Personal Shopper Calgary

Are You Being Productive Or Just Doing Busy Work?

Many people seem very busy and are always talking

about how there’s not enough time in the day, how

they’re overwhelmed….you’ve either heard it all or

said it all before, right? But, what we’ve found to be

interesting is that usually when this happens, your

time isn’t being spent wisely.

For the most part, I’ve gotten really good at figuring

out when I’m just being “busy” or putting something

off rather than actually being productive. But, what

I’ve noticed is that we have to constantly stay on top

of this and monitor our productivity. Earlier this

week was one of those times when I started getting

sucked into my old ways again and I had to snap out of it fast. (You can

see the sticky notes here on my lamp as my reminder to stay focused and

check in on what I’m really doing.)

Because, the the thing is that there are only two activities that are truly

worth our valuable time during work hours: Marketing to Brides and

Working on our Weddings. Nothing else. But what about all those time-

wasters that eat up our days? How do you re-group and re-focus your

efforts? Keep reading…. I’ll tell you exactly what works for me!

5 Examples of how to take Busy Work and turn it into Productive

Time!

1.Busy Work :: Checking Email Throughout the

Day

Do you ever find yourself checking your inbox

constantly to see if you have any new emails? Or,

once you start checking your email, you’re stuck

in it for hours at a time?

Productive Time ::

We had this problem (big-time), so now we only check emails at

11:00am and 3:00pm Monday through Thursday (we’re usually off on

Fridays). From our experience, we found that most of our emails came

in prior to those two times, so it takes care of a chunk of our emails all

at once. To make our clients and colleagues aware of this, we have our

“vacation” autoresponder setup so that it also informs people of our

email checking schedule so that they know when we’ll get back to them

(eliminating additional unnecessary emails). And, when I check my

emails during these set times, I also allow myself 45 minutes at the

most to check email, do the tasks at hand and respond immediately.

This keeps me from getting sucked in like I used to. And, as an added

bonus, I don’t procrastinate on getting tasks done that are requested

of me via emails. I receive the emails, add them to my immediate or

future to do list (if needed), check off the task(s), and move on. It’s

quick, easy & fast …. love that!

2. Busy Work :: Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media

Yes, we should of course use social media and networking to market

and build our businesses, but it definitely can become a time-waster

fast when we end up using it to catch up on

gossip, eves drop on other “conversations,”

see what you-know-who is up to today, and

see what Oprah’s fan page is talking about

this week (uh-oh, I’m busted). I’ve been

guilty of all of these too, of course, so I

created ways around these issues to monitor

my own time and stay true to my focus.

Productive Time :: Plan it all out!

Everything that we do, say and post on these

sites is planned out. Even when we seem spontaneous, it’s planned. We

have charts of what is to be done every day of the week, and then we

schedule accordingly.

When social media ended up seriously eating up large chunks of my

time, I realized that I needed help, but didn’t want to pay someone

$50/hour to do it. So, we hired our two amazing interns to help us out

and give them resume experience in the process. This alone frees up

dozens of hours of my time … weekly! They help me tweet, maintain

our two Facebook fan pages, develop content and posts for blogs, and

more. Plus, with the use of tools like Tweetlater,

we’re able to schedule tweets around the clock

without having to be hand-cuffed to Twitter. (And

you thought I didn’t sleep!) For the other sites

where we can’t schedule ahead, we get in, do the

tasks needed, and get out … with the help of our

handy digital kitchen timer to stay accountable.

3. Busy Work :: Talking on the Phone

We don’t answer our phones live anymore…The volume of calls coming

in started interrupting our work and we didn’t want a receptionist on

staff. In the middle of projects, the phone would ring, we’d get tied up

or derail our focus and then projects would be post-poned, or would

never get completed.

Productive Time :: We found a new phone system.

Now I realize that not everyone is ready to relinquish the live phone

system, and I understand that. At the very least, turn the ringer off

during projects, but here are a few things that we did that may work

for you too. We use a phone system called Freedom Voice. It is a toll

free line that can have multiple extensions and even be forwarded to

live phones if desired. We receive email alerts when voicemails are left

on our system, and during our scheduled phone time, we check them

and get back to clients and inquiries.

My cellphone also goes on silent mode all day while I’m working AND

gets placed in a drawer so that I cannot even be tempted by seeing it

on the desk! Before implementing this, I noticed that several hours -

literally equalling almost one entire workday per week – was being

spent chatting on the phone with vendors, friends and family about not

much at all. WHAT?? Now, all personal calls are done after hours.

Period.

4. Busy Work :: Running Errands All Week Long!

Driving all over town to pick up this, drop off that, get the groceries,

and purchase more supplies is just not my idea of fun. And, it takes a

LOT of precious time out of your day and week.

