How to Get More Done Without Working Longer Hours (Ep. 1)

Does your overflowing to-do list force you to work long after the sun goes down? Or have you trying to cram in time to catch up in the mornings or on weekends just to get everything done? 

Each day we might cross off a few things but add a dozen more until we feel like we’re hopelessly running on a treadmill in a dark tunnel with no end in sight. 

In this conversation, I’m going to share how you can finally break free of that never-ending to-do list and get more done without working longer hours. By the end, you’ll have a better way to organize your day and understand how to prepare to be most productive.

Because you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your health, date nights or family dinners to get everything done.

Here's where you can access 5 Ways to Calm the Calendar Chaos:
www.theothersideofbusy.com/chaos

00:00 Breaking Free from the Never-Ending To-Do List
01:57 Introducing the Daily Big Three Strategy
10:27 Maximizing Productivity with Your Superhuman Time
15:36 Prioritizing Focus for Maximum Efficiency
21:27 Implementing Guardrails for Work-Life Balance
23:35 Closing Thoughts and Additional Resources

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5 Ways to Calm the Calendar Chaos:
https://theothersideofbusy.com/chaos

Transcript

0:01

Does your overflowing to-do list force you to work long after the sun goes down? Or have you trying to cram in extra time to catch up in the morning or on weekends? Each day, we might cross a few things off. It was more get added until we just feel like we're constantly running on this treadmill in a dark tunnel with no end in sight. Well in this conversation, I'm going to share with you how you can finally break free of that. Never ending to do list. And get more done without working longer hours. By the end, you'll have a better way to organize your day and understand. How you can prepare to be your most productive. Because you shouldn't have to sacrifice your health. Date nights or family dinners to get everything done. As women, it's easy to feel over-scheduled over tired and some days just over it. It's time to ditch the guilt. Still get things done and have time left for ourselves and the most important people in our lives. How do we do that? You're about to find out. Hey there. My name is Jenna. And here you'll find the latest biohacks mindset shifts and calendar control strategies. To get you to the other side of busy. I'll bring you insights on how to get more done during the Workday so you can shut it off. And prioritize what truly matters. In today's conversation. I'm not only going to help you escape that hopeless, never ending to do list. They get more done without working longer hours. Make sure you stick around to the end where I'll share with you one change you can make to your day that will have an immediate impact on your productivity. And once you do it, you'll wonder why you ever worked those long hours in the first place. All right. So let's dive in. I have for you. Three strategies to help you get more done without working longer hours. Strategy number one. Throw out the to-do list. Now let's be honest, how many things are on that list right now? 15. 30. A hundred. There's some research done a couple of years ago that surveyed working professionals and 60% of them said they had 65 or more things on their to-do list for the week. That's a whole lot of things to get done in five days. 15% of those people said they had over a hundred. Right. So even if we cross a few of those things off every day, we still have dozens of things staring back at us. It's no wonder why we are left feeling overwhelmed and drained by these things. Right. Who said that a to-do list was such a good idea. Anyway. Right. Staring at a list of hundreds of things. It doesn't make me feel accomplished. Does it make you feel accomplished? It's clear that the to-do list isn't serving us. So what could we do instead? Well, the first thing we can do is shift this idea that everything on that to-do list is created equal. Right. Buying stamps or dog food and finishing an important business proposal or writing that job description. That's going to get you the help that you need to free up some time to do meaningful work. All of those things aren't created equal. To do lists don't have priorities. They don't have filters for us. It's just a long list of things. And so we stare at the long list of things. And feel drained. So first. Take a deep breath and understand. That everything on that list. Doesn't carry the same weight. All right. The second realization and mindset shift we need to have. Is that we don't need to do everything on that list. Or even all at once. So rather than staring at a list of a hundred things and feeling that emotional weight of how am I. We're going to get all of these things done. I invite you to just focus on three. So take out post it note, or if you're driving in your car, maybe think through this. Rather than the hundred things that you wish you could get done this week. If you could only get three things done this week. What should they be? Right? These are the most important high leverage, timely things that are going to move you forward. Right. So research says that as humans, it's really hard for us to focus on more than three things. Right. One would be great, but certainly no more than three. And that's why the to-do list is overwhelming. So if you create, for example, a daily big three, Rather than that to do list, you will understand that these are the biggest three priorities for your day. Now before you shut me down. And say, Jenna, there's no way I can make progress by only doing three things. Let's do a little mental math. Okay. So let's take a daily, big three. Times 250 working days in a year, right? That's 750 high leverage actions. That's a lot of progress