45: The One Thing You NEED to Get Stuff Done (+ 8 other tips)
Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.
I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 45.
For me, there aren’t very many things that feel as good as getting things done. I keep a paper “to do” list -- just to experience one of life’s simple but wonderful treasures -- the joy of crossing something off my ‘to do’ list.
Now, let me say upfront: I’m not a productivity expert. But I am someone who, when I put my mind to it, can get a lot of things done relatively quickly. So I wanted to share, from my own experience, what helps me get things done.
I have quite a few tips below, but really view it as one thing that is so critical if you want to get lots of stuff done… and then some other tips to consider as well.
So what is this one, super critical thing?
It is this:
You have to get to know yourself.
I feel like I can hear a collective groan from here, just saying that.
And truthfully, if I were listening to a podcast and got that piece of advice, I’d probably roll my eyes a little bit, too.
But hear me out.
I am a little bit obsessed with productivity. I’ve read Getting Things Done by David Allen. I’ve tried Basecamp, Trello, Asana, ClickUp, and just about every project management tool there is. I’ve read productivity blogs upon blogs and articles upon articles. I’ve adjusted my working schedule. I’ve tried “themed” days. I’ve had accountability check-ins.
If there was someone out there who said, TRY MY SYSTEM TO GET STUFF DONE EFFICIENTLY, I’ve probably tried their method.
And most of these methods logically make a lot of sense. And different as they are, each one of these methods also works for a lot of people.
But they didn’t all work for me, which brings us back to this number one most important factor when it comes to getting stuff done -- knowing yourself.
So what do I mean?
Well, for me personally, here are some things that I know about myself that come into play when it comes to productivity:
I know that I am more motivated when other people are involved. When other people know my dates and deadlines, that makes me MUCH more likely to meet those deadlines. For example, you know that this podcast comes out every Tuesday. So, come hell or high water, I make sure there’s an episode waiting for you every Tuesday.
Yes, it’s good marketing practice to be consistent and to release your content on a reliable basis.
But more than that for me is that I feel accountable to you, and that slight (important!) pressure, helps me get stuff done.I know that I do not do good work after late afternoon. I do spend a little bit too much time working, and often I’ll be curled up on the couch with my laptop after dinner.
But if I’m honest with myself -- and with you -- I can say that I really don’t get much useful done after about 4pm or 5pm. Keeping up with email or social media -- those things I can definitely do at night. But anything that requires any level of mental energy needs to be done earlier in the day.I know that my surroundings affect me. I have a really hard time being productive when there’s a mess around me. If my desk or office are messy, or if I’m in the living room and my dog has shred a paper bag and left the scraps all over the floor… I have a really hard time focusing.
I know that I’m easily distracted. Noises and interruptions really throw me off. So for that reason, I very consciously use a tool that has productivity-proven music and sounds on my headphones all day so that I can’t be distracted. I’ve also turned the notifications fully off most of my phone apps, and definitely Instagram, and that helps a lot.
I know I need to let “good enough” be enough. I tend toward perfectionism, but when I give into perfectionism I tend to never put anything out into the world. In the interest of continuing to get a lot of things done, I live by the mantra that DONE is better than PERFECT (or I’ve often heard the quote, “Perfect is the enemy of the good”).
I know that I respond to small joys throughout the day. For example, I love to have a warm beverage by my side while I work. So, most of the day, I have a coffee or a decaf, or occasionally a tea on my desk. I love great office supplies, so I always make sure I have nice notepads and pens to doodle or write my ‘to do’ lists. Or right now, it’s winter, and I usually have cozy slippers and sometimes even a robe with me juuust to get as comfortable as possible.
These factors actually all make a HUGE impact on me and my ability to cross things off my list, but I know that for some people, a lot of these things are completely irrelevant to their ability to get stuff done.
So, I encourage you to do a bit of an inventory with yourself on how you work. Here’s how I’d go about starting to get to know yourself and the way you work.
Think about some times that you’ve been able to work very productively and get things done efficiently. And let’s think of a time that you weren’t working on something you love to do so much that you’d do it for fun. Think of a routine task in your business that you do because you have to do it.
And then, I’d try to analyze why you were able to be so productive.
Where were you? In public? At home?
What were the conditions around you? Tidy, either?
