Productivity Tips and Techniques

Paula: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to a special episode of Chatting with the Experts TV show. I speak with amazing women from all over the world, in particular, I say from Africa and the Caribbean and in the diaspora. But I also make exceptions. And so we’ve had some men come on the show. We’ve had women who are not from Africa, the Caribbean. And so today I have my friend, Fran, who is not from Africa, is not from the Caribbean, but she’s here with me and we want to discuss something that’s really very much on her heart. She’s always been an expert when it comes to talking about productivity. I have learned so much from her. In fact, I always tease her or tell her that my daughter used to say, Mom, Ms. Fran seems to know everything about these apps. You don’t seem to know anything about them. And so today she’s going to be sharing with us some of the amazing apps that are [00:01:00] out right now that we can use to make our life better. So over to you, Fran.
Fran: Well, thank you, Paula. It’s an honor to be on here. Yeah. I mean, productivity, what can I say? We all have the same amount of time in the day, but some of us get more stuff done, don’t we? So it can be really challenging and we both have worked for ourselves for a long time now.
Paula: Yes.
Fran: And you have to be really strict about getting stuff done because it’s just very tempting to be out there doing other stuff.
Paula: Oh, yeah.
Fran: So I really think that for a lot of folks, that it’s the environment where you’re actually working, which is the kicker.
Paula: Mm-hmm.
Fran: And I didn’t realize that for the longest time. I just I put my computer in a specific room, you know, worked from home or had a home office and that was where I thought that all my work would [00:02:00] take place. And after some time I realised, no, it’s the environment. Different things need different environments for it to flourish. For example, I have a chair, more like a loveseat actually. But that is the place where I’ll sit and the creativity comes.
Paula: Mmm.
Fran: I will, somehow I can absorb books and just knowledge better there. That’s the spot. If I try and do that at my desk where my computer is, no, that’s not the place. And I found that when I was writing blog posts, that going to the coffee shop was the place where that happened. It wasn’t at my loveseat or at the computer. I had to be out somewhere else. So I really think that working out where your environment is that you can do the best work for the tasks at hand. Once you’ve nailed that, [00:03:00] that’s a big piece of it.
Paula: Wow! So you see guys, I’m learning some of her secrets. I never knew that. I never knew it was the environment that enabled her to write some amazing proposal. When we’d meet, she’d say, Paula, I have this idea. And I’d be like, tell me what it is. And it was always so mind-boggling. So it was the environment. Okay. So that’s tip number one, right?
Fran: Yes. So definitely the environment is huge. And another thing that took me a long time to really understand how important it was for productivity was to have buffers on your calendar. So we’ve got lots of apps and software now that have scheduling and you can put in buffers so that if somebody books at your website that you’re not getting back to back meetings where you’ve got these buffers in there. So that was something that like back in the day doing a lot of networking. I would be [00:04:00] zipping around here, there, everywhere and I didn’t put enough buffers in there and I was always like Well, I’m running a bit late, you know…
Paula: and I laugh because they can relate to that.
Fran: Having the buffers really helps and I tell you a big thing like think about when you go on vacation and then you put maybe in your out of office. You’re gonna be back on whatever date. Don’t put that date down, put another one down, like a day or two after, because otherwise you’ll be back at work, trying to get stuff done that came into your inbox, whatever while you were away, and an inbox is everybody else’s agenda being pushed onto you.
Paula: Yeah.
Fran: So if folks know that you’re back that day, your inbox will be even fuller, so tell them you’re coming back a day later. Gives you the time to get that stuff done before everybody starts loading on you, do this for me, do [00:05:00] that for me, so I found buffers to be very helpful.
Paula: And I can see how that comes into play because you know, many times after a vacation, Let me talk for myself. I’m tired. I’m exhausted. You know, it’s almost like you need a vacation after the vacation.
Fran: Yes.
Paula: So that’s where the buffer comes into play. So if you’re coming back on the 10th, start work on the 12th.
Fran: Or you can start work, you know, whenever, but like, just let folks know that it’s a day later than when you’re actually all going to be back. Right. So I just found that it gives you the time to decompress. Look at The stuff that you know you’ve got to do and it gives you that little bit of extra time.
Paula: I love that. I really do love that. So are there any, like, digital apps that we can put into play that Okay, like the buffers, I know we can put that on our calendars. We [00:06:00] have scheduling tools now, so that’s nice. Part of where the buffers come in. Something else you mentioned. So I’m having a senior moment. .
Fran: So am I.
Paula: So the two of us . Yeah. But you know, as I said, she has always been so good at that. I remember one thing that you taught me too was the the timer. I’m just using a regular timer.
Fran: Yes. So the Pomodoro technique. You guys may have heard of it. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato. So the guy that came up with this idea, apparently he had a kitchen timer that shaped like a tomato. So he just used that to put on like 25 minutes, work on something, focus on something, and then have five minutes off. Rinse and repeat four times. On the fourth go around. You’ve worked for nearly two whole hours and It’s a Pomodoro. Do two of those, [00:07:00] and you’re probably more productive than the average American worker in an office. Which is scary, isn’t it? But, the Pomodoro, I just went to Walmart, I got one of those Better Homes and Gardens. A timer that’s got a little recipe card slot on the top. And I would put, write an index card, put that in the slot. That’s what I was working on for 25 minutes.
