Tips to refine your daily workflow

Walk away from work accomplished, not drained.

and

Jun 12, 2023

Hi gang! Happy Monday. On topic with our theme of the month: work smarter, not harder, today we’re exploring tools and practices that encourage focus, nurture efficiency and allow us to leave our work at work while feeling accomplished and not totally drained.

Especially in the summer months, when we may have more going on outside of work, it’s nice to take a look at our current ways of working, like how we manage our tasks, how many information and communication streams we have, or which habits keep us from focusing.

I’m angling this edition in the most honest way I can. This is equal parts knowing these tools work because I successfully use them, AND needing to hear this advice myself, as I’m in my own busy-season spiral of time management wins and… learnings. We’re in this together.

Listed below are a few actions or structures to try out to help refine your daily workflow. These are more habit-based, but if you’re itching to know what tools and platforms we have our eyes on when it comes to streamlining your work, Rachel’s got you in next Monday’s edition!

At the end of the day, these tips won’t magically make you have less work, but they will help you move through your work faster, confidently, and with a whole lot more clarity. Which can make you feel less dragged by your work!

Let’s close a few mental tabs, shall we?

1. Select specific times during the day to tackle emails

Instead of constantly having your email tab open in your browser and darting over to it whenever you hear that universal “ping”, try structuring your day with several blocks of time for email-only focus. When it’s not email focus time - close your email tab!

The time you spend will vary based on how much is happening in your inbox, but here’s a general framework I’m trying this week on a 9 am - 5 pm working day:

9-9:45: check new emails and respond to as many as I can, start new threads for upcoming projects/ideas
9:45-10: action on any emails I need more information on before I can respond
12:30-1: second email check - respond to what I can and close loops on open threads
3:30 - 4:15: last email check right before the day closes - I’m leaving a small block of time before the day’s end, in case anything pops up that I need to produce or finish up, based on my emails

I was first introduced to this concept years ago at one of my former companies. The lead merchandising designer explained that doing this allowed him the time he needed to really settle into a creative focus with his daily projects without the anxiety that his always-alive email was looming over him.

Urgent work stuff is bound to come up. Slack, Microsoft Teams, or whatever other chat tool your company uses is for those more time-sensitive pings. Usually, emails can stand to wait at least a few hours for a response. I like to remind myself that if someone really needs to get my attention for something time-pressing, they will, even if I’m not on my emails like a hawk.

2. Batch “like-work” together

A neighboring concept to allotting dedicated inbox time, working on similar projects together can often help save time and brain space. Here’s an example: As a copywriter, I have several clients for whom I write actual email campaigns. Each client sends 1 - 3 emails a week and I might work on up to 10 email campaigns in that timeframe.

Writing emails has a particular flavor! Email copy is punchy, short form, and conversion-driven and it requires my creativity to be honed along these qualities, too. So, though my clients are unique to each other, blocking out a half-day or a full day to tackle email briefs for the week keeps me in the flow! I stay in the short-form mindset all day and as I keep moving through briefs, I find that a certain rhythm or formula appears for me. It doesn’t mean I blanket my briefs with the same ideas, but the structure of the work gets familiar, and with familiarity often comes ease.

3. If you work with multiple clients, assign clients to certain days

I know this isn’t foolproof, especially if client relations is kinda what you’re job is all about or part of your client agreement is to be accessible to them on a daily basis. However, dedicating days to a client or two and focusing on work for only those on that particular day can majorly free up some of that mental frizzle. Bouncing around from one client to the next, to another one after that, and then back to client 2 and then client 1 again and then…. well, you get the picture. It’s like a bad match of pickleball for your mind.

If you freelance and you’ve got several clients that you either have a block of hours for each week or have agreed on dedicated “on” days, you can structure your week to focus on one client at a time. The most challenging bit of this is holding yourself accountable to leave work for your other clients alone until it’s their day. It helps to be honest about when you plan to be on and when you won’t be available for your clients. I’m still growing my sea legs on this particular tip, if you know what I mean.

4. Stack your calls and meetings

If you’ve got four meetings in a day, but they’re scattered throughout the entirety of your working hours, it can be really hard to get anything substantial done in-between them. Set up this way, meetings can feel more like interruptions to your work than valuable conversations to make decisions and ideate on projects.

If you can, try blocking off an afternoon for calls, allowing your morning to be dedicated to self-led work time. Or, the other way around! Start with your meetings and then hone in on your work all afternoon. Most of your meetings are going to come with action items for you post-call, so instead of doing them right away, make a list that you can come back to once you’re done collaborating for the day. You’ll be able to respond to your work and how you’d like to approach it in a way that best suits you, instead of a quick reaction that can sometimes brim with errors or a deliverable you’re not proud of.

5. If you WFH, leave your house and your phone behind

A little while back, we shared a post on how to set up your environment for a productive workday, and while I stand by all those recommendations to build your best WFH setup, sometimes we just. need. new. scenery.

The places we’re most comfortable can also be the places we fall prey to a slew of distractions. And if we’re working from the same place we eat, read, nap, watch tv, hang out with friends, fold laundry or do our next art project, it becomes difficult not to also have those things on the brain as we go about our work day.

Taking yourself to a nearby coffee shop or coworking space on days when you know you need to deep dive and focus on a project helps to train your brain that you’re doing something important, and you’re trip out of the house has purpose. The goal: finish the project!

Leaving your phone behind also signals your dedication to a distraction-less experience and may even shorten the time it takes you to complete what you need to.

Do you have tried and true tips for managing your workload, fostering better focus, or automating your day? Let us know! We’ll be compiling additional tips for paid subscribers at the end of this month in our paid Q+A.

Need to bounce your project management or workday flow ideas off someone? Respond directly to this email or leave a comment on Substack. We’ll throw in our 2 cents at the end of the month. Paid subscribers get access to every single answer.

Be back next week!

Jade