What kind of noise were you hearing? Did you listen to anything on headphones?
Did you have a deadline? How far away is that deadline? Does anyone know about the deadline except you?
Did you have any materials, beverages, or things to look forward to that helped motivate you?
You get the idea.
I’ve spent SO MUCH of the last few years just getting to know myself, and making small tweaks to my life and then later my business to make them work better for me. To make them more aligned with who I am and how I operate.
And, as I am constantly understanding myself better and making small changes to the way I work, I’m also starting to get more and more done. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence.
So. Knowing yourself is really the big one, as I said, when it comes to productivity and actually getting stuff done.
But I’ve got a bunch of other ideas and tips and things you could consider trying that I wanted to share here with you.
So, the first and by far most important tip, was to know yourself.
Second tip is to consider what you LIKE doing.
Early on in our businesses, usually we’re the only ones in there, and we’re doing everything from bookkeeping to shipping to graphic design.
But as time goes on and we start making a little bit of money, we are able to hire out certain things.
One way I’ve made this choice is to think about what I LOVE DOING… and I make sure that that stays on my plate. And then I think about the things I HATE DOING, that I put off and resist…. And those are the things that, if I can, I delegate.
My third tip is to get super clear on your why…. And also the WHY behind every task on your list.
Knowing why you’re doing the work you’re doing is so critical when it comes to finding the motivation to get through what often feels like an endless to do list.
There are a bunch of ways to get clear on your Why, and one resource that is always recommended for this is Start with Why by Simon Sinek (which I have to say, I’ve never fully finished reading for some reason, but it does come highly recommended by others).
If you want to get clear on your values, this may also help create clarity around why you do what you do, and I have a great resource for that. Download the Good Business Workbook at makinggoodpodcast.com/goodbusiness.
This gets even more powerful when we can tie each task on our list to our WHY.
An example for me might be this. Let’s say an item on my ‘to do’ list is to reach out to new stores who might be interested in carrying Good Sheila greeting cards.
Reaching out to people -- most of whom won’t ever contact you back -- isn’t always the most fun thing to do.
But when I tie it back to the impact I know my business makes -- the more accounts we make, the more sales we make, the more we are able to give back -- that helps re-motivate me.
My tip #4 is to do a braindump.
I’ve talked about this before, but braindumps are the closest thing to a secret weapon that I think I have. Whenever I feel just paralyzed or stuck, whether it’s with too much work, or I don’t know where to go next, I spend some time just writing anything that is on my mind. I don’t organize it as it’s coming out -- I’ll end up writing things on my personal ‘to do” list right alongside work tasks. But the act of taking something from your brain and putting it on paper really helps to help you start making sense of what you have on your plate and make some decisions about how to proceed
Tip #5 is to break things up into the smallest possible steps.
This is a weirdly effective way to make things that seem overwhelming much more approachable. If you have something huge on your list, like, create a course. That just seems so daunting that often we tend to ignore those things.
But breaking it up into small steps can help us to actually start taking action.
For example, if the task really is “create a course”, I would start by listing everything I can think of that would need to be done.
It could be things like:
Find some experts on course creation and read their content.
Poll my audience to see what the best course topic would be and what questions they might have
Write down the different subtopics that will be covered in the course
Etc.
Tip #6 Use the pomodoro technique.
The pomodoro technique is when you work in 25-minute spurts, followed by a 5-minute break. It got its name from whoever invented it using a pomodoro tomato kitchen timer.
It’s really as simple as: Set an alarm for 25-minutes and do WORK, knowing that when the 25 minutes are up, you can take a 5-minute break to check your phone, social media, play Tetris (just me?).
Fun fact: My partner and I actually use the pomodoro technique when we need to clean our house. When it gets a little messy, at a certain point one of us will say, “wanna do a pomodoro?” and we’ll set a 25 minute timer, put on some music, and get cleaning. It’s actually amazing how much can get done in 25 minutes.
Tip #7 is to batch your work.
I have to admit that this is something I don’t always do a great job with, but when I have put it into practice, it totally helps me get stuff DONE.
You can think of batching like turning your work tasks into an assembly line. Let’s talk about creating podcast episodes, for example.
Here’s a brief summary of the process I use to create each of these episodes.
First, I brainstorm the topic.
