Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the systemized business. Here we dive into strategic productivity to help you overcome entrepreneurial overwhelm. I am BK and I do not believe that you have to be a slave to your business. You can streamline both your business and your life with simple systems. So, whether you're a female entrepreneur navigating the fast-paced world of business, this podcast is your go-to resource for simplifying processes, optimizing efficiency and achieving more with less stress. Let's get started on building the systems that will take you from overwhelmed to in control. Hi there, friends, today is the beginning of a brand new series.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Over the next few episodes, we'll be going through time management, a time management series which I'm hoping is really going to simplify the processes of managing our time and being more productive. What if this is the year that we finally get control of our time? What if 2025 is the year that we conquer the distractions and the things that steal our time, so that we realize the things that have been on our vision list for the longest time but we have never been able to attain? What would you accomplish if you quit doom scrolling or letting Netflix decide that you are going to watch that next episode? Would you make more money? Would you have more time with your family? Would you have time for a hobby, maybe? What would you be able to achieve? See, time management creates a rhythm in our days that reduces stress, and it allows us this sense of stability in our daily lives. Us this sense of stability in our daily lives. Thinking through the details of our day, from the places we work to the routines that we implement, will help us create a foundational system and structure that we can build on and grow with, and this definitely means letting go of that, you know, the unnecessary details, so that we can focus on what is truly important. So I'm hoping that these strategies will help make the most use of your time every day and will help us be the most productive this year.

Speaker 1: 2:41

So the first thing to consider when we are thinking about mapping out our day is to think about our peak productivity times. As you visualize your day, where, or when, rather, are you most productive? What is the time of day that you most thrive? Think for a moment about how your most ideal productive day would go. Do you take the mornings slow, do you get right into work, or are you most productive at night? Because once you can pinpoint your most productive hours, you're better able to then work out the rest of your days so that you can make the most out of the time that you have throughout the day. Maybe you find that you are having difficulty getting productive at all during the day. This is going to help you identify what is blocking your productivity. For example, you might find it difficult to get going during the day because you are not getting enough sleep. So if you were to fix your sleep, then you can fix your days.

Speaker 1: 4:08

There've been studies done on optimal productivity, and one in particular just highlighted that the most productive time is around 11 am, that most people are most mentally alert between 9 am and 11 am. So then you tend to see studies like this are kind of instrumental when people are scheduling meetings or they're scheduling their deep work. These are things that you can find out and you can try. Are you also within the bracket of people that is mentally alert between 9 am and 11 am? You might be, and you might leverage that information.

Speaker 1: 5:01

So as you think through your particular day, your typical layout of your day, picture the parts that you might want to change. Perhaps there are daily time management habits that you would like to get rid of. Maybe there are habits that you'd like to do more of. Maybe you are the kind of person who has multiple times throughout the day where you feel the most productive. This is information that you definitely need to know as you think about your day and how you're going to manage your time to the best of your ability, and because life is life, there's always distractions, there are always people and things that need us, things that we have not planned for. So if you find that you are one of those people who does their best work and is their most mentally alert between 9 am and 11 am, but something happens and those hours are reduced to maybe 30 minutes or even an hour, what do you do? Do you just Throw them all out and just conclude that okay, well, my productive time has been completely lost. There's nothing I can do? Another thing that we want to do as we look at managing our time effectively is letting go of this all or nothing mindset when it comes to our time, this all or nothing mindset when it comes to our time. If you cannot do all of it, then do some of it, because once that schedule has been thrown off, it can seem like the rest of the day is negatively affected as well, but that doesn't need to be the case.

