Productivity & Time Management for Creatives

1. Intro to Productivity & Time Management: Hey, welcome to this class. I'm Donna. I'm going to be your tutor. I created this class because most productivity advice isn't made for creators. It's rigid, it's too corporate, it's not realistic. So in this course, we're going to be focusing on the creative side of you, working through what works for you. What we're specifically going to cover is learning how to get things done without burning out because that's really common creative people, the flexible tools made for you, how to build up those daily routines, and at the end, we're going to walk away with a personalized plan basically suited to you and what you want to do. Let's crack on. 2. Setting Realistic Goals and Priorities : This lesson, we're going to look at setting realistic goals and priorities. Creative minds have no shortage of ideas. I have tons and tons and they're never ending. But turning these ideas into finished projects, how do you go about it? It can be really, really overwhelming, especially being really creative but not having a direction. That's where structure comes in. It helps you finish what you start, but doesn't limit your creativity. It's just aimed at getting the best out of you, giving you a bit of clarity, and making sure you finish what you started basically. So the top three priority methods. Basically for this, you choose three main tasks to focus on daily. You can write this down in your diary, write it on your phone, however you do it, write down three main tasks that you want to focus on daily. What this does, it helps reduce that overwhelming feeling, decision fatigue, where you're like, I've got ten things that I want to do. What do I do first? Or you get tired of thinking about, where does my focus actually need to be? Or it actually helps you focus on finishing things. That's the whole point of those priority lists. Have a think about that and how you'd want to do it. Another way of doing it is breaking those big goals down into action or steps, you might have a massive project, a vision of sorts. What you need to do is you need to break it down into 90 days monthly, weekly and daily goals. There are various tools out there to help you. One of the best ones personally that I've used so much is tre. Trailer is great because you can do it by project by project. You can label things going. I've started with this. You could put deadlines and things on that. It can actually help manage your time better and getting things done. But it's entirely up to you if you'd rather do three top priorities per day or if you've got bigger projects. It depends on what you've got going on at the minute. But those are the two strategies to getting goals met and prioritizing a little bit better. 3. Overcoming Procrastination and Distractions: This lesson, we're looking at overcoming procrastination and distractions. Let's get real for a minute. Procrastination has nothing to do with laziness. Most of the time it's rooted in fear, overwhelm or the feeling that you're not quite sure what to do next. That's the main reasons for it. If you're creative like myself, you're probably great at sign things and not always finishing them. That's normal, but we're going to fix it. I'm going to teach you some simple techniques. The first one is the two minute rule. If it takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it now. Don't leave it. What you will find is seeing the list of tasks that you need to do can be absolutely overwhelming. But majority of the time, those tasks don't take long to do at all. It's because you've written it down a bit of paper, I need to do this. But what you don't realize is that two minute tasks could be done, ticked off, done, and that overwhelming fill will just go because you're seeing less and less on that to do list. If it takes 2 minutes, do it now. Another one is start with micro tasks. So for example, open the file, writing a one liner, sketch your title, flick between those little microtasks to keep your brain going. You want to be keeping your brain engaged, interacted in what you're doing. What you will find sometimes, especially as a creative, you'll start on something and then your focus will drift. When that point hits, go on to a different task. It helps you massively. Another technique is use a pre task ritual, this is called to reduce your resistance. Coffee, music, stretching, that type of thing. Take two minute stretching, quick coffee, and get straight back onto it. And that tiny little break will help your brain just go, boom, reset for 2 minutes. Let's do it again. But if you get into routine, say for example, I stretch sometimes when I have my break. I know that my brain is going reset. This is that moment where you reset and then I get back on to doing whatever I need to do. The last one, this is the one that actually is me written all over. Think about reframing things. For example, have a thought of, I'm just experiment instead of this has to be perfect. We are all bad for thinking, this needs to be perfect. This needs to be, I need to triple check it, I need to do this or that doesn't look quite right, it doesn't look perfect enough. Just try and reframe that thought into, actually this is good enough. Do I mean, and then move on. The problem we have is trying to make things too perfect in certain things that we do and that can lead to a lot of procrastination. Now we're going to look at distractions. Distractions are a big part of everyone's life. We all have them, but there are a few ways to reduce those distractions and stay more focused. So there are