on your goals. And after you do that daily, big three everyday, then you can go back to some of that busy work, maybe some of those other things that aren't as high of a priority. That may be still need to get done at some point in life. Alright, by focusing on a daily big three. You get the most important work done. So typically the next question I get then is general. What's the most important work. I'm glad you asked. Prioritizing is one of the biggest struggles I see working with clients. And it's because we just, we don't know where to start. We are not given the tools to filter out what's most important. So have you heard of the Eisenhower matrix? Eisenhower was president of the United States. And he used this to really help him as president filter through what was most important in what deserved his time. So think about a matrix in terms of importance and urgency. All right. And that first. Quadrant. Would be what's most important and what's most urgent, right? We'll call that quadrant one. That is the do section. So those are the things that absolutely positively need to get done. And under a schedule. So that's the, do those are things that should make your daily big three. They might be things like finish that job listing so we can make a new hire. Uh, finish that paperwork that needs to get off to the attorney. To include in the articles of incorporation for this new piece of business. Right. These are the things that are urgent. And important. All right. If it is important. But not urgent. Those are the things that you schedule. So let's say it's finishing a business proposal, but you said it wasn't going to be done for a week. And that was great with the prospect. Then you maybe can schedule that for tomorrow. It makes tomorrow's daily big three. Not today's. So, if it is important and urgent, Perfect for today's daily. Big three, if it is important, but not urgent. Perfect to be scheduled in the future. And I would argue. That if it is not important or not urgent. Those things shouldn't be done at all. All right quickly, if it is. Timely meaning it's urgent, but it's not important. Those are the things you should be delegating. All right. So back to what makes the daily big three. The first filter of what goes on that list is what is important. And urgent. All right. After you think through that. Then start looking at your goals. A lot of folks that I work with get stuck in paralysis analysis on how do I make progress on this goal? But they forget that. Each goal. It's just broken down into a series of small steps. Right. How do we get from here to the next state? We take one step at a time. So. After you get the urgent and important on the list. Look at your goals and say, what is the next best action that I can take? And move me toward that goal and put that on the daily big three. So for example, If one of my professional goals was to start a podcast. Something that might make my daily big three might be researching podcasting hosts. Right. That would be something that is going to move me toward my goal of hosting a podcast. All right. If you have a goal of adding so many new clients, maybe something that goes on your daily, big three. Is a certain number of reach-outs or attending a networking event. Whatever's going to move you toward that client acquisition goal. That's great for the daily big three. Now as you're considering this daily big three, I also want you to remember that you are not a one dimensional human being work is not the only thing that you do, right? You have relationships, you have spirituality, you have to take care of your health. Uh, maybe you're a parent. Maybe you are a caregiver, right? So there are certainly other things that might fall into this. So keep that in mind, as you're setting this daily, big three, if you're running an aging parent, Off to an appointment. That means you have to take off work at two o'clock or leave your home office at two o'clock. Maybe you only have a daily big too for work things. And then the daily big three is just to show up. To be present. Ron time, take mom to that appointment. So think about the daily big three in terms of the broad perspective and not just work. All right. I promise if you focus on three, you're going to feel more accomplished than you ever did with that really long to-do list. So I invite you. To the rest of this week or. Uh, maybe this day even think about what are the most important three things that you could get done to move you toward your goals. All right. So that's step one to getting more done without working longer hours by focusing on the most important. High leverage work. That's going to move you forward and letting the busy work. Fall away. Okay. Step two. Is to understand when you are most productive. All right. There's this really interesting. Idea called the time energy paradox. And it's something that a lot of folks don't rasp when they think. Oh, if I work 80 hours a week and you work 40 hours a week, clearly I'm going to get more done. That's actually not the case. We all know this. Because if you ever hold it all night or in college, or you try to work and burn the candle at both ends, we know at some point you hit a wall. Right. So there's this time energy paradox. And the idea is that while your time is fixed, We all get the same amount of hours in a week. Our energy flexes, right. There are times when our energy is much higher. And much lower. So rather than thinking that we can just push through and slog through, let's say 80 hours or even 50 hours a week. What if we instead. Capitalized on the times in which we had the most energy. And then protected that time. To get the most important work done. All right. I like to call this your superhuman time. So everyone's got a little bit of a different archetype around this. You might've heard of energy archetypes, but it's this idea that if