How I plan my week (so nothing falls through the cracks)

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 19, 2019 | Goal-Setting & Habit-Building, Planning, Productivity

If you’ve been hanging out with me (virtually) for any length of time, then you probably know I’m a big fan of time blocking (and its time-management cousin, time-batching) as a way to help business owners get control of their time and improve work-life balance. If you’re not familiar with time blocking, it basically just means setting aside blocks of time for a specific purpose.

Today I wanted to give you a super-quick visual to show you how I create my own schedule each week in advance to make sure every client is getting the hours and attention they need (along with all the other people in my life—such as my family— who also want attention).

Create your own blocked-time schedule

For a lot of reasons, I recommend doing your time blocking in the actual calendar app you use the most. I use Google calendar.

It can sync to your scheduling software to prevent surprise appointment scheduling
You can easily share it with your partner or other people who need to stay informed about your availability
It’s SO quick to schedule and easy to color code (if you’re into that sort of thing, which I am)
It’s super visual, obvs

So, here you have it, what a week at The Efficient/Creative looks like:

(with names and locations removed, of course)

How to prioritize when you create your schedule

Depending on what I’ve got going on, I might set this up on a Friday afternoon for the week ahead (or 2 weeks ahead), or it may be first thing Monday morning of that week. I know I have certain clients with specific hourly requirements, so I’ll block those out first. Then I’ll add fill in the times as needed for other things I’ve got to get done that week, making SURE to set aside time for my own business admin (#REQUIRED).

You can see that I’ve got a pretty consistent hard stop time of 5pm. I really don’t like working in the evenings (#beyourownboss), so blocking out my time this way—in advance—is crucial for me to protect my family time (and the all-important knitting time).

You know I’m obsessed with productivity and time-management, right? I *love* hearing about the strategies other people use! Got a system that works for you? Hit those comments and let me hear about it!

1 Simple Way to Avoid Burnout When You Work from Home

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 19, 2019 | Goal-Setting & Habit-Building, Planning, Productivity

Whether you work at home as a remote job or you own your own business, the fantasy (or reality) of having control over your time is a huge appeal of working from home. After all, one of the great work-from-home benefits is the ability to create your own schedule, right?

Have small kids at home and you can only work while they’re sleeping? Go for it.

Have a second, more traditional job with odd hours? No problem.

You can do SO many work-from-home jobs at literally any time of the day or night!

Which brings us to one of the biggest dangers of working for yourself: burnout. There’s a reason that working from home can lead to depression, loneliness, and anxiety. And burnout can be a big component of that.

When you can work any time, it’s easy to work all the time.

Many of us started working from home so we could theoretically work anywhere, but it’s too easy to become just as chained to our desks at home as we were in the office. Worse, we can become even more chained to our desks because they’re ALWAYS NEAR.

Work all the hours and you’re setting yourself up for serious fatigue and isolation.

Here is 1 simple way to avoid burnout when you work from home.

There are 2 methods that I highly recommend you use in your weekly schedule to set boundaries and ensure that you keep a healthy mental work-life balance.

Hard stops
Time blocking/batching

Since I’ve already written about time-blocking (which you can read more about here), I’m going to talk a little more today about having a hard stop.

Having a hard stop simply means deciding on a time that you’ll stop work, then STOPPING work at that time. Follow-through is the hardest (and most important) part, obvs.

How to institute a hard stop in your work schedule

Like most of my time-management suggestions, it often starts with doing an audit of your time. How much time do you actually spend in each of your required categories? If you’re not sure where your time goes each week, then I recommend using Toggl to start tracking your time (it’s free and easy to use!)

Use your time audit to help you block out your week on a calendar. How much time do you need to plan to devote to each of your required categories?

Include your hard stop boundaries in your schedule

While you’re blocking your time, think about when you want your hard stop to be every day. When are you going to say, “Work time is OVER and I’m shutting my computer down”? Depending on your life, it could be a different time each day or consistent across the whole week.

Set this boundary in advance. Then honor it.

While you’re at it, make a point of communicating this boundary with everyone who might be affected.

Send an email to your clients and inform them of your set working hours
Add language to your contracts or client onboarding documents that specify the time you stop working each evening
Tell someone (like your partner) who can help you stay accountable and honor the time commitments you have to your family
Set up an out-of-office email autoresponder and turn it on every evening before you stop working

Not all boundaries are created equal (and that’s okay)

If you are someone who has to work in chunks throughout the day, you may have multiple hard stops, For instance, if you work while the kids are napping, you might say “The kids usually wake up at 2, so I’m going to stop work at 1:50.”

Or it may look like setting a certain number of hours per day that you’ll work, then stopping when you’ve reached that amount. Simple enough right?

Institute a hard stop time boundary in your work-from-home schedule and see what a difference it makes in how you feel about your work. Has a hard stop helped you avoid burnout in your business? Scroll to those comments and let me hear about it!

My 4 Favorite Apps for Focusing and Avoiding Distractions

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 27, 2018 | Productivity

Do you ever find yourself unable to maintain focus on the job at hand?