different techniques you can do with this. First of all, designate short focus pockets. That could be 15 to 30 minutes of deep work where you just get your head down and you do it. You don't look at your phone, you don't have your TV on, that's it. That's what you're working on. Whatever project you're on, you just get it done, focus on it. Then what you do is you take a step back. You can take, say, a 15 minute break, however you want to do it, and then do it again. But you have to build up to this one. I find sometimes you can start the 15 minute mark, get into deep focus, and gradually build it up. Don't just go straight in 30 minutes, I'm going to get deep work. You start out slow, see what works for you, you'll find that the more you're able to ignore the distractions, stay a bit more focused, your focus time and energy will grow. Start with 15, see where it goes. Another thing is put your friend in another room or use focus apps. There are some really good apps out there. There's forest, freedom, cold turkey, there are loads out there that will basically set a timer. What it does is it will time down, say 20 minutes of focus time and things like that, just to help you stay on track so that you don't need to keep checking your phone. I will just vibrate when 20 minutes is over. But either way, if your phone is such a big distraction, move it in another room or flick it on silent, turn it over, put it somewhere away from where you're working. Another thing is visual blockers are always really good. For example, headphones, blocking out noises, especially if you've got a lot around you going on, browser blockers as well. They're one of those things where if there's certain websites and stuff that you frequently just go to when you're just having that moment of weakness or you're distracted, you can put browser blockers on them to basically stop you from going on the specific sites that you notorious for going on. Some people have Facebook on there. Computer and that's they go to when they've had enough of work. You can do that or you can do timers. There's little visual think blockers and things out there for you that will help you just stay focused. Then lastly, another one is batch notification. Turn them all off, check your messages at set times throughout the day. If you've got family and stuff trying to get ahold of you and things like that, you can do a check every hour on the hour of all your notifications. Some phones do it, some don't you can just put your phone to the side, have a time somewhere else, and then in an hour, you know that you can do a quick two minute check your mesges because sometimes it is important to check just in case anything is going on that you don't know. So hopefully, these are things to think about. If you get really distracted easily, try the apps, they're really useful. Try timers. You don't need to pay for a lot of these anyway. You can do a timer on your phone if you wanted, but just think what works best for you. How can you stay focused? 4. Time Management Techniques That Actually Work: In this lesson, we're going to look at time management techniques that actually work. The first one we're going to try is this technique. It's called the Pompadora technique and what it is is you do 25 minutes of focus work and a five minute break. That's one Pompadoro after four, exactly what you're doing. Take a longer 15 to 30 minute break. What this does is it helps avoid banous, boost creativity. The great thing with this is you can use apps as well. Apps are going to be your best friend with helping you stay focused and things like that or your kitchen timer, to be honest, is going to be great. Another technique is to use time blocking and task batching idea. If you find that you're switching between editing videos, answering emails, and writing caption, your brain is doing overtime. Batching similar tasks actually saves you time and edgy, block those times out. What you need to do with this is you need to reserve chunks of time for deep work, specifically for admin, one for content, one for your emails, that type of thing, batch them all together. What you will find sometimes, some people are okay with going flicking between them is it's a lot more energy to get everything set up, your social media post to then come off, do your emails and then to flick back onto social media and then you find that you figuring out what you did and where you got to and you lose a lot of your focus and you start to procrastinate quite a lot. It also will help reduce your decision fatigue and it just gives you a bit more focus. There are tools like Google Calendar is a really good one. I use this a lot for everything, Notion or a pen and paper. Get a diary, what you do is some of them will have times. F eight till 9:00 A.M. You're going to do emails and that's what we're going to focus on. You're not going to flint checking other things or yeah, I'll just go on Facebook quickly just to check if this work. Now, do that at nine till ten. Batching those tasks will just help you get things done and make sure that you're focused on those specific tasks. So what I say is one of the best things you'll do is learn what works for you, basically. We're all very different. For most of us, for myself in particular, morning is when I get stuff done. My creativity on the other hand, it flows between very fasting in the morning and late at night. That's when my natural flow of things works. For you, you just need to work out when's best for you. So what you could do is start with a tracking down, say, the last five days when you found that you got things done, when you found