In this post, we share some tips from actual women professionals and entrepreneurs because staying productive is the only way to succeed. This involves known strategies or some off- beat ones but there is always a plan.
Productivity tips and strategies for women
Here are a few things we follow to remain productive:
1. Know your peak hours
Contrary to popular notions, a lot of successful women listen to their body clock to find the time of the day when they are more likely to be alert and productive. They don’t fight a losing battle with their circadian rhythm.
The night owls ease into the day with lighter tasks such as following up emails, and taking meetings during the first half of the day. They get the more serious work out of the way towards afternoon going into the evening, and most part of the night.
Early risers would have typically finished with a chunk of their work by afternoon. It is letting your body take the lead and guide you to your optimal times.
2. Elevated to-do lists
These are not just random to- do lists. They have everything placed in lists in order of importance – what needs to be done first, and what can be done later. They are decided based on timelines that need to be followed to prioritize tasks as per their urgency and importance.
Urgent tasks are given more importance because they are time-sensitive, and have immediate consequences.
All successful women make the extra effort of maintaining, and updating their to- do list to stay on top of their game. Work gets streamlined, and chances of slipping up on a deadline, gets minimized.
3. Task at hand focused
Successful women don’t waste their time over how much they have to do. Instead of getting overwhelmed, they go about doing tasks as per their priority, and tick the boxes, one at a time. It’s about what they check off, and not so much about how much they check off. This leaves them feeling a lot more satisfied and accomplished at the end of the day.
4. Time-blocking
This is about pairing similar tasks, and doing them in pre-decided time slots. Quite like ‘ focus work’ completing what is scheduled for that time, within that time. This stops the mind from wandering here and there while trying to fit in a lot of tasks at the same time.
5. Planning ahead
Not having to plan your meals, pick your clothes, or having to check your to- do list that needs to be updated can save a lot of time, and brain power. Plan ahead and assign work order as per what is most important in work-related tasks, tasks of leisure, and those of self-care.
Successful women chalk out the last detail that will keep them performing to their optimal levels without the heartburn of last minute scheduling and changes. Map out the week ahead.
The few extra hours spent planning work that will fit into all the days, makes you doubly productive with no missed deadlines. Things that need longer time may be scheduled ahead of the week to keep other weekdays free for focused work.
6. Prioritizing work-life balance
Women-run enterprises have to work on self-conservation more than others given that they are leading from different fronts, and required to give their best, each and every time. They know the fall- out of burnouts can be disastrous. So, they listen to their bodies, and take a break when it’s needed.
There is no point driving yourself to the point of collapse and working like a machine round the clock because the fatigue and tedium will hamper the quality of your work. They allow themselves some downtime too.
7. Keeping special focus tools
Energy can dip and for times such as those, successful women have a few focus tools to rely on for quick rejuvenation such as going for a quick power walk, playing some music in the background, deep breathing or drinking more water. Like everyone else, mompreneurs have to grapple with midday/ mid- week slumps, and still manage their work well.
8. Save on energy, not time
Saved energy translates into more work in less time. Smart women know when their peak hours are, how they operate, when they need some downtime, and how to go about prioritizing if they feel they are spending too much time on something.
They shift the focus to spending energy on things outside the ambit of work like their relationships, hobbies, and health to be self-conserving, and productive at the same time.
9. Shorter meeting times
It is important to see what meetings can just be an email, or can be shortened or scrapped altogether.
While they are important to keep everyone on the same page as well as to foster team spirit, some meetings may drag on and eat into the productivity of your day. Apart from the team, a few pesky clients may maul your schedules by asking things that can well be settled through emails or the like.
10. Take time to start your work day
You may have been caught on the wrong foot because you got all riled up in mad traffic or some other inadvertent delay. This may make you feel flustered to have fallen behind your work schedules. It’s important here to take a few deep breaths and allow yourself some time to settle into your daily routines.
When followed as a practice, it’s seen to boost productivity due to higher work engagement. Journal, meditate, or think of what you’ll be doing post-work, just about anything which makes you come back to your work, day after day, with the same amount of enthusiasm.
11. Try monotasking
It’s a tough thing to master given the world of distractions we live in. We have at a sub- conscious level convinced ourselves that we are meant to show our prowess by multi- tasking, and that to perfection. Monotasking is the antidote to this mad rush of multi-tasking. It requires you to do one thing at a time until it’s completed.
Keeping your devices on ‘Do not disturb’ to kill the need to pick up and check each time you hear the ding of a notification or just keeping miscellaneous devices away from your work desk.
You could invest in noise-cancelling headphones or change the settings of your phone such that it doesn’t let you check social media until after your work hours. Different things work for different people but monotasking is a game-changer.
12. Longer work hours
Remain flexible enough to put in more hours at work if you see a choked calendar ahead. A few extra hours will ease you into the time ahead because you’d have already completed what needs to be done and a little more.
Staying ahead of schedules is very fruitful because it leaves you feeling a lot fulfilled and accomplished. Once the rush is over, you can ease back into the regular hours you’ve been investing and go on with work as usual. Coming back to regular hours is important if you don’t want to risk mental well- being, and burn-outs.
13. Focus on your well-being
Maybe wanting to stay in bed and sleeping the weekend off, going for a run/ walk, joining a yoga class or anything else that makes you feel connected with yourself, is totally worth investing in.
Be unapologetic about the breaks you need to take, the invitations you may turn down, the friends you may refuse to go travelling with because you choose to give time to yourself.
14. Learn to say ‘No’
There will be times when you will be asked or expected to attend a certain meeting, speak at a seminar, brainstorm with a bunch of people, or plain hang out with friends.
It may not be possible for you to pencil them in, and you have to learn to say a firm and polite ‘No’ to things that will require too much rearranging of your schedules, and play havoc with your timelines.
15. Avoid context switching
Set themes for your days – Monday for meetings, Tuesday for team calls, and so on and so forth. If you are able to stick to the theme Monday to Friday without switching context, the weekend is free and uncluttered for you.
Make project boards and if you have a team, assign tasks to team members. Investing time in repeat tasks and new projects pays you rich dividends.
16. Learn on the go
If you travel to reach your workplace, plug into some motivational/ informative podcast that will help you tackle the day better. You could download some audiobooks too and listen to them while travelling.
17. Take digital notes
Taking notes in diaries and having to carry them around is a little discomforting. With smart devices, it is much easier to take digital notes, edit and share them. They make searching for a certain note just as simple than having to flip pages.
Conclusion
These are just some strategies employed by women to run their businesses successfully. They are almost habits that one needs to inculcate and get better at with time.
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