Okay, hello and welcome to Friday afternoon with me, Farzana, from, I'm, we're presenting again today on growing your business, productivity hacks. So before we get started, if you're new to the channel and visiting first time, please feel free to interact with us through the content section. It's always nice to know that we've got some people with us and that everything working, etc. So anyone, oh, that would be very useful.
And for those of you that are regulars with us, thank you so much for again committing to us and very precious time. I really do appreciate, and, um, irony is about productivity, so I hope that you'll be able to get out of station. So back on.
So being busy versus being productive. I don't need to tell you, I bet you are as big as the next person. Are we really being productive? I know that lots of people say too, well, Farzana, you know, you're always rushing around, you've got so much on, you're always so busy, and inside I'm normally smiling. They don't know that I am. Everybody thinks I'm busy from the hat they see me wearing, from the side of me that presented to them. They don't realize that's actually what's about going on. Every talked about, um, we'll take up there, um, but actually it's about being productive.
So we are all guilty, I think, I've done a basically really, really acting, um, multitasking, and just have kind of octa, octopus going on with lots of different. Um, I must have that last night, also cooking the dinner, trying to drain the pasta to serve it up to my. Quite a lot going on, but it all needed to happen, or eight o'clock when I.
Um, being reactive and not proactive. Now that's another one. We are very good at busying out with dealing with all those things that have landed on. I think the biggest time sucker, that probably answers emails first thing when we wake up and first log on to our email, if that's our habit. Of course, we don't know what's going to be in that inbox. There might be something very quick in there, there might be. Our habit tend to be that we'll start dealing with all straight away.
But actually, if we were to change our mindset a little bit and decide that actually I'm not going to touch my box, I already have my list from before, you'll probably find that your productivity will come onto that. Jumping from task, that's probably again another way of being very busy, not necessarily. And it's easily done if you're in a busy office. Um, the phone's going again, emails are pinging, team members are wandering around wanting more input. It can be really easy distracted from, and if it's something that's, um, more of a report or some old project worth, that can really interrupt your concentration and your flow of achieve.
Um, being too easily accessible. Now, um, this is something that Uzair and I regularly give us. Obviously, in the current world that we live in, we are expected to be on tap. Um, there might be chatbots on WhatsApp, Skype, Slack, project tags in, for example, in our case. Again, if you're in a busy office, people up to you just means that you're being corrupted, and you so.
And saying yes to. Again, touching on my own personal experience, people think that I'm very, very. What they don't see any things I do actually go to, because it's not necessarily the best use of my knowledge, expertise, energy, and it's better to allow their own. So I remember, and that was my full life, and it was great, it was a great way to be, but it soon became apparent that for some people that PTA was their be all and all of their life. They could afford to spend two hours out, shall we, child and sort. That did not require my time to step away.
As you all know, we had a bonus baby a decade later, and the time for PTA came along again, and I was asked, would you join, you've got some great ideas, we'd love to have. And it didn't feel fair. I've had my, I've been involved with all, it's time for someone else to feel that they entered the great brite. Because if I was to go in, I'd say, well, this is how we've always done it, this is how we should do it. That wouldn't be fair on other people, their growth, getting their ideas. So, um, very simple.
Oh, and probably my favorite, the enemy of productivity, got to be just putting things off, busying ourselves with other times. Again, through lockdown, I think for those of us that weren't, perhaps not used to working from home, um, this one has probably been the one, the real shocker. Realizes so easy, guys, just, I will just a load of wash, I'll just sort out the kids lunch, and then definitely get started, and you just put it off.
So how can we use some great, um, life hacks to be more productive? Well, actually, before we can get into apps and all those kinds of things, we're not actually going to talk about today, actually I'm saying. And for me, touched on the, it really is about giving good energy. Um, I touched on a very busy night. I've actually had a very usual day today where I got thrown in unexpectedly. It's been highly productive 24 hours. It's been a little bit reactive as something happened, but they didn't really matter.
They would have taken so much longer to get those things done, I begrudgingly went at it half-heartedly, out in it, and just kept thinking, oh well, this, it will take longer. I'm a great believer that you commit to, whether that's your favorite time, give it good, and that will help essentially how you approach your. Um, it will also become a better habit, because you will find that as you do the same things relatively in a good energy way, they start to become this, and you don't think, considering any other way of doing it.
