The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 107. 7 Ways to Work Smarter & Be More Productive in 2024

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Happy New Year! We are sharing 7 ways to work smarter and be more productive in 2024 in your blogging business. We cover everything from batching tasks to hiring help to doing a time audit. This episode is going to help you focus on improving your efficiency and focusing on the impactful tasks to prevent burnout! Tune in to hear our 7 tips!Thanks for listening! Let us know your thoughts on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsWe would love to have you join us in the Ultimate Blog Membership in 2024. HERE is the link to join!Check out the show notes (link below) for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode107

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Welcome to the first episode in 2024 of the Ultimate Blog Podcast. And what we want to talk about today is 7 ways that you can work smarter and be more productive in this new year. And the reason we want to talk about this is as we come to the end of a year or we start a new year, we often reflect back and we think about what went well, what didn't go well. And I think it's a good exercise to really reflect on if we were able to accomplish the things that we wanted to. I think it's also really important to acknowledge the things that we did accomplish during the year because it's so easy to be

hard on ourselves. So first and foremost, let's just take a moment and just give yourself a pat on the back for everything you did get done. And if you didn't get done everything that was on your list or all the dreams and goals that you set, that's okay. Because often, we are a little overly optimistic when it comes to some of those sort of things. So today, what we really want to talk about are some things that you can do going into this new year, so that you can set those goals. And you can be realistic about them, but you can actually make progress towards the things that you really want. So when you get to the end of this year, you're going to look back and you're going to say, wow, you're truly going to wow yourself. all hours of the day and night to get here to get all the things done that you want to get done.

We're going to share some tips with you that will help you work maybe a little bit less and get a little bit more done. So let's just jump right on in. With that said, I want to just say this before we jump into this, Jennifer. I know that there are some of you who just listen to that. You're like, work less? Hold on. I want 2024 to be more successful. And that is the entire point of this podcast episode is that you can work less and be more productive and earn more. So I want you to have that attitude as you're

listening to this episode that you can actually have that. The means to success doesn't mean that we have to burn the candle at both ends all the time. Yeah. And I think this is a work in progress for all of us. It's hard to believe that you can work less and achieve more. But that is the dream. That is the goal. And it is truly possible. And it just takes baby steps to get there. So we're going to start giving you some steps that you can take. Starting right now today, you can implement all of these things so that you can start working towards that dream goal as well. Number one is having a plan. And what we're recommending is that you look at one quarter, which is three months of the year. So right now it's January. So look at January, February and March. And think about what kind of content you need to create for your blog

for this quarter. So be realistic. You want to challenge yourself, but you don't want to set yourself up for something that is not even possible. So if last year you were able to get 2 posts out a month, don't set your goal right now as two posts a week, but maybe set it as, you know, instead of two posts, you know, maybe do four a month. So challenge yourself a little bit. But the idea here is that you're going to set yourself up with something that's realistic, but also something that has impact. So when you're looking at the kind of content that you're going to create for this quarter, don't try to look at the whole entire year. We're just going to break it down quarter by quarter so that it's not overwhelming.

And think about what would have the most impact on your audience, on your readers over the next three months. How can you truly help them and create content that will bring traffic to your website? And then map out when those posts are going to be like, put them on the calendar. I can't emphasize that enough. It is really helpful when you can actually see those things on a calendar. And then you can look at what your obligations are. And you can say, can I get this done? When am I going to do the work? When am I going to create the content? When am I going to write the post? And then when is it going to go live? Get those things on your calendar for the next three months. And that way, you will feel at peace knowing exactly what you need to do over the

next several weeks. And you'll know how to budget your time so that you're getting these things done and not feeling rushed to finish something like just to get a blog post out, you're actually creating quality content because you have a plan, you know what you need to do, and you'll be able to get it done in a way that's meaningful. You said something really important there, Jennifer, that I want to make sure that people heard and that's that you're going to find more peace when you have a plan. And I think there is peace to be found with a plan. And if you've spent the last year or more, who knows how long you've been blogging, and you haven't had a plan at all, and you just feel like you're running around like a chicken

with your head cut off, like you're on fire and things aren't getting accomplished because you kind of don't know what you're supposed to be doing when, we're just going to challenge you to go into this new year thinking about it completely differently. If you don't like the way you feel right now, what can you do to feel different and better? And I think that creating that plan is a really, really great way to just help give yourself a little peace in that area. Yeah. Even if you start small, just plan your blog posts. Even if that's where you start, start there. Yes. We definitely aren't expecting you guys to take all 7 of these and master them today. This is a work in progress. And that's the beautiful part of this job is that it is a work in progress. And we can find new ways to do things that make us more efficient.

