Productivity 101 – The First Step

I am so excited for this week’s topic because it’s not sexy and it’s something people don’t usually want to do.

What??

I know, I know, that doesn’t sound like something you might want to do either, but believe me my friend, when you do this one thing you will put yourself in the best position possible to begin saving hours every week and have so much more clarity about what direction you want to go in.

What am I talking about?

Productivity 101: Beginning with where you are now. Because how are you supposed to figure out where you want to go to if you don't know where you are?

Here’s how it breaks down - the classic 3 step process for problem solving is:

1. Identifying where you are now
2. Envisioning where you want to be
3. Figuring out how you get there (which is my favourite part because it’s all about taking action).

So we start at the beginning with understanding what your situation is currently.

Here’s the thing, when examining where you are now, you can look at in one of two ways - reality or fantasy. Let’s start with fantasy because that’s more fun. Do any of these describe you?

• You are super busy running from activity to activity and task to task. There aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things you need to get done
• You spend all day working and never have time for the other things that are important in your life like self-care or family
• You’ve put aside time for yourself because you are a priority in your own life (woohoo!!!), but there is never any time to work on your business to really move it forward. There is only time to put out fires.

Do any of these sound like you?

If so, you are not alone my friend! This is the way most of us see ourselves and the way many of us spend our time during the day.  But what if this is a fantasy and not reality? I’m not saying you’re not busy, of course you are! But what if you were spending some of your precious time doing different things than you thought you were? Stay with me here because maybe…

• You get sucked into social media?
• You start reading/watching the news?
• A friend calls for a chat?
• You decided to take a walk on a beautiful sunny day?
• You lose yourself in the internet doing research?

There’s nothing wrong with doing any of these things, but they can often take more time than you think. There is only one way to get at the truth to discover what is fantasy and what is reality, and that is tracking your time.

Did you just moan? I know! I said it wasn’t sexy, but it’s sooooo good for you! Better than kale, promise.

If you keep track of what you are doing on a daily basis for 1 week, you will be really surprised to see where you spend your time. Also, once you do this exercise, you will know where you are now. This is HUGELY IMPORTANT INFORMATION!

Once you know where your time actually goes, you can make changes that will help you spend more time on the things that matter, and less on the things that don’t.  Then you can figure out how to get there. This process is the exact step by step approach I teach in my new digital course, Path to Productivity that will be launching in October (so excited!).

I’m going to make this easy for you. There are a whole bunch of different apps you can use for this, but I am going to give you a free, simple, printable PDF to use that you can get here:

Time Tracking Made Easy

Here’s what it looks like:

Here’s how it works:

1. Download or print up the Time Tracking Made Easy Worksheet. Start tracking whenever you want; it doesn’t have to be Monday morning. Now is a good time. You can start in the middle of the week and cycle back around to the beginning.
2. Write down what you are doing, in as much detail as you want. “Worked” and “exercised” are both fine, but if you want more information to work with later, try “worked on weekly content creation” and “went to studio for yoga.”
3. Keep the Tracker with you if you can, but if you forget to record what you’re doing for a bit, just approximate the time later. It doesn’t have to be perfect, I promise! Most people find that checking in 3-4 times a day is good enough, with each check-in taking about a minute.
4. Keep going for one week – I know you can do this! If the week you just recorded seems particularly atypical to your regular activity, you might want to try to do a second week. To be honest though, most entrepreneurs learn that there is no such thing as a typical week!

Ok, this next part is sexier, now that we know where we are, we can look at where we want to go.

After you’ve recorded your week, break your activities down into categories:

• How much time did you spend working?
• Commuting?
• Interacting with your family?
• Sleeping?
• Exercising?
• Doing personal care (like showering or styling your hair)?
• Doing housework or other chores?
• Watching television?
• Reading?

Now you have some big questions to ask yourself:

1. Do these numbers reflect the number of hours you’d like to spend on these projects? What do you think would be ideal?
2. How can you change your schedule to get closer to that ideal? Try thinking through your next week (before you are in it!), and scheduling in activities you’d like to spend more time doing.
3. What, logistically, would need to happen for this schedule to become a reality? How will you hold yourself accountable for making these time changes?

This process may seem like a lot, but it’s a journey, not a quick fix, and you are taking your first step! Woohoo and well done! 🎉 🙌🏻

I would like to offer a bit more advice to help you work through this process.  If you need help figuring out which of these activities you need to focus on, I have another amazing FREE resource for you and it’s called

6 Easy Steps for Female Entrepreneurs to Get More Done in Less Time

If you’re trying to take your business to the next level, but don't know where to start, you can use my step-by-step process to identify the crucial activities you MUST focus on right now to get bigger results in your business (in less time).

With my FREE worksheet,

6 Easy Steps for Female Entrepreneurs to Get More Done in Less Time

you just follow the steps to get more big wins while spending less time and energy to make them happen. Just click or tap the link above and get your free copy today!

I would love to hear how you get on so let me know if you’ve ever tracked your time in the comments below and if not, will you start this week?

Committed to your success,

Marina x