Paula: And then at the end of 25 minutes, what did you do? You got up, took a walk, or?
Fran: Put it on for five minutes. And then you go and do something completely different. So if you’re working at the computer, go off and do some laundry, or walk stairs, something completely different. Then you come back, and you start your 25 minutes again. Do that four times. That equals a Pomodoro. Try and do two Pomodoros a day. You’re going to be super, super successful. productive. And it really depends what you’re working on.
I found that if I’m doing sort of boring more [00:08:00] admin type tasks, pomodoros are great. If you’re doing things that are more creative, I find that squeezing that into 25 minutes and saying I have to get, I have to create something amazing in 25 minutes might be a bit difficult.
Paula: Yes.
Fran: But, I’ve found that having that kitchen timer is great because I’d be like Pavlov’s dog. I’d hear the tick tick tick tick tick and I would like typing really fast and I would get much more done, especially like writing something, because like I said, your brain, you’ve got 15 minutes or 25 minutes. Quick, quick, quick, write, write, write and I would knock out stuff. But like I said, it’s not the best for everything. And you are supposed to just work on one thing at a time, but I still kind of like batch things that come into that 25 minutes. Because you can’t always find a task that is in a 25 [00:09:00] minute block, right? As long as you’re focusing on something that I think is all part of like, a little project maybe, have that as your 25 minutes.
So, there’s plenty of apps that have the timer, 25 minutes, maybe show some confetti or something when you’ve done your pomodoro, but really, you can just use a kitchen timer, like I said. And batching then, segue over to batching, that’s a really good way of doing stuff, finding things in your task list that are similar, and just work on those all at once. And maybe batch for, if you don’t like doing pomodoros, you know, say, I’m going to just do this for two hours straight. Some folks like to do every Monday, I’m writing a blog post, two hours dedicated, and that’s set. Right? [00:10:00] So, it depends how you like to do it, but batching and buffering are good.
Paula: The two B’s, batching and buffering. I know for those of us who are, like, doing podcasts and video podcasts and the batching has been perfect because you’re able to, like, you know, if you’re going to do some recording of podcasts, you have three, four guests, people like me who interview guests, and you do the recording of the three or four guests on the same day so that now you have a repository of guests that you can put out for the next four to six weeks, depending on how many guests you have. And that batch recording takes away, you know, having to schedule or reschedule because now you know that everyone is going to come in on that particular, well, different times, of course, and do their recording. So batching has been excellent for me in that way. But segueing off into cameras, I know of an app she told me of called Camo.
Fran: [00:11:00] Well, so Camo may be not so much for productivity.
Paula: No.
Fran: But if you want your videos to look really good, Camo by a company called Reincubate. It allows you to use your camera on your laptop, computer, or you can plug in your phone, and have a continuity camera. But it enables you to adjust the lighting, you know, have the ISO, you have the aperture, you also have gamma, you’ve got vibrant saturation, a whole lot of things. And you can also add layers. So maybe if we were doing this video on Camo, our names could be underneath us and it could say the name of the show. You have a lot of little extras that you can use. But it’s also really good for blurring out your background and making you look like you’ve got that cinematic setting going on your phone.
It’s very good and you can [00:12:00] adjust that very finely. But different environments, different lighting, having something like camo where you can just easily slide the different settings and make your phone look or the output look very similar from environment to environment. Useful. I love Camo.
Paula: I started using Camo but I ran into some problems with it. For some reason, for me, it just wouldn’t sync my mouth with my words. So I’d be talking on camera and I’d be saying something but there was a lag. So I don’t know. You mentioned to me that I should probably reach out to a customer service.
Fran: Yeah. I’ve not experienced that myself.
Paula: Okay.
Fran: So And they’ve got great customer service.
Paula: That’s true. They’re very quick. They’re very efficient. Yeah. All right, folks. So, you know, I told you this was going to be different. I was speaking. I am speaking with the productivity [00:13:00] lady, the productivity queen, the one who my daughter always said, try and be like her. Any last words?
Fran: No.
Paula: That’s a good, that’s an answer. That’s an answer.
Fran: I guess other than don’t beat yourself up if you’re not as productive as you think you should be. I found that over the years I would be just really trying to get stuff done, you know, go, go, go, and then just be disappointed when other things got in the way and my project didn’t get done when I thought it was, etc. Don’t beat yourself up. You can’t be 100 percent productive all the time. You’re going to have ups and downs. That’s just the way it is. And life is going to happen. So add extra time into your estimates for projects, for anything that you’re [00:14:00] doing. If you’re doing pomodoros and stuff, I mean, have buffers. Embrace the buffer. That It’s what I will leave you with.
Paula: Thank you, Fran.
Fran: Thank you. for having me.
Paula: Absolutely. But we still have one more question. If anyone wants to get in touch with you, what’s the best way?
Fran: Probably just visit my website, mobilemarketingmax. com. There’s a link on there to reach me via form or to set up a virtual chat so.
Paula: Awesome and that folks was Fran Jeanes the CEO of Mobile Marketing Max. MMM. Thank you all see you next week.
Fran: Bye everybody.
Paula: Bye.