How to Become More Productive - Get More Accomplished

Show Notes:
When we think of being productive, it’s often the picture of someone going above and beyond what is asked and sometimes making others look bad. And not on purpose, of course, because those types of thoughts are only attributed to mindsets that see and do life through their insecurities.

Having the focus of being productive is for everyone. We just need to know how to tap into it, which is what we will chat about in a bit. But first, here are a few reasons WHY productivity is important to our daily lives.

When we are more productive, we can focus on our priorities associated with accomplishing our goals & actually get to the finish line. It’s taking the time to be clear about your goals and using your time wisely while being productive that helps it all work together.

Often being productive can help reduce stress because you’ve taken the time to outline tasks & to-do's in your life, as well as allocate your time enough to not have to worry about what needs to happen.

If you’re someone that struggles with discipline, becoming better at productivity will only increase your ability to be self-disciplined because you have to take the initiative to do the work, whether you want to or not. And if you are currently working on discipline, you’ll get better at being productive along the way.

The last reason is my favorite because it aligns well with my brain. When we work on becoming more productive, we also become more creative because we find new ways to get things done. Sometimes this means done more efficiently, too. But you get the opportunity to go about things in a new way that could be more fun & enjoyable.

Let’s get into the list of tips I have for you that will help you become more productive in your everyday life:

1. Plan Out Your Day 
   1. Make lists of your tasks.
   2. Allocate time, even in a flexible way.
   3. Be careful with multitasking.
2. Create a Priority List from Your Plan 
   1. Highlight the Urgent & Important (have to get done) Tasks
   2. Consider what’s next based on how impactful getting it done will be
   3. Be realistic about how much time you have
3. Make Bigger Tasks Into Smaller Tasks
4. Create Goals 
   1. Reasonable Goals
   2. Specific Goals
5. Work on Time Management Skills 
   1. Eliminate Distractions
   2. Review how well your follow-through is going in the middle of the day to maybe readjust your plan.
6. Enforce Personal Boundaries 
   1. Say ‘No’ More Often
   2. Take Breaks
   3. Don’t Be Too Influenced By Others 
      1. Know who you should and should not listen to when creating your plans, goals & implementing those things.
7. Celebrate Your Milestones & Accomplishments

Transcript

0:03

This is the Real Positive Girl podcast and I am your host, Sabrina. I am here chatting with you about your emotions, your mental health struggles, how to take those first few steps towards, you know, becoming more vulnerable, more honest, being more self-aware. We love self-awareness around here and we do that two times a week. So if you are new here, welcome on in and if you are not new here, welcome back <laugh>. I'm so glad that you've come to join me again for another episode. So today we're gonna talk about um, how to be more productive, which I know might sound like a boring topic, but it absolutely will not be boring. And just for clarity's sake, I did record an episode about productivity way back in 2020, but that one, you know, was very like bare bones, you know, when we're first like beginning this journey. So it's gonna be definitely a lot meatier, you know, more full, uh, for this episode. But before we do that, and before we dive into all of those things, I wanna make sure that you've taken the time for us to become friends online. So if you pop down into the show notes, you can see where you can find me on both Instagram and TikTok, where I'm at Sabrina Joy Proso. So I'd love to become friends, send me a dm, let's say hi and let's get to know each other. And if you have any questions or comments, concerns, progress, whatever it is, please do not hesitate to let me know. I look forward to that. Also, if you're on Twitter, I am at real Sabrina. Joy, if that is your jam and you like that thing, I am there too. Also take a peek into the show notes about all the other stuff that's down there. So, weekly newsletter, um, how videos are kind of like medium speed, making it to the YouTube page if you wanna see the video version. Also, you really have to like get all the way until like episode, I don't know, four 80 something to see the really good quality. But there's still videos there. It's still something for there for you to enjoy. But I'm slowly, surely getting caught up, uh, to what's happening now. So check that out. Also, there is places down there for you to vent, to suggest topic suggestions, all the things. So check out all the show notes when you have a moment. Uh, but let's go ahead and just chat about our topic today, which again is how to be more productive. So it's the spurts of energy for me. <laugh>, you know, I struggled for a long time, for a very long time, uh, up until I was like an adult really. And then I think it just got better this past fall. But I struggled for a long time with being productive and staying focused to get things done. Uh, it was really difficult for me and that's why it was so key for me this past fall that I got diagnosed with ADHD and it was like the, the multi one where you're like both sides of it and it's been so helpful for me to decide to take medication for me to help focus and get things done. My quality of life has definitely gone up for that. I know that's not a choice that everyone, uh, can make or wants to make to do that, to help themselves. Um, cuz that might not be the best way to help yourself. But anyway, that has helped me a a lot. So I feel very like okay <laugh>, uh, we're here now I'm able to focus and get things done. But before I would struggle really hard. But