 Today we're going to teach you some time management tips. How to work smarter, not harder. Here on The Journey. All right, so I love to save time when possible. I'm always working, literally always working, and I know you're going to help me out personally, but also help the audience out. What's your first tip for really working smarter, not harder? Right, let's be efficient, let's get right to it. Create a time audit, right? So look at where you're spending your time and what you would like to be doing rather than wasting time here and there. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I remember when I was a supervisor at GoDaddy for a short time there, I felt like my days were just being strung on. I didn't know what I was doing throughout the day and my day was gone, right? Yeah. So I someone gave me that advice of start tracking down everything you're doing. So I got a little journal, started writing in a little 15 to 30 minute increments of what I was actually doing. And then at the end of the day, I was like, wow, I'm wasting way too much time on stuff that's just not relevant or important, helped me do a little time on it. So it got me back on track. Yeah, holds yourself accountable. So I think the best way to really get ahead of that is to start planning your week on Sunday, right? Before everything gets crazy on Monday, you know, you still have that weekend brain going into Monday. I know before I've come in on Monday, I have nothing prepared. Right. And all of a sudden, I just wasted an hour trying to get ready for my day when I should have just been prepared and started working, right? Yeah, everyone's got the case of the Monday is like you go into Monday morning, you don't want to do anything. The last thing you want to do is prioritize what you want to do that day. Sunday kind of makes sense. And while you want to be on top of things, also don't be too hard on yourself, right? Take a moment before you start your week, look back on your accomplishments the previous week, what all you did well and learn from that, grow from it and you're good to go. That makes sense. What's an accomplishment you had last week? I would say definitely just showing up on time, you know, getting there early, getting that preparation and then you're good to go whenever your day actually starts. So that's super cool. So those accomplishments don't have to be like over the top, like accomplishments. It's just the little things, right? Celebrate those small wins. Absolutely. And with celebrating those small wins, you know, you don't have to strive for perfection, right? So think of every little step as just a step on your journey. And if you're always waiting to be perfect, right? Like I know I'm a perfectionist sometimes. And if you're waiting to be perfect, then you're never really going to accomplish what you want to. Yeah, I definitely struggle with that. Like there are tasks that I just want to like to kind of get absolutely perfect, a little bit of perfectionist and that prevents me just from moving on. So I'm kind of stuck on that same project, trying to get it absolutely perfect when in reality, nothing's going to be perfect. There's always going to be something that just comes out of nowhere and derails you, or even if you get to 95%, that's still good enough. And you kind of move on to the rest of your task and be efficient with it. Yeah, getting it done is better than getting it perfect. So we've talked about really preparing for your week, but once you get into it, one of the main things you want to do is start out with the most demanding and, you know, time consuming tasks right away. You mean like eat the frog? Yes, exactly. If people haven't heard of that book, they're like, I have to eat a frog? What? What? I don't like frog legs. Personally, I don't. Yeah, but what he's talking about is, you know, get that first most important task out of the way right away. And then the rest of your day, it just gets easier from there. It's cake, right? Like it's if you dread going to the gym and you know you have to go to the gym instead of waiting the entire day. You're like, I have to go to the gym later, this is going to stink, blah, blah. If you get it done early, the rest of the day is not complaining about going to the gym. The rest of the day is just you relaxing or taking on your less important tasks that you can just be happy about. Yeah, and our brains actually focus better on those, that analytic work right in the morning whenever you wake up because it's still booting up. You don't have time to worry about those distractions just yet and it's the best time to focus on those important tasks. Yeah, even if you're not a morning person, it's good to kind of do those first and early, get them out of the way and then just move on. I know I'll trick myself into thinking that I'm being productive by doing the easiest, you know, most relaxing tasks first, but really I'm just putting off the big important tasks. We're just procrastinating, that's all we're doing. Exactly. And one of the most difficult things I think during my day to day is blocking out those distractions so that you stay on track, right? You mean like not have Netflix up on your other monitor at home while you're doing work on the other one? Yeah, don't really just watching Netflix the entire time. Yeah, exactly. Things like that. And also those constant notifications, right? Everything's important all the time. So minimize those distractions. You know, you can go offline totally. Let's not get crazy here. I don't know about that, but I mean as much as you can as as many of those distractions you can get rid of, the more you can focus your energy and attention towards those tasks, right? Right, and I feel like when I'm working, I'm going all in. I just have to have those distractions, right? Because it's always work and then there's distraction kind of keep me entertained, if you will, to be back on track. Do you have any best practices of like that work, break distraction balance? Yeah, actually, that's a great point, you know, that human brain can only take so much. And right now we feel like it's so important to answer those distractions. Yeah. So give yourself some time to, right? So set aside, you know, a certain time to take care of those important tasks, and then set aside a small break where you can give your brain that break from the work, and then you get time to handle those distractions. Is there like an optimal timeframe of work to break balance? So yeah, the human brain can actually only focus for about 90 minutes. Okay. So if you're working longer than that, you're losing focus, losing productivity, right? So give yourself, you know, a 15 minute break after that, and then you'll be a lot more productive and time efficient. So you're giving me permission to go tell my boss that I can only work for 90 minutes at a time before I need my next break? Yeah, you have to, sorry. All right, it's science. All right, so I think we're on our last tip. Do you want to go ahead and help us really close this time efficiency out? No, I'm going to have to check my schedule. And that brings me to my next point, you know, learn to say no. It's okay to say no. I'm such a yes person, right? I'm sure you are too. It's so easy to be like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I got it, I got it. Yeah, but you have to value your time and only do what's going to work towards your productivity, right? Right. I know it as a business owner, like there's so many different things that you have to do. And you probably start taking on new clients, new clients, and you're starting to take on everyone and you get stretched super thin. And then you're not really delivering your value to all your clients when you can. And it's super important to say no. So you really focus on the clients that you like to work with and not have to focus on worse serving everyone. So speaking of efficiency, we're going to wrap this up with those were our time management tips. Let us know in the comments below what tips work best for you. Yeah, I know I'm going to be super selfish with all these tips and hopefully get some of my time back because our time is valuable. And while you're leaving that comment, make sure you smash that like button, hit subscribe and ring that bell. So you get these episodes first, you can start saving that time. This is the journey. We'll see you next time.