• 

• 

If you’re anything like me, you’re wearing a LOT of different hats. (And I’m not talking about cute fedoras!) You might be a mom, wife, business owner, volunteer, friend, sister, neighbor, daughter, short order cook, maid, boogie wiper, the list goes on and on. You don’t have time to waste. But some days, your motivation and productivity appear to have called in sick.

Don’t worry! It’s never too late to shift your energy and get back on track with your day. I’m sharing my 3 favorite ways to be more productive and reclaim your mojo!

#1 – Music as motivation.

There’s nothing like a good playlist to boost your energy and lift your spirits. Whether you focus best with classical music softly playing in the background or a thoughtfully compiled selection of girl power hits at full volume, I guarantee the right songs will shift your mood fast. Bonus points if you get a solid dance party going!

#2 – Plan for success.

I’m rarely as productive when I don’t plan my week ahead of time. It’s hard to dive head first into work when you don’t even know where to begin. So I suggest taking some time on Sunday evening (or whenever works best for you) to write out your goals and to-do list for the upcoming week and then plug it (realistically) into your calendar.

If you feel like you’re in the weeds and have no idea where to start, I can’t recommend my business coach, Samantha Siffring’s Time Redesigned course enough. This isn’t an affiliate link, it’s just too mind blowing NOT to share with you! Inside the course, Samantha offers weekly and daily planning prompts, in addition to mind-bending secrets about time that will change absolutely everything for you!

#3 – Eat the frog + the ONE thing.

Once you have your day mapped out, it’s time to eat the frog and/or choose the ONE thing. Technically, these are two different productivity hacks but they compliment each other well and go hand-in-hand. Let’s start with “eat the frog”. It’s an equally memorable and effective concept coined by Brian Tracy and inspired by Mark Twain’s saying “if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long”.

To eat the frog, you simply need to do the hardest thing first (or the most important – see The One Thing below). Rather than avoiding and dreading that big, daunting task you can’t pass off or ignore forever, biting the bullet and getting it done before anything else will make the rest of your day feel easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

To figure out what your frog is, I have to recommend one of my all-time favorite (!!!) business books: The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. You don’t want to skip this read but here’s a quick summary. The authors recommend you focus on the ONE, single task on your to-do list that will make everything else either easier or unnecessary. 

For example, maybe you have a goal to lose weight and your daily tasks include exercising, drinking a gallon of water, prepping healthy snacks for the day, and following your meal plan. You might decide your ONE thing is making sure you get your workout done first. Exercising makes it easier to drink your water. You know that challenging cardio or gym circuit is going to make you thirsty! A good workout will also boost your metabolism, so while you don’t want to undo all the hard work you just put in, it becomes less necessary to stress about what you eat later on. You’ll also feel more motivated to stay on track when you start your day on the right foot. And I don’t know about you, but I am always down for simplifying my daily to-do list.

And there you have it! 

My 3 favorite productivity hacks are using music as a motivator, planning for success, and doing the hardest or most important thing first.  I’d love to hear which of these you’ll try this week AND any other productivity hacks you’d add to this list.  Head to the comments below and let’s keep the inspiration coming!