Productivity is something we can all struggle with from time to time, however motivated we are and however much we enjoy our work. Co-Founder Hannah shares some of her favourite hacks that help her with being more productive when overwhelm takes over or an attack of the dreaded ‘faffing’ strikes.

When we shared the results of our recent Women in the Workplace survey, we talked about The Struggle to Juggle - and how women in the second half of their careers find balancing multiple responsibilities, both in and outside of work, one of the biggest challenges that they face.

With so many plates to keep spinning, sometimes it can be easy to fall into the trap of being paralysed by having too much to do, and then we end up beating ourselves up for not being as productive as we could be, wasting time, or ‘faffing’ when we do get some space in our diary.

There are so many techniques out there for focusing on productivity that even that in itself can become overwhelming. 

Does anyone else have a pile of business or self-help books piling up, unread, which we feel would solve all our problems if we could only get around to reading them all?!

So, I’ve pulled together my favourites - the ones that work for me and help me to stay on top of things when life gets busy.

1. Pomodoro Technique - This is a great one for keeping focused when you have time at your desk and need to get your head down on a particular task but maybe find the thought of focusing solidly on one thing for several hours a bit daunting.
   
   It’s a time management method that was developed in the late 1980s and is based around breaking your work into timed intervals, typically 25 minutes each, separated by short breaks. Each interval is known as a ‘pomodoro’ - the Italian word for tomato!
   
   After deciding what task needs to be done, you set your timer for 25 minutes and work continuously on the task. When the timer notifies you, take a short break and then start again until you’ve completed four pomodoros - after which you take a long break of 20-30 minutes.
   
   I like this one because it gives you short, sharp bursts of focus and is really good for taking stock of how much you can complete in a short space of time if you put your mind to it. It’s also far less easy to get distracted by your phone or emails during the focus periods as you know you have a break coming up.
   
   There are lots of apps out there to help with this too which restrict you from looking at your phone, if that’s a big distraction for you. My favourite is Forest which grows a tree while you’re working - if you look at your phone, the tree dies, and no one wants their lack of focus to kill a cute little tree!

2. Be honest with yourself about your productivity - If we are really honest, we can all pinpoint the times and circumstances where we are less productive. For example, I know if I only have half an hour between meetings/calls, I’m unlikely to get much work done. So, I use that time to do something else: make a drink, go outside for some fresh air or put the washing on. It feels better to do this than it does to sit at my desk for half an hour, only to realise I’ve achieved nothing.
   
   Likewise, if you know there’s a time of day where your energy levels drop and you’re able to work flexibly, don’t put pressure on yourself to sit at your desk and be productive during this time. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of being able to flex their hours, so if you’re tied to a particular working pattern, try to plan your schedule for the day so that you do something less taxing and/or more enjoyable during the time of day that you find yourself feeling less productive.
   
   Sometimes, we find ourselves being unproductive for no apparent reason. Again, it’s good to acknowledge this, to stop beating ourselves up about it and to take a break, go and do something else and come back to our desk with a clear head. Sitting staring at a screen, knowing you aren’t achieving what you want to do, is demotivating and won’t do you any favours in the long run.

3. Create good habits - Humans are creatures of habit, and pretty much anything is easier to do if we make it into a habit. There are varying figures on how long it takes to form a habit - and it probably depends a lot on what the habit is and how enjoyable it is - but it’s pretty much universally accepted that eventually a behaviour becomes automatic if we do it often enough. If there are daily or weekly tasks that you struggle to get done as regularly as you’d like, why not train your brain to make them a habit?
   
   The best way I’ve found to form habits is to use a habit tracker. There are numerous apps that help with this, or you can just do it on paper. Seeing the habits represented visually and ticking off each day when you’ve done them is very satisfying, and also a great motivator in itself as it’s disappointing to lose your ‘streak’ of a particular behaviour, whether it's flossing your teeth every night before bed, doing a certain amount of steps in the day, putting on a wash regularly or clearing your email box each morning.
   
   I found The 6 Minute Diary particularly motivating for creating habits.

4. Make the ‘to do list’ work for you - When lamenting the fact you’ve got loads to do and don’t know where to start, “make a list” is one of the most common suggestions from well-meaning friends or colleagues who want to help. But one size does not fit all when it comes to making lists. I found myself writing them in random notebooks that I wouldn’t go back to until weeks later, or putting them in the Notes app on my phone and again neglecting them.
   
   Eventually, I decided to set up a Trello board for myself with separate lists for different aspects of my life. In my case, as I have a portfolio of roles, I set up a list for each role, plus a personal list (for life admin), a general work admin list and also a ‘house’ list as I’ve recently moved and have various things on my mind to do with that.
   
   I have it open on my desktop during the working day and if I’ve got some free time between meetings, I can easily see what tasks are outstanding and choose one that fits into the available time. I can also access it via an app on my phone, so if something springs to mind when I’m out and about, or sitting in front of the TV - or even in the middle of the night - I can easily add it to the app without having to rush to my desk.
   
   There are lots of list and productivity tools and apps out there, so I’d really suggest spending time finding the one that works best for you - even if it is a good old pen and paper! It will be time well-spent when you find the right one and it helps your productivity and efficiency in the future.

5. Set boundaries - We’ve already talked about using techniques such as Pomodoro to block out time and the apps that can help us avoid distractions such as emails and social media and this is an important part of setting boundaries for ourselves - but we also need to set them for others. Working from home has blurred the lines for a lot of people between home and work life and while there are some great benefits to this, it can also mean that there are no boundaries in the home and we can experience interruptions from family members who assume we are available to them constantly just because we are at home.
   
   Setting expectations about our availability is really important, otherwise we can experience constant interruptions, or find that our partners or families assume that we’ll be available to answer the door, make the lunch or put the washing on at any given time - and with the natural instinct that many of us have to take on whatever is thrown at us, before we know it, important work tasks have taken a back seat while we try to deal with everything in the home.
   
   Similarly in the workplace, it’s important to be clear on when you are and aren’t available, particularly if you manage a team. We’re probably all familiar with those “have you got five minutes?” conversations that never actually take five minutes and can end up eating into your day. It’s natural to want to be available to your team, and of course if something is urgent then there’s an expectation that you will drop everything - but setting boundaries with team members can deflect a lot of the non-urgent interruptions. This could take the form of having a regular 15 minute update diarised with each team member once a week or fortnight (depending on the size of your team of course!) which they can use to talk to you about any non-urgent issues, or simply making your team aware that certain times of the day are times at which you prefer not to be interrupted. Of course, this then needs to be balanced by an open door/desk policy at other times, so you’ll need to work out what’s most important to you before setting out the rules.

What do you think? Let us know if you try some of these and how you get on. And we’d love to hear what works for you too!

Written by Hannah Poulton

Co-founder of Nonpareil Network.

Hannah is a portfolio Marketing Director. She is also a Non Executive Director for the Welsh Cycling Union and a Lay Member for the British Chiropractic Council. She also volunteers as a Magistrate and is a Lay Member for NHS Blood and Transplant.