Just double checking that we have voices here, voice issues. Oh, I think we're good. On to the next. I've got seven points for you today of my favorite hacks. I'm just going to talk to them, so very, a light-hearted touch with a serious, no idea. So, um, I'm sure lots of you have seen, you know, start early, most productive part of the day, you don't get adopted, nobody's on their email, phones yet, you so much fun.
Well, that's absolutely fine if, like my husband there, who has always been, loves getting up, is now currently, is now for on, um, but he's already been up of hours. Recently lengthened, well, lengthened it at the beginning of the day. Important at the end of the day to actually start waking. Personally, I first, I am, the later it gets, the more alert I become. So I did actually finish, like, late last night, yeah, I plus one before I logged off, um, because I'm raring to go.
So just because you're told on productivity hacks, start early, well, actually, I'm a great believer, work with your own body clock, work with your natural, um, preference, and for me that's working late. Ask me to get up early, get it life changing, I'm well considered, um, but stay late, yes, it's true. Those, um, one of my reasons for liking working late, and there's reason for very early, that there are actions. Some of my most productive work can be hours. I feel as though I get a whole eight hours work done perhaps three hours. Normally there would be distractions. Options for me personally, um, not necessarily easy.
Um, I don't choose to do this on a regular basis. I try and make it at night work that way. Joys of running business, you do what you need to do. Um, but it does mean that, again, giving it good energy, you find that bother, you find that you get those.
And last little tip is, it sounds really, get a full night. And there will be many people say, well, I survive on five-hour sleep, hour sleep, enough sleep. Well, there is a reason scientif, medics tell us to get. That's because certain hormones in our body need eight hours to replenish, recharge, some case dissipate. So for example, talk about cortisol, stress hormone. Cortisol needs eight hours die back down, settle back down into the body and get minimized, switch off.
So if we don't let our body rest, we've got that cool to get the other hormone, we've got that one hormone alone that's going to cause stress issues and never quite stretching your body, and eventually, if you continue to do that, you are going to end up with burning yourself out and, you know, things like adrenal fatigue and other issues that.
So have a thing that, why is it that our body, we, we're looking good shape and we look well, but we feel a bit conscious, mommy always looks a little bit bloated and dodgy around the middle? That is actually yours doesn't know what to do. Is it, actually our body is an amazing, gives us so many signal, tips and tricks as to how we can. Only get one, do it to us.
And get my top tip here is use a regular tradition, not. I will raise my eyebrows to vendors there against that. I'll say, why has that? Oh well, I need it for the alarm. Well, don't need it, there's an alarm, because then I am getting things, the notifications, the light suddenly deciding it's going to wake up and just illuminate the room for a little while, and of course the temptation to start scrolling if perhaps you can.
So which again has the negative effect, because blue light is going to interrupt with your sleep hormones, and you can't actually get to sleep. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that you are not going to. So I actually have a regular cheap alarm clock. Sometimes the phone doesn't come up to me, sometimes it does, only generally speaking the alarm clock. If the phone does come up, it is only for, um, I genuinely escort.
My next little tip is make a list of tasks. Many of us are list makers, avid list mate. Nothing more satisfying than something list. But making a list for the sake of making a list isn't really the true solution. Bear with me, I'm just going to adjust the microphone ever so slightly, just to make sure that we get some good sound quality. Hopefully that's improved. So we just, just moved the mic a little bit.
Um, try and make your list, but perhaps start thinking about a habit that might be new for you, which is to put these three items down as you go along, or start to divide up your list. So the first one is, try and allocate roughly how long a task is going to actually take. Because when we start brainstorming and sticking down our list, we often, there'll be things that are just one minute things that just need to be done, mustn't get forgotten, but there might actually be a bigger project that we want to stick onto our productivity system, start mind mapping.
There might be other things that's clearly not a one minute task, but if we suddenly find that, actually, I've made this list of 10 things, but if I added all of those up, that's already five hours of my day gone dealing with my list, you'll realize that actually time to start thinking about prioritizing and working out what's urgent versus what's important.
In time, as you synthesize your lists and start to work more efficiently, hopefully nothing should ever become urgent, because you will be dealing with all the important things before they become urgent. And again, this goes back to being proactive over and above reactive. There is a time and place for both, but the more proactive you can organize yourself, the less urgent things become, the, the better the habits become, the more efficient you become, i.e. increasing your productivity.