you only had two hours today to do the work. When would you want to do it? You know, there's some morning people who are like, I really love working from about nine o'clock to 11 o'clock that's when I get the most work done. There are others who say LA. Late afternoon, give me two to four or three to five. I was talking to a business owner last week, who said like 10 to midnight is when I am my most creative. Rate. Whatever that is for you. Ask yourself. If you only had two hours to work today. When would you love that time to be. Now, why is this important? It's because if you are trying to get your daily big three, your highest leverage work done from three to five. But you've hit a wall. You have no energy. You've got this like energy crash. Maybe your blood sugar drops from lunch or whatever the thing is. Right. You are not going to be as productive in those two hours. So if you're a morning person, Two hours in the morning might be worth so much more to you. Then two hours in the afternoon or evening. So understanding this about yourself is really important. It's so step one here is identifying. When is your superhuman time? For me? It's nine to 11 for the kindness book with last week, who is a creative graphic designer. I tend to midnight, right? Whatever that is for you identify it. Step two then. Is blacken, put it on your calendar in guard at. Honor it. What does that even mean? It means don't take meetings during this time. Don't decide to take an appointment or get your workout in, in this time, right? This time is sacred. So if, for example, your superhuman time is like mine. It's nine to 11. I really try not to take meetings during that time. And I have a focus block on my calendar that says focus time. And in those two hours, that's what I focus on my daily big three. All right. Once you've identified this once you've put it on your calendar and you've started protecting it by not putting meetings or things over top of it. Then it's really important to have conversations with those around you about why you are protecting this time. So, for example, if you work on a team, it'd be really important to communicate your superhuman time to your team. Let's say you have a team leader who wants to hold meetings in the middle of your superhuman time. It'd be really helpful for you to have a conversation that says, you know, I am, I understand that these meetings are important for our team. This is really when I feel like I show up and get the most work done. Would it be possible to shift these meetings? You know, to the afternoon or two another time. So I could really protect this and do more for our team. Let's say as a business owner. You have clients who want to schedule during that time. It's as simple as saying, I have another commitment and you, do you have a commitment to yourself to get the most important high leverage work done during that time? It might also be that you are again, let's go back to the caregiving example. I had a client last week who was talking about. How she runs her mom to a lot of appointments, and sometimes she gets a lot of phone calls from her mom. And that can interrupt her time. But by communicating to her mom that she really needed. For her, it was 10:00 AM to noon to get her most important work done. She was able to clear those distractions really focused during that time and then show up for her mom. Well, outside of that time, And her mom was really grateful to give her that time because she was serving her in so many other ways outside of that time. Right. So identify your superhuman time and protect it, communicate it to those who are really going to need to know about it so they can support you in that way. All right. And then strategy number three, to get more done during work hours is to prioritize your focus, right? So let's say you have your superhuman time. And you show up whatever that is. Let's use nine to 11 as an example. But last night I stayed up until 1:00 AM watching something on Netflix. Well, I probably didn't get as much sleep as I wanted, which means I'm probably a little groggy. So when I show up at 9:00 AM to do the work, to sit down and really focus, my brain probably isn't fully here is if I would've got a really good night's sleep. Or maybe you had a, a girls' night and you had a few more glasses of wine than you might normally have on a regular evening. And so your brain is working at a little slower pace, or maybe you're a little groggy. You have some fog there, right? You're not showing up as the best version of you to get things done. And so your work hours might end up stretching because you're not as effective with the work hours that you have. So the importance here is to prioritize doing what you need to do so you can show up well for the work and get it done. What does this look like? Well, let me use a racing example. If any of you have ever done any kind of competition, maybe you can relate, but I used to run half marathons. And so the day before a race, really the 48 hours before a race, our key. But especially the night before a race is extremely important. Right. So we went, uh, for my, one of my birthdays. We went and did the half iron man from, or half Ironman, half marathon from Napa Sonoma. And so we were traveling with my six month old at the time. And I knew we needed a good night's rest. So we had a great dinner the night before, so we had nutrition. We hydrated really well the day before. So we would be set to go there and I went to bed early to have a great night's rest. Right. All of the things that I wanted to do. So I could show up for the race the next morning, prepared and ready to go. So that's in an ideal world, what it would look like to show up and focus. Now, what can derail that? Well, my six month old waking up in the middle of the night and not going back to sleep that could make me show up and not focus