And speaking of efficiency, that brings us right into step number 2. And that is one of my very favorite ways to be productive. That has not always been something that number two. And that is one of my very favorite ways to be productive. That has not always been something that I do. And that is called batching your work. We have done this so much better in 2023. So going into 2024, this feels like it's just honestly a well-oiled machine now is that we have brought batch working into Spark Media Concepts. And I cannot tell you just from a personal standpoint, the weight that it has taken off of both of Jennifer and I's shoulders because kind of like planning, when you know what you're working on when, it helps you. I wonder if you've ever heard of context switching. This is kind of a new term to

me. But it's something that I want to talk about here and why batch working is so important. And context switching is when we switch from one unrelated task to another. So let's say you're working on your social media posts for your blog. And then you're like, Oh, but I got to finish doing my Pinterest pins for my blog that's going out. So those are not related tasks. They are different things. Or maybe you're going from you're writing a blog post and they're like, Oh, now I need to record a podcast episode. Or maybe I need to contact a brand about a potential sponsorship. When we go from those tasks one to another, we actually lose about 40% of our productive time according to studies. That is a huge amount of time. When you think about the time that you're spending doing our day-to-day tasks, 40% is like almost half of the time that you're losing just switching back and forth from time to time. Look at your calendar, once again, making a plan,

and look at your calendar and ask yourself, what can I do when? So I'm going to give an example of how we do our podcasts. We plan 2 days out of each month that we do all of our podcast recordings. Those are the only 2 days that we record podcasts, generally. And then our content is set up for the next 4 to 6 weeks, depending on how many episodes that we record in those 2 days time. And honestly, we don't have to think about the podcast getting released because the content is done. It is ready to go. It is put out. You can do this in a number of different ways with your blog. Some examples. When you create that content calendar with making a plan quarter at a time, you can also go in and you can start creating your content. Maybe one week out of the month, you feel very... Your juices are flowing

and you can write a lot. That is when you want to be creating your blog posts. So maybe that week, you write four or five blog posts. Those blog posts can be scheduled out ahead of time to where you might have a blog post scheduled out for two, three, four weeks at a time, depending on how much you get done in that week. You can do the same thing with social media. There are a ton of people who plan all of their social media content in one or two days, and it's done for the month. Just let's take a moment for that, that you wouldn't have to worry about what you're posting on social media on any given day, but it's just done for you. So think about some of those tasks that feel like you have to do them every single day or every single week. It's that mental load

that we talk about a lot. Batchworking is a really, really effective way to take some of that mental load off, get 40% of your time back and be a lot more productive in the time that you do have. So if I have one challenge for you, that's going to be it this year because it has made a significant impact on not only Spark Media concepts, but also Love Your Body Well. And I know Jennifer sent it with her blogs as well. Yeah, there's days when I have a group of tasks that I've put together and I'm like, Oh, that's days, you know, when I have a group of tasks that I've put together, and I'm like, Oh, that's not what I feel like doing today. But when you have it batched together, and you know, like, okay, once I get through this, I just kind of give myself a pep talk.

If I spend four hours, I will be through this and I will have it done for the next three weeks. And I'll be like, Okay, I'm going to give myself like a little motivation. I'll go. If I can get these done, then I'll go grab a Starbucks or something like that. Sometimes you have to give yourself a little mind game, you know, when you have a batch of tasks that you're not necessarily feeling motivated for that day. But oh my gosh, the feeling that when you get them done, and you are done with a chunk of tasks, you know, there's nothing that compares to that in terms of feeling productive. Yeah. And it also we're going to talk about this, but it also allows you to really take intentional time off too. So we are recording this podcast episode in November,

knowing full well that we're taking the entire month of December off of recording podcast episodes. We're working harder right now in order to intentionally have time off. We're going to talk about that more in a little bit though. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit more about how we are spending our time. I think having an awareness of where you're spending your time throughout the day is so critical as you start to plan what you can actually get done, what's important to you. Speaking of how you are wanting or needing to spend your time,

tip number three is doing a time audit. So a time audit is where you are actually going to get a piece of paper, create a spreadsheet, whatever you want to do. But for one day, you're going to literally write down everything you did, what time you did it, how long it took, etc. And I know it sounds a little tedious. And I know most of us like put on the brakes when it comes to doing something like this. And I know for me, it's often because I'm like, Oh, I don't even want to know. But this is so important. To be honest, nobody else has to see it. This is just for you. Let go of any judgments you have on yourself. This is an exercise

that is so important. And it's going to help you do so many different things. A, it's going to give you some insight into what you are spending your time on. I think there's lots of little tasks that we do on a day-to-day basis that we don't even think about. They're so automatic. But writing those down will bring those to light so that we know all the little things that are adding up that take up time throughout our day. You can also see where we might be wasting a little bit of time every day. Like how many times are we picking up our phone

because we get a notification? How many times are we taking a quote break but it's not really like an actual break. We might just be scrolling social media or something for a few minutes in this whole idea of like getting inspired. So write those things down and then just set it aside for a little bit and then come back to it later. And then be really, I guess, honest with yourself about how you want your day to look. How do you want your day to feel?