Productive Time :: Get organized, and when possible, get help!

Get a grocery delivery service and a personal assistant if you can. That

will triple your available time to get more done and stop wasting time…

But, in our area, no one offers a grocery delivery service (if they did, I’d

be all over that though!) and our personal assistant is back at her day

job. So … if you’re like us, don’t worry – there are other ways to

reclaim that wasted time. Here are a few things that have worked

miracles in our household…

Put together a spreadsheet of your most commonly purchased

groceries and staple items. Set it up with a little

checkbox to the left of each item so that you can

mark it when it’s time to purchase it on your

monthly or weekly run, leave blanks next to other

checkboxes to be filled in as needed, and organize

the grocery into areas so that your list is grouped

into sections, like deli, bakery, produce, meat, etc….

Then, go at a time that’s not so busy, like Tuesdays

at 8am and it will be the fastest visit ever!

For other errands, we make a list, group them

according to location, and knock them out back-to-

back in another morning (again a non-busy time of day). I always take

my notebook with me too to brainstorm on the ride things like e-zine

articles, blog entries and the like. All other shopping is done online. I

don’t like going to the mall anymore – I’m not a window shopper – and

I hate traffic and lines. Amazon is always open and they never have a

wait …. love it!

5. Busy Work :: Where to Begin … Confusion and Chaos at the Desk

Have you ever found yourself feeling like you’re spinning your wheels

at your desk because you don’t even know where to begin and what to

start on now? I’m sure you’ve been there too…. It’s like when you sit

down and know there’s about a hundred things to do today, but you

just can’t seem to focus … and so you start doing one of the four

time-wasters I mentioned above because you don’t know what to do!

Productive Time :: Something that I used to do in high school was to

lay out my outfits for the entire week the Sunday before – ironed and

ready to go, accessories and all (with two outfits to spare just in case

my mood dictated a different ensemble). Yes, people joked about me

being a little OCD when they found out about this (maybe that’s why

I’m a good planner too?!), but now as a business owner, these types of

behavior come in very handy!

At the end of my day, I’ll go ahead and prioritize my list of things to do

tomorrow and then schedule out my plan of attack accordingly. I know

that a lot of people suggest getting high-tech with blackberries, pda’s

and programs that line it up for you digitally, but my favorite

organizational tool to this day is my sprial-bound notebook (and I

never have to worry about it crashing)!

This way, when you walk into your office the next morning, there’s no

question about what’s most important to get done, and what can be

done on another day. It’s right in front of me and so easy to follow

along!

Your Bride Attraction Assignment:

Give a few or all of these a try in your own business. Put a note out as a

gentle reminder to yourself to stay focused and alert on what’s really

important to you … you’ll catch yourself doing all sorts of time-wasting

activities and soon you’ll notice that your work days are shorter and

shorter because you get more done in less time. I love this because it

gives me that much more time with my family and to just enjoy my life

and my business THAT much more! I’m sure you’ll find the same thing in

your own business and life!

© 2008-2010 Soirée! Ltd.

Want to use this article in your E-zine or website? You can as long as

you

include this complete statement:

Event Planning entrepreneur Natalie Bradley publishes the “Bride Attraction”

weekly e-zine. Get your F*REE audio course: “5 Ways to Recession-Proof

Your Wedding Business…Starting Today!l” at www.BrideAttraction.com

About Natalie Bradley

In 2003, Natalie Keene Bradley launched Soirée! Ltd., now Natalie Bradley Events, and it has become a very successful and prominent company.  We have planned and designed hundreds of weddings and other social events, as well as consulted for many others. Natalie has discovered the keys to unlocking our clients’ dreams  for their special occasions and have uncovered the essential tools needed to create fabulous events.

Many of our events illustrating fantastic event design and well-orchestrated weddings have been published in reputable magazines including Inside Weddings, Modern Bride Atlanta, The Knot Georgia, Lake Oconee Living, Weddings with Style, Brides.com Blog and Southern Distinction. From 2003-2007, Natalie penned the entertaining column for Southern Distinction magazine and has been the “lifestyle expert” on Georgia Living TV and Holiday Home. In addition, Natalie has been a special guest on BB Webb’s Living Life with Style TV show as well as being featured on Elizabeth Dalton’s and Barbara Dooley’s radio shows! Natalie has planned, designed and most recently chaired the very successful Girls and Guys’ Night Out Hope Haven fundraiser for the last three years, and is the President Emeritus for Athens Wedding Professionals.

We have worked with dozens and dozens of brides, grooms, hosts and families to create their dream weddings and other extraordinary events. Now, let me help you become a fabulous wedding professional too!

About the Author

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