when I got a wind of energy, you know, we're just like surges through you. I can just go and I'm sure I'm not the only person that feels that way. We're just like, we're gonna do this thing and then you do it right. You just get all the things done. But you know, it was also easy for me to it, well like, well you know, <laugh>, it was also easy for me to be productive when certain things were on the line. I'm sure you understand that for, you know, if there was like a paycheck on the line or if there was, you know, defending my pride, if that was on the line, definitely you know, I would be able to just get things done and power through. Um, and so like when I get a paycheck, you know, you're at work or I'm trying to prove someone to something to someone, which is not the way we should go about life, you know, you know. But being productive was never like really a true strength for me. I think a lot of people, if I told them that, especially like growing up and stuff, they'd be like, what are you talking about? You were so productive. But it was never a strength of mine. It was something that I was good at because I struggled with being a perfectionist in a people blazer. So it just kind of like came in this like natural stride for me to be good at being productive because I needed to please all the peoples and keep myself looking appropriate to anyone that was watching. Really so glad that I'm kind of like far away from having those things hold me captive in my life. I feel very grateful if that's true too. You've been like pulling away, you're kind of like a perfectionist or a people pleaser like recoverer, yay, yay for us. And if you're not there that's fine. You're gonna get there. I promise you if you just put in the effort and the time you're gonna be there, send me a message if you need some tips on that. But yeah, I was, I was good at it because of those things. Uh, but not because I had any true desire to like get things done. Absolutely not. Um, I had too much fear and anxiety to like have that kind of attitude to just get things done in my earlier times, like in my childhood and like growing up, um, as I got to college it kind of like started to get in there but there was so much bogging down that me being productive it just, it wasn't gonna, it was not a thing. So I always want you to know that if like you feel like most of your life you struggled to be productive, there's still time for you to work on that and become better at that right now. So no worries on that. Um, but you know, let's shift into some general overview like we normally do just to have a good grasp on what we're about to talk about. You know, when we think about being productive immediately, for me it's often the picture of someone going above and beyond and doing like more than is asked, right? Sometimes people would label that as like a goodie two shoes and sometimes making other people look bad <laugh> and not on purpose. That's like, well I mean I'm sure some people, but generally that's not like the main focus, the main goal. That's not the main intent of making other people feel bad because those are the type of thoughts that are only attributed to mindsets that see and do life through their insecurities. If you need more help with that, I do have an episode that I recently talked about that I think like 10, 15 episodes back, go ahead, check it out. I check out the whole archive, that'd be great. But so it can be really difficult cause when we immediately think of that type of person sometimes, especially me, I'm like I cannot be that kind of person. That is just not who I am. I'm not designed to be that, but just because we have this um, stereotypical image in our mind does not mean that we cannot adapt and become that thing and be good at that thing in our own way. And that's the best way for us to think about it, doing it in our own way. Um, and having the focus of being productive is just for everyone. It is. And I know that you're probably like, well I didn't think that it wasn't Sabrina. Okay, great. I just wanna put that out there because sometimes even things, even just like skills like that that feel very simple in when you say it out loud but then actually doing it, it sometimes still feels very awkward. Like, I don't know if I can actually do that. Who knows? Am I actually capable of that? So when we, um, well we just need to know first, we just need to know how to like tap into it, which is what we'll chat about in a bit with like some tips I have for you. Um, but first I just wanna tell you a couple of reasons why I believe productivity is important in our everyday life. And maybe that can like, because maybe like you're not on board, you're like, ugh, I'm listening to this cause I think it's gonna help me, but I don't really care about productivity. But let me give you a couple of reasons why it is super important. So when we are productive we can focus on our priorities, you know, that are associated with like accomplished their own goals and getting to those next steps and, and really just continually making ourselves or going forward and making ourselves our best selves every single day in our life and actually help us get to those finish lines, right? So it's taking the time to be like really clear and specific with your goals and then using your time wisely while being productive that really helps it all like mesh and come together. And so if you're someone that really is focused on accomplishing your goal goals and moving forward and actually getting things done, then I encourage you to really look into productivity because like actually trying to maximize your ability to be productive because it'll help you do those things, accomplish your goals, you know, and actually get to the finish line. Cause a lot of times we feel like we're productive but we can only be productive to a point where we'll just all of a sudden like lose all motivation. We haven't been working on self-discipline, we, we just don't see a way forward