And then go through those things and say, what can I get rid of here? Are there tasks that I'm doing that just are truly not adding any real value to my business? Are there places where I'm taking breaks where I should take more intentional type breaks instead of just wasting time? Because I know that often I will feel like I have sat at my computer for the whole entire day and I'll get to the end of the day

and I'm like, I have no idea what I got done. This will help you figure those things out. And it will also help you to figure out how you're going to batch your work later on because you'll have an idea of what is really important and impactful in your business and what you can let go of. Welcome to 2024. Is this the year that you want to go all in with your blog? Are you ready to learn new things and connect with other bloggers to level up your business? If you're ready, we are ready for you in the Ultimate Blog Membership. The Ultimate Blog Membership is our blogging membership that is for the blogger who wants to stay up to date on the latest and also build a network of blogging buddies to hold you accountable and push you toward your goals. We have two coaching calls each month. One is a live Q&A session where you will join us both and ask any and all questions

you have about your blog or blogging in general. The other call is a coaching call where we bring in guest experts or teach ourselves and teach you new ways to level up your blogging business. You also gain access to us all month long to answer your questions in our online forum, discuss new opportunities you're considering, connect with other bloggers and keep you accountable in your blogging business. If this sounds like what you've been missing in your blogging business, click the link to apply in our show notes. We hope to see you in the ultimate blog membership in 2024. And that takes us right into tip number four, which is letting go of the things that don't serve your business or that you don't have time for. And that's why that time audit is so important is because I think a lot of times we look at the tasks on our to-do list or the things that we want

to accomplish. And we say to ourselves, yeah, I can get that done. Like, sure, I can do that. Sure, I'll add that on. Sure, I can learn that. That course looks awesome. I can do that. I want to learn this. I want to be a master at everything. And if you don't know what you don't know, then you can't make decisions that are actually going to benefit your business. And I know it's hard to think about letting go of something like, Hello, this is one of the things I struggle with. So I am right there with you sitting in it and saying, Okay, what really needs to stay and what really needs to go? And sometimes those conversations, those decisions are, they're really scary, but they're also really important. When you started your blog, or maybe you're a new blogger,

something that you thought about is why you're doing this. You have to come back to your why, like what's the main goal here? And if you feel like you've lost sight of that, and you're doing a lot of things that don't lead you to the main goal, then that's when that check-in with yourself is really important. So this might mean that you're going to let go of things that you think you should do, or what someone has told you that you should do. And I'll be really honest here. It could be something that you heard here on the Ultimate Blog Podcast that we've shared with you because we share a lot of different things each and every week that you learn from. But hear me out. We don't share these episodes every week to tell you, you got to do this and you got to do this and you got to do this.

So let's go right into 2024 with that being said. The weekly podcast episodes that come out, and I'm just using this as an example, are meant to inspire whoever needs to be inspired in that specific area. But you can't possibly do it all. Nor would we expect you to. And that's the beauty of blogging is that everybody's business looks different. Everybody's time looks different. Everybody's focus looks different. And most importantly, everybody's why is different. And so when you're thinking about the things that you need to do for your business

and your niche to serve your community, that might look different than the other blogger that you follow who inspired you. It might look different than your friend who's a blogger. It might look different than what you thought it was going to look like. That doesn't mean it's wrong. You just have to really understand what you want to do, what the goal is. And knowing how much time you have is just critical. It really is because you cannot do it all. You got to think about what you can do that can move the needle in a big way, not just the small way. Where are you going to find the most impact in what you do? You can get really, really, really caught up in this cycle of, I got to do this and this and this

and adding things into your business. And I promise you that's going to lead to burnout. I would much rather you focus on a couple pillar areas that you feel like you can make the time for and that you are good at. And we're going to talk more about actually tip five. Jennifer's going to go into this. But hiring where you might need help if you're at that point, just to relieve some tension that you might be feeling in your business when it comes to time. Because building a blogging business is not something