And another little point is, um, put a little return on investment on that task. Um, this is a funny little one. I'm going to give you the example of my ironing. Now, I love ironing. I find it quite relaxing, I find it very satisfying when everything is very neat and tidy and in its order, and it's a nice task. It's quite satisfying to get that out of the way and it's quite rewarding.
Um, I am guilty of multitasking when I iron, and that is, I tend to watch a film or a bit of TV, or all my catch-ups that I've been recording, I'll just blast through the list, forward off the ads, and get that done while I'm standing ironing. But it's to the detriment of my productivity, because, my hobby of ironing aside, actually me standing and ironing for an hour or two is an hour or two that I can't give to my business, which is going to give me, that one hour is going to give me far more return investment than any amount of.
So, um, you know, as our officers, just get an ironing leak. So recently I do have an eye, but we will come back to the in a moment. Um, so think about the return of investment on that task, and of course anything that is actually going to generate income, that wins over your list every time, because that's something that you focused on. Otherwise, again, we're being busy without being productive.
Um, we're going to come to the ironing again. Should you complete your task in task order, or favorite, least favorite order? So, um, I used to do this when I used to stand and I, I'll pick up an item, I won't do that one, that was really hard to, I don't like to do that one, I'm going to. I'd find that always at the end there would be these funny, difficult to iron items left at the bottom, but I've actually wasted so much time considering which things I'm going to iron, to not iron, I could have probably just done them in the first place.
I have a new rule when I'm ironing. Whichever items comes up in my hand, that's the item we're ironing. We are not going to worry whether it's the big bedding or whether it's tiny little t-shirt, it just gets done, and that way there's no brain power wasted in trying to make these very small, insignificant decisions. The job's just done. So that's my, uh, little anecdote regarding ironing.
How can you make a list of your tasks and get more, um, organized? Uh, like I said, I'm not going to talk about actual apps today, but just to give you a few ideas, you can think about, um, Trello, Monday, Basecamp, Asana, spreadsheets of course, lists if you prefer to use that method. It doesn't really matter which, all of these tools there.
As I've already said before, Asana is the go-to tool for our daily productivity, workflows, processes and products at the moment. We have used Trello and Basecamp in the past. We continue to use spreadsheets, they have their place, but in terms of really turbo charging our product, productivity, that at the moment is Asana. We are able to work with all our team members, stay connected, stay coming in communication at all times, and that has really helped us to ramp up our productivity, especially over the last.
Stop multitasking. Now, um, just for fun, I thought, oh, I'm going to, I, there I am saying that I don't multitask, let me take a screenshot of my toolbar as it stands. So I didn't budget, I didn't deliberately open a couple of extra ones to impress anybody, I didn't close any down to, to hide. Now, even I'm not clever enough to be working in two different projects in Asana, and having a Google Drive open, and having two totally separate job numbers open within my.
This is the slide deck, so that was out. The calendar is open, my inbox is open, a couple of buying sites are open. Quite a lot going on there, and it's totally unnecessary. So it was interesting for me to just look back on myself. Right, okay, I need to close down a few windows and make they're not distracting me. Because the truth is, when you are interrupted, it takes, I believe, 20 minutes with the brain to get back into the zone for the task that you're actually doing.
That's why it's really important to stop them. Let's try and cultivate a habit that eventually just becomes the norm for you, of single task, so you're not constantly being distracted, like I say, doing the octopus, too many things going. Easier said than done, I know, but there are some ways of getting around that. You could think about switching off your notification pings, calls.
On my phone I have the, um, uh, I get what the game is, basically at nine o'clock at night it goes into evening mode, where I, do not disturb mode, so I don't get any patients etc., and it just helps to make sure that you get that balance back, work-life balance.
Um, you might even consider practicing mindfulness or meditation, and again there are multitude of apps, in my arm, Headspace, numerous others. You might just go for a guided meditation on YouTube. So, um, one of the things I do is I just choose, um, healing music, which has got three-minute timers on there, so I can focus on chakras and do my.
I found, um, certainly at the beginning of lockdown, when I was practicing meditation daily, only for about 10 minutes or so, I did feel different. My energy was better, I felt calmer, I was able to deal with all the stresses of early pandemic days and all adjusting, um, changed workloads and changed home life, and it really would set me up for the day. And it's something that, if I don't have, well, the, the joke is that if you've, you know, if you've got time to meditate, you should meditate, but let's don't have time that you need to. Find that actually your product go up.
