How to increase productivity? (5 Tips to do more of what you love)
Time management is everything, and if you’re not a planner or a Calendar guru, that’s okay as well. In this blog, I will be exploring my tips and tricks that I use to increase my productivity. From the outside, people think I am a very busy person, but from my own personal perspective I think I have a lot of free time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have so much time to fit everything at once. Right? 🧐
Why do I have so many side hustles?
A bit about me, I am a UX/UI Designer and I love building businesses, side hustles and start-ups 🦄. I like to come up with random business ideas 💡 and I start them straight away 💪🏼 (with none of them being successful- but still makes me good money and new friends). I ran an e-commerce store selling t-shirts online called Pocketi, and constantly being on Instagram to interact with my audience (which now turned into my friends). Pocketi business led me to a food blogging world where I started a YouTube channel to document my adventure and low-key became an influencer. This then led me to invest in a camera so I can get quality photos to post when I visit restaurants and places. These food photos that I posted then landed me multiple food photography gigs so I started another freelance food photography business. Every time I start a new business, I like to design and make a website for it which also build the work for my design portfolio.
Due to the multiple websites I have designed, I started getting referrals to do freelance design work. So now I have shifted my focus in helping other people kick-start their businesses and see their ideas come to life!
Am I doing all of this at once? Of course not. I’m not design website while I am out reviewing food at a restaurants. But some of the tasks can actually be done at the same time.
Productivity is all about saving time
Productivity Tip 1: Learn to type fast ⌨️
If you can type fast, you can reply to emails, messages and work fast. You get things done quicker.
If I get a message, I read it straightaway. My phone is right next to me all the time, on silent. Depending on the level of priority, I usually reply within 5 mins. I think of it like the more you delay your messages, the more you’re losing the opportunity. Treat every message as an opportunity.
Productivity Tip 2: Learn to do your job. Fast. 🏃🏻♀️
This might not apply to everyone but there will be an aspect of your work that you can streamline the process- faster. For me as a designer, I know my tools inside out (Figma). This comes with heaps of practise. The way I practise my design skill is to copy lots and lots of design with Figma so I would know exactly where each elements are. I created my own process so that when someone needs a website or an app design, I know the steps I need to take.
Productivity Tip 3: Get a calendar 🗓
I use Google Calendar to keep track with all my events. I use the weekly view so that I can see the amount of hours spend on each events. When you start putting all of your events and meetings in one place, you will start to see a lot of gaps where you have the free time. I try not to have back-to-back events and meetings so that there’s also a ‘break’ for myself too. Anything that is not in my calendar, I will actually forget it and not turn up. Without a calendar, I don’t think my life can function.
Productivity Tip 4: Visualise your To-Do list 🗒
I am using Milanote app to visualise all my to-do list in one place. There’s also app like Notion, Kanban board out there to keep track with all your projects too. I’ve been using Milanote for a while now because of the clean board it gives me. For each column, I would have Work, Projects, Reminder, Blog post to write, videos to edit and Friends catch-up list (yes I actually have a friends catch-up list to remind myself to check on my friends 🙈)
Productivity Tip 5: Know where things are 🕵🏻♀️
This is a weird one, but if you know where things are, it will save you so much time and can increase your productivity. For example, know where things are within your phone, whether it be finding apps, finding your notes, finding messages. It could be- know where you saved your password so you’re not constantly clicking on ‘forget my password’ and restart again.
That’s it!
I hope this helps. If you have any other tips and tricks, feel free to share in the comment below👇🏼 Or if you want to talk about business, side hustle, start-up ideas and design- feel free to hit me up on LinkedIn and Instagram!
