The easiest thing you can do to bump up your productivity right now

Today I wanted to share some simple, actionable advice that you can start doing right away to dramatically increase your productivity.  It’s so simple but it took me years to figure this out.  It goes  like this:

Block out time directly after your meetings to do the work.  

Simple, right? But for a procrastinator like me who was always rushing from meeting to meeting, it took me years to stop the cycle and find a better way.  It was a mind shift for me to think ahead, and instead of being “productive” by booking up every minute of my day with meetings, I had to learn to plan out these important work times.  

Here’s what it looks like: 

• Schedule your site measure for the morning, and in the afternoon draw up the as-built drawings.
• Block out time directly after meeting with that potential client to write up their proposal.
• Block out time directly after your presentation or meeting  to write up/send meeting notes and take care of any little updates that came up. 

There are so many good reasons for this, but the main one is:

When everything is fresh in your mind, it’s going to take you about half the time to complete the work.

Yea!  Doing the same work in half the time is always a win!  As an added bonus:

• You feel like a rock star when you send everything out right after the meeting - and you look like a pro to your clients. 
• You’re less likely to forget things.
• It’s easier to focus on your next task, because your mind has checked the previous task off the list and is not trying to remind you to take care of it.  
• You’re less likely to lose things - like your notes.  Likewise, you’ll spend less time looking for things. 
• If you can’t read your writing, you’re more likely to just remember what you wrote right after the meeting.  
• If you still can’t read your writing and need to ask the client for a vital piece of information, it’s WAY better to do that right after the meeting than weeks later.  
• If you send out notes right after the meeting, the clients are also much more likely to have the info fresh in their mind and you’ll get fewer questions.  

So here’s an easy step you can take right now to put this into action:

• Look at next week's appointments, and block out time on your calendar directly after each meeting, call, presentation or site visit to do the work.  If your meetings are scheduled for the end of the day, block out time first thing the next morning.  

Moving forward, you can set yourself up for success in this area:

• Make it a habit when you set up a meeting to always block out time afterwards to do the work.  
• Avoid scheduling  back-to-back meetings so you can carve out time blocks in between to do the work.
• Schedule things for early in the day if possible so you have the rest of the day to take care of the follow-up work. 
• Leave some margin in your day - unscheduled blocks to take care of the things that come up, rather than rushing from thing to thing, leaving a trail of unfinished tasks in your wake!
• Block out time on Fridays to look at next week's schedule and block out time after meetings to do the work. 
• Make it a habit to get your work done for presentations/meetings completed the day before.  One reason you may not be doing the work directly after a meeting is because you’re exhausted from your rush to get the work done at the last minute. Maximize your energy by getting your work done the day before and getting a good night’s rest before your meeting, and you’ll have the bandwidth to do the follow-up work afterwards.  
• Think like a bank teller.  They finish up the tasks of each customer before taking the next person in line. 

Think of it this way - you’re going to have to do the work anyway.  Wouldn’t you like to do it when it’s going to take you the least amount of time and effort because it’s fresh in your mind?  Give this a try and I guarantee it will pay out big dividends in productivity!