and, and perform in a way I wanted. So I hope that example helps, but there's a lot of other things that kind of get in the way of us showing up as our best selves for that superhuman time or just for any meetings that we have even. So. What do you need to do before you show up to work? So you can show up? Well, All right. So that might include things like getting enough sleep. Making sure you are. Uh, getting in the nutrition that you need in the morning, so that you're full. And can focus and you're not, you know, your belly's not rumbling to go off and grab a snack. Uh, maybe it means for you that you need to black out distractions, right? Our phones. Go off 350 times a day. If this thing is what's pulling you away and showing up focused, then what do you need to do to prevent that distraction from happening? Or maybe that distraction is keeping you up late and you're not getting the sleep you need to really show up and focus on the work for your brain to be sharp. And get that work done as quickly as you could. And finally, I want to just really emphasize this idea of rest. Uh, you will learn this about me, but I really do believe that rest is the most underrated productivity hack we have that we don't leverage enough. The CDC says that the American. Adult average is six hours asleep, but we really need seven. To nine. So, what can you do to try to get a good night's rest? So your brain can show up, ready to focus all. Right. But rest is not just sleep. It's also shutting off work. When you are done with work. So your brain can. Free up. And relax and do other things. And you'll find that when you're not thinking about work all the time, You come back to work with a free brain, maybe a new perspective that you hadn't thought of because it had that opportunity to let go of it for a minute. And come back. Right. It's those things where like you're trying to solve a problem and then you go sleep on it and you wake up with a great idea. All right. So your third strategy is to prioritize whatever you need to do to really show up focused during those work hours. Because if you don't, it will take you a longer amount of time to do the same work. All right. In a moment, I'm going to share with you. One change that you can make. Today that will have an immediate impact on your productivity. But first. If you're ready to hop off that to-do list hamster wheel. Awesome. Schedule your superhuman time and just. Crank it. Focus on that work. And run. But I know that some women need a little extra help and direction. So I've put together something pretty great that I'd love to share. It's a free resource called five strategies to calm the calendar chaos. This is, especially for those of you that have really chaotic calendars feel like you never have time for yourself or to. You know, fit in those things. Outside of that crazy to-do list. So in this, I'll share with you a way to plan your days and your weeks. So you can get into a groove and get more done in each working session. That'll help you free up valuable time for your priorities outside of work. So you can sign up to receive this@theothersideofbusy.com slash chaos. Or you can click on the link in the show notes. All right. I promised you one change that if gone every single day, We'll help you get more done. And you can implement it. Today. Ad. Guardrails. I have guardrails are on the highway to protect your car from careening into danger and chaos. But we can also provide the same kind of guardrails to provide you safety on your calendar. So what do I mean by guardrails? They are a start. And a stop time to your Workday. And if you Corinne outside, if work expands outside of these guardrails, it can spill into an encroach on your personal commitments. Your personal values costing you. In the long run. So by choosing a consistent start and stop time. Every day. You are making work contract. To those hours. So hear me out here. There was a guy named Parkinson. Maybe you've heard of him. He has this thing called Parkinson's law. They did a study where they provided work to two different groups in a workplace environment. And to the first group, they said, here's your work for today? And the second group, they said, here's your work. You can leave when you get it done. Yes, who got it done more quickly? The ones who could leave when they got it done. Because they finished the project and left. But the first group made the work, expand to the hours allotted. So while work can expand to the hours allotted in the same fashion working contract. So constraint can be a really powerful tool. For us. And you've experienced this. If you've ever gone on a vacation, right. You get more done. Dave before you leave on vacation, then maybe you did the four days prior. Because you have a deadline, you have constraint. And that really gives you focus and motivation. So your action step is to choose a start and stop time and put that black in your calendar. So you're prompted to leave work or leave your home office desk. On time. I promise your focus during the day will improve knowing you have this boundary in place. I wanted to mention before I go. If you're not quite sure where to even get started during your Workday. You're not alone. I hear this from clients. All the time and I want to help. Sign up for a free get shit done session. And then 30 minutes together. We'll take a look at that to do list. We'll prioritize it based on the Eisenhower matrix and your most important goals. And out of it, we'll help you come up with your daily big three. Because you deserve to feel more accomplished at the end of every Workday and the peace of knowing that you can relax, knowing that all that important work that done. So you can truly focus and show up for your most important relationships. Knowing that all of those things have been handled. All right. Until next time. I'm rooting for you.