We are working hard towards a streamlined work environment here at Tin Box. A work environment where I can turn it off after a certain point in the day, and really hone in on work during the work day. It is important to me to be able to work from home, but also enjoy my home life. Finding the balance has always been difficult for me because I love my work and could literally enjoy projects for hours and hours after I should have stopped. That being said, I want to spend quality time with my growing family and really make my non-work time count. Keep reading to learn the 3 ways I’m changing my work habits to have more time and get more done.
1. Set a Timer
I keep an egg timer on my desk and even carry it along with me through the house if I’m working on a project in another room. I give myself an hour to focus on type of work, or on a small set of tasks. If I get sidetracked, distracted or just do not finish in that time, I move on to the next set of tasks. I can very easily get distracted, or sucked into an email rabbit hole and lose hours of my day. I have found that if I get just a little bit done at a time, it is much more effective and productive than doing nothing at all because I was pulled away by shiny objects, or never-ending emails. Why an hour? Well it is the max time on my egg timer, but it is also a great amount of time to work. Longer than an hour I start thinking about other things, letting my gaze move around my very crowded office, or my mind lingering to my very long to-do list. An hour is a great amount of time for me to stay focused, but also the perfect ending for me as I get up to complete a chore, stretch my legs or change the laundry. Getting up to do something outside of my office allows me to keep my house clean, my personal life on track and allows me to accomplish all the things that are important to me in my daily life. By setting an alarm I stay focused on the task at hand and get way more done!
Fun Fact: I have 32 minutes left in the hour I gave myself to work on blog posts today.
2. Batch Working
Batch working is something that has really helped me to plan ahead AND to save time. What is it? It is spending a dedicated amount of time on the same task, or similar tasks. While some are able to do this all day long, I choose to spend an hour on it. Blog posts are time consuming if I do one at a time, but thanks to batch working I’m able to spend an hour a day for a week to really hammer out several weeks of posts at a time. Mondays I plan my content, Tuesdays I outline posts, and Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are spent writing. One hour a day for five days allow me to not only keep my content focused and stick with my regularly scheduled programming, and holiday schedules, but also keeps me moving forward. When I do not follow my batch work I get behind and often times do not complete any work at all. This reduces my efficiency, my output and most importantly my income. While I love what I do, I depend on the income that it provides and prefer not to do it for free. Batch working allows me to stay focused and productive throughout busy weeks.
3. Name your Top 3 Tasks of the Day
If I start my day and have no idea what is important for me to get done, how will I know where to start?! I just couldn’t, which is exactly why I pick my top 3 tasks of the day. My focus shifts often, and outside areas of fun, family and friends sometimes dictate how my day goes, but I still name 3 things I want to accomplish each day. Yesterday my top 3 was to touch up the paint in my closet (we are almost finished updating it!!), put the bassinet for our soon-to-be here daughter and install the car seat base in my Jorge’s Jeep. Today my top 3 is to pack my hospital bag, work on content for each of the Tin Box social pages through Monday and plan our meals for next week. They are not always work related, but often include work related items. It just depends on what is important to me at the time, and that can change regularly! We are very close to our daughter arriving so my normal work focus has shifted to preparing our home to welcome her home. Prioritizing items is an important part of keeping me focused, orders getting filled and keeping my sanity!
While there are probably a ton more ways to stay on track throughout the day and week, these items have really helped me to focus on tasks so that I move forward. I feel better about myself, our business does much better and my home life is filled with purpose and quality time. While there are days and times that work carries over into the night, we find that continued diligence in managing our time and focus allows us to enjoy it all just a little more and really move forward towards our hopes and dreams!
Have questions on anything you read today? Don’t be afraid to ask, I love to help! You will see links throughout my posts. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for reading and joining us on this journey!
Simply, Beth