I'm not sure about you, but I know those days when I look back and think, what the heck did I do today? Did I accomplish anything productive? Hmm? What was it? I worked all day, but I feel I’ve got zero to show for it. Please tell me you can relate to this feeling. I'm guessing even the most productive people can have days where they feel incredibly unproductive as if they are spinning their wheels. And that's okay. It happens. The best thing any of us can do is give ourselves grace. First, let’s begin to get curious as to why. Here is one of the first questions I ask myself to get into the weeds of my unproductive day.

Ask Yourself “What’s in your head that’s causing this unproductive day?”

What story is going on in your head that’s causing this? Is this just one day or is it a pattern? Is it that you were unproductive or was your attention on the wrong thing? It’s interesting, one of the patterns that I see in Online Entrepreneurs when they are about to uplevel, they hide in the unproductive busy work to feel safe.

Grab Your Journal

Okay, Friend, grab your journal. Begin by asking yourself the curiosity questions from earlier. By journaling it will help you to drill down into the root cause of what is really going on with your unproductive day.

Daily Journal Hack

One hack that I’ve found is keeping a journal of your day inside of Notion. By journaling a bit everyday it will allow you to look back and look for patterns.

This is a concept that I learned from Marie Poulin and her daily journaling practice. I’ll put a link to her is the link to her YouTube video on using her daily journal in Notion. https://youtu.be/1Z06fqYhNgM

You see what is nice about journaling in Notion, as it has the ability to rolls up your daily journal into a weekly, monthly, and yearly wrap-up. The monthly wrap-up allows you to see how many times during that month were you felt unproductive.

Tracking this leaves clues as to when you are having unproductive days. When you pay attention you’ll begin to see a pattern of your productive over the month. 

Are you curious why this is important. It will allow you to plan for a big launch around your productivity spikes.

What do you do when you recognize that you’re having an unproductive day? Here are my top tips to save an unproductive day if you begin to notice you’re spinning your wheels.

Restart Your Unproductive Day

Can you do something simple to restart your day?

While we are not able to go back in time, we can reset and clear our minds. 

A couple of simple ways to do this is by:

Sitting down for a quick meditation to clear everything and calm your mind. The Insight Timer has great guided meditations.

Perhaps you’d prefer to pick up a journal to write out all the clutter. Or pull open a Google Doc and type it all out.

You see, these are great ways to reset your focus and start your day with a fresh mind.

Allowing you to let go of your unproductive day.

Here is a list of the things that set up a productive day.

• Wrapping up my day with my Journal in Notion. Reflecting on the day, how it went, what I’m feeling.
• Clearing out what’s in my mind and getting all my chicken scratches from my planner and notebook into Notion
• Planning the next day with tasks assigned to time blocks in my planner.
  Prepping the coffee maker
• Making sure my Epic Water Filler is full and my first quart of water is ready to go in a mason jars sitting on the counter.
• Filling the dog food dishes
  Laying out my clothes
• Having my AirPods, iPad, and Pencil ready to go for the morning.

This sets me up to feel productive and organized. By doing so it sets the whole tone for my day.

Prep For Your Week

When you know a busy week is ahead of you, try to get yourself prepared. Take the time on Friday or the weekend to prep for the upcoming week. Prepping for your week cuts down on the decisions you need to make when you're already frazzled.

I make sure that I have my meals planned out and know the days we need leftovers and the days I’ll be home to make a meal. Inside Notion, I have an eight-week meal plan routine. Creating this meal plan removes the dreaded question: What’s to eat, Mom? It cuts down on decision-making after a long day of well decision-making. By having repeat meals, the decision has already been made for you, instead of taking the time to plan your meals or, worse, the in-the-moment decision-making.

My calendar has all the non-negotiable appointments for my business and life. In my planner, based on what needs to be done, I decide on the time blocks for my done-for-you content repurposing clients, private coaching clients, and things that only I can do in my business. 

