Marketing and sales are my jam. But organization, and productivity? Let’s just say I’m a work in progress.

Luckily I met THE expert in this area, NJ Shelsby who sat down to give me some tips on how to get more done, with less stress.

You see, she was so overworked and stressed that it disrupted her family and health so much that she experienced a scary bout of short term memory loss.

“I was driving to a doctor’s appointment and I couldn’t remember how to get there. As in, I’m driving around for 10-15 minutes and have no idea on how to get there. And it was very scary and when I got to the doctor’s office, he was panicked for me.”

Her doctor told her “you have to take immediate steps to reduce your stress level.”

If you’ve been feeling stressed or disorganized, or get to the end of your day and wonder where the time went, never quite making  enough progress on your business – you’re not alone. 

Check out these stats:

• Internet usage in the workplace accounts for а 40% loss of productivity (ohhhh, we know the scroll!)
• Work overload decreases productivity by 68% (so wait, the more work you have, the less gets done?! Oof)

Here are 3 quick tips to increase productivity:

1. Absolute clarity – outline what’s important RIGHT NOW. This is where you have to focus, and everything else can go to the “quote later list”.
2. Focus leak boundaries – identify things that steal your focus and set boundaries during your “work times” like turn email notifications off, close tabs, silence your phone, etc.
3. Structure your schedule around your most productive times:
      a. Deep think times – like big projects
      b. Shallow focus times – like emails, editing, etc.

Get more of NJ’s help in this week’s episode of the Successful Creatives podcast on Apple or Spotify. She also shares the free software she’s using now to help her get organized and increase productivity, and does a little live coaching that will undoubtedly help.

P.S. Lots of creatives are struggling (and stressed!) about how to attract ready-to-book clients instead of price shoppers, so I’m working on a brand new PRIVATE PODCAST to help. Keep an eye out for that next week…also, it’s free. 😍