3 Tips for Productivity

I really value work-life harmony.

The word “balance" is a relative term - very rarely is anything truly 50/50. But “harmony” on the other hand is the perfect word. Harmony leaves room for sometimes more, sometimes less. Harmony isn’t bound by rules, it’s more intuitive. It can bend and flex, as life needs it to. Harmony is personal. What feels harmonious to me, might not be quite right for you and vice versa.

I have one incredibly busy and fun 4 year old, I’m a wife, a business owner and wearer of many hats so I need to be as productive as possible and make my choices sustainable. I need harmony and I have 3 tips on how I try and create it!

1. Remove distractions and mute notifications!

If that’s hard for you, then set yourself 5 minutes to check messages, DMs, emails *and then* challenge yourself to not check again for 30 min.

2. Work in time blocks

Some people use a “Pomodoro Timer”. Once your timer goes off, get up and do something different before coming back for the next time block.

The idea behind a Pomodoro Timer is that you focus on one task for a block of time - 25 minutes. When the time is up, you have a 5 minute break. If you haven’t tried this method I highly recommend giving it a go. You can use the Pomodoro timer app, a timer on your phone - whatever works for you. I usually get interrupted by my toddler around the 20-25 minute mark or I will use my Productivity Planner to help track my tasks and priorities in blocks of time.

3. Keep snacks + drinks handy!

You don’t want get up and down for that and interrupt your flow. Let’s be honest, having snacks + drinks on hand means you’ll be more likely to stay and get things done 😉

I always have a herbal tea or glass of water on my desk. Often I’ll have snack handy too…I wish I could say that my snacks are always healthy but I have a sweet tooth!

How do you stay motivated?