I am so excited to have Sasha the creator of Your Frugal Friend share her favourite tips to increase your productivity. Sasha is an accountant, frugal fanatic, and mom, who has used her budgeting tools to pay down $65,000 of debt and counting! Take it away Sasha.
As a natural busy bee, I have established many actionable tips that help me to stay productive to reach my goals. These tips have helped me finish seven years of college while working full time, managing a household as a working mother of two small children, and climb my way up the corporate ladder.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Sasha and I am a wife, mother, and accounting professional living in the beautiful hill country of Texas! I blog over at Your Frugal Friend about frugality, budgeting, side hustles, and other finance topics that are helping me to reach financial independence.
When you dream big, you have to have a strategy for accomplishing those dreams. I will share with you my favorite productivity tips and tricks to keep you motivated and on track to reach your goals!
Make Your Goals Non-Negotiable
When I was in college I worked full-time. I did this for seven years while taking a full semester load in the spring, summer, and fall, until I graduated with a master’s degree in accounting. Working during the day and going to school in the evenings makes it hard to stay focused at all times. I told myself that this goal was non-negotiable.
I made working towards my goals a habit and I didn’t give myself a choice. After working towards it over time, it became a part of my routine that I looked forward to doing every day!
Making a goal non-negotiable keeps you laser focused on success. To adhere to this self imposed rule, I did not allow anything to distract me.
I knew that getting a master’s degree in my chosen field was a requirement to get to the place I wanted to go, both professionally and financially. Having worked in my field from the bottom up helped me to understand how important completing my education was to my financial future.
Making this goal negotiable would jeopardize this dream! When thinking of your goals make a list of goals that are non-negotiable and start mapping out what it will take to make those goals a reality. Pick the goal that has the most value to you and start working towards it today!
Related: Value Setting Exercise: Why You Need To Set Values (Not Just Goals!)
increase your productivity with a Habit Tracker
The first habit tracker I made was one to track my college degree completion. I listed each class, by semester, that it would take to complete that degree. Every time I completed that semester I would put a big red X over that box and remind myself that I was one step closer to my dream.
Keeping a visual reminder helps you to stay motivated. You can use a habit tracker for any goal. I use them for exercise, saving, debt repayment, and any other habit I want to add to my life.
I am currently using a savings goal tracker to save money so that we can move to a low cost of living area. By doing this, we will be able to pay off debt faster and reach our goal of financial independence sooner.
Having that daily reminder keeps me engaged at work so that I can move more quickly. Visual reminders keep you focused and get you through those hard days where you don’t feel like you have any more motivation to give!
You can find habit trackers in my free resource library! Grab one today and start visualizing your goals.
Related: Track Your Mortgage Pay-Off with This Free Spreadsheet
The Day After “Perfect”
Every year people make New Year’s resolutions. They will join a gym, start a weight loss routine, or create a budget. They will work towards their goals daily until something derails them. This could be an illness or a change of schedule at work. Then they hit the day after perfect.
The day after perfect is the day where your hard work gets put on pause until you can come back to your plan. Most people give up after this day and promise themselves that they will start their plan again once this moment of derailment passes.
Then the next day comes, and the next, until it has been months since they last worked towards their goals.
Don’t let this be you! I never allowed myself to get permanently derailed by illness, work predicaments, or relationship problems that got in the way of my dream of getting a master’s degree in accounting. Today I can say that the hard work paid off.
Keep a diary, log, or visual chart on the wall so that you can see your perfect days and the day after perfect. This will help you keep going. Don’t allow yourself to stop moving forward!
increase your productivity with The Pomodoro Technique
I decided to study for the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) exam after my second child was born. Having two children under the age of three, while working, doesn’t afford a lot of time to study.
When I would decide to study, I would sit down in a quiet room and then take a quick social media break, because I finally had ME time. I would then go to the bathroom, go get a snack, etc. By the time I was finally ready to study, my study break would be over!
I knew something had to change. I removed all social media from my phone and then I employed the Pomodoro Technique.
This technique makes you set a timer for 25 minutes. During this 25 minutes you do focused work. At the end you take a five minute break. Then you do this routine again three more times, for a total of four times, and take a 15 minute break. You will then have accomplished about two hours of studying or work.
I love this method. I set the timer on my phone and stay immersed in the task at hand. Once the timer goes off I take my small break.
Having successfully passed the CMA exams on the first try, I can say that this method was crucial for helping me get across that finish line. If you are struggling with staying on task I highly recommend using this technique to keep you focused!
Doing Tasks in 15 Minute Intervals
As a working mom, I have a busy life. There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done! After my first child was born I decided to do tasks in 15 minute intervals. If a task cannot get done in 15 minutes I either delegate that task or put time on my calendar to complete it. This has helped me to manage my household more effectively.
Tasks that I can do in 15 minute intervals are:
- Dishes
- Start a load of laundry
- Fold a load of laundry
- Wipe down a few shelves of the refrigerator
- Clean my car out
- Wipe down the surfaces of my kitchen
- Wipe down my stove
- Go through my pantry and deep freeze to make an inventory
- Meal plan
- Start a crockpot meal
- Cut up vegetables as snacks for the week
- Prep my kids daycare snacks
- Pay some bills
- Take out the trash
- Organize the recycling
- Tidy up the living room
- Mop the kitchen floor
- Do a small inside workout routine
- Go for a short walk around the block on break at work
- Write out a to-do list for work
As you can see, you can do so many different tasks in 15 minute intervals that can save you time over the course of your week.
Make your own 15 minute interval task list and try to knock a couple of them out each day during the week to save yourself time on the weekends.
Increase Your Productivity With Habit Stacking
Last year I read the book “Habit Stacking: 97 Small Life Changes That Take Five Minutes or Less” by S. J. Scott. This book gave me great ideas about how I could take five minute tasks and work them into my 15 minute interval task completion habit block I already had implemented.
In the book, the author says to stack habits throughout your day that take five minutes so that you can complete as many things as possible throughout the day.
For example, you could get your coffee started in the morning, and while that is brewing you can tidy up your kitchen and then pack your kids lunches. Instead of doing one task at a time you can multitask several small tasks that are related.
Another example is, you could go on your 15 minute walk and at the same time call your accountability buddy or a friend you have been meaning to reach out to. Stacking habits gives you a lot more small wins, which in turn motivates you to keep completing good habits.
When completing your daily habits, try stacking habits so that you get more completed!
The Cavalry Isn’t Coming
Something that motivated me years ago to stay accountable and productive, was to hear the saying, “the cavalry isn’t coming.” I was at a point in my life where I felt like a victim of the circumstances that had happened to me growing up. This made me blame everyone but myself for my failures.
When you realize that no one is going to save you but yourself, you become more self accountable. The cavalry isn’t coming. It is your job to reach your goals, no one is going to reach them for you.
You have to figure out ways to stay self motivated and on track so that you can make your dreams come true.
When I became self accountable the sky was the limit for my dreams. I accomplished so much by setting goal after goal. I became a productivity machine.
Your only choice is to move forward in life. You are standing still if you are only focused on the past. Don’t allow yourself to stay in this downward spiral. Know that you are your biggest advocate. Be your own cavalry!
Final Notes
I hope these productivity tips have given you ideas on how to increase your productivity and get more of your goals accomplished.
Which tips helped you the most? Do you have productivity tips of your own that we should know about? Let us know below in the comments!
I love the pomodoro technique.
Another productivity tip I use all the time is to try and systemize as much as I can. It means I have to think less about routine tasks, freeing up that mental energy for other things.