How I Work a 40+ Hour Week in 20 Hours (or, My 6 Best Productivity Tips for Multi-Passionate Peeps) - When I Grow Up

How I Work a 40+ Hour Week in 20 Hours (or, My 6 Best Productivity Tips for Multi-Passionate Peeps) - When I Grow Up Ever since Baby Girl arrived, Ive been averaging a 20 hour work week. I spend most mornings with her while my husband does his freelance and writing work, and then, in the afternoon, I get a handful of hours to work until we all have our downtime together around 5ish. Sometimes, I work for an hour or two after dinner, too. Its odd, because I really havent cut back on my commitments and yet, I dont feel like Im doing any less than I was pre-baby.  Heres whats on my WIGU plate currently: working with my one-on-one clients getting ready to launch the 3rd Annual Multi-Passionate Must-Haves  bundle wrapping up Career Camp, a group program Ive since retired co-running Its Business Time working on my rebrand and site launch for mid-August firming up  a new CreativeLive class, Ditch Your Day Job putting out a new Grown Up Gigs podcast twice a month keeping up with general maintenance, like weekly blog posts and newsletters, staying on top of my finances, giving interviews, answering emails, etc. As a multi-passionate person, the THE WORST THING  (caps necessary to show my level of seriousness about this) we can do is to force ourselves to Pick One Thing. Thankfully, Ive never given myself that ultimatum and dont plan to start. I feel focused, productive, and confident about following through on my projects thanks to the systems Ive put into motion. Here are my 6 Best Productivity for Multi-Passionate Peeps Tips: For the love of all thats holy, turn off the social media notifications on your phone. Ive never had them on for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. and even seeing someone elses going off makes me nuts. These social media networks are not pagers and should not demand your immediate attention. And believe me, I spend too much time on Facebook just like the rest of the world, but I deal with my (totally non-urgent) notifications and messages when Im in there mindfully. I refuse to be at the  beck and call of inanimate websites! Use a project management system to break things down into bite-size steps and assign deadlines to each piece of a project.  I love me some Teamwork.com, but its not the prettiest and you might not need all the bells and whistles. It honestly doesnt matter what platform you use (or if you stick to a plain old paper calendar) what  does matter is that you assign each Big Goal a deadline, and then break that Big Goal down into Action Steps and assign  those a deadline.  That way, every time you sit down to work you dont have to spend time clarifying or stressing what to do. Your system tells you whats on the docket, and you can check things off by working on what feels like the funnest easiest at the time. I swear its not cheating! Compartmentalize your work. One of the best things Ive done is to put all of my client sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays, with rare exceptions. When I had my client calendar open five days a week, I felt way too scattered and unfocused. Now, I know that those 2 days are primarily for my sessions, Wednesdays are for writing, Thursdays are for project work and Fridays are for admin and catch-up. Sure, it doesnt usually work out that cleanly (Im usually emailing with clients every week day, and Im actually writing this blog post on a Tuesday instead of on a Writing Wednesday), but by taking myself off the hook for other work on those assigned days, I feel much more clear on what takes priority for the day (and what to schedule when). Designate one day/week to be call- and appointment-free. This is also something that doesnt happen  all the time, but it happens most weeks and it is the most refreshing. These are usually the days I wind up at a coffee shop and plow through my to-do list in record time. Use the Passion Planner for weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews and plans.  A year or so ago, I created my own reviewing and planning worksheets that quickly felt like a chore. They were long, they were dry, and I itched to get away from the computer. I love my Classic  Passion Planner, where I pretty much ignore the calendaring piece (I use Google cal + my project management system for that) and pay attention to the mind maps, review sheets, and Good Stuff That Happened This Week spaces. I use the blank pages to record my Yes and Nos (Im being really mindful of them, and aim to have the Nos be more plentiful than the Yes right now), plan for the next month or quarter, and record my money stuff for that month/quarter. It usually takes me less than 15 minutes/week to do, and I break out the markers to  make it purdy! Delegate What You Never Get To as opposed to What You Dont Wanna Do.  For years, Ive used VAs to do the things I didnt wanna/hafta: load my blog posts and newsletters, schedule social media updates, etc. For years, I was spending lots of money and couldnt quite find the right person. When I knew I had to severely cut my spending last year (I spent 46% of my income in 2013, and I was able to half that in 2014), I let go of the VA piece first. I loaded my own blog posts and newsletters. I did my own client calendaring and communication. And guess what? It was fine. No big deal. Sure, I couldve used that time to make money in a client session, but I wouldnt I can only do so many each week before I burn out, and Im always at capacity with my clients. Last summer, I got approached by a super smart and funny lady who I knew IRL. She wanted to pick my brain about my biz and see if there was a way we could work together. I knew right away that I could afford to use her for about 10 hours/mo nth to do the things I always put off namely, researching how to start a podcast and making recommendations as to what platforms and equipments to use. Then, she became my Grown Up Gigs gal, reaching out to potential guests, getting them on the calendar, telling them what we needed, etc. She even made a list of websites to send a press release to, and wrote and emailed everyone!  Without Jamie, Grown Up Gigs would not have launched until 2016ish (if at all). Ive yet to come across a time management system that works for every multi-passionate person, so take your time to experiment with the tips above or anything else you know is a foundational piece for you! If you must have accountability, for example, join a group or take a class or work with a coach so you have built-in follow-up. If you know  that a daily check-in at the end of the day at work makes a difference in your productivity for the next day, do that at home around your personal projects. Take it step by step and youll find your own successful systems! Whats the one tip above that youre gonna try? What productivity hack of yours has most helped you follow through? Let me know in the comments!