My Top 10 Productivity Hacks

10/26/2022

Time? Energy? Apathy?
We all juggle these 3 elements every day, especially if we have children.
Even my friends and family that don't have children tell me that they struggle with
the same roadblocks that slow them down and cause them to feel unproductive.

Personally, I just went through a season of rest, so I will be the FIRST to tell you
that being productive and hustling 24/7 will break you in the end.
If, however, you feel ready and able to tackle more in less time, I hope these tips
can get you started or at least give you a few ideas.

Happy hustling! (in moderation!!!)

Here are my top 10 productivity hacks in no particular order:

Food prep
Meal planning
Automatic savings from my direct deposit
Doing laundry the same 2-3 days per week
Habit stacking via my evening routine
Habit stacking via my morning routine
My Kanban Board
Planning, and especially quarterly and annual planning
Setting timers on my social media apps and using my watch timer throughout the day
Using my "review & repeat" method

One casserole for tonight and one to freeze for a busy night of sports and extracurriculars.

Fruit prepped for the week- easy to grab and go!

Pasta salad prepped for my son's lunches

My Kanban board- I love it! I love being able to pull off
tasks to do each day and create new ones as soon as they
enter my brain. I don't have to walk around trying to
remember everything I have to do!

It is worthwhile to discuss each of these 10 productivity hacks in more detail. Let's dive in!

Food prep
- Even if the ONLY thing you prep is your child's lunch the night before or making the coffee the night before, you WILL notice a difference. Check out my post on getting my kids out the door to see some of the things I do prep-wise.
Meal planning
- I have been planning meals a month at a time for several years now. I have numerous posts about meal planning so be sure to use the search feature on my blog home page if you want a deeper dive.
- Meal planning is honestly one of the main reasons I'm still standing today. Not a joke. True story. I have 2 gnarly autoimmune diseases and a blended family in addition to a demanding career. Meal planning has saved me.
Automatic savings from my direct deposit
- I have money going into 5 different accounts every paycheck (after my 401k savings is withdrawn).
  - Christmas Club - see how I pay cash for Christmas here
  - Vacation Fund
  - Regular Checking (where the bills are paid)
  - Regular Savings (for emergencies like tires or big medical copays)
  - Shopping / spending Money
- Having these decisions made ahead of time for me helps me stay on budget and feel much less stressed. I don't have to transfer $ (it's done for me - time saver), but I also have some control over the funds after the fact. If some unexpected expense comes up, I know I have money in several places to pull from and that takes so much stress off my financial plate!
Doing laundry the same 2-3 days per week
- I started this trick about 5 years ago when I started listening to the Organize 365 Podcast. Lisa inspired me to do laundry ONE weekday and ONE weekend day per week. Prior to that, I was doing a load a day and I felt like laundry was this annoying monkey on my back. It felt like a never-ending chore, and I never felt "caught up."
- For some reason, just changing my mindset to the 2 laundry sessions / week, laundry became much less horrific. It also got the kids on board to putting clothes away promptly and making sure all dirty clothes were ready for those 2 laundry sessions.
Habit stacking via my morning routine
- I'm not currently doing an extensive morning routine because I just went through a season of rest.
- When I was though, I started with prayer time and added planning and meditation. See the below evening routine examples for more details on habit stacking.
Habit stacking via my evening routine
- I started making the coffee the night before over 5 years ago.
- Soon after that became pretty easy, I added setting up for breakfast. (I get dishes out, dry goods out, to visually prompt me and motivate me to get breakfast going as soon as I wake up). My kids are spoiled and get bacon and fresh fruit most every morning.
- Once coffee and breakfast prep became easy, I added picking out my own clothes for the next day.
- Once picking out my own clothes became easy, I added putting my prepped work bag in my vehicle the night before.
- You get the idea....
My Kanban Board
- I have a TikTok and an IG Reel showing my Kanban board if you are interested.
- The Kanban method is a project management tool that allows for visualization of grouped tasks. If you are a visual learner, this may really work for you!
Planning, and especially quarterly and annual planning
- I have been a planner girl since I was in middle school! Planning allows me to have that big idea / overview / visionary look at my life as well as the daily, mundane, drilled down version of my life. Planning is really finding a way to put your dreams into action! If it's not for you, it's just not for you, and that's okay too!
Setting timers on my social media apps and using my watch timer throughout the day
- I use my watch timer EVERY time I start a load of laundry. 45 minutes. It takes 45 minutes for my washer to run a complete cycle. My watch goes off and I go switch the laundry. I re-set the 45 minute timer and go back to whatever I was doing. When it goes off again, I immediately hang or fold the clothes. I don't allow myself to think about it, "snooze" my timer, or get sidetracked doing a million other things. I know when I turn that washer on that I have 45 minutes before I will need to address the laundry - TWICE. It's crappy and annoying that my washer has me on a timeframe BUT it helps me to avoid ironing and for me... that's worth it!
- Social media = time suck. Use the timers if you want to - they've really helped me be more mindful of the time suck. If you don't care how much time you're comparing yourself to others or laughing at animal videos, you do you. Whatever works is what I say!
- As noted in my post about my recent season of rest, sometimes you need a day of couch lounging, Netflix, TikTok, and doing NOTHING! Allow for those days! Bask in them. They are necessary and lovely!
Using my "review & repeat" method
- Review & Repeat is a phrase I coined for those infrequent (or occasionally I use this with frequent) tasks that always sneak up on us and can end up being a huge time-suck.
- Examples are: packing for a beach or cabin trip, packing for a weekend trip / roadtrip, packing for a flight, prepping my baseball bag(s) for the season, prepping my pool bag(s) for the season, grabbing gear for that rare snow day we have in Georgia. You get the idea. Usually in these instances, we need something quickly and we have no idea where all the items we need might be.
- Other examples are: an impromptu art day with the kids, a fun holiday activity that we do every year but that ALWAYS sneaks up on us, or a random block of time where we suddenly have a burst of purging and organizing energy.
- What I do for these random but recurring tasks is what I call "review and repeat"
  - Example: baseball bag - what did I use every tournament? those items need to go into my MAIN baseball bag that goes inside every tournament every time
  - What did I use at only certain tournaments? This could be cold weather gear, hot weather items (cooling towels, fans), or certain tailgating / food prep items. Sometimes we pack all our food and eat there. Other times we have a 3-4 hour break and the team will go eat together during that break. THOSE occasional items can go in other bags. Maybe I should have a baseball cold weather bag, baseball hot weather bag, and baseball tailgate bag.
  - Similarly, I am the team nurse practitioner. I keep all the first aid supplies. Each season, I try to restock my kit to ensure I have what I need.
  - For travel, I keep a "cabin / beach / VRBO" box with all the items we know we will need. Check out my TikTok to see it in action.
  - The review and repeat method simply means instead of shoving those random items back into a closet or drawer, I actually REVIEW whether or not I used the items, if I need to restock or purchase something for the next time I use it, and if it needs to be in a different container, location, etc. This method has been a game changer!

I hope you have found these tips and tricks to be useful and helpful!
Again, do not beat yourself up if you are not being productive 24/7.
Rest is SO important and having seasons to lay low
and recharge are necessary.

Listen to your body.
Follow your energy.
Godspeed.

P.S. Comment below if you try any of these or are already doing some of them!
I love interacting with my readers!

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how I plan meals for an entire month at a time

time to write