and we just let it all go and we don't hit the finish line. And maybe that continues to happen and happen. And and happen and happen. And I know that has been an experience of mine in my life and wouldn't it be great if we would no longer basically have this like box of three quarters of the way desires and goals and dreams just like sitting there taunting us and really contributing to us deciding to feel shameful, you know, as opposed to just like finishing those goals. And I understand that sometimes some goals we just have to give up and that's just how life is. But if you have like a whole collection of it because you know there's that lack of productivity and focus there, it'd just be better if we could find a way to move forward and accomplish those things and then move past it and use all of that stuff that we learned for the next thing you know. Um, also often being productive can help reduce stress, which I'm sure a lot of us would love to reduce stress, uh, because you've taken the time to like outline your tasks and that to-do list and make it look all good and like cute and aesthetic. If that's you, like if you're watching the video you'll notice like, look at this, isn't this like the cutest thing? It is just like a journal, sorry, like the light is so bright here, I'll pull it back. Um, but when you, when you watch the video version of this someday in the future, I am just showing like this cute little aesthetic journal that I like have and this cute color. It's a Pantone color apricot yellow and it is adorable. And I put these really cute like Kauai style stickers on it. Anyway, that was so super random, but it's like I write like to-dos in there and I write different things in there and that makes me even more willing to be productive and get those things, uh, completed because I get to go into that cute little drill that I created and cross it off. Or you could always get like an aesthetic app on your phone and be able to just like check things off and have it in this beautiful like font and color scheme and all the things, right? So you really can do a lot of work to make things more approachable, more fun when they're not traditionally like quote unquote like fun things to do. So you know, it'll help reduce that stress because you've already outlined everything that needs to actually get done and you've also taken the time to allocate how much time for everything and kind of like a roundabout way so you don't have to worry about like what needs to happen and whether you're gonna be able to get everything done cuz you've kind of already created this like loose outline for yourself, which is really nice. Um, if you are someone that struggles with discipline, like having discipline, uh, because discipline is like the backbone of getting anything done because motivation will be here, be there, be everywhere. It's that flaky friend that isn't always around when we want them and they say they're gonna be there and then they're not <laugh>. Um, so it's, we definitely should be working on really like increasing our self-discipline. Again, there is a recent episode on that if you wanna learn more about how to create that self-discipline, but if you do struggle with it becoming better at productivity will will like increase your ability to be self-disciplined because you have to take the initiative to do the work, like whether you really want to or not. That's like the whole thing about discipline is getting forward despite the fact that you don't want to and that's like not your jam right now. Like that's not even, that's not, that's, no one cares <laugh>, no one cares. Like that's what this one's about. This is like just going and doing it, right? And if you, uh, know anything about David Goggins, he's all about that life and I have learned so much reading from his books recently, it's so good. But yeah, so self discipline. Let me, this right in here, I ooh, all these little like tangents are just like multiverse connections for me and I'm like, no, you have to racist. Stay in your timeline. Um, so yeah, so you will naturally increase self-discipline if you decide to work on being more productive, uh, because those things go hand in hand. And if you are currently working on discipline, then you'll get better at being productive along the way. So it's like if you work on one, you're naturally working on another. And so if that is like a concern or a desire of yours, then just know that you're gonna get that added bonus. And then the last reason, uh, is my favorite reason to share with you. And again, I did not, not, again, I don't think I mentioned this, but this is not a conclusive list of course, it's just the ones that I desired to really share with you and I thought that would be most beneficial for you to know, to convince you that productivity can be really great to focus on <laugh>. Um, but this last one is my favorite because it aligns well with my brain, like the way that my personal brain works when we work on becoming more productive, we also become more creative because we find new ways to get things done. And that just, it just excites me, you know, trying new things, having new challenges, like that's the kind of person that I am and I understand that's not how everyone is and that's totally fine, but I, I just, ugh, I love that, right? And it really does it a really good job of pushing us outsider of our comfort zone. So I think that's absolutely fantastic. Sometimes this also means that things get done more efficiently and, you know, efficiently is like my second middle name. So Sabrina Joy, efficiently perso because I love everything to be so efficient, it's so nice. Um, but you get the opportunity to go about things in a new way and that could be really, really fun and enjoyable. So just consider those things when you're like, oh, productivity sounds so dumb, I don't wanna like do that. It's not, it's really great. It's really helpful for your everyday life and something that we should all be