Speaker 1: 6:59

In order to make the most of your time all the time, take the hour that you have, take the time that you have to do everything you can with it. You don't need to rush, you just need to choose the highest priority task first. Work on whatever will move you ahead the furthest. Take it one minute at a time, five minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time. It's amazing what can happen in just 10 minutes, in just 10 focused minutes. It can be easy to let an entire hour go by when you are doom scrolling, but when you are focused, it's amazing what you can do with a little bit of time. So focus on exactly what's in front of you. Focus on the tasks that will move you the most towards your goal in the time that you have. So knowing when you are the most productive during the day is very important, but also knowing how to spend the time, even if it's limited, is also very important, because a little done is better than nothing done at all. When you're considering the time of day that you are at your peak in productivity, we also must consider where we are most productive.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Now I want you to close your eyes and visualize your ideal, most productive workplace. Look around you. Are there others around you? What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it smell like? Is it a casual place? Is it a formal setting? When you visualize like this, this gives you an indication of where you want to work, where you think and feel would be the best place that would help you do your best work. You might have a favorite coffee shop where you'd like to go to work. Maybe think about regularly going to that place a few times a week during the most productive times of the day, and if you were not able to get to your ideal setting, maybe you'd want to create that atmosphere with the other qualities that reflect an ideal working setting.

Speaker 1: 9:42

When we think about places to work, there's several places that we can think about. The coffee shop is a great idea, is a great place to get out of being isolated. If you tend to work at home by yourself a lot, you can be around people without being directly interrupted by those people. There are co-working spaces now that people who work remotely utilize very often, and a lot of these spaces are set up to have the same amenities of a typical workplace. Sometimes they're even better, actually so you can take advantage of some of these places. They're great places to surround yourself with other people who are as productive as you are. It's a great motivator. It's a great space to work in a great environment. Great motivator, it's a great space to work in a great environment.

Speaker 1: 10:41

If you have an office, if your business has an office, then you can look at how to enhance this place, this workspace, to reflect your work needs. You might need to minimize the distractions or, you know, take things off your desk which kind of catch your eye when you're trying to focus, so you can really kind of bring in the elements that will enhance your productivity within your office. Another place you could work maybe. Sometimes we need something different, right, we could work outside, maybe, go to the park and, you know, find a table under the shade and just work in the midst of nature. You can take in some of the sights and sounds that you really don't typically have when you're in a productive state, and sometimes that different environment really can trigger your creativity. If that's what you need, it's really refreshing for your mind, for your body and for your work as well.

Speaker 1: 11:50

If you tend to work at home, then you may. If you have not done so, you may want to have a designated workspace that you can add or remove elements according to your ideal environment. Typically, when you work at home, the distractions can be a bit much, but there are ways to kind of minimize those distractions. If you have a designated work space, that could also be a trigger for your mind. As soon as you enter that space, then your mind already knows that okay, we're going into work mode and you begin to behave accordingly and you begin to behave accordingly. So those are kind of some ideas of how to just to make sure or to guard your productivity. And in the spaces that you work, you know when you think about when and where you are the most productive. You also have to consider how you work.

Speaker 1: 13:02

As humans, we are typically social by nature. Some of us, of course, are more social than others. You get energy from being around other people. Then you immediately can pick from the list we just created the types of workspaces that would really appeal to you. Being around people, being around that energy can help you be more productive without necessarily being social right. So it's helpful to know the type of person you are and how you work and then make your decisions based on that, not only the times that you work best, but the places that you work best too. If you like or you enjoy working with a small group of people, perhaps have one other person or two other people to invite for a work session that you could inspire yourself, you could inspire each other to and hold each other accountable, as you guys look to be more productive this year.

Speaker 1: 14:27

So it really is just about asking yourself the simple questions of when, where and how am I the most productive? And this will help design productive days. And just to be clear, we are not saying by being productive, we're not saying filling every hour, every minute with work. By being productive, I mean being intentional with how we spend our time and being happy with what we did with our time. So this series is going to help us do just that Design the days that we want, so that we can live the life that we want, whether it is in business or just in our personal lives. In business or just in our personal lives, we want to be productive in the sense that we want our days and our time to be intentional.

Speaker 1: 15:27

All right, I'm so glad you are joining me for this series on time management. I really hope that it gets us thinking and gets us intentional in just structuring our days a little bit differently. I think if we do different then we get different results, and I am all for making this year a year of intentionality and and this starts with the way I spend my days. So thank you for joining me for this episode. I hope you found it of some value to you and I hope you stick with me until next week for our next installment. If you this episode, please do me a huge favor. Subscribe to the show, leave a review if you have one more minute, please. It does help us immensely, just for other people to find the show. If you want to connect with us, in the show notes our links to social media, the website. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I will talk to you soon. Bye for now, yeah.