Time saving tips to be more productive

The other week I had the opportunity to interview a productivity coach, Jo Bendle as part of my podcast - "Out in the Big Blue" on how we often are the handbrake on our own business successes, especially in the area of getting stuff done. You can can listen to this here

Jo runs a great program called RPM - Really Productive Month, where she helps business owners and entrepreneurs get their A into G (pardon the pun) and really help them focus on the important stuff and make it happen. She is just about to kick off a new month, so maybe pop over and have a look. She is helping loads of female entrepreneurs all over the world at present, so it could be a great fit for you!.

It was a great opportunity for me to think about the productivity tools I use to attack the must be done list. (I prefer must be done versus To Do as that seems to have a get out of jail free card attached to it - I mean to do means that I don't really need to do it now, does it, a must be done list....well!)

Do you find that you are constantly saying you are so busy, but then struggle to actually get a handle on what you are doing, what you might have done, OR that you don't seem to be getting the really important stuff done.

I have blogged about this in the past, that often we just get stuck in our 'comfort zone' even if that comfort zone is manic, we prefer to be manic and stressed, than strategic and focussed. It is a hard lesson to learn.  

Apart from learning the skills of delegation, I use several tools to get a lot my digital marketing work automated as much as possible. This involves planning first, but then lots of things just happen and I love that. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen I recently shared 4 tools that I use to make my life easier and free up admin tasks so that I can devote more of my energies to thinking and creating content to then share back to you.  

Google Apps for Work

I love the Google universe! It is so easy, so portable and so user friendly (and cost effective). So in addition to GMAIL, I take advantage of Docs, Sheets, Slides as well as DRIVE for storing and sharing my documents. So no need to pay for Dropbox - Google Drive achieves exactly those same outcomes, but as part of the access to apps for work. There are also loads of other great little Google tools within the Google universe to take advantage off, one being Google Keep - so great for quickly taking notes (think Evernote, but in the Google world) 

Sendible

I schedule most of my Social media content for sharing. So you may have heard of Hootsuite or Buffer, I use Sendible for this purpose, mainly for the excellent reporting abilities. However what I also love about Sendible is that I can automate and schedule content marketing posts that I wish to curate for my followers on topics I know you are interested in. So this means that Sendible finds for me posts say on Facebook Live I know my followers would love to also know about. It can find articles within your speciality and share them to your channels automatically!  

How cool is that! So good.. 

Another nifty way of finding things automatically is to set up Google Alerts within your speciality that you can either read and digest or read and then share. This is a great resource if you are a business working in the B2B space. Medium is another handy online platform to do this with too. 

Trello 

Have you heard of Trello yet? If not and you are a person who likes to write down your Must be Dones on a whiteboard - think of Trello as an online version of that whiteboard - but with the added benefits of it being online, mobile friendly AND capable of sending you reminders. Trello is an awesome tool for keeping track of what is important, being able to visually see those steps wherever you are and being prompted to do them if you are late. The basic option is FREE! 

Crowdfire

What to know who is following/unfollowing you on Instagram and Twitter? Both of those platforms move so fast that it can be hard to keep up - especially with numbers that can change daily. Crowdfire is my preferred platform for this. It allows me to see quickly from my phone who my new follows are on both platforms ( and for several accounts ) as well as who is unfollowing me. Which is great as I am in an aggressive growth phase for both platforms at the moment.  

What are you favourite time saving tools? I would love to hear from you, click reply and share some with me if you can't live without them.

Until next Tuesday, remember stay focussed on the Must be Done's and leave that to do list for someone else.