Then I write out what I want to say in the episode.
Then I record the episode.
Then I edit the episode.
Then I upload it to my hosting service.
Then I write the show notes.
Then I schedule both of them to go live at the same time.
Then I promote it by email and social media.
The instinct that most of us have is to just do this process episode by episode, going from start to finish. But it’s actually so much more efficient if we break it up into different individual tasks, and do a LOT of that task at once before before moving on to the next task.
For podcasting, that means, let’s say doing each of these tasks for 6 episodes at a time.
SO first, brainstorming and deciding on 6 topics.
Then, spending time writing the content for each individual episode.
Then I’d record all the episodes.
Then I’d edit all of the episodes. Etcetera
When we do this, we stop ourselves from switching back and forth between tasks all day and allow ourselves to stay really focused.
A couple ways to apply this is: check your email twice per day and do all your email work then. Schedule a full week or even month’s worth of social media posts in one sitting. Write a month worth of email marketing emails at one time. If you work with clients, you might decide to set aside 1-2 days per week and do client calls on those days. If you make products, maybe you divide the process of creating your products up into different stages for efficiency.
There are so many ways to apply the concept of batching. Like I said, I’m not a wizard at this by any means, but I do know that every time I apply it I’m amazed by what I can get done.
Tip #8 is to prioritize connection!
One thing that really surprised me for some reason when I started my business was how isolated I felt pretty quickly. I’m an introvert and love me some alone time, so I felt like small business was something I could do completely on my own.
But finding people to check in with and connect with has made such a huge impact on me. Yes, finding and making other small business friends to chat with is amazing. But even before you get to that point, it could be just making a point to text your friends during the day, or call your mom or sister or whoever it is when you take a break mid-day. I find that making sure I’m not completely going at it alone helps me stay motivated and feeling positive.
It can also be helpful to run whatever challenges you’re facing by other people and get their reaction. When we work for and by ourselves, sometimes we can get in our head about things and make things into a bigger deal than they really need to be (anyone else? Just me?). But getting a second set of eyes can provide a needed reality check that sometimes is just what you need to take the next step.
Tip #9, and this is my final tip, is to take breaks.
Friends, this tip is hard earned. And it’s a lesson I’m still learning. But motivation is really the magic ingredient to getting stuff done, and it’s hard to have much motivation when we’re burned out.
Or even just vaguely overworked.
I’m not always awesome at balance, I know this. But I can tell you that I never feel more excited and energized than after I’ve taken a step away or at least slowed down for a while.
For me, this even works on a micro-level. I love to intersperse long breaks into my workdays -- breaks like grocery shopping or a long walk with my dog -- as a complete reset.
And then of course on a longer term basis, take days off! Take weekends off! Take vacation and holidays!
I’m guilty of getting so wrapped up in what I’m working on that I just want to work all the time. But I am working on trying to step away more than I’m inclined to.
Because the only way to hold onto that feeling of excitement and enthusiasm, is to not overdo it and push myself to burnout (which I have done as recently as December).
So this one might be a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of tip. But, I stand by it.
Okay, and I know I said that was the last step but SURPRISE.
BONUS TIP: My favorite productivity tool is called Focus At Will, and it’s music and sounds that are scientifically optimized to keep your head in the zone. I have been using it for years and am constantly amazed by how well it works. I’m not an affiliate or anything -- I actually have a lifetime membership, but if this sounds interesting I would suggest you try it out for free! Focusatwill.com, or link in show notes
Alright. Turns out I had a lot to say about getting things done! I hope this was useful to you and that you were able to pick out a tip or two that you can put into practice.
I also want to re-emphasize taking the time to really get to know yourself, what motivates you, and how you work best. Because nothing will make you more productive than organizing your life and your work around what is best for YOU.
Podcasting can sometimes feel like you’re talking into the void, so I would love to hear from you! Take a screenshot of you listening to this episode, and tag me on Instagram at @laurentilden (new IG account!). I’d love to say hello to you!
You can find links to the resources I mentioned at makinggoodpodcast.com/45.
If this is your first time tuning in and you’re interested in hearing more about my businesses, check out my plant-inspired stationery company goodsheila.com, or Seattle retail shop Station 7, station7seattle.com.
Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!
Talk to you next time.