that's done overnight. It's done day in, day out with consistency and learning new things all the time. And also knowing what is serving your business well and what is not and being brave enough to let go of the things that aren't doing that for you. Yeah. So say you've done your time audit. You've let go of everything you feel like you can let for you. Yeah, so say you've done your time audit, you've let go of everything you feel like you can let go of, and now you're sitting there going, but there's still a lot to do. So like Amy said, tip number five,

we're gonna talk about hiring when and where you can. So if you are at the point where you're like, okay, I feel like I've pared it all down, I know exactly what needs to be done, but I'm still not gonna be able to do all of this in a day or a week or a month, then it might be time to start thinking about hiring some help. And it can feel scary. So if you're sitting here thinking I might be on the verge of this, but I'm not sure I'm not even sure where to start. We'd love for you to go back and listen to episode number 97 of the podcast with Allie Stewart about how you know when you are ready to hire someone. So take a listen to that if you think that that might start applying to you. But what we want to encourage you is it

doesn't have to look as big and scary as you might think. You might be at the point where you just need somebody for five hours a month. And that five hours a month can actually have a huge impact because it can free up some of the smaller tasks that you might be doing. They might not be difficult in any way, shape or form, but they are taking up mental space for you. So you're thinking about them. It's not only the time to like create a Pinterest graphic or post on social media or write your newsletter. It's the mental time and thinking about those things and possibly switching from task to task. You're losing some productivity and trying to do all these small things and get them all done over the course of a day or a week.

So even if you start out a few hours a month, that for the things that you really think do have an impact in your business, but you need help with, that can be a great way to really get a lot more done. Because then you're freeing up your own time and mental space to focus on some of the things that are bigger and will actually move the business forward. So you can focus on maybe some of the monetization activities or simply creating the content and focusing on that piece of it. However you lay it out, however you have decided you want to spend your time every day, however you've decided what types and amounts of content you want to create, there is always a place for adding someone in there to help you with some of these things

so that you can free up the space to do that. some of these things so that you can free up the space to do that. And this also leads us into tip number six, which is once again, having to do with time. And that is set your office hours. Now, I realize that a lot of you probably started blogging because you want to be in charge of your time and you want it to be flexible and all of those things. But this is a really, really great way to be intentional with your time. So you don't wake up and you're like, yep, I'm going to write a blog post today. And then you are like, okay, well, I actually need to do a load of laundry. And then I need to unload the dishwasher. And then I'm going to prep dinner. And before you know it, it's 2pm. And you're like, oh, okay,

well, I have all these other things to do now too. And I never got that blog post written today. Instead, what you're going to do is set these office hours and be really intentional with this. Really think about it. How many hours each day do you actually have to give? And when you are honest with yourself about the hours that you do have available, honor the hours that you set. This is the beauty from working from home and having this blog is that those hours are going to look different for you. They might look different in different seasons of your life, but use that part to your advantage. Also, if you have people who are either working for you, maybe you have students, maybe you have clients, things like that, make sure that they know when

your office hours are because it's just as important for you to make sure that you block out that time just like it is for a store. We don't show up at Target at 1030 and expect them to open the doors because we need something. People can't expect that out of you either. Having an expectation of... Maybe you have an email response that you'll respond in 24 to 48 hours. When an email comes through, it doesn't mean that you have to respond to it right that day. I think that's the hard part of working for yourself sometimes and having a blog is that we think that everything is an emergency and we need to do it right away. And that can go with a lot of things in our life for that matter. But we don't have to respond to something right away. We

don't have to do something right away. We can batch our work. We can schedule it in when we know what it looks like. So if you know at the beginning of the week, okay, I'm going to work from 9 to 3 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm taking Tuesday completely off. One, take Tuesday completely off. If you have that set as a day off, don't try to tell yourself, well, I could just work for a little bit. Honor that intentional time that you have said that you're going to step away from your computer. I talked about burnout a little bit earlier in this episode. And it is a very, very real thing for bloggers and honestly, a lot of people right now in a lot of different professions. And so just honor that time that you have set aside to work, and then honor the time that you have set aside for play. When you go back to your time audit,

you're going to be able to see what your main distractions are. And I want you to think about how you can minimize those. Setting office hours might mean that you put your phone outside of your office. It might mean that you hire a sitter to watch your kids so you can be intentional with that time. It might mean that you go away from the home and work outside of the home at the library or a coffee shop or something like that. Figure out what is distracting you from getting the things done that you want to do. Because you started a blog for a reason. And a lot of times what we do is we get very distracted in the day to day, even in the time that we've set aside for doing the work that we want to do. But we get distracted. And like Jennifer just said, sometimes you're sitting at your computer

