Get More Done In Less Time

Get More Done In Less Time

Get More Done in Less Time

Get more done in less time

 

Hi, I’m Dr. Tiffany Shelton Mariolle, The Manifesting Psychologist and Founder of modAmbition!

 

 

Wondering how you can spend less time doing all the things, and more time doing what you love? I want you to listen to this podcast you can learn how to go from constantly running out of time to having an abundant amount of time to do what you love!

By the end of this podcast you know how to get more done in less time, so you can actually spend time doing what lights up your soul.

ONE: Work Life Balance For Ambitious Women

So the first thing were going to discuss is work life balance for ambitious women as an important first step to getting more done in less time.

As I said this pillar of having it all starts with time acceptance. It is 100% crucial that you start to accept your current season. Life is not constant and just like the seasons change there'll be different seasons in your life that require different ways of managing your time. If you're in a season of rest and rejuvenation, but you haven't fully accepted that that's the season your and you going to be fighting an uphill battle. For example, when I had my first daughter I didn't take the time to accept the postpartum season. Of course I was a new mom and had no idea what to expect but I hadn't prepared myself for how much I would need to slow down and take care of me and this new life. My calendar was still full of things to get done and instead of treating my maternity leave Lake maternity leave I had treated it like a time to just do extra work. I was writing my first published book and had made no modifications of deadlines to account for the fact that I was having a new baby so there I was running on 022 hours of sleep probably pretty smelly because I had limited time to shower taking care of this new baby and dealing with postpartum depression that I hadn't anticipated. And somehow I found a way to crank out a book but I certainly had no time for myself. And by not accepting the season I was and I made life much harder for myself. So before you ask yourself how can I get more done in less time, ask yourself is this a season to maybe get less done in this time.

The next thing I want you to do when it comes to work-life balance is an ambitious woman is to have healthy boundaries you going to need to have boundaries at home and in the workplace in your neck need to share these boundaries with those that are closest to you at home and in the workplace.

In the last year or so we've been dealing with this pandemic and of course I've been working from home a lot. I also have daycare babies that get sick a lot so that means that their home with me while the work doesn't stop. During those times me and my husband would have to take turns taking care of the children while the other one worked in our home office. We had to set clear boundaries on not only what time we were to take to work during these hard hard times of caring for the children while working but we also had to communicate these boundaries to our little one so Layla knew very well when Poppa was working pop is working she would say in one mom is working and that she could incumbent disturb us during most times. Likewise you may have to stop boundaries with your job that has unspoken rules to expect you to say check emails all the time you may have to say you know these are the times that I'm with my children I am out of the office and I will respond when I return to the office. Another thing you can do to create healthy boundaries is to treat your weekends like vacations plan things for them like going to special places in your town to visit like a tourist or to plan special ways to rest and relax this will help you really dedicate those read those weekends to pure rejuvenation and not blur it with work obligations.

And the last thing I want you to do when it comes to creating worklife balance if you're ambitious woman as I want you to think about being more flexible. Yes, I know I just got done telling you to have healthy boundaries when it comes to work and home life but we also need to be flexible as I mentioned we are in a pandemic and things may happen like having to care for your children or having to take breaks from work to care from your children, and there may be times that your schedule changes unexpectedly for your season changes unexpectedly. For instance, there may be a time where you need to take care of the sick loved one or I'm time where you might have to prioritize your mental health. Just know that sometimes there's no such thing as work life balance, but in reality it's worklife juggling and being flexible with what you're prioritizing at that time.

TWO: Time Management Hacks for Busy Women

Okay now that you have a good understanding of the time acceptance piece of getting more done in less time let's move into time management techniques that you can use to get more done in less time.

So I want to share with you some time management hacks that will certainly help you get more done in less time!

The first hack is intentionality! In the first episode of this mod ambition podcast we talked about intention a lot and how we can help you have it all but I wanted to remind it remind you of it in this episode as well as all these pillars work together so when it comes to managing your time is good to serve you well to lean into what lights you up the mouse and be able to get rid of or delegate those things that don't light you up, and we'll talk about that a little bit more later.

Zig Ziglar said, "Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24 hour days."

So as a first hack make sure that when it comes to managing your time you're managing it with the right direction in mind. 

The next hack is can help you manage your time well especially if you're a mom is going to be planning. 