Planning out the time blocks and when I’ll do the work eliminates the decision of what I will do next. It’s already been prepared,d and I know exactly what I’ll be working on next. This helps with decision fatigue; this is a real thing. Here is a post I’ve written about decision fatigue. https://misstask.com/reduce-decision-fatigue/ 

Look For Your Unproductive Clues

At the end of the week, pay attention to the things that didn't get this done. This leaves clues for you to evaluate.

Ask yourself: Why you didn’t get them done?

Did I schedule too much? Did I estimate the time wrong? If it’s a task that’s been on the list for a few weeks, it’s time to ask if I really want to do this.

Until you get the hang of it, ensure you have buffer time for those just-in-case moments.

It’s Time To Wrap This Up

A quick recap for the skimmers: Feeling unproductive? That's okay. Give yourself grace. Determine if it's a one-off day or a pattern. Restart your mindset. Prepare the night before for a good morning. If you didn't prepare, do the essentials when you can. Evaluate your productivity regularly; it leaves clues for improvement. 

Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Will time blocking help me get more done? Yes, it will!

As online entrepreneurs, you're trying to conquer so many things, and instead of feeling accomplished, you feel unproductive, stuck, and frustrated. At the end of most days, it seems as if the day ran away with a lack of focus, leaving you feeling overwhelmed.

Are you tired of feeling this way and ready to be clear about your day and what needs to be done to move your business forward?

First, jumping around from project to project isn't the secret sauce to success. It all boils down to getting laser-focused and completing essential tasks.

You must be wondering how this happens. 

The solution is simple: it's with time blocking your day. Time blocking breaks your day into an achievable structure. What would it feel like to look back at your day and feel productive and efficient? You'd feel like you won the day, just saying.

No worries, friend, if you're not a planner. It's a life skill you can improve, I pinky swear. I'm guessing you're ready to let go of running your business like a disorganized, headless chicken.

Here’s how you’ll time block:

Power Hours

When are you in your power hours? Do you know the time of day when your productivity superpower comes out? You're about to find out this is different for everyone.

If you're not sure, start paying attention and simply jot down the time of day that you easily and effortlessly completed your work. This would indicate that you're in the power hours of productivity.

Let's make this your first official time block. During this time, use it for a creative project or a project you've been procrastinating on. For me, this is not the first hour of my day. I need a slow start in the first hour of my day. Otherwise, I'll find myself sitting and staring at my computer screen.

Here is an excellent post about Eating Frogs! https://misstask.com/eat-your-frogs/

What are Things to Time Block? 

Let me break it down for you; you can time block hours or choose to have theme days.

But what does that mean? It's simple. You may want to select the days and times for your coaching calls and meetings with your team. You can also designate content creation days.

Perhaps you like to have variety in your day, so you sprinkle in a little bit of everything with themed time blocks. With theme days, you'd pick one primary day for all your meetings and coaching and a secondary day for any overflow meetings or coaching sessions.

In a similar fashion, if you conduct discovery calls in your online business, it would be nice to have a specific day for these calls. Could they possibly be on your overflow meeting day?

Now, this is important: your most productive day of the week should be for creative work only. Here's what I mean: no meetings or anything else that will drain your energy. I love the trend that corporate America is following with designated no-meeting days.

Let me clarify: You may want to divide your days into halves. The trick is to work with your personal power hours. If you find that you're very productive in the afternoons, you could schedule meetings in the mornings and plan your creative work in the afternoons.

During your creative block, you will record your podcast, write your blog, and create your course outline. Here's the big secret: time blocking goes hand in hand with batch creation. When you batch similar work, it will get you into the flow and keep you in the state of flow versus bouncing from one thing to another without completing it from start to finish.

This can be done in many different ways; finding when you feel like a productivity rock star is essential. When I ask a new client about time blocking or batch work, they usually don't do it very well.