that you could stay a bit more focused. You could just note it down as you're doing it and see actually at 8:00 to 9:00 A.M. Do you know what? That's perfect time. I feel like you can do this. But when it gets to say lunchtime, you're like, N I don't want to do anything, and then you pack up again. So figure out what works for you, identify those peak focus times and then match the task to your energy levels at those key points. For example, if you've got creative stuff that you need to get done, you might find the mornings are brilliant for it. You are on it, you're feeling rested, your brain is reset, you know what you're doing. For some people, they like to get the admin or getting those boring tasks out of the way because they feel like once they're out, bam, you don't need to worry for them. In the afternoons, they feel like, I can go mad, created. But yeah, spend some time figuring out where your focus peaks are. That will really help you in staying focused, stopping your procrastination, and understanding how you can get things done a bit better and a bit quicker without losing your focus every 5 minutes. 5. Creating a Productive Work Environment: In this lesson, we're going to look at creating a productive work environment. Our environment quietly shapes our habits. If your workspace is cluttered, d or shared with billion other things, then your brain may struggle to focus. Think about de cluttering your desk and actually creating a desk or environment wherever you're working that is suited to you without the distractions, without the paperwork, find some drawers, put everything away, make sure it's free from all the bits and bobs. What you'll find is when it comes to your environment, you need to make it how you want it to be basically. Don't look at pinterest offices and think, mine needs to look like that, I might look organized, it might have a small desk, it might look really pretty, but it might not have the right intention. So how to build a productive work environment, keep it simple and inspiring. Choose a location with the fewest distractions, even if it's just a corner of a room somewhere. Make sure it's your space for your work and you can create it however you want. What you'll find is you will find that if you want to be inspired and things like that, you might find that you might put posters on all or posters of motivational things or scenery that helps calm you. When you're setting up your area, think about the things that will keep you focused, keep you going, create a nice environment for you. What I will say as well, make sure that the surfaces that you have have all your tools ready or whatever you do creativity, neatly put into pots, but they're readily to hand. You don't have to go searching for them. You can visually see where things are making it a little bit easier to get what you need. Because one thing is, I find when you have a desk setup and you say if you're painter, for example, and there's nothing worse than going, I need this, but it's actually in another place, and then you go, do you know what? I'll just not do this, I'll do this later. Then that becomes a thing in your head is, I'll do it later because that particular thing that I need is somewhere else. Make sure that you have everything that you need. With desk, I think it's really important to have drawers or something. You can put away the clutter, but you can also use it for a space of putting all your tools or anything like that, anything that you're going to be using in those drawers so that you don't have the excuse of it's in a different room. But it's in your space. It's ready for you to use it whenever you need to. The digital space. If you're creative this digitally focused a bit like me, I create folders on my computer, but I name them. I've got projects, Admin Archive, marketing, social, my files are really neatly organized so that I can know when I click on them, I know exactly what's in them. With your desktop, it's really important to keep it minimal. No more than 57 random screenshots. I'm notorious for screenshots to be fair. I have folders of them. Because what you'll do is you're just collecting them. If you're not actually using them for a purpose, then you don't need them. If they are reminders, keep them fantastic. If there are ideas, then file them away. Put them in a folder that says ideas like idea folder for something specific, put them in little neat folders, but have maybe a couple of folders on your actual desktop. Bookmark all the most use websites and tools, making it a little bit quicker, a little bit easier to get onto what you need to. Canva is my number one, toggle is another one. I have loads of different organization tools. I use one note quite a lot. They are all bookmarked. As soon as I get onto the website, straight onto and lastly, a really good tip that I actually you'll find yourself if you work in a digital space is that there is so much stuff on your computer in your down noose folders and the stuff that you don't need or don't need to use, file it away. Spend 10 minutes a week. Honestly, 10 minutes will help you in long term. If you leave that for six months, you've then got a point of, why do I have this much stuff on my computer? That clutter on your computer is another way of you losing your focus because you're overwhelmed by so much stuff. You don't need at that minute. File it away. A good place to do that is a Google Drive. It's a great place to just put everything, for example, if you've got any design work or any spreadsheets or anything like that, you can just organize them onto Google Drive. But you know it's there, it's available. Even if you don't have time to go through it, it's somewhere you will source out later and you'll get around to that eventually. But hopefully these will help you think about your environment, the setup, think about what you need digitally, physically. You can even have things like plants that I think are really nice thing to have in your desk as well because they have a bit of a calming feeling as well sometimes. But create a space that's yours that suits what you want to do. And try and keep it as minimalistic as possible, but with what you need stored away or available to hand, but without cluttering everything. You just need the space, I think to get into a mindset of, I'm going to get creative today, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. It will help you massively. 