Annie:
Welcome to The Whole Assistant Podcast, where assistants come to embrace their badassery and discover how to show up more strategically for their careers, their executives, and most importantly, themselves. I'm your coach, Annie Croner. Join us as we dive into the skills, strategies and mindset that will help you unleash your full potential. Let's go.
Annie:
Hello. Before I launch into today's topic, which s a lot of fun. As you all know, if you've been listening to me for any amount of time, I love a good productivity topic. But before I launch into that, I just want to let everybody know that the doors for Leveled up are now open and I've decided to extend enrollment just to allow you some extra time to put in the request of your employer to pay for Leveled Up.
Annie:
Leveled-Up is my 16 week program that will help you become a more strategic business partner. I'm going to walk you through my five core foundations of strategic partnering. There's going to be a coaching component and a collaboration component. Most of my people who go through that program feel much more connected with the overall EA community as well. So please join us and if you want to learn more, you can go to wholeassistant.com/levelup that's wholeassistant.com/levelup to learn more. I have also linked to it in the show notes below.
Annie:
So today we are talking about three secrets to boost your productive output. And for the sake of this episode I'm going to frame productivity as the amount of value you create, the output, divided by the amount of time it takes to complete that output. Essentially, there again, I'm going to repeat it. Productivity is the amount of value or your output divided by the amount of time it takes to complete that output.
Annie:
Productivity has nothing to do with how busy you are. It has nothing to do with how stressed you are or how frantic you are. Productivity is simply the amount of value created over the amount of time it takes to create that value. When I say that what I'm about to share will help increase your productive output, that is the equation we are going to go with.
Annie:
And so the first strategy to boost your productivity is to get in the right frame of mind. And I like to get in the right frame of mind by asking a few questions. And these questions are much better questions to ask that will help you get in the right frame of mind when it comes to your productive output.
Annie:
The first question is how can I get more done in less time and with less effort or energy? How can I get more done in less time and with less Effort or energy? Okay, I love this question because I think a lot of us always ask ourselves, how can I get more done? But I really like the in less time and with less effort or energy.
Annie:
Because that is going to speak to you working smarter, not harder. And that is also going to speak to setting up systems to where you aren't recreating a will a million times. Another question I would have us all ask ourselves is how can I increase my value proposition? The amount of value I'm bringing to the table without working longer hours or exerting more energy? That is going to require a new way of thinking. It's going to require us to look at all we manage and to show up more effectively for our roles.
Annie:
And last but not least, what small shifts can I make in order to have the biggest impact? Because oftentimes it's the small shifts that we downplay that will have a huge impact if we implement those small shifts. When I talk about getting in the right frame of mind, those are some great questions. In order to increase your productivity and to also decrease the stress and energy you put into your work.
Annie:
The second strategy we're going to talk about today is taking the time to set yourself up for success. And I have to tell you guys, this has not been my strength. And I will say that it has become my strength over the years because I've worked really diligently on this. But it's not something that comes naturally to me. I am a high activator type person, so when I sit down to my desk, I'm ready to rock and roll, meaning that I want to get to the work and I don't really want to take the time to organize myself. I don't want to take the time to go through my inbox to see what has come in. I don't want to take the time to actually make sure that I'm optimizing my productive output based on the priorities at hand. So this is something I'm going to have us all pay better attention to, myself included. And I do believe that setting yourself up for success and giving yourself the beginning of your day, like the first 15 minutes as you sit down to your desk in order to gather, assess and optimize. And that's what we want to do during this portion of time where we.
Annie:
Set ourselves up for success. So give yourself the first five to 15 minutes, depending on how much you have coming in or what your workload looks like, to gather everything. Check slack, check teams for incoming requests. Check your inbox for incoming requests Assess what you actually have on your plate, put all of those things into your centralized task tracking system so you can see lined out what it is that you want to tackle that day. Assess your executive's priorities to make sure.
Annie:
That you're aligned with those. And and then we optimize in terms of our time management. So consider the things that you can batch or group together that will make switching between tasks a lot more seamless. That's a great way to optimize. Consider perhaps all those things that you manage that you probably shouldn't be managing, that you can delegate to others. Consider what the priorities are for your day based on your executive's priorities and what the goals are for your quarter.
Annie:
I have a strategic planning session guide that will help your executive get clear on what the priorities are for the quarter, help you get clear on what the priorities are for the quarter so that you can actually know whether you're tracking with your executive or not. So really consider how you can optimize your day, how you can optimize your time in order to make sure that you're executing on the highest priority items and that we aren't just stuck in our inbox playing Whack a mole all day, but that we're actually showing up for ourselves from a strategic place and showing up for our executives and our roles from a strategic place as well. Giving yourself that first 15 minutes to gather, assess, and optimize can go a long way and actually kicking butt and taking numbers all day long.
Annie:
And last but not least, one secret to boost your productivity that I think we often overlook is that we need to minimize distractions and interruptions. By this I mean that we need to close out of the tabs. I think that a lot of us work from many tabs and our phone is pinging us. We actually need to shut down the noise and shut down the incoming stream of requests if we are going to be more productive throughout our day. I just got done teaching a class last night on the difference between multitasking and multitracking. There's actually a podcast episode in my history so you can do a search in my show about multitracking. And up to 40% of our time every day is spent switching between tasks and vastly different tasks.
Annie:
So there again, we want to minimize that time we want to get some of that time back. And the only way that we can do that is if we're very intentional about closing out of open tabs all the distractions that are trying to pull at our attention.