I read a statistic that said 24% of people use their email inbox is their time and task management system! This statistic literally makes me cringe because there's definitely a much easier way to manage your time, which is why I created the manifestation planner printable which I will link for you guys if you're interested in the show notes.

Click Here to get my Manifestation Planner Printable

If you guys have the manifestation planner printable, which will only be available for a short time this year, you know that it is filled with a system that helps you reach your goals through with the planning system that is practical and easy and one of the things I like to do with my planning is to time clock using time blocking for me has been really effective when it comes to managing my time and making sure I know exactly what what to do in each segment of my day. So I time block everything, to almost every minute of my day even eating and exercise because I really don't want to have to think about what I need to be doing at any given moment. And the less I have to think about what I need to be doing, the easier it is for me to get things done in management time.

The next hack I want to mention to you guys when it comes to managing your time is a mom for newer or just as an ambitious moment in general is to batch. Batching like tasks is going to help you not only manage your time but it's going to help you save time because it takes us so much time and energy to start a new task or to get started when were doing things that if you can put like things together you eliminate all that time that it takes to start those things individually.

For instance, I am batching these podcast episodes that you're listening to right now and that has saved me a lot of time. I also batched my YouTube videos that I found for my personal channel Tiffany Shelton if you're interested I post videos all about manifestation and my life as a mompreneur. And I distinctly remember when I used to film videos one by one and post them one by one and let me tell you that was the distinct reason why it couldn't be consistent because it took so much time to plan what I was gonna say the video and then pull out everything I needed to film the video and then edit the video that doing that one by one was an unsustainable way to continue bringing valuable content to my audience. Once I figure out a batching system and calendar system for doing those batching days that work for me I was able to knock it out of the park with my consistency with my YouTube videos and provide more valuable content and the ends.

Okay the next hack that I want you guys to do kind of goes along with time blocking, and that is to time audit and to use timers. So if your time blocking than your right already writing down what you are doing which is very helpful to keep you on task and make sure that everything that you're doing is in the direction of your intentions. This can allow you to go back and audit your time and see what you're doing that may be a waste of time or not using your time wisely or just not helping you get to your larger goals. And you can use things like timers I use the focus timer that uses the Perdomo are put dorm oh method I think that's how you say it basically you you can do it where you work 25 minutes and take five minute breaks or you can work 50 minutes and take 10 minute breaks I like to do it where I take the work 50 minutes to 10 minute breaks because I need those longer chunks for the type of work that I do. But the point of a focus timer is to be able to allow your mind those very crucial breaks to help you be more productive. I also like to use timers because I like to set certain time goals for the work that I'm doing and that helps motivate me to get my work done faster because I am actively timing how long it takes me to do a certain task while I'm doing it and paying attention very closely to any times that I'm going over and noticing anything that may be distracting me.

My last hack for managing your time comes from Brian Tracy and it is to eat that frog. A lot of times we can procrastinate on the things that are hardest for us to do, and it just ends up taking us longer to get them to done. Wayne Dyer said, "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today." So make a habit out of doing the hardest thing on your to do list first and this is can help you be more productive with today's tasks. A recent study showed that employees on average work the hardest from 9 AM to 12 PM and after this time productivity tends to drop significantly. So be sure that you're using the most of your most productive time doing things that are hardest to get them out of the way and make sure they get done. 

THREE: Time Saving Hacks for Mompreneurs

Ok, now that you guys have accepted the season that you're in and you know how to actually manage your time I want to share with you guys some tips to actually help you save time so you can get more done in less time! And if you're drinking every time I say time make sure not driving lol! 

So here are my tips to help you save time so you can have more time to do what lights you up.

The first thing I want you to do is to adopt the philosophy of rents and repeat. 

And there are a couple different ways that you can do this the first thing that I want to offer you is to develop processes for everything that you do. And this can be at work and at home in my side hustle I have written up processes for how I do everything and also how my assistants does everything that way whenever I need to sit down to do something I don't waste time trying to remember how to do it like let's say I need to set up a Facebook ad and also if I ever have to get a new assistant they can just step in the job and already know how to do everything without me having to explain everything to them which is going to save you time and long run. Processes are also really helpful because sometimes we don't like doing things because were afraid of doing them either where afraid of our incompetency and doing them or were turned off by them because it's not our area of interest and having a process for doing things like accounting that you may not like to do to help you just sit down and rinse and repeat. 

