[00:00:00] Would you like to be more productive? I reckon I'm pretty productive. today I thought I'd take you behind the scenes and show you what I use to help me be productive. Now, what I have realized is that my 50 percent is probably everyone else's 80%. So I know that sometimes I have a lot of energy and a lot of capacity to do things. I also have some days where I'm not motivated. Shock horror. I know this will surprise some of you. And there was a time a few years ago in my business when I was feeling like was doing all the things, you know, you're doing all the things, you're putting content out, you're having conversations, you're doing all the things and nothing was getting me [00:01:00] traction.
Emma: And I was like, this sucks. And I was not motivated. And I thought to myself, I just don't have the energy to keep going. I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall. Who's with me, right? You've had those moments in business. I'm sure of it. And one of the things that I, I realized was that I just didn't have the energy.
I didn't have the energy to stay motivated and do what I needed to do. So luckily I looked. At all those things in tandem. I went, what is going on, Emma? And so I decided to have a meeting with myself and figure out actually what was going on. I decided to take my own advice and I listed all the things that gave me joy.
And I listed all the things that didn't give me joy. I had to escape the house because I couldn't do it in the, it couldn't do the thinking in the same four walls in which I was working. And so I took myself off. I listed those things. I also looked at the things that I needed to keep doing because that was me, the things that I needed to stop doing because they were, [00:02:00] pulling from my soul and the things that I needed to start doing that would help because I couldn't do the same thing and expect a different result.
I had to do something different. Yeah. And so today is really around, what are those things? What are those things that I did? And they are both physical and emotional. And also there's some things that might surprise you during our little conversation today. Now, there's a little internal compass.
or thermometer that I have. And when I start to feel resentment float up, when I start to feel myself lacking gratitude, when I start to listen to myself whinging out loud to no one normally, when I start to feel those things, I know it's time to a step back and work on that process all over again.
Do you know when it's coming? I think if you can figure out when it's coming, it's like when you have a migraine coming, sometimes it starts as a [00:03:00] little headache, but you know, actually this one's stronger in the eyes. So if I don't stop now and catch it, it's going to turn into a migraine. So this is what, You need to do, you need to figure out what are the warning signs that I need to just take a step back and do some bits and pieces.
So, as I said, I've got a couple of physical things that I do and a couple of emotional things that help me stay productive. Once I got out of that, funk, I was able to put some things in place that have really helped me in good stead. And some of the things I already did, but I'd let drop off the radar as we do, we're all busy and some things I needed to kind of start from scratch.
One of the things I did was put Block out time in my diary and color code everything. another coach by the name of Michelle Broadbent has this beautiful template called the effective, I think it's called the effective week. And it helps you work out your priority, how many hours you've got and color code those hours into different bits and pieces.
So I've got CEO time. I've got admin time. I only have one hour [00:04:00] admin time because I hate admin. I've got delivery time. I've got relationship time. Those two things are big for me. And so now I, at a glance, I can look at my diary and I can see, Oh, I've got all of that on. And then I go overlay it with how much energy do I need to bring to that day?
If I need to bring a lot of energy to that day, or if do I have to have more breaks because I'm doing more delivery. And when I do delivery of, One on one coaching. Sometimes those conversations are really heavy. So I need to have a little break in between to manage my own energy. So blocking out my time has been an absolute game changer.
Two, I use the Pomodoro technique. This is not new. Everyone's heard me bang on about it, but it's a Pomodoro. It's, I've got a tomato timer. Cause that's the telling whether tomato is Pomodoro, pretty much not sounding like that Pomodoro or something like that. Anyway, you set it for 25 minutes. You do your piece of work, just one piece of work, and then you have a five minute break, and then you erase it.
Game changer for me. I love the Pomodoro. Number three, I also use Tide. So there's an app on my phone. Uh, I go to [00:05:00] sleep with it because it's water, but it also has a focus element to it. and you can focus, can set it to focus on a, for a certain amount of time. I put it on cafe sounds. Cause I really liked the sound of a cafe without actually having to go anywhere.
So I use Tide to help me focus. I gamify what I can. I don't know what it is about me. I love a good game, a good challenge or a good competition. So if I can gamify it in some way, man, I'm there. could you gamify something that you're doing? Something that you don't like doing so you get it done quicker, you do more of it, whatever it is.
Of course, number five for me is naps. Naps slash meditation. you've heard me say I have naps every day, but also I meditate every day, but sometimes I have to swap those things around. So naps and meditation. And then my final tip, my final tip, especially for those who are working from home, I love working from home.
Do not get me wrong, love working from home, but I'm a bit allergic to my office at the moment. And the only reason that you're hearing this so beautifully is because I am in my office. But mainly I'm sitting at the kitchen table, which is [00:06:00] aggravating my husband. But anyway, Hey Marky Mark. Sometimes he listens to this.
Sometimes he doesn't. So one of the things that I do is I move around the house a lot. So I'm at the kitchen table. Sometimes I even say to my clients, instead of having a zoom, would you like to do a walking meeting? And so many people are looking at their screens every day that they're so grateful to have a walking meeting where we can just walk and talk and coach.
and that's awesome. But sometimes. I really don't feel like it. Like I really don't feel like it. Let's talk about this podcast. Okay. So I have been podcasting. This will be my fifth year. I podcasted for the last four years. I had people, I interviewed people on my podcast, which was amazing. Cause I got to bounce off them and do all the other things.
And it was audio only this year. We changed to video and audio. Um, we've got a little YouTube channel going and different bits and pieces. And sometimes I just do not feel like showing up to do my podcast, right? I'm human. I am not superhuman. I am human. And so I think the thing for me [00:07:00] is I have the beautiful team at Bambi, Brianna, who is my head honcho and I've got a system called Podcoach.
So basically. That holds me accountable. I can see on a spreadsheet, what podcasts I need to record. I can see when they've been recorded and I get feedback and the feedback is colored. So there's like eight pieces of feedback and it's about the audio, it's about the visual, it's about the content, it's about, That keeps me motivated.
I want to stay in green. two colors, it's either orange or green. So if I record an episode and a week later I go and it's all green in my feedback line, I'm like, whoop, whoop. Yes. If I get a little bit of orange, I'm like, right, what do I need to do better? That keeps me super motivated and accountable because we've got a list of topics that we can, you know, jump on to, I have regular check ins and I've planned it out all beforehand.
So I just jump on, look at my notes and then go from there. Amazing. If you have a plan and you have [00:08:00] accountability, man, that helps you stay on track.
There are still days, still days now where I just can't be bothered. And for those days, I actually just see it for what it is. Perhaps I've run a little bit too hard. Perhaps I am not spending enough time in my joy area. Perhaps I'm spending a little bit too much time in admin. And so there are times, so you just have to keep.
Managing it. As we get closer to the end of the year, also people's mojo and motivation seems to like swim away. And, uh, you really need to push it a little bit harder or do you, uh, my wonderful friend and lawyer, Tracy Marla Crane and I, uh, we talk about. gliding to Christmas instead of grinding to Christmas.
It doesn't have to be a grind, but you have to be planned in advance to make sure that that happens. So they're my tips for remaining productive. I hope that they have helped. I can't wait to see you or speak to you or hear from you next week. As always, please leave a review. We love reviews and we want to get this podcast into the ears of women who need it.
Have a great [00:09:00] day.