working on. So, um, we have, we have some tips to go through that will help you, um, learn how to become more productive in your everyday life. And I have seven for you. But before we get into that, as always, let me give you my quick disclaimer. So the tips and advice I'm about to give you is all based on my own research, knowledge, experience and experiences of others that I am allowed to share with you. If you, you find that what I'm about to share with you does not align with what you need to deal with, like learning how to become more productive in life then I do encourage you to seek a therapist or a counselor uh, that can help you and have that one-on-one conversation with them that can help you figure out what would actually align better and be more beneficial to you in this situation of learning how to become more productive. Um, or you can go over to our best friend Google and type in how to become more productive productivity skills, productivity hot tips and that will give you like so many articles, videos, other podcasts, other opportunities for you to better understand what you should do in this situation. So anyway, all of that's out. Let's jump into this list of seven tips of how you can become more productive in your every day life. Number one, plan out your day. Plan out your day. It sounds super simple. I think all of these actually sound really simple and I'm gonna break it down just a little bit just because I feel like when things are simple or overly simplified, it can create more confusion uh, because you think I must be missing something cuz this is too easy, this is too simple. No, it's gonna be really easy, it's just a matter of like knowing, okay let me just try to do all of these things in whatever timeframe works best for you. Don't feel like you have to do it all at once. Absolutely not. And it'll just help you to kind of know like, okay, maybe I was missing this one and missing this one. If you plug those in instant easy productivity for you. So number one again, plan out your day. So make a list of all your tasks if you wanna use your cute aesthetic journal or really cute app or however, or just like a regular notepad, whatever you want, make a list of all your tasks, all your to-dos. You can also include your appointments but usually I don't do that because um, you have to go to those things anyway cuz you schedule that time to be there. But it is helpful if you do put it on the list if you're not using like a calendar based thing cuz then you can plan things around those appointments. And also if it's more efficient for you to do one specific task while you're on that set of town for that appointment, that's great. So make a list, very tasks, allocate time, even a even in a flexible way. So you're like okay well I'm going to say that I'm gonna go to the grocery store last time I felt like it took an hour and a half. Maybe this time I'll block out that much time or maybe this time since I have a list it'll only take me an hour, I'll block out that time. And then you just continue to like roll through your list as the day goes on. And again, it does really decrease stress because you've already planned out like kind of how much time everything's gonna take. And yeah, you have to be flexible because craziness happens but you kind of already have it outlined and you're like okay, I kind of like know how this day is gonna flow. Uh, but the one thing that I will say about planning out your day is be careful with multitasking. Now I would say that if there were a crown, I would be the queen of multitasking. Like way back in the day it was like the best thing that I could do. And even now I'll often do that and I feel like it's very classic for someone to be like, oh I'm a great multitasker and you are like oh give me that badge of honor, thank you. I have won. And we think of it as this thing that we need applause for. We need to boost our pride with it when honestly it actually prohibits us from, and gets in the way of us actually doing a like the best job that we can do because we're on purpose continually distracting ourselves from doing a really good job from actually being like the highest like potential of pr uh, um, productivity <laugh> of productive that we could absolutely be. So I used to be like the biggest advocate of multitasking and I still do it kind of like in that mom wife fashion where I'll be in the kitchen and I'll be cooking dinner but also doing the dishes and cleaning the counters and feeding the pets and coming up with ideas on how to reorganize the pantry and all of these things. And then maybe even also like, oh my gosh, this is a great note, I should make it into a video to post on socials. So it's great but an even per even better example as today at work I had like three different tasks to do and I continually got dis distracted with like I need to do this task and I need to do this. And I would kind of like stop and do one and then try to do another one. And then there was a point where I was trying to like download something while also editing something while also like waiting for a response and like responding to messages and my brain just couldn't handle it despite the fact that I am like zoned in with my medication and I'm like ready to go. It was still too much. It can be so overwhelming if you're trying to do all of those things at once. And most of the time I would say it's not a requirement for us to be multitasking. So just something to consider that you know, you wanna be careful with it. Sometimes you'll be required to multitask often every time we're driving. If you're a good driver, I will say no more after that you have to multitask, right? Cuz you have to be like holding the steering wheel gas or break watching to see what kind of crazies are around, you know, weather, animals, whatever, right? So there's gonna be times where you have to multitask. Maybe you're cooking like a four course mill and you're trying to get everything to come out at the same time. Uh, yeah it's a lot. But then there's other times where you're at work and you don't necessarily need to multitask. Like maybe, yeah, if I'm rendering a video that can happen in the background cause I don't need my full attention while I do something else. But if I'm literally trying to like type a message while also editing this thing while also like coming up with ideas, like it's just, or talking to someone in real life next to me while still doing all of those things. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like that's, it's just too much. So just be careful with multitasking. Okay? Number two, wow I, you know, despite the fact that I've been doing this podcast for so long, long, I still surprise myself of how long I can stay on one point. Especially on the episodes where there's more than five points. <laugh>, it's too much. I'm sorry. Okay, number two, create a priority list from your plan. So first we planned out the day, now we need to prioritize that list. So just the notes on, I know that everyone, well I assume which is dangerous, I try not to do that. That everyone knows what it means to prioritize. But basically you're just gonna highlight like what's really urgent, what's really important. You're gonna put it in lists from like most important needs to happen to, it can happen when it happens kind of thing, right? And there are like, I'm not gonna go into any of them, but there are very specific like formulas that you can use to prioritize your list. Literally go to our best friend Google and type in like how best to prioritize to-do list. And literally it'll come up with like actual like scientific methods on how to prioritize your list. So if you wanna go even deeper into that, please I encourage you to do so. But just in a general sense, highlight the urgent and the important. Like have to do tasks, put those at the top and really understand like where they're gonna fit in in your day and if you need to kick something else out to make room for them, consider that. Also consider like what's next based on how impactful getting it done will be. So let's say that you've been putting off a return and the return, you know, sometimes often if it's a return for like 20, $25, I sometimes will forget and I don't get around to it. But if it's a return for like a hundred, $150, I'm like there, I'm like okay take me to the Kohl's to return my Amazon item. I don't want it. I'm getting all this money back, right? And so the impact there is for me to get my a hundred dollars back and that's pretty impactful for me. So I'm going to put it as a high priority. But if something like, oh I need to go, you know, figure out how best uh, our closet's gonna be organized. So I just need to like kind of like, you know, sache through the aisles at Target to see what kind of stuff is available in the organizational section. And that's like, like the impact is there of like, yeah if I do find something I can buy it and build it and have a better closet, but it's not integral to my everyday needs a lot right now as getting my a hundred dollars back for returning this Amazon item. You know what I mean? So consider what's next on the list after like the most urgent important things on how impactful it will be to your life and how beneficial that will be to you. And the last point about this is like be realistic about how much time that you have. So if you like say you have 15 minutes and you're gonna try to squeeze in something that would take 20 or 30 minutes, like it's just not gonna happen. Don't, don't add that extra burden and that extra stress on purpose just because you wanna get something done. You need to either like move other things or just find a different day for it, okay? Really be realistic about how much time you have so you don't add in extra stress on the backend. It's just not worth it. Okay? Number three, make bigger tasks into smaller tasks. Make bigger tasks into smaller tasks. I didn't even write any additional notes for this point because it's very cut and dry. If you have a really big task of I need to clean the house, that's a big task. Break it into smaller tasks. Okay, I need to clean the kitchen to bathrooms and I don't know your office, right? You can even break it down farther than that, okay? You're like okay I have to clean the house, gotta clean these four rooms. Okay? So specifically in my office, like for me it would be like I need to tidy up the filming table, the vanity and vacuum because if you just put like, oh I need to clean the office, then you might think, oh my gosh, I have to go in there and wipe down the desk and then I have to dust everything and I have to like do all of this stuff when really you just need to do those few things, right? So take it from this really big thing that you have to do on your list and break it down into these smaller steps. So one, it's not as overwhelming for you to accomplish. You're not like, oh my gosh, I don't wanna do this. And you put it off and like once you get into procrastinating, woo, you can sometimes get stuck and we don't want that. So you wanna break it down and be like, okay, well let me just start with this room or I need to do the bathrooms. Okay, well let me just start with like cleaning the sink and maybe that'll just get you into the groove, right? What if you're like, oh I really don't wanna do it. No matter how small the task is. Like okay well let me just go clean the sink and for me if I do that kind of thing, like I'll do that in the kitchen often while I'll just be like, okay, let me just go like hand wash two dishes and then all of a sudden I'm in there with the apron on for 30 minutes. Like wiping everything down hand washing the things, loading the dishwasher, getting it all done, right? So you just kinda like get yourself in the groove of doing those tasks when you break them down because you can search to like build them up and you don't even realize it because you're just in there. So make bigger tasks into smaller tasks and