{"id":5734,"date":"2017-12-17T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T01:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/?p=5734"},"modified":"2017-12-18T15:47:44","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T23:47:44","slug":"business-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/2017\/12\/business-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Yearly Business Review: 3 Top Productivity Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DawnAs I work through my annual end of year business review, a\u00a0process that takes a few weeks each December, I analyze my profitability and productivity. This year, I realized that several small changes I made last January, yielded the biggest impact on my efficiency.<\/p>\n

One of the many challenges of an independent business owner is finding the time to get everything done.\u00a0My mission for 2017 was simply to become more productive. Now, looking back on the year, I can see which small scheduling tweaks worked.\u00a0<\/span>Here are the three changes that made the biggest impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Block Scheduling My Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps the most obvious change I made was establishing a weekly routine using block scheduling. I’ve always been a list-maker and am happiest when I’m working on projects that have a detailed list of actionable tasks.\u00a0 I take supreme pleasure in crossing off finished items from my list.<\/p>\n

During 2017, I decided to use the scheduling method I used back when I was in graduate school. In college, I would plan my week and individual days by blocking out my time based on projects.\u00a0Back then, I would list the name of a particular class, color code it, and then schedule the work in chunks time.\u00a0 Now, years later, I tried this system again, only now I’m\u00a0<\/span>dividing my business tasks into three main categories; admin, writing, and design.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been a long-time user of the David Allen system of using a catch book. (His method is described in his book “Getting Things Done The Art of Stress-Free Productivity<\/a>.”) I carry around a journal at all times, ready to jot notes about everything from projects to recipes, tv shows I want to catch, and podcasts I want to listen to.\u00a0 When I decided to block schedule my time, I printed out a calendar and taped it to my journal. Each Sunday night when I’m preparing for my week I refer back to this schedule to remind myself of the plan. Now, 12 months later, I’m so pleased with the outcome that I will keep this system in place during 2018.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tending My Garden – Daily Admin Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Somedays I feel like I have a spoon in every pot, but not enough arms to stir them all.\u00a0 So this year, I decided to develop a daily business administration habit that involves grabbing each spoon, daily or weekly and giving them a stir. Each morning and afternoon I spend about an hour working on the administrative tasks that simply need to be done!<\/p>\n

To accomplish this, I use a modified version of The Pomodoro Method<\/a>, using the timer feature on my phone to start and stop my task bundles.\u00a0 I break the hour into 4, 10-minute sections separated by 5-minute gaps. Adding this planned administrative work session to my day upped my productivity. Some days I choose to put more time for Admin at the front of my day, while on other days, I split the work into two chunks, a morning and evening session.\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong>The Pomodoro Technique <\/strong>
\nfor Movement Management<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I started to regularly use the Pomodoro Technique<\/a>\u00a0when working on all of my projects. This system for time management was developed by Francesco Cirillo.<\/a>\u00a0The official system breaks time in20-minute intervals with either a short or long break in between.\u00a0I’ve found that using this productivity system has really helped me not only get more things done\u00a0but also, to feel better physically.<\/p>\n

Sitting sucks!\u00a0 Stretching is Fun!\u00a0 One of my favorite byproducts of this method is making the time to stand up and stretch.\u00a0 Both sewing and writing involve a lot of sitting, so using the Pomodoro method has helped me stay limber. Truth is, I’ve done some repetitive motion damage during the course of my long dance career. The Pomodoro system has helped remind me to take breaks and get more movement back into my life.\u00a0 I now regularly take the time for stretching breaks and dance parties for one!<\/p>\n

I’m continuing on with my year-end review this week,
\n<\/em><\/strong> so stay tuned for more productivity tips.
\n<\/em><\/strong>Dawn Devine ~ Davina
\n<\/em><\/strong>Dec. 17, 2017\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2017 Year End Review:<\/strong>
\nRead #1<\/a> – Productivity Strategies: What Worked in 2017
\nRead #2<\/a> – Publications: 3 Books and 1 Magazine<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

As I work through my annual end of year business review, a\u00a0process that takes a few weeks each December, I analyze my profitability and productivity. This year, I realized that several small changes I made last January, yielded the biggest impact on my efficiency. One of the many challenges of an independent business owner is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-pubs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Studio-Davina-1.png?fit=500%2C750&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YZtR-1uu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5734"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5780,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions\/5780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}