A Not So Secret Tip To Increasing Your Productivity

I'm sure you've heard this phrase before: If you don’t control your schedule, it will control you.

When you work in Higher Ed and wear multiple hats, being productive and being efficient with your time is essential to accomplishing your goals and mastering your to-do list. 

Let me ask you a question I pose to admissions and marketing teams during the training workshops I lead – Raise your hand if each morning you time block everything you hope to get done that day?

If your hand went up, it might surprise you to know that you’re one of the very few. The majority of people continue to tell me they don’t clearly divide their day into specific time slots (blocks) on their calendar. They just start and stop different things throughout the day.

If you’re not time blocking, I cannot encourage you enough to try it out tomorrow morning and make it a habit that sticks.

Back in 2019 at the advice of a good friend I started doing the seven steps below and it’s truly been a game changer. That’s because time blocking gives you a deadline which reduces multitasking and procrastination, increases your focus, helps you feel more in control and have less decision fatigue, and most of all, each time you complete a task your brain releases dopamine, creating satisfaction and motivation… not more stress and anxiety.

Here are those 7 steps that I start my workday with:

1.    Write down EVERY task that you want to get started or completed that day. You should also include meetings, lunch, breaks, plus any other non-work thing you plan to do.

2.    Next to each task write down how long you think it will take, or how much time you want to allocate to the task.

3.    Do some quick math and if the total time adds up to more time than you’re planning to work that day, you need to further prioritize your list of tasks.

4.    Assign each task a time slot on your calendar.

5.    Do your best to stick to your schedule and avoid distractions.

6.    Each time you complete a task write down how long it took (sometimes it will take less time than you anticipated, and sometimes it will take more).

7.    At the end of your day, or the start of your next day, review everything and write down what worked, what needs more or less time the next time you do it, where you got distracted or lost focus, etc.

One more important tip: When you’re getting ready to schedule each task on your calendar, be intentional about where certain things go. If you’re a “morning person” like me, that means your energy level and focus are typically higher early in the day. A former colleague of mine called it our “magic time”. For me, any tasks on my to do list that require more focus and creative thinking get put in a morning time slot – vice versa if you’re not a morning person.

Good luck, and remember, the science says that when any of us start something new, it takes at least 18 days of doing it for that habit to become automatic.

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