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1. Set times to check your email & texts in your day

2. Set a time for social media scrolling

3. Put your phone on Black & white mode

We are addicted to colors, more specifically our brains are & they receive a hit of that feel-good hormone every time we pick up our phones, in this way when people say they are addicted there is some truth to it for all of us. To help with those times when you pick up your phone & get distracted & go into your horoscope app or go to scroll Instagram for “just a quick sec” the grayscale mode makes it about as much fun as reading the newspaper. Which while can be interesting isn’t necessarily fun, much less addictive. Click here for a quick tutorial on how to grayscale your iphone or android. Read more on why you want to do this & keep it this way here. A quick read on one woman’s experience, returning to color from a couple of weeks of a grayscale screen described as the equivalent of eating chocolate bars for dinner, visual nausea. I personally like to be able to switch between the color settings & grayscale quickly because I love this feature & use it so much I have set it to my accessibility menu on my iPhone so I can simply click my home button 3x & boom grayscale mode, 3x more & I’m off the clock & in a world of color.

4. Time block your day

This is a literal lifesaver for me & an amazing way to see where exactly is all your time actually going. Taking stock of your time & intentionally designing your week around your mood & energy has led to more ease & productivity in my business. Check out this short blog tutorial on How to Time-Block your week in less than 10 minutes using google Calendar.

5. 50-minute work blocks with 20-minute breaks

Since I work from home this will look like 2 blog writing work blocks back to back with a 20-minute break in between then after my next break I do a complete task change. So I’ll switch to doing a more physically demanding task that requires less mental effort, like house cleaning, yoga, gardening, running etc. It’s all about balance.

6. Binaural beats or calm.com

With so many of us working from home these days with others the need to block out noise is ever-present. My being ADD I’ve always relied on sound therapy to help focus my energy. The idea is that our brains respond to hearing sounds at particular ranges read more about it here.  When I’m looking to catch a wave I simply youtube “binaural beats for _______” sleep, creativity, focus, productivity, meditation etc. You’ll need headphones to be effective.

The sound of binaural beats can get tiring after several hours so I’ll switch it up between those & calm.com which is more white background noise, it isn’t quite as intense but doesn’t keep me as focused either so I try to be intentional about what I listen to paired with what work activity I’m doing.

7. Batch your work

Group similar tasks together doing this cuts down on the amount of time you spend transitioning between tasks (startup & shutdown) & allows you to get into a state of flow which is the ultimate headspace to churn out your best work.

8. Theme days

This goes along the same as time- batching except on a bigger scale. So Monday’s are my CEO days that I dedicate to all my administrative tasks, accounting tasks, or network building tasks. Tuesdays are my marketing day & design day for another design asset business that I have. Wed & Thursdays are dedicated to client work. Fridays are my flex days to catch up with anything that didn’t get done in the other days, or for my personal life appointments, shopping, etc.

9. Use a task manager

Basically a todo list on steroids, I learned about the amazingness that these tools are after I got into the creative industry, but there should be a college class on them for basically how to be effective humans. I have varying task lists for every facet of my life & complete peace around knowing that I will die with tasks still on these lists. I use Click-up a free task manager & love it! There are task “spaces” which can be thought of as little universes of your tasks. I have one for this design business, each client, my passive income business, and my personal life which comprises lists like my grocery list, meal plan, finances, things to do around my home, my business plan, goals etc. I build out my weekly schedule based on the tasks housed in Click-up. It lets me know which tasks are priority while also serving as a dumping ground for all those tabs in my brain & my laptop.