Tuesday, March 4, 2014

ASAP Tuesday: Productivity

Yesterday I mentioned that I felt productive for the first time in a long time over the weekend. I didn't do anything monumentally challenging or life-altering, but I did feel like I placed a lot more focus on the ways that I was choosing to use my time than I normally do. Mindfully doing things rather than my usual scatter-brained "how did I just spend my weekend?" feelings. 

Today I'm bringing another AsapSCIENCE video and this time it's all about how to be more productive with your life in this ever changing world. 
Case in point - I packed up my things and headed to my neighborhood coffee shop this Sunday to write and schedule my first three blogs for the week in anticipation of my extra busy schedule. 

Using the tips from this video, here's how I applied productivity to blogging this weekend. 

1. Get started!

Monday I talk about the weekend, Tuesday I throw some knowledge in your face, Wednesday I'm loving Kathy's Wednesday Confessions link-up. 

Cool, I've got my topics, now it's just to start putting thoughts onto the white blank page. 

2. Give yourself a deadline.

Write three posts by end of day Sunday? Not a problem! Write 3 posts before it get's dark outside? Challenge accepted! 

I'm usually a night-time writer and this time I liked putting a time/date limit on my work. It made me less likely to scroll instagram, less likely to stop and snapchat, less likely to bounce around from playlist to playlist on Spotify. Because let's be real, I'm usually a "once I finish this post I can finally turn the lights out" writer and I think you may like me better if I'm not zombie-blogging. 

3. Stop multi-tasking.

Yeesh, I'm the best worst at this. I'm a serial multi-tasker and anyone who knows me will say that I love juggling 10-15 things at once. The truth? I love doing one thing at once. And I love to do it well. 

But spaz brain says, "hey no Jessi look over here at all the shiny things you can be doing instead, there's always room for more people at the party!". 

I'm getting better, but need to separate business and pleasure a little more if I want to be good at life. 

4. Split up tasks into bite-sized ones. 

Blogging tasks can be classified into 3 separate pieces for me. 

Words, GIFs/media, Editing. 

It's tempting to complete an entire thought all at once with all of the components, but I've found organization a little easier if I go grab all of the media for the entire post - then write the words - then polish the entire thing. It's a little less fine-combed than I'm used to, but the random that comes from it is refreshing. 

Enough about the way I applied these steps, watch this 3-minute clip and learn how to add productivity into your daily life! 

11 comments

Kathy@MoreCoffeeLessTalky said...

yes to all of this and i love that you're enjoying the humpday confessions linkup :) i think it's a great and easy way to just barf up a bunch of random thoughts and you don't even have to worry about grammar or spelling or putting shit into paragraphs because they're confessions for chrissakes!!

i'm a blog planner too; i have to be in order to be able to get all the shit done in my life and make time for blogging. i write and schedule things a week in advance in order to leave me time during the current week to comment, read blogs, respond to comments etc instead of having to do all of that AND come up with blog posts? no thanks! who has time for that?!

-kathy | Vodka and Soda

Alex[andra] said...

I wish I could be this organized with my blog. I tend to just write as inspiration comes though. Which is probably a bad thing, since I only blog when I'm at work, and I can't blog if work is busy!

Ashley - Married to the Game said...

You put my organization to shame! I really need to be more organized..and productive.

Melissa Nicole said...

I try this i swear and then I get distracted. I think I have ADD

Tracey said...

Awesome post. I NEED to get more organized with my blog posts...sometimes I find myself writing them the day I need to post them...shhh!

brooke lyn said...

ohhh shiny things and gif things and buzzfeed things. they just get in the way of one task for me! or get in the way of my job. whatever....

Amanda - Voyage of the MeeMee said...

I loooove multi-tasking. Answering e-mails via my phone while I'm on the toilet? Check! But sometimes it IS distracting, that's for sure. I mean, not in that case in particular... haha ;P

Katie Elizabeth said...

Good advice! I can get more done in 1 hour at a coffee shop than I can in 8 hours at my house - my big thing is getting away from all my distractions!

his little lady said...

Definitely thinking ahead is important. I typically write two or three posts at a time. And I'm just like you, I definitely am a serious multi-tasker. I have to get better at doing one thing at a time.
xo TJ

http://www.hislittlelady.com

Indy said...

These are good tips! I always need more productivity in my life ;)

Anna said...

I am the worst multi-tasker ever when I am at home. I get distracted by everything. And by everything, I mean the TV.