, it’s about making the best use of my time when I need to, and fitting in those more rewarding practices, like journaling, going on walks, and crafting, when I can.
What do you when you have a heavy workweek? Do you power through?
Sam Liang says
I have one of those workweek in which I’m super busy and also one of the most productive weeks I have. I used to multitask a lot, meaning I would do two to three tasks at the same time. But, it lowers my productivity. I would rather spend 30 minutes working on one thing and 30 minutes to work on another. It increases my productivity and also get things done soon. I don’t normally take a break, besides, I spend most of my breaks commenting on other blogs and sign onto social media. Being an entrepreneur, I work twice as much work as I work for someone else.
Angela says
I feel the same way. Just in the fact that when you’re working for someone else/in a real office you can still call it a day even if it was full of distractions. For us, that means working all night!