Hey from Alicia, website designer and Photographer here at Mango! Here are 5 Things I changed to get more time back in my work day...
1. Facebook Groups- At one point it felt like being a part of every single Facebook group was the key to success. Being able to network and connect with others within your industry also brought in business and alleviated FOMO (feeling of missing out). There were times I could not type fast enough to get my website in a referral post. I would say things like: "I'm available! I can travel across the country right now and I am packing as I type and I will only charge 1/4 of my normal rate and I can be there by 5am tomorrow, what kind of coffee do they like?!" Facebook has been a truly great way to connect with clients, at the time 90% of website traffic came from Facebook, but being in every single group can lead to checking your phone every 3 seconds. Stick with the groups you truly love and it will be a huge time saver.
2. Screen Time Limits - Mindless scrolling is the death of productivity. I give myself access to all social media apps for 1 hour a day and it has given me the structure needed to be more mindful of how I spend my time on apps with a heavy focus on community and connection. In addition to that I use both the Do Not Disturb Mode overnight from 10pm-8am and the Focus Mode during the day from 10am-3pm. The great thing about both of these is you can customize who can still call or text you. For me, I can still be reached by anyone at either of my kids schools, my hubby and of course my biz partner, Natty.
3. Subscription Emails- You know when you go to a site and they force you to sign up for a newsletter or enter your email just to view the site? Then every single day you delete hundreds of emails and sometimes sending them to spam doesn't work....UNSUBSCRIBE. I spent hours unsubscribing on 3 email accounts. I like the days where if I got an email I knew it was something important and not just another sale. At the bottom of everyone of those emails is a link to unsubscribe and you will click what feels like a thousand of them. It feels good. Now we know that any email we get is from a client, something business related or from a business/blog we actually want to read the contents of.
4. Phone Notifications- GONE! All of them. My phone is on silent 24/7 and I only see updates and posts when I go into an app. I miss a lot of phone calls and texts but I no longer have a phone glued to my hand. I usually only check my phone now when I grab it to take a photo of my kids or dogs. On rare occasion I get a few minutes of down time to can respond to calls and textsa. I'm on my computer for work all day and see emails instantly, that's more than enough to keep me busy :)
5. Not having a schedule- I used to just have a really long list of things to do and they would get completed in any random order on any day of the week/month. I was wasting so much time doing that. Creating a schedule with time blocking is what works for my brain. I use a daily planner broken down into 30 minute increments and I am able to complete my to-do list by working on things from highest priority to lowest priority. I got so many hours of my life back. Bouncing around all day long was causing me to work harder than I needed. I created 2 schedules that fit my life and business: 1. a daily schedule for life/work and 2. a blogging/ social media schedule because I was all over the place with no structure. Create a schedule that works best for you and don't hesitate to pivot as many times as needed.
Yay if at least one of these can help you get any amount of time back in your day!