Annie Croner:
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. Welcome back to the Whole Assistant Podcast. Today, I'm sharing the top three focus hacks I utilize every single day to keep me focused and on track. And these hacks have really served me well throughout my career, especially the last four or five years in my role as an executive assistant. These were game changers for me, and I still leverage these hacks today running my business.
Annie Croner:
So I'm excited to get going, and I'm excited to share these with you. The first hack is batching and time blocking. So batching is simply grouping similar tasks together so that it takes less time to switch between tasks. And the benefit of this is that up to 40% of our productive time is spent switching between tasks every single day. That's a lot of time. Can you imagine getting 40% of your time back or a good chunk of that back just by making it easier for your brain to switch from task to task? How you do that is by grouping similar tasks together in a way that makes sense to you, in a way that makes sense to your brain. We also want a time block, and I love time blocking because it allows me the time and space to focus on whatever it is I'm working on in that time block, and it just creates more intentional project execution. Okay, so there are several ways to time block.
Annie Croner:
You can theme your days. I work with a colleague in our space, Melissa Peoples, who loves to theme her days. You can also work with your body rhythms. So back when I was an executive assistant full time, I saved Thursday afternoons for batching financial tasks together for my executive. I managed his personal finances. So I would save up all the bills. I would pay the bills on Thursday afternoon. I'd also do the QuickBooks work and go in and accept charges into QuickBooks and do an audit there to make sure that all the charges were valid.
Annie Croner:
And I saved that for Thursday afternoon. And the reason I saved it for Thursday afternoon was because it was a data entry job, which means that it took less energy for my brain to execute on. I like to save the brain heavy tasks for first thing in the morning so that I can really focus and get them done. And also my brain is freshest in the morning. I'm most creative in the morning. So that's when I do a lot of my writing. That's when I do a lot of my brainstorming on social media posts or whatnot. And when I was a full time executive assistant, it was also when I did the, the really heavy tasks, the heavy mental load tasks.
Annie Croner:
But data entry is not a mental load task for me. It's not heavy for me. So I would save that for an afternoon and Thursday because it's not the end of the week, it's not Friday when my brain may be more inclined to check out, but it is towards the end of the week. So I can gather all the information. I can gather those bills and then knock them out on Thursday afternoon. So also consider your body rhythms. If you're somebody who loves to stay up late, maybe you do a chunk of tasks then and sleep in in the morning if you're able to do so depending on your work environment and depending on your ability to be able to have flexibility in your role. And I recognize too that there's not always that bandwidth, right? Like some of us work very strict eight to five jobs and so we're going to have to work within that constraint and that's okay too.
Annie Croner:
You can also work with your executive's calendar if you notice that they are going to be in a board meeting through a certain point of time and you're going to be less interrupted. Maybe you block time and create a batch of high intensity, high, high thought process, high thinking work that needs a lot of mental capacity in order to execute and you actually need to focus and you won't be interrupted by your executive. Maybe you block some time to work on those tasks while they are tied up as well. You can also change locations. I found this to be very helpful, especially as I'm penning my book. Some sometimes when I'm writing in the morning, I love it. I'm sitting down at my desk, it's flowing and then at about 1:30 or 2 my brain just begins to slow down. I find that I switch locations.
Annie Croner:
I can continue writing for another few hours uninterrupted and it refreshes and revitalizes my brain just because of that change of scenery. So those are a few ways that I like to create focus for myself in terms of batching and in terms of time blocking. The the next hack that I would share with you all is to reduce the number of notifications on your phone. I did this years ago and this was a real game changer for me. So if you think you can have notifications turned on and focus. You are absolutely kidding yourself. The reason why is because if you've got notifications on, your brain is going to be drawn to that, if only for a split second and it's going to be harder to get back into the rhythm of the what you were working on before. Now I no longer allow the email pings, I turned off those notifications.
Annie Croner:
I no longer allow social media pings, I turn off those notifications. I've also turned off notifications on shopping apps. Productivity apps no longer ping me as well. And this is really going to be helpful even if your phone is on silent because the visual ping will still pop up on your phone. Also, I like to keep my phone out of reach because I also noticed that even if I turned off or silenced my phone, I would still want to look just to see what was going on. Because whenever we look at our phones that gives us a dopamine hit so we can end up serving the dopamine hit without even realizing that's what we're doing. So I actually put my phone away from me, outside of arm's reach or in another room when I'm really wanting to work on something, when I'm really heads down on a project just so that I can focus a bit more. And I will say that the only notification I allow on my phone at all anymore at all are text notifications.