you can find yourself being more productive because it's like you check things off and you wanna do more cuz it didn't feel like so much. You know? Number four, number four is create goals. Create goals. So you wanna be more productive, get a create goal, which which goes along with a plan. You're like, I wanna run half marathon. And yes, if you're not, you're here. You know that I use that example all the time. It's literally the first one that jumps into my mind here. Let's go with another one. Your goal is to um, I don't know, get a job at at like a coffee shop. Okay, great. Like that's your goal. You're like, I really wanna work, I really wanna become a beer barista. That'd be awesome. And I'm not even saying that sarcastically cuz I was a barista in college and I loved it. So super fun. So let's say that's your goal, right? So you create that goal. Well with that goal you have to create like a plan, like a timeline with milestones. So the first thing you would do is like, okay, well you would actually go online and be like, okay, do I actually wanna be a barista? Let's look up all the information in the research it tells me like what should I expect? Okay great. So now I need to look at all the coffee shops in town and kind of like find out which one that I would enjoy working at the most. Okay? And then after that you need to figure out if any of those places are hiring and whether they are or aren't. This is like a side tip, whether they are or aren't, I would still like continue on and like the next step would be like go home and create a resume and then figure out where you need to send it and then submit it and then follow up like three times after that. Because even if they're not hiring, you could still kinda like get your face there, get them to know you and like that familiarity will name. So when they are hiring, it's like you're like one of the first people that they think of cuz they're like, oh I already have associated this person with wanting to work here and having the desire to be a part of this company. Great, let's bring them in. So create a goal and make sure you have those steps, that breakdown, that that timeline, those milestones that you can hit and check off and you're like Woo, finish the resume. Woo, submitted it online. Woo checked back in like for the second time, right? But within creating those goals, make sure that they are one reasonable goals and two very specific goals. So again, if you were gonna be like, oh I just want to work at a coffee shop, like if that was the goal, that can't be the goal. The goal needs to be more specific than that. Okay, so you've already established that the goal is reasonable cause you don't currently have a job or you do and you wanna just, this is just what you're shifting your life into. That's great and there are plenty available in your town, awesome. And you're willing to learn that business fan tasco. So it's reasonable but specific you need to be like, okay, I want to work at a coffee shop as a barista because maybe you would rather be like a shift manager or something like that. I have no idea. Or if you wanna be somewhere where actually they roast their own coffee, maybe you wouldn't be part of that side of the whole thing. And yes, we have those here where I live. So you can like, you need to be very specific about like, I wanna work at a coffee shop in this position hopefully during this like timeframe of time, this many hours and all of those things. So I always like to say my, one of my favorite quotes of all time, I'm not kidding, is um, specificity is the soul of narrative. And that is from Judge John Hodgman. He's not a real judge. His name is John Hodgman and he's like a comedian and he's an actor, but that is like, he's also a really good writer and he has said that and it stuck in my mind for like forever. And it applies to so many things in life where we need to be more specific. So when you are creating your goals, make sure that they're reasonable. Like you can't say you're gonna become an astronaut and you're 39, I'm sorry you're too old. That those are just the rules. Um, and you can't like, you know, become, go into the military. I found out if you are older than 35, you cannot enlist. It's just what it is. So make sure the goal is reasonable. You can actually like obtain it if you do the work and it's very specific so you actually know what you're aiming for and it'll help you be productive and stay focused on actually achieving that goal. Number five. Number five, work on time management skills. Work on time management skills. You know, this really like, this is a tangent but this is quick. I feel like I should talk more about time management and maybe like time blindness, right? Does anyone else suffer from that? I suffer from time blindness where you just realize you don't even realize how much time is passing and then all of a sudden two hours are gone. This happens often in our house, like my husband and I were just like, what? How is it already nine o'clock? We just get so deep into like what we're doing, like we're doing like video games, work, cleaning, organizing, all the things, research, reading, all the things. So I kind of wanna talk about that in the future, but okay, work on time management skills. The first one is you wanna make sure that you eliminate distractions. So if you have distractions, like you have someone to chit chat with, you have your phone, social media, um, maybe something else is going on around you but you're like, no, I need to get these three things done. You're working or you're at home or whatever it is not be distracted, right? So you need to do your best to not allow those things to bother you. Whether it's actually talking to the person and be like, hey work bestie, can you please just not bother me for like 30 minutes just so I can finish these three things? Yes I can. Okay, great. So glad we're work besties, right? Let the people in your life know like, hey, I gotta get this done. Can you