all day and you look around and you're like, what did I even accomplish today? Well, that doesn't feel good for anybody, to be honest. And sometimes you do have to kind of give yourself that pep talk and say, okay, I can just do this. I can get this done. And so that might mean to you like, okay, I have five hours set aside today that I'm going to work on these tasks and I'm going to get this done. And when you feel yourself feeling that pull to pick up the phone and have a social media break that turns into 30 minutes of scrolling, tell yourself, just push through. You can do this. Nothing there is an emergency. And focus on the things that really matter. And I know it's hard to set those office hours. But I promise you when you do,

it gives you freedom in your business. It gives you so much freedom. And I want to say something to new bloggers right now. I want you to do it even as a new blogger. I think it is so important. I know that we do all kinds of crazy things and the idea of growth. I got to grow and I got to do this and I got to do that. But I think it is so important to just set those boundaries in your business from the start to where you can truly enjoy this blogging journey. We don't want you to get burned out from the beginning. And yes, you can always work. We could find things to do all day every day with our blogs. But you've got to set those office hours to make sure that you're being really intentional with the time that you are sitting down at your computer. Yeah. And once you set those office hours,

you've got this, say, four or five hour block that you're going to sit down and work. Well, what are you going to do? Well, that leads us right to tip number seven. And this is going to be maybe one of the hardest ones to do, but it's also one of the most important. You have to define your to-do list. So we've gone through a lot of different exercises. Now you know

what can I get rid of? What do I need to keep? So you know what's on your to-do list at this point in time, but it's still like this mysterious little list out there that feels like it's long and it just keeps getting longer and longer every single day. So what you need to do is you really need to define what those items are, because when they're in your head, they're much more challenging than when they're actually written down. So what we recommend is that you use a project management tool or system. So we love ClickUp. If you go back on the podcast and listen to episode number 63 with Casey Ackerman, you

can learn more about utilizing ClickUp and utilizing systems to help you with your business and your productivity. But whether you use ClickUp, whether you like a paper calendar, whether you have another tool that you prefer, it really doesn't matter. Pick something, stick with it, but use it.

And so what you need to do is be realistic, go back to that plan you created for your quarter. So what do you have to get done this week? What do you have to get done this month? And then look at those office hours that you set for yourself. You created those based on all of your personal obligations, the time that you have available to work, and make sure that to the best of your ability, what you have on your to-do list matches the time that you have available. That way, you're setting yourself up for success. Because if you try to cram in more than you can possibly get done, you're just going to feel disappointed and it's going to be easier to get off track. And I'm saying this based on my

own personal experience because this is one of my huge flaws. I always think I can get way more done in a period of time than I actually can. So I've been working on this and utilizing a system and actually having to see it written down in front of me is the thing that has helped me the most because I can actually go in to click up. I can look at my day and say, yeah, that looks that looks reasonable, the amount of things I have on this list. And you can see what's coming up over the next day or week or whatever, however long you have those things in there. And you can see that it's easy to move things around if you need to. And that way, when you sit down for that day, you know exactly what you need to tackle. And you're able to like start to

mark things off the list that are going to have the most impact because you've done all the work, you figured out what those things are. And so it will just help you stay on track. And, you know, you don't have to like, spend hours creating this system, like just start small and just think about maybe just your content calendar and then start adding some of those other tasks that you've decided you need to do. And that way, they're all in there. You can get them out of your head. You stop thinking about them. You stop letting them take up all that space in your brain where you're just constantly spinning on them and you're able to focus on the one thing at a time that you're working on today. So there you have it. There are 7 tips to start you off this year to be more productive and to

work a little bit smarter and to hopefully allow you to have some more intentional time, not only in your business, but outside of your business. And going into this new year and asking yourself, how do I want to feel about my blog? How do I want to feel about the time that I'm taking off? And if you want to feel different than you did in 2023, you can do that. Today is a blank slate. And you can start fresh. You can set different expectations for yourself and set different intentions as well for the new year. And we would love to know which one of these resonated with you the most. Feel free to always send us an email. Let us know how we

are encouraging you on the podcast, what episodes you're loving and enjoying, or connect with us over on Instagram as well. We love when we hear from you guys. So thanks so much for allowing us to show up and do this. The podcast is now officially two years old. And that just seems crazy, to be honest. And we just thank you so much for the time that you spent listening to these episodes each and every week. So hope this one was impactful and we wish you a very happy new year. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the

link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the ultimate blog bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.