Okay, delegation. So, um, we're back to my ironing again. Only allow yourself to do those tasks that actually generate income. So much as I say I find ironing weirdly therapeutic, it's not actually generating. It's time to delegate that, so off it goes now. Lady a fabulous job. Um, she does a great job. I don't have to fringe of jealousy, I'm not, get on with it.
Now the false economy one, that's saving money and trying to do it yourself. So it's very easy to say, well, by the time I find someone or train someone, I'll just have it done, it only takes five minutes, only takes ten, or I could save that money, because why should I pay them x amount pounds, or I could do that myself and I save it. You're actually not saving any. You have a saying in the UK, you know, any pennywise and pound foolish. You're so busy saving the pennies, you're not thinking of the bigger picture, and this is why it's important that if you start to delegate, you will see that your product is up.
Now again, back to my hats. I'll do so many different things, get done. Yes, I have to do things, but I am so fortunate to have an amazing team behind me, whether it's in my community role as mayor or whether it's in business with my team I am working with. They are so supportive and just get what needs to be done.
And I would like to think that I spend time and energy with each of them individually, not quite on a daily basis, but by just checking in, checking in with what's going on with them in their lives, supporting them, having some empathy of what's going on. Because the honest truth is, and it's very humbling, from my team, is that they are ready to work whenever I ask them to work. I don't abuse that, I don't expect people work out of hours or a week, but should I pick up the phone now and pick up any of the team members, I know each of them, even though we're rolling into the Friday, tell me what you need done, not a problem.
And I'd like to think that comes from mutual respect of each other, not trying to do their jobs for by saving money, but by actually allowing them to. It frees me up to be productive. So like I say, just think about that in your own business and how, see where you might be able to delegate certain, whether it's the ironing or whether it's the bookkeeping, project management even, no reason why done.
And then a last little tip is picking the right people, and try and pay as much as you can afford. Now certainly in the UK, and I suspect worldwide, it's almost an employer's market right now. There are so many people who work. Again, certainly here, we are hearing on a daily basis the job market just changing and people coming out of work, unfold, retail sector, hospitality sector, arts, office work. Economy, unfortunately, thanks to COVID, is thinking.
But that does not mean abuse as an employer the people that you choose to work. Pay a fair pay for fair days, use that as your motto, and it will always stand you in. Like I just said, you will find that people will want to work because you are fair to them, not taking advantage, especially at the currency.
So how do you find these people? Um, it could be, um, as I'm sure you've all heard of, Upwork, Fiverr, uh, using virtual assistants. Um, using apps, pay for an app. Um, you've all seen it, Facebook, what's the free app to run such and such in my business? Well, it's free for a reason. It's probably not that good, or it'll hook you in at a basic level, but you're going to have to upgrade and pay eventually. It's again a false economy to think that the free is necessary.
Not true for everything, that's not knocking the free. Um, we, I often use Canva, the free model, for my personal life and bits and pieces, daughter's birthday invitation, whatever it may be, but that would be a false economy to think, well, I'll carry on using the free model business tasks. So we always have the paid model all our apps, because that is giving us maximum flexibility, productivity. And again, I've just jokingly, domestic help, that frees you up, get more done.
Well, I see the time is marching on today. Uh, sort out your processes. Now this is actually linked to number four, and it's about organizing all your tasks logically, so that they followed by whoever picks up those tasks.
I'm going to talk about my ironing lady again. So of course, as I say, I love my ironing, but if I just gave my lady five bags of ironing and just dumped a whole load of hangers in a bag and said, right, off you go, get off, he doesn't know which ones I want hung up, which hangers to use for there, for myself, for the little one, uh, whether I want those particular items folded or hanging up. These are all tasks, actually it's all part of the process.
So I quickly bag everything up, I put a marker as to which hanger needs to go for which particular bag, so that she knows. Last week everything came back, um, and everything went straight back into the wardrobes, all in all. Otherwise all I've got to do is unpick all that ironing to make it happen, and that's just all hardy, to, to have an ironing lady and then not actually proper order.
So again, in your business, the same thing. You need to sort out your processes before you can do the delegation. Um, again, if you've got your processes sorted out, your business should be able to run whether it's unplanned or planned absences. Of course holidays, you'll be able to take those, because your team should be able to manage if your processes are in place, should the worst happen.