Annie Croner:
This is how my kids school reaches me so I need to have text notifications on. And when I was a full time executive assistant it was also how my executive would reach me in a pinch or if there was something urgent that he needed my attention on. So that is something that I would have us all consider implementing is just turning off phone notifications that you absolutely do not need and maybe just going text only on your phone. Okay now we're going to take a quick break and when we come back I'm going to share the last hack of this episode. Hey there, quick pause. Do you want to grow in your career but don't have a ton of extra time, money or let's be honest, energy to commit to leveling up? If this is you, I have got you. Empower Seat is my intentionally affordable membership for busy executive assistants and support professionals who are done white knuckling their careers in isolation. Inside Empowered C, you get support that's actually built around you.
Annie Croner:
You're going to get access to me inside of our VIP online community. You're going to get two monthly calls with me as well a monthly training session you can watch or listen to on the go. It's pre recorded so you can either listen through our private podcast or in the vaults. It's affordable, practical, sustainable growth built by someone who gets it. If this sounds like what you've been looking for, you can learn more and join empowered seat@wholeassistant.com empowered seat or or just click the link in the show notes below. Now back to the episode. Okay, so the last hack that I would have us all consider implementing, and this one may be challenging, I want you to keep an open mind is to close out of your inbox. I have been closing out of my inbox for years.
Annie Croner:
Even when I was a full time executive assistant there again my executive could always reach me via text in the case of an emergency. But if it could wait, he would email me and I would generally only out of my inbox for a couple hours at a time towards the end. I am not at all advocating that you are out of your inbox for two hours at a time. That does not work for every environment, it does not work for every culture. And for most of us to be out of our inbox for two hours would be anxiety provoking and it would actually deplete focus and not help maximize it. So here's what I'm going to challenge you to do. I'm going to challenge you to close out of your inbox for 20 minutes three times a day. 20 minutes three times a day.
Annie Croner:
That's an hour of focus time. An hour of stopping the incoming stream of requests, an hour of allowing yourself to go heads down. And I gotta tell you guys, I was able to accomplish so much in 15 to 20 minutes. So also don't downplay that piece. Don't downplay how much you can actually get accomplished in 20 minutes because I'm telling you this can be life changing even if it's only for 20 minutes. Now some tips and strategies to be able to do this. Set a timer on your phone there again, don't have your phone close to you so you aren't looking at it every two seconds but have it a little further than arm's reach. Mine is sitting over on another table off to the side right now.
Annie Croner:
It's not on my desk but I would set a timer for 20 minutes and that will allow you to execute on what it is that needs to get done. And and also know that in 20 minutes you can open up your inbox. You can re engage with the incoming stream of requests. Also, we definitely want to get buy in with your executive, especially if you are super, super Responsive to email. Because people are going to freak out if you don't respond immediately. If you have trained them that that's how you respond. Okay, so there may be a bit of retraining here, recognizing that retraining period and acknowledging that, and also acknowledging that nothing has gone wrong. If people are calling you or trying to.
Annie Croner:
To you or they walk up to your desk because you didn't reply to an email immediately, that's okay. This is how this works. I would also say to give your executive an alternative way to reach you. Like mine would text me, like I just mentioned. And I've had several clients who actually create a simple autoresponder, letting people know when they can expect to hear back from them. So that may put off a lot of the people freaking out that you've not responded immediately. Just letting them know, hey, I'll be in my inbox again at 20 minutes from now. And that also frees up your brain to let people know what's going on with you, to let people know when they can expect a response from you.
Annie Croner:
And look, you guys, you are allowed to protect your focus even if other people are uncomfortable with the adjustment period. Okay? You are allowed to protect your focus even if it's just 20 minutes, three times a day. And I know that for a lot of us, especially those of us in startup environments or maybe in nonprofit environments where it's like drinking water from a fire hose, that. That can be a challenge, but that's my challenge to you. Just try it and see how it goes. And just know that nothing has gone wrong if your brain freaks out a little bit when you do. Okay? So all of these things will help you create the space to think, which is when and how strategic assistants create space for themselves to show up more strategically in their role. Also, focus creates higher level contribution.
Annie Croner:
When people are focused, they tend to reduce mistakes. They tend to execute more swiftly, more quickly. They tend to train their brain to. To execute at a level that's a lot higher than if you're distracted all the time. Okay? So the value you bring to your role is not determined by how quickly you respond to interruptions. It is determined by the quality of your thinking, execution, and leadership. So that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you found this episode helpful.
Annie Croner:
Go implement one or two or all three of these hacks. Report back to me. Email me@annieholleassistant.com and let me know how it goes. And I will see you in the next episode. If today's episode gave you language clarity or just a quiet oh, it's not just me. I am so thrilled you're here. If this podcast has been helpful for you, the easiest way you can support the show is by taking 30 seconds to rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This helps more assistants find this work, and if you're ready for ongoing support, guidance, community and growth that actually fits into your life, Empowered Seat is where we continue this work together.
Annie Croner:
It's affordable, flexible, and designed for assistants who are done white knuckling their careers in isolation. You can learn more and join@wholeassistant.com empowered seat or click the link in the show notes below and until next time, go embrace your badassery.