Do A Time Audit to Figure Out Your Time Blocks

Another great way to figure out time blocking is to do a time audit for one week. I understand even the thought of time tracking feels like a burden; I say this with love, suck it up, buttercup, it's only for a week.

Most people don't realize how much time they spend on tasks or how easily they are distracted and waste time. 

Here's how it works: time tracking can be done on paper by jotting down the time along with what you're working on or by using time tracking software to track everything. 

If you'd like to try tracking software, I suggest Toggl Track, a great tool offering a free task-tracking plan. https://toggl.com/track/

My Own Example From the Past 

When client work began to fill my days, the creative work for my business went out the window. I was an inconsistent content creator.

Blah, all that time I'd spent building up an audience—well, y'all, that doesn't stay without being nurtured. Unfortunately, this was a business lesson I had to learn for myself.

Then it finally dawned on me that my power hours are in the morning, and my brain is done by 2 or 3 p.m. every day. Now, the first two hours of my workday are dedicated to creating content or the top priorities for my business—also known as the things I'll procrastinate on until the last minute.

Fortunately, there's a simple solution: I work in sprints of time; I set the timer for 50 minutes and pour out all the words. I take a quick break and complete another sprint. And during that time, some days I'll have it all done, others the struggle is real, and I start over a bazillion times.

When planning my day, I know client work does not begin until 9 am. Blocking this time and setting the boundary have also taught me not to say yes to all the things and projects. 

With my people-pleasing, helpful personality, I must not overbook myself. Which was also another business lesson I had to learn for myself. If this is you, be sure to read “Yes to Everything” mindset. https://misstask.com/mindful-yes/

My Time Blocks are Simple 

You must be wondering how I schedule my day. I have a morning routine that was significantly simplified. 

I don't know about you, but when I started my business, I heard people talk about 2-3 hour morning routines. What I found was that an extensive morning routine simply stressed me out. 

For quite a while now, the first hours have been spent with Bible reading, meditation, journaling, and the daily Wordle, and then I go into the office for my priority work block.

Once I'm at my desk, every weekday is content-focused while I enjoy several cups of coffee. A bulk of my day is reserved for my done-for-you content repurposing clients, and coaching clients are in the afternoons or every other Friday.

Stay with me now; 98% of the time, the block is consistently scheduled at the same time every day. Keeping the schedule consistent has the added bonus of reducing the decisions I must make about what I'm working on.

Flexible Friday! This day is a wildcard for me. I may have coaching calls, podcast interviews, or a travel day. Fridays are the days that I enjoy the freedom that comes with entrepreneurship.

This is a typical Monday – Thursday Schedule
5:30-6:30: Morning Routine
6:30-8: Power Block: Top Priorities for the day
8-9: Eat, Get Ready, Walk With The Dogs 
9-10: Client Block 
10-11: Client Block
11-12: Client Block
12-1: Client Block
1-2: Client Block
2-3: Client Block
3-4:30: Walk With The Dogs, Strength Training
4:30-5:30: Wrap Up Work Day, Look Ahead to Tomorrow and Finish Anything Undone

Will this schedule stay the same for years to come? Nope, but it is what works right now in this season of my life.

It Is Time To Wrap This Up!

If you're ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and start making tangible progress in your business, now is the time to take action. With the power of time blocking and focused productivity strategies, you can transform your daily routine and achieve more than you ever thought possible. Don't let another day slip by feeling unproductive and frustrated.

By identifying your power hours, creating a structured schedule, and focusing on essential tasks, you can break free from the overwhelming cycle of unproductivity and take control of your business. Remember, it's okay to start small and make adjustments as you go. Embrace the journey of self-discovery and be patient with yourself as you develop these new habits. With consistency and dedication, you'll soon find yourself accomplishing more than you ever thought possible, all while enjoying the freedom and satisfaction that comes with a thriving online business. Once you take that first step with time blocking, you will be amazed at how much more productive you become.