When it comes to managing your time as an online entrepreneur oftentimes it can seem like a daunting task, and your schedule can start to bunch up with a lot of things such as meetings, reviews, client support, product testing, and many other things.
So, how do you deal with all these things whilst remaining organized and managing to reserve time for yourself!? That’s where productivity systems come into play, there are a lot of variations out there, and each one has its strengths and weaknesses.
Why do I need a productivity system?
As we just mentioned above, your day tends to be quite full, and if you are not managing your time you may end up doing a lot of things but feeling like you have accomplished nothing… sounds familiar? That’s the exact reason why you need a productivity system in place:
Firstly, it will help you visualize better your day and your needs;
Secondly, it will give you a sense of accomplishment when you check off the list an item that needed to be done;
Thirdly, it will make it clear to you when you need to take a minute for yourself because an endless run will only lead to exhaustion and that’s just bad.
You may be asking yourself “what does that have to do with me?”
Well, if you are here you are either an online entrepreneur, work for a business that is online or you are planning to be one of those things so this is a must.
You may not feel it at first, but as time passes, you will slowly realize how many things tend to add to your schedule. So, let’s begin!
The “OSZI” Productivity System
I am quite lazy at heart, so in this article, I will take you behind the scenes of one of the most fundamental productivity systems that just work.
Starting with the O, which stands for “Objectives”, this is basically how you need to view your calendar. Your calendar should incorporate the objectives that tell you what you should be doing at any given moment of any given day.
Honestly, I think most productivity systems in the world by effective people just boil down to using a calendar properly. So, if you’re struggling with your productivity for whatever reason and you’re not using your calendar to organize your life, you’re probably doing it wrong, and if you start using a calendar, things will start to get better
So, there are two main ways in which you will use the calendar, the first one is time blocking. If you must do something or if you want to do something you should put a block in your calendar for when you are going to do that specific thing.
Here is a planning example so you get a better understanding of what I am saying.
There is a block in the calendar for my morning routine which for me is a must, then I start the day by checking and responding to any emails that I may have.
From 9 AM to 10 AM I have a free period that needs to be filled, moving forward from 10 AM to 2 PM I am doing my creative process of writing, which is a no distraction zone, then I have some time reserved for research and I am ending the day with a gym session. Pretty simple and effective if you ask me.
Sometimes I will even add relaxation blocks as a reminder to take time off, relax and enjoy myself.
“If something is not on your calendar is just not going to happen”.
Your mindset
The second one is the idea that while you get better at organizing and structuring your day you can set up areas for deep work activities, that way you will get more results in less time while managing to accomplish other tasks.
Keep in mind, that when you set a deep work activity in your calendar your focus should be 100% there, intensity brings out change and this will bring results.
A good rule of thumb when it comes to deep work sessions is that it’s better done in the morning when your brain is still at 100% capacity. As humans, we have a limited amount of energy and focus that gets drained as we move forward in a day. Distractions, problems, meetings, etc. tend to use that percentage, and generally speaking, if you compare a deep work session in the morning with a deep work session in the afternoon, most probably your results will be better in the morning.
If you want to learn more about deep work sessions here are 7 rules to create a deep work habit.
Tip: Google Calendar is a very good free tool for time management and scheduling.
In my opinion, this is the first and most important part of any productivity system, the Objectives and how you manage them.
The next part of our productivity system is S, which stands for “Scheduling“, basically your to-do list.
The way I’d like you to approach this, is different from how a lot of people do it. Personally, I don’t really like it when I have a list of things that I must do, because I feel like I’m beholden to my to-do list and it’s just not nice and then it makes ticking off tasks feel as if I’ve got a big obligation and to me, this feels irritating because I love being free in the sense of not feeling constrained by any situation. Therefore, I don’t really like the traditional way of managing a to-do list. So, what I like doing is that instead of a to-do list I have a “might-do” list and a “might-do” list it’s just that I do have things written down but they’re not things that I have to do, they’re things that I cand do if I really want to.
You see, the objectives are your main quest, and your “might-do” list is a side quest. This slight distinction makes me feel way better and more in control of my day.
What I like to do with my list is to write it on a piece of paper, it feels more natural to me this way.
The idea is that you can always have your piece of paper in sight, so you will not be forced to scroll through apps go to your phone notes, and look there for your daily “might-do”.
Moving on to Z, get ready because this word is a bit much, Z stands in for “Zettelkasten“, which is Germ for slip-box. This is a note-taking and knowledge management system that was popularized by a man called Luhmann, you can read more about it here. Now who better than to help you organize things than the Germans, Luhmann was particularly famous because he was super productive, as I said… Germans. He wrote 70 books and over 400 articles over the course of his life, he had around 90,000 notes within his Zettelkasten slip-box system, so he tested his method for sure.
I don’t think you should use this method exactly as he did, but rather I think we should update it to the 21st century. A great tool for the is Roam Research, I use it for all my personal note-taking stuff.
There is a lot of detail to go into the Zettelkasten system but basically, it’s like any time you consume something, as if you read a book or an article or if you listen to a podcast you should do your best to write down a few notes about the thing that you just read in your own words in a series of Zettels, that the base of it. But there are other things to note-taking, and I will suggest you one of the most amazing things that you can do.
Every morning when you wake up try and download your brain there, go ahead and dump all the things that go through your mind, and I mean everything. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, business ideas, goals, ideals, visions, frustrations, etc. Think of it as a get-all-of-your-chest-and-mind session each morning.
You will find that there is random stuff that is building up in your brain, and this method will help you clear out that cluster.
The final component of our productivity system is I, which is “Inventory“, which basically means file management and archive. So in terms of file management, I advise you to use Google Drive for absolutely everything, Because whichever device you will be using, you will always have a way of accessing your files in Google Drive.
The idea behind this last component is that you can go back and check your progress, and if need be you can access ideas and notes from previous days, weeks, months, etc.
So, this is a basic productivity system that I think will help you in the long run.
For more interesting articles check out Marketing Hack | Learn Instagram’s new algorithm or Best online businesses to start in 2022.
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