Or maybe (if you’re like me), sometimes you can’t even remember what you were trying to focus on?

If you’re reading this, then that means you have internet, and THAT probably means that, yes. Yes, you have trouble focusing.

If you take an already busy schedule and add apps that constantly say “CLICK ME!” with notifications, then add more competing priorities of work and home, then you have a recipe for distraction.

Take it from me: I work from home, which means that I’m immediately surrounded by laundry, dirty dishes, (and during the summer, children) that want my attention the moment I step away from the sanctity of my home office. The last thing I need is an office environment that contributes to the mental chaos.

SO TODAY I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOME OF MY FAVORITE TOOLS THAT I USE TO STAY FOCUSED, REDUCE DISTRACTIONS, AND STAY MOTIVATED.

Save important info for later with Pocket (available on iOS and Android)

Have shiny object syndrome? Don’t lose your focus or momentum when you see an article that you want to read or video you want to watch. Use pocket as a place to store all of those videos, articles, any ideas that pop up throughout your day so you can go back to them later.

Pocket’s also available as a Chrome extension, so you can add things right from your desktop, your tablet, OR your phone- they all go to the same place!

BONUS POINTS if you schedule a time in your calendar to regularly go back to those items (so they don’t just keep accumulating).

Reduce distractions and annoyances with Forest (iOS and Android)

If you have to slap your hand away from your smartphone to avoid visiting some of your favorite apps when you should be working, check out Forest. It’s available for tablets or phones. Set the timer for the length of time you need to stay focused, then put the device down!

While the timer is running, you plant a virtual “tree.” Use your device while the timer is going and your tree dies. Womp, womp.

Even better? Save up your healthy virtual trees and you can turn those into REAL trees to be planted by a Tree Planting Partner for a community in need. AWESOME.

Train your brain to stay focused with Apple’s native Reminders app

I’m not sure what the direct Android equivalent is for this app (if you know, please add a comment below), but I have to mention it because it is saving my sanity. At the very moment that I think, “Shoot, I have got to remember to do the thing,” I stop what I’m doing, and add it to my Reminders app.

I can set a reminder to notify me if it’s time-sensitive, and I can even set regular reminders at just about any interval you could need (so I can actually, finally, keep a plant alive—fingers crossed). Use the “info” section anytime there’s more detail you need.

Force yourself to stay on-task with Self Control (for Mac Desktop- try “Cold Turkey” for Windows)

This is similar to the Forest app, but works on your desktop or laptop.

Blacklist the websites that tend to pull your attention away from your work(*ahem* Facebook), set your timer, then get to work. Self-Control will block your access to those black-listed sites while the timer is running.

If you REALLY struggle with self-control, you can also choose to whitelist ONLY the sites the sites that you need to access while you work. Every other site will be blocked. Eek!

OK, Y’ALL! YOU’VE GOT THE TOOLS, NOW NO MORE EXCUSES!

What tools are you obsessed with right now that help you be more productive? Tell me in the comments below. I LOVE productivity apps (and I love to go “app shopping” when my motivation is low), so hit me with what you got.

P.S. Know somebody who would love this info? Feel free to forward this blog to them (and ask them to sign up for more amazing productivity here!)

Are you an Obliger in disguise?

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 26, 2018 | Goal-Setting & Habit-Building, Productivity

By now, you might have heard of Gretchen Rubin and her idea of the Four Tendencies. If you’re not familiar with it, you can learn more about it here. I’ve been a fan of Gretchen Rubin and her podcast (Happier) and her books for a few years, but I’ll admit that I’ve had my issues with her Four Tendencies framework. I don’t really feel like I’m a great fit with any of the tendencies. At times, I’ve felt like I identified as an Obliger, a Questioner, and an Upholder (never a Rebel, though, to the great shock of my youth group Sunday school teachers).

I had kind of decided to give up on the idea of the Four Tendencies, thinking, “It’s obviously not a perfect framework, it needs some polishing… Maybe it’s helpful for some people, but not really for me.” That is, until the last few weeks. Let me tell you about them.

If you’re someone I talk to regularly, then you probably know that the last 3 or 4 months have been pretty tough for me (though, thankfully, it’s all been planned and self-imposed).

I’ve been working a full time job, a part-time retail job, and running The Efficient/Creative, all while trying to spend “enough” time with my kids, “enough” time with my husband, “enough” time on housework, and “enough” time on my responsibilities with my church.

In other words, I’ve been spreading myself waaaaaaay too thin and just trying to squeak by on pretty much every facet of my life.

I was talking to my mom a few weeks ago and I told her, “There is not a single day of the week when I’m not burdened by obligations. Every moment of the day is a time when I *should* be doing something, and when I’m doing one thing, I’m thinking about all of the other, unrelated things I also *should* be doing.”

Does this sound like you? Does it sound like a personal hell? Or maybe both?!

The day after that, I had a productivity coaching session with a friend (the amazing Zoha over at Multidoer- I’ve mentioned her here before and if you haven’t checked her out yet, get on that for reals.) As we were talking, I think I used the word “obligation” 17 times in 3 minutes.