just help me out by not bothering me and maybe not allowing other people to bother me. And maybe that's you telling your partner or your spouse. Hey, can you just handle the kids for just a little bit so I can finish this up? That'd be fantastic. Uh, another way to like eliminate distractions would be to take yourself somewhere else to get something done. So let's say that you're working on writing a novel something and you're like, I just cannot be where I am normally. Let me take myself somewhere else to get this accomplished. Great plan, right? Uh, distractions. Other distractions could literally just be like you, you are allowing yourself to be distracted. You need to tap into the mental strength that you currently have that you're continually working on and being like, listen Sabrina, if we don't get this done, these are the consequences. These are the consequences. Do we want to experience those consequences? No. So let's figure it out. Okay? Sometimes you have to talk to yourself like, and be like, listen up, let's stop messing around. So you wanna do your best to like kind of like not allow yourself to be distracted. It's kinda like when you go to the store, like the biggest challenge that I have, it's like this is gonna be so terri stereotypical of me, millennial woman going to target and being like I am here for three things, three very specific things that were written on a list. I'm only here for those things. I'm not going to see what the new scent is of that new body wash that I absolutely love that Ashley Tisdel came out with. Oh, that's amazing. I am not gonna go look at brand new like pens and highlighters because stationary is my weakness. I am not, I'm absolutely not gonna go all the way to the other side of the store just to check out what's in like the, you know, that section that's like current with like whatever's happening, whatever season we're in. The seasonality at Target right now is like outdoor grilling and I'm like, it's still raining<laugh>. Um, so you know, not allowing yourself to get distracted when you have to go somewhere where there's so many things that are distracted and that's how you build your self-discipline of like, I am here for three things only unless someone calls me and they say I need five more things. That's all we're here for. So work on eliminating distractions, but also when you work on your time management skills, it can be really helpful to review how well your follow through for the whole list and everything you have to do is going and how well it's going. Like do that check-in in the middle of the day in case you need to readjust your plan. So maybe you banked out an hour and a half to do this task and then you realize that it actually took two and a half hours and now you have to, you know, manage the time for everything else and move things around. And so that's why it's really helpful cuz it's like you're trying to manage your time to use it as efficient, as efficiently as you can and run all the errands on that side of town and then on that side of town. But then you realize this took longer and now you're in rush hour traffic and now you have to readjust. But allowing yourself that opportunity in the middle of the day to review like what's that happening and how things are going. You can kind of already adjust maybe before craziness happens. If you have the opportunity, that would be really helpful. And then you can be like, okay, well I can do this then and this then and this then and I can ask for help with this. And then it just feels like, okay, I'm still protective despite any sort of like setbacks and things that got my way. You know what I mean? So work on time management skills, number six. Number six, we're almost there. Enforce personal boundaries. Enforce personal boundaries. I bet that you did not think that I was gonna talk about personal boundaries when talking about productivity. You didn't think so? I bet I I would bet. Uh, but it's really important. It's really important. It's more important than I even thought. Like when I was doing the research for this episode, I was like, oh yeah, of course, of course. So within productivity, we need to enforce our personal boundaries because we need to be able to say no more often to things so that we're not overloaded with doing too many things and becoming like forcing ourselves to multitask and be that we aren't able to manage our time well and when we just get behind and it just wasn't worth it. And we're kind of in regret of like, crap, I really, I really should have just said no. Right? So you have to have personal boundaries in place and enforced for you to feel confident enough to say no because you know that you have the right to do so. You also need to enforce your personal boundaries to help you take breaks to know that you are worthy of taking that time and having that self care of having a break. Because often when we take breaks, it does help productivity because it gives you a mind an opportunity to reset and just be like, okay, we did all of this stuff. Let's take a break for half an hour and let's figure out, like, depending on what it is, choose your own time. Maybe it's 15 minutes, maybe it's five minutes. I don't know. When you take a break and you're like, okay, let me just do something else. So the key thing with the break is, is you don't wanna continue thinking about like what you're doing. You wanna take a break and think about something else. Like I would say something totally different from what you're doing would be really helpful to have that reset for your brain. So when you go back to doing whatever you're doing and working on it, trying to finish an accomplish, you're like, oh, well, you know, I didn't really see doing this thing from this angle, but now I do and this would be more efficient and this, that and the other, right? So if you take a break, it'll actually help your productivity cause you're giving yourself a an opportunity to rest. But you need to be okay with taking