Annie:
I also would highly recommend Setting your phone notifications to text only and I have mine set to text only because in case my kids school needs to reach me, I have a way for them to reach me in case my husband needs to reach me. And when I was working full time. As an executive assistant, it was the one thing that I would allow to ping me in case my executive needed to reach me. So I will say that we do need to give people a through line but it doesn't have to be all the things. I'm a huge fan of closing out of slacker teams. There again, if you're going to do that and close out of your inbox and that sort of thing, I'm a big fan of those things. But start small. Just start out closing out for like 10 to 15 minutes every time and.
Annie:
Then you can circle back on your inbox, you can circle back on teams or slack. If you, if you work in a highly responsive environment, just be aware that you may need to have the conversation with your executive, you may need to have the conversation with your leader that you would like to do this to minimize distractions. Minimizing distractions and interruptions will go a long way in improving your productive output. I actually got rid of the notifications on my phone a long, long time ago for social media, right? So I just didn't want to be pinged all the time by social media. I knew it was a distraction. I wanted my time in my evenings to be intentionally spent and if I was going to be on social media I wanted to get in there intentionally.
Annie:
I didn't want to be pulled in by a notification on my phone. Also the other apps that I have, all the sales apps like grubhub and Uber and all of that, I've silenced all of those notifications as well, except for when they're active. Like except for when I actually have a grubhub order for when I'm actually waiting for an Uber. I've silenced all of the marketing that comes in on my phone so that my attention can be focused on what it needs to be focused on, which.
Annie:
Is generally my family or work or a high priority item. So here's some tips for success for actually minimizing distractions. I know I already touched on this.
Annie:
One already, but we do need to.
Annie:
Get buy in from our executives. So actually having the conversation with your leader around closing out of some of these things and giving them an alternative way to reach you in the case of an emergency is a great way to do this. I am also a big fan of Communicating clearly with others around availability and.
Annie:
That sort of thing and letting them know, hey, I'm going heads down on.
Annie:
A project at this moment. I've actually had clients in the past create an autoresponder to their email and they will put that on as they go heads down for an hour or so. Like I'm going to check my email.
Annie:
But it may take me an hour.
Annie:
To get back to you there. Again, we want to be sensitive to our work environments, but I think by.
Annie:
And large most of us can get.
Annie:
Away with closing out of our inbox.
Annie:
Probably 15 minutes to 45 minutes at least.
Annie:
So consider actually what you need to do in order to implement these things.
Annie:
Consider communicating.
Annie:
Consider getting buy in from your executive.
Annie:
And then question your beliefs. Question your beliefs around what it means.
Annie:
To be an excellent executive assistant.
Annie:
Does it mean that we need to.
Annie:
Be at everyone's beck and call all the time?
Annie:
Or does it mean that we actually.
Annie:
Need to get those high priority, high value things done and off our plate in a timely way and also in a way that will save us mental energy and stress and also in a.
Annie:
Way that will produce high quality work?
Annie:
Because the reality is whenever we're distracted, that's when mistakes happen.
Annie:
So really consider how you can incorporate some of these things to allow yourself more space and time to focus and you will see your productivity soar.
Annie:
During this training that I held last night, there was one gal who said.
Annie:
That she's been monotasking regularly and it totally freaked her out at first.
Annie:
But her productivity just skyrocket and she's.
Annie:
Always impressed at how much she can.
Annie:
Actually get done in 15 minutes when she thinks it's going to take her longer. So just recognize those things.
Annie:
And my last and final tip for this piece, especially around minimizing distractions, is.
Annie:
To recognize and change your biological feedback loop.
Annie:
Every time we complete a task, we get a dopamine hit. Every time we complete a project, we.
Annie:
Get a dopamine hit. And a lot of us can spend our days playing whack a mole and not showing up strategically for ourselves, primarily because we're getting this dopamine hit.
Annie:
And so actually leaning into that discomfort instead of being avoidant of it is a great strategy.
Annie:
It doesn't mean anything has gone wrong if we are uncomfortable from time to time.
Annie:
So that is what I have for you guys today.
Annie:
In terms of mindset around productivity, let's.
Annie:
Really define productivity in a way that will serve us. In terms of letting go of the busyness, letting go of the stress, and.
Annie:
Really looking at the data of value created over the amount of time it takes to create that value. Getting in the right frame of mind, asking yourself some high quality questions, setting yourself up for success for your day, being really intentional with how we show up there.
Annie:
Again, I know I covered this in last week's episode where I was talking about consistency, but this is consistency from kind of a different lens. And then we want to minimize those distractions and interruptions so that we can really show up, produce high quality work in the shortest amount of time possible.
Annie:
Even if you can't implement all the strategies that I've shared in terms of minimizing distractions, start with one or two. Start by minimizing all the pings you get on your phone, for example, or minimize all the tabs you've got open in order to allow yourself to go heads down and to focus.
Annie:
And also recognize and realize that when your brain throws something up like, oh, we need to look at this, it's completely normal a lot of us have trained our brains to function in that way. And even if you haven't trained your brain, a lot of our brains naturally function in that way, especially if you're neurospicy.
Annie:
So those are my strategies for really boosting your productive output. Just pick two or three things that you want to implement this week. See how they serve you, and report back. You can email me at [email protected] and I really do hope that you'll join me inside of Leveled-Up as well. I love that group. We're going to have so much fun. We're going to have 16 weeks of getting this year off on the right foot. We start on January 31st. I've extended enrollment through the 29th, so please join us. I'd love to have you inside of Leveled up and that is what I have for you guys today. Go embrace your badassery and have a great rest of your week.
Annie:
Hey, before you go, don't forget to grab my free Strategic Planning Session guide. This stealthy playbook will help you and your executive find clarity on their priorities so you can make a greater impact. Go to wholeassistant.com/guide or click the link in the Show Notes to snag your copy. And if you're loving the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with another assistant ready to level up. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep embracing your badassery.