Do you ever get to the end of a day and think “what the heck did I do all day?” I’ve been there and I know what it’s like. I have been studying productivity for the past seven to 10 years went from someone who would just get up in the morning and go (without a plan), to someone who is a little bit more structured and A LOT more productive—which has led to my success.
I am also a reformed people pleaser and was a corporate employee for some time before I said, “You know what? I need more in my life. I think I need to be challenged, and I’m ready to step out there and dream big, achieve my goals, and move forward.” So I started studying productivity with a couple different mentors, initially, just to figure out how to pick goals that mattered to me. My goal for you is to teach you some basic things you can start out with, just to get your day rolling, start being more productive, and feel like you accomplished things by the end of the day.
The first thing I do when I get up, after I get dressed and brush my teeth, is I meditate. I start my day with gratitude. I start my intention for the day, say a little prayer, and just ask God or the Universe for some direction. This helps start the day with a positive mindset, so that I have a clear mind and clear intention for how I want to start the day.
Going along with that, I also have visual triggers, for any time I feel like I am coming out of that positive mindset. I have triggers set up on my phone as alarms. There’s a couple different apps you can use. One app that I use besides my alarm is “if this, then that” and its creating “recipes.” If it’s 2 p.m. on a Monday, for example, then I have a certain trigger come up on the app. My triggers help me if I start slipping into a negative mode, or if I get a negative feeling because something happened to take my positive energy away. The trigger helps me snap out of it. They’re words that I feel describe me, or words of encouragement.
The second thing I do after that is I get my energy flowing. You’ve got to keep those endorphins going, keep the positive mood going. So I do some form of exercise. I do strength training, cardio, go for a walk, or do yoga or pilates; anything that gets me going. Now I’m connecting my mind and body. Choose something that will make you feel good and get your energy going. The other thing is, I thank God for getting me out of bed. There was a point in time where I couldn’t even walk from the car into the grocery store, due to some physical ailments, so every day getting up and being able to move is something I’m extremely grateful for.
The third thing I do every day is that I set my daily to-do list. My daily to-do list is actually created from a brain-dump I do on Sundays in which I get every task that I can possibly think of onto a piece of paper. I will actually go through my brain-dump in the a.m., and I’ll look at things I know I need to do, such as personal appointments, phone calls I need to make, errands like going to buy stamps. Then I also include tasks: I need to schedule out these posts, get my designer to make graphics for social media posts, ask my copywriter to edit my copy. It’s important to note, when making my list, I make sure that I have two things at the top that pertain to a major goal that I’m trying to achieve for that week or month. There’s a couple apps you can use for to-do lists, but some people like to use good old pen and paper or keep a calendar. I personally have an app that I use called Awesome Note. I have been using this for a good 10 years and I absolutely love it, it’s easy to use, it syncs to my iPhone calendar and Outlook. Some people use icalendar. There are a thousand apps out there. Pick whatever system works for you.
Those are my tips for staying productive. I do this every day. I also have a series on teaching you how to figure out what your power hours are throughout the day. So if you’re interested in learning more about these things, you jump on over to Theresacantley.com and register for my next series. Or take these things we’ve talked about today, apply them in your daily life, and see if they work for you.
They’ve worked for me for 10 years and I went from being very disorganized to being able to achieve my daily goals every day … It keeps me accountable, it keeps me productive, and it keeps me happy.