breaks and also standing up for yourself to need that break if you have to be accountable to someone the right to do so. And you have to enforce your personal boundaries too. Do that. Number three is don't be too influenced by others. Don't be too influenced by others. So know who you should and should not listen to when creating your plans and your goals and implementing those things. And this goes along with enforcing your personal boundaries because oftentimes we will fall into the trap of allowing other people to tell us what to do and where to go. And whether our ideas and our plans of how we're gonna do things and accomplish things are good or not are gonna be helpful or not we're gonna fail or not. And we need to have our personal boundaries of understanding that we get to choose who we do listen to and who we don't listen to, who we like, who we believe is actually trying to be beneficial and who is just trying to like control everything and we don't wanna be a part of that mess, right? So don't allow yourself to be so influenced by other do. Have the Bristol boundary to say like, Hey, I hear what you're saying, but I'm gonna do what I, what I think is best because, uh, that's what I've already planned and I do appreciate your feedback and your thinking to yourself, even if I mess up, I'm gonna learn so much from this, right? And sometimes you will take their advice and sometimes you won't. Sometimes you take half of it, but you have to make a decision based upon what you want and not what other people want. And that's part of having an enforcing personal boundaries. Okay? So number seven, and the last tip that I have to share with you on this topic of how to become more productive is celebrate your milestones, celebrate your milestones, celebrate your milestones and your accomplishments. I often with a goal, it's like a big goal. Let's not say that the kitchen, like get to clean the kitchen if you need, if you need a milestone or a progress thing for that, that's fine. You're like, okay, did the dishes and now I have to wipe down the counters and now I have to wipe down the cabinets, fronts, and all of this stuff. Fine, you can have like milestones and progress points if you want and celebrate those. But I think that goal is like too small personally for me. But you do you, I promise. Like please do you, but like for a really big goal, let's say that it took a lot for you to go and want to get into the coffee business. And so once you hit that milestone of you actually like, you know, submitted your resume, pat on the back, you're gonna go get yourself a drink from that coffee stand, maybe a different location or a different day <laugh>. So it's not awkward. Or you're gonna be able to go and like get like a cute little dessert or like a meal that you are like rent a movie on Amazon or something like that to celebrate the fact that you went through the work to do that and get that accomplished. And then you might be on your way to like accomplishing that goal, right? And so, and then like maybe the next progress point would be like, okay, you have followed up three times and it just like, and the whole thing just ends. And it's like, that's not gonna work out at that coffee shop. You still wanna like celebrate the opportu, the, the celebrate, the not the opportunity. You wanna celebrate the fact that you did all that work and you did the best that you could and now you're just gonna shift over to maybe a different place if you still like another coffee place in town and apply there and do all the research, but you still wanna be like, okay, I'm gonna celebrate the fact that I still went through all that work. I still stepped outta my comfort zone if it is and accomplish the task of doing that. And I may not have gotten the job and that's fine, but I still did all of the work. And so anytime you have a goal that feels big enough, that has to be broken up into multiple steps, that will take a bit. You wanna celebrate those milestones when you hit those progress points, right? You wanna celebrate when you hit the accomplishment. And it doesn't always have to be a monetary, uh, uh, celebration. It could literally just be like, I'm gonna spend extra time at home, or I'm gonna spend more time reading a book and not like feeling like I have to hustle, hustle, hustle and work, right? So celebrate it, celebrate you, celebrate everything that you're doing because that is really good, a feedback into having more motivation. And hopefully when we have motivation, we'll use those opportunities to build up our self-discipline so that when motivation is taking a water break, we have self-discipline to lean back into and just feel good about ourselves. You know, get that self-esteem boost. You know, consider the fact that we need to believe in ourselves more and know that our worth is important, increase in self-worth and confidence. And I, all of those things are absolutely fantastic. So, and, and so important. So, you know, regardless of everything I've talked about today in regards to how important productivity is, it's also equally as important to celebrate everything you don't wanna have to wait for someone else to do it because they might forget, they might not like not celebrate you on purpose, but they're not, might not realize how important you accomplishing as something that's not really that big of a deal. But it's a really big deal for you, and that's important and you need to make that important to you and celebrate that in whatever way you choose. But that is all the tips I have for you on how to become more productive. I hope that it was really helpful and that you enjoyed this episode. Um, so thank you so much for listening to The Real Positive Girl podcast again with me, Sabrina. Do not forget, check the show notes below to send it for the newsletter, to check out all the videos on the YouTube channel to suggest a topic. Come say hi to me on socials. But until next time, have a good one and I will see y'all next time.