6. Top Tools to Try : Our last lesson. I'm going to cover off the top tools for you to try. These are some of the best ones out there. I've tried and tested them, so let's get through them. We've got planning and organization tools. If this is a particular area you struggle with, these are some of the top ones out there. And they are very easy to use. Notion is great for notes, calendars, project boards. Trello is visual boards for tasks, great for creative workflows, you can set them up as individual tasks and have set flows where basically if something's done, then you just move it across and it goes in that pile. Google Calendar. I can't say anything other than it is really useful. It is great for your blocking of tasks, reminders, that type of thing. You all have them if you've got a Gmail account, but you can link it to your phone so it pops up. It's worth doing. To do this, I love this app. It is great for simple to do list. You can have it on your laptop, you can have it on your phone. It is just great and it's free as well for just writing down those ideas. You can do a title and then you can do descriptions and stuff, set deadlines, that type of thing. But it will just keep you on top of it because you can do sections as well and it's really useful tool. To keep you focused and to track things, you got Pomo focus dot IO, which is that technique we talked about. Then we've got Toggle, which I personally have used loads of time. This is basically keeping an eye on tracking your time. Through freelancing, I've used this tool quite a lot. It is really useful if you're not sure where your time is going. But it also keeps you on track as well because you know there's a timer going down, you're like, Oh, bakes, I probably do this. But you can assign what you're doing as well. So you can keep an eye on, actually, in a week, I'm spending 5 hours on social. Well, I don't really want to do that, so I can help you juggle time better. Forest is for focus, basically, stay with your phone to grow a virtual tree. That's the whole point of it. But it's encouraging you not to play on your phone, which can lead to a lot of procrastination. Freedom or cold turkey, we've mentioned and rescue time is great to analyze your digital habits and where you're wasting your time basically. Then for your workspace and mindset tools, Spotify or Bain fM are great for music designed for focus. Some of us work very differently. Some of us need music, some of us need noise to work. I especially need noise for me to be at my best. If it's quiet, I can't focus. It's just how I built, but for some of you, music is an avenue Spotify is really good. Design tools, Figma and Canva are great for quick content. Canva is great if you have socials and stuff or marketing or anything that you're doing that's creative or any side hustles that you're doing that are quite creative. Canvas useful for that. Google Keep or Apple Notes is great for those quick notes where you're like, I need to remember this. Or you can do digital sticking notes or even be use posted notes. You might be like me, you have 500 different types of stinking notes, but they're great for those quick moments where, I need to remember to do this and you stick it in a really obvious place so that you can remember to do that later on without worrying, I'm going to forget, I'm going to forget I forget you can take it from your brain, pop it on a note, and know I'll do that later. And whiteboards and cud boards are great as well. Especially for writing down your task. Some of you might be really old school where you need to see things visually written down. Some people do them on their computer, notes, sticky notes and all that type of thing. It depends on how you work. At the end of the day, this entire course is basically asking you to figure out what works best for you. It's getting you to think, how do I work? Is my workspace good enough? Are there apps out there to help me stay focused? Is there better things for me to be able to write down my ideas and things like that? It's getting you to think about trying out different things to find out what works for you. Because sometimes like you might be stuck in a and you don't know why things aren't working. It might be a change of one thing that will absolutely help you massively. For me, to do this was one of the best apps that I came across about six months ago and it is keeping me on topic, is keeping me doing my projects because I love seeing that little line that goes across and I'm done and I like assigning deadlines and things like that. That's what keeps me going. Have a think about the tools that I've just shared. They're all brilliant. There's plenty more out there. If you don't like any of them, there are plenty you can choose from. But have a look, have a play, and see which ones work for you best.