Is that, like, a record? Somebody tell me.

Her response? “Um, yeah. You’re an Obliger.” …yes. Yes, I think so.

But what does this newfound knowledge mean; why is it important? According to Gretchen Rubin, knowing your tendency is crucial for changing your habits. And the habit I have GOT to change (before my children start to wonder, “Who is that woman with the fleece pants and the embarrassing amount of facial hair who is eating dinner with us?”) is SPREADING MYSELF TOO THIN.

Here’s how I’m changing it. I’m taking stock of what my REAL priorities are. These are the obligations that are going to move me forward toward the life I want to be living. Obligations that don’t make the cut have to hit the road, and decisions like that aren’t easy—they mean having hard conversations and disappointing people you like. Like all Things Worth Doing, it’s going to be a work-in-progress, and I’m excited to take those steps.

What’s your tendency? What habits are you trying to build? And how does your tendency inform how you’re going to build those habits? I’d LOVE to hear from you, my amazing email friends list, so hit the comments below and tell me all about it!

P.S. Know somebody who likes to Get Things Done? Forward this to them and tell them they can subscribe here for all kinds of awesomeness.

Is your motivation fading? Try this to get back on track.

by Kate Hutcheson | Apr 18, 2018 | Productivity

Trythistiptogetyourmotivationbackontrack

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You uncover a new goal and you are PUMPED to reach it. Your energy is through the roof and there is no stopping you! But along the way, you have a setback which gets you just a little off track and before you know it, that new goal that you were so thrilled to reach? It doesn’t seem that important anymore. OR you know it’s still important, but you feel guilty for letting it slide. And it keeps sliding…

Believe me, I get it. I have been there (and I still go there… a LOT). When I work with women to plan professional and personal projects, I get a front row seat to watch how our motivation can affect what we accomplish.

The next time you get that sense that you’re getting off track because the thrill is gone, I want you to try these steps (yeah, I know I said it was ONE thing before, but it’s really two because the first one is SUPER important, I promise.)

Let go of the guilt. Be forgiving with yourself. We ALL get off track, we all lose motivation sometimes, so allow yourself to acknowledge that feeling of guilt, then let it go.
Visualize your end game. When you imagine your goal, what do you see? If your answer to that question is kind of hazy or nebulous, then really set aside some time (10 or 20 minutes) to practice visualizing yourself reaching that goal. How do you feel? Who is with you? Are you in a specific location? What does it look like or smell like? Is the sun shining? What are you wearing in this scenario?

Going into that much detail might feel a little nutty at first, but the more detail you can give your visualization, the more real it will be to you. Try this out and then let me know how it worked out for you. What do you do when you feel yourself getting off track? Do you have another method you use to regain motivation? If so, hit reply and let me hear about it!

P.S.

Got a goal and you’re not sure how to reach it? Do you feel like you want a road map or a timeline to get there? Set up a time to chat with me about it! My consultation calendar is open only until April 28 and I only have TWO MORE SPOTS open for free inquiry/consultation calls, so don’t wait!

Set up a time to chat!

Does Writing By Hand Improve Focus?

by Kate Hutcheson | Sep 1, 2017 | Productivity

Recently I read an article that talked about the importance of writing things out by hand when it comes to focus, memory, and creativity. The article is here, and it’s worth a look.

Here’s what the author, Peter Gasca, says:

“‘students who write out their notes on paper actually learn more,’ and doodling has been shown to help focus and creativity.

And while typing to take notes is considerably easier and faster for most of us, a Yale psychologist emphasizes that ‘with handwriting, the very act of putting it down forces you to focus on what’s important.’”

When I work with one-on-one clients, I encourage them to bring their own sticky notes and a pen to our sessions—even though our sessions are online. It’s not required, but I think it can be helpful for clients, especially for those wanting to learn the process and use it on their own in the future.

One recent client, Christen, told me that even though she didn’t write down the steps for her project during our session, she wrote them out on sticky notes afterward and posted them in her planner. I sent her a hand pdf of the steps that she could refer to whenever she wanted- she didn’t have to physically write them down. But she knew that could help her focus on her tasks.

When you write by hand onto actual paper, then move that paper around in physical space, there’s an inherent mindfulness that the activity brings. It’s easier to focus on the task at hand. At least, that seems to be the case for me (and for the Yale psychologist noted above).

All of this thinking about hand writing also got me thinking about my Bullet Journal. Recently, it’s my poor, neglected Bullet Journal.

I love my BuJo, but I have definitely let it fall by the wayside for the last few weeks. Now I’m convinced: I am restarting my BuJo practice!

I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the evolution of my Bullet Journal weekly layouts. Notice how it starts out fairly simple, becomes prettier and more elaborate, then all of a sudden becomes the simplest design possible as my life became too busy to spend time on it!

I don’t feel badly about my simple layouts, though I did enjoy the practice of making the pretty layouts. Plus, when my journal appeals to my eye, I want to spend more time with it.

I’d love to hear where you all stand on this issue. Do you find that you can focus more easily when you write things out by hand? Do you use a BuJo to help you build a focused, creative practice? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!