Um, we had a blip this morning where we unexpectedly both needed to go off for a couple of hours. It didn't matter, because everyone already had their tasks, the systems are there. It didn't even matter that they didn't know we had to go hours. Everything is still running during the day like clock.
You can also consider automating your repetitive tasks, and also eventually your process will have your team's band. Again, I've touched on this on previous weeks. If the system's already in place, I don't see my teams staying put, just repeatedly doing their tasks. I would like to think that through mentoring and growth they will eventually become the heads of their departments, passing on those skills to the teams, and it would just mean that it's, if everything is systemized, that's so much easier to.
My tip here is to do things like set up your how-to training guides. It means that people won't bother you with how do I do this, how do I set up something. For example, we've already got the training manuals there. All they need to do is watch the relevant video. Of course, we're into video, so everything's done by video. It's highly visual, we can explain clearly where we're up to on the screen, and the team can then there.
And then we come to get some fresh air. So what does that do to us? Obviously we can get, feel energized just being out in the fresh air. It gets our endorphins buzzing and really gets the right hormones buzzing around for us, but also changing location can help you to feel energized and change your perspective.
Um, you can use, um, apps etc., you know, track your steps for example, to see, um, how far you've walked each day. For me, that's become something that is a habit. If I get to wear my Fitbit, I get very annoyed, because I can't track how many steps I've done, so I really do make an effort to keep movement.
But I'm just going to give you something to think about. Are you a person, when you walk into a meeting, that always gravitates to the same seat? If you do, your perspective will always be the same. So when I go into meeting, I don't have a set plan in my mind, right, where I think I'm going sitting. I mix it up a little bit. Interestingly, you do get a different viewpoint just from where you're sitting. You're seeing different, in a different perspective.
So, um, if you're brave enough, and you're a creature of habit, I'm going to ask you to experiment the next time. It could be a long way off with COVID, because none of us are allowed to meet, um, but just give that a little try and see what that does to your energy, how you feel.
And then finally, expressing gratitude. Now, we are very good at beating ourselves up about the many things that we didn't finish on our, things that went wrong in the day, the things that keep us stuck in that negative loop of that, that, uh, pushed my buttons, I was triggered by that, I didn't get such and such done, they annoyed me.
Well, actually, try and just give some gratitude, thanks, at the beginning and end of each day. Thank you for everything that you've been accomplishing. What you haven't doesn't matter, that can wait. Um, but you could try, and gratitude, you can choose the outcome of your day.
Uh, gentlemen yesterday looked out the window, it was a very wet and windy kind of a day yesterday here in the UK. He said, what an awful day. And I said to him, no, not really, the day is what we make of it. Because actually, what's awful about it? It's just the weather, and that can be reframed, as I've said in the next bullet. What's awful about the rain? We need the rain. We washes down the plants, it flourishes them, gives everything an air of cleanness, stops. So it's all about how we might be framing something, actually that's positive outcome. Weather is the weather, we can't change the weather, so what if it's raining.
And, um, as you all know, I normally start with wins of, of my week. This week I deliberately didn't, because I was saving it, and you'll find that if you do start to keep a win, wins log, it's amazing how you start to realize how much you have to be. And so, um, I make that a habit now, just mentally, sometimes write them down, normally just end of the day, up my day, and say, yep, actually really well.
And, uh, that for today is everything. Overrun slightly today. Um, next week I'm going to be talking about productivity the, uh, happy way, all about apps and how you can use them more effectively business. Sorry about the cheesy line, I couldn't resist when I was putting these, these slides together. Um, so I do hope you'll be able to join me next week, where we will have some specific apps and how you can apply them in your business.
And of course, as always, thank you, thank you for giving up your precious time today. I do hope that this has given you something that's going to allow you to focus on yourself and work on your business, rather than working in your business. We do enough of that as it is. Stepping away a little bit and be focusing your energies may just give you that little productivity, hopefully your business growth.
So thank you once again. Um, I'm just going to check if there are any comments, anything major. I have one question. Okay, Arthur, thank you so much for your, um, ad group question. Uzair will pick up on that and get back to you specifically on one of his Google Ads sessions. I think we're all good. So thank you once again, um, thank, and apologies for overrunning slightly tonight, um, but I hope you got something valuable out of it, and I look forward to seeing you all again next week. Thank you so much.
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