Tim Ferris said, "What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do." So if there's anything that you fear doing that you have to frequently do write up a process for it and that's can help you get it done and last time.

The other thing you can do when it comes to saving time using this rinse and repeat philosophy is to create templates. Templates have been so-so helpful for me and my business as a side hustler because I can sit down and plug and play when I need to create content or when I need to have my assistant create content on brand and with my brand voice and having templates if you are a busy woman especially if you're a mop or new are is can help you save time in the long run.

Another thing that's going to help you save time is having systems so if you can create systems in your life whether that be at home or in the workplace this is going to help you save time by having things on auto pilot. For example, me and my husband have a system for our meal prep that's been really helpful we have a whiteboard on the side of our refrigerator where we list out our meals for the week and our kids meals for the week and under that we keep a running tab of the different items we need to purchase from different stores and that way you can just take a picture of it. Then when it's time to go to the grocery store we just have a system of looking at this board and knowing everything we need to get and plan for the week. Within the system we also have a drawer of our favorite recipes that we like that we can pull from if we need to fill in any ideas for meals or with were getting tired of certain meals. So we usually have a system for certain days of the week for our meals. For instance on Thursdays we also we always have tacos and on Mondays we always have space. So basically assist them is just a collection of habits and routines put together to help make life easier for you and I highly recommend finding systems that you can implement in your home life and in your work life that make life easier for you and I will also have a future episode that will dive deeper into various systems that you can use so stay tuned.

The next tip I have can help you save time is to try to do any type of small preparation before hand. Think of ways that you can do something that can help yourself in the future and make you give yourself a pat on the back. Some examples of these types of things are meal prep, pick out your clothes for the week, or pick out your kids close for the week. If you’d like our FREE Sunday Success checklist to help you prepare for the week be sure to click the link in the show notes:

Click Here to Get Our Sunday Success Checklist

An example of prepping in the workplace that can be helpful is to set up everything you're going to need to write a report or create a presentation before hand that way when you sit down to actually do the reporter presentation you have everything you need and it's just plug-and-play. 

Another tip that I have for you that's can help you save time is to forget multitasking. As a neuropsychologist I know that multitasking doesn't really exist as we think it does and it actually plays against us and makes it take longer for us to do those important task so unless it's something really mundane or trivial like walking and listening to a podcast for instance then you're gonna want to stray away from multitasking. Instead, adapt it philosophy of being present minded and everything that you do this again help you get things done faster and be more productive.

The next thing I want you to do to save time is to reduce your decision-making. The time it takes to make decisions can cause mental fatigue and actually slow you down more than you think. Actually read that Obama decided to wear a classic uniform of the same type of shirt tie and suit during his present presidency to reduce the fatigue caused by decision-making. Yes decision fatigue is a real thing. In a similar vein, for years now I have only worn neutral colors in my wardrobe and it makes things so much easier when I'm getting dressed and to even shop. If you look at any photos of me in the last may be six or seven years you won't see me wearing anything but neutral colors and you definitely will never see me wearing a print.

And then I have two more just quick tips that are gonna help you save time and get more things done in your life is to reduce your screen time and this includes Netflix and notifications. The amount of time we waste on our phones and watching TV can be shocking. If you've ever looked at your screen time usage on your phone then you know what you what I mean it's utterly surprising. And I'm guilty of this like anyone else. Which is why I make a conscious effort to reduce my screen time. I do not watch television and hour before bed, and me and my husband like to dedicate at least two nights a week suggest reading in the afternoon in the evenings after we put the children but. Another thing is to help you with this is to turn off notifications on your phone so you won't be constantly pulled to check your Instagram account or email.

And the last little quick tip to save time that goes along with the last one, and comes from the book Four Hour Work Week, which is to don't check your emails first thing in the morning. Doing so will allow your data be dictated by those in your inbox, and puts you an reactionary mode. If you wait till noon or lunchtime to check your email this allows you to get a handle on your day make sure that you're getting things done and before responding to others. It also reduces the amount of time that you spend on emails because by noon most of the morning emails have Artie made it to you and you're not having to do the constant back-and-forth of checking your email all morning, you can simply do it all in one sitting and then get back to working on what's most important to you.

So that is the third modAmbition Pillar to having it all: Time acceptance and Time Optimization. I hope this episode will help you get more done in less time so you spend more time doing what lights you up!

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