“You’re so productive!”
“With three kids and a business to run, how do you find the time?”
People say this to me all the time. For a long time I wasn’t sure how to answer. I would start to say, “Oh no, not really,” but that wasn’t true. The truth is I actually enjoy being a really productive person. I love to get stuff done.
I’m someone who gets a lot done in a day and it’s not because I work faster than anyone else, it’s because I work efficiently.
The One Touch Method
I want to focus on one efficiency method in particular that helps me get more done every day, both as a business owner and as a mother. This is a method referred to as “one touch” and I didn’t invent it, but I have figured out ways to apply it my tasks each day and it’s really a simple concept. Here’s how it works: when you touch something, complete it. Touch it once and see it through to the end.
Apply it to Running a Household
One touch helps me run an efficient household. Pick the cereal bowl up from the table, rinse it, and put it into the dishwasher. If I’ve picked it up, I’ve touched it which means I should finish working with it
completely. This way dishes go from the table to their final destination, and not into the sink sink where I’d have to wash them later.
In fact (and this is slightly off topic, but relevant to making time for my own creativity) I do everything under my power to get all household tasks accomplished while my kids are home and with me. Folding laundry, cleaning, making calls, prepping dinner, I strive to get all of these tasks started and finished while I’m being mom. Later, when I’m being an artist or a business person, I don’t need to address these tasks
again. I’m by no means perfect in this aim, but most of the time I succeed in completing “mom” tasks while being mom.
Apply it to Running a Business
I apply one touch to my creative business, too, especially when it comes to email. Whenever possible, I respond to email right away. There’s no worse feeling than knowing that you’ve got a backlog of 200 emails waiting for your attention. I’ve found that almost all email can be addressed the same day you get it. Your response may not be absolutely perfect, but you responded and most of the time that’s more important than perfection.
One touch is useful for staying organized, too. If you pick up a piece of paper, don’t just put it back where it was. File it, or mail it, or read it and throw it away. You’ve touched it once so now you need to make a decision about it’s final destiny.
One Touch Helps You Follow Through
Using the one touch method helps you to build a reputation as someone who follows through. Kids appreciate that and so do business colleagues. Those pants you promised to shorten for the six-year-old? Instead of folding them and putting them down next to your machine, sit down and shorten them while they are in your hands. Done! She’ll be so thrilled to wear them to school tomorrow. And very often
companies turn again and again to a particular freelancer not because they are necessarily the most talented, but because they are reliable. Following through makes people happy.
Efficient people are productive and meet their deadlines, they respond to emails and get back to you promptly. Efficient people follow through on their promises and are dependable. As a magazine editor, would you rather work with an artist who was incredibly talented but was flaky and unreliable, or an artist that consistently produced good work on time and up to your specifications? Make it easy for people to hire you twice.
Now You’ve Carved Out Time To Be Creative
The best part of one touch is that it affords you free time to be creative. Don’t spend your evening loading the dishwasher. Don’t pull an all-nighter before a big assignment is due, leaving you wiped out the next day. Work efficiently and find the time to do what you love.
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Do you consider yourself to be an efficient person? What gets in your way? And if you have a particular technique that helps you get more done in a day I’d love to hear about it!
I create mini-deadlines for myself throughout the day, with built-in time for short periods of unproductiveness or day dreaming. If I think it will take me an hour to get a task done, but I also want to go to the gym, lets say, and its 9 AM, then I will write down a note that the task will be completed by 10:45 and I will then go to the gym by 11:15, as an example.
Also if its easy, just do it. You never know what will come up later.
I’m about to trial launch a business at the end of next month for one of my business classes this semester. Along with my real job there’s a ton of things to keep track of. By not seeing the months I was making myself crazy. So I got a dry erase calender and wrote down my deadlines and when I should be thinking of finalizing my ideas. For certain things I gave my self two weeks and wrote in personal and professional appointments. I also put in my prep for my chickens and the trip to get them. Everything was color coded so it gave priority. At a glance I can see what things I have to look forward too (a trip to ny to get my chickens!) and very important tasks that could get lost or done last minute. At the bottom of the calender I wrote a few little mantras to keep me on track and to prevent freak outs.
I worked like this the last time I was in college and as a visual color coded person the act of writing up the calender helped with feeling overwhelmed and now I’m on track!
I’m really struggling with this, so this is a timely topic. I need to be better about being honest with myself about the fact that there are things I don’t like to do and that putting them off isn’t really helping.
Little mini deadlines work great, as does scheduled time for daydreaming!
I have a dry erase board in my studio where I keep track of upcoming projects. Nothing beats the feeling of erasing items off that list!
I think this is brilliant–but now how do I overcome the inevitable strategy of never touching anything? 😉
Ha! That's hilarious, Melissa. I'm imagining you standing in the center of a room with your hands by your sides being sure to touch nothing!
I started a blog about two months ago and said I’d do my best to post about a creative act done each day. The blog is my short term goal trigger I suppose, but it’s effective coz I don’t like breaking a streak – it’s not neat!
I’m a sahm and my husband and I do the one touch thing a lot, without having heard about it! The kitchen and dining room fare well here. Unfortunately, there is half a room of things that are part way through their touch, including mag subscriptions…
Anyhow, my other strategy is nibbling. I keep my current project ready and waiting and it means I can do a 5min nibble without having to set up or dig my brain out of the depths of the task. It helps when I’ve fed myself and bub may wake ‘any time from now’. ‘m not sure what will happen when my 7-month-old gets mobile. She’s lteady pretty grabby but not crawling. The tide will rise I’m sure!
I love the term "nibbling." My art practice changed substantially once I had a dedicated work space where I could pick up and put things down whenever I had a spare moment. Especially with kids, not having to clean up and set up is a huge plus!
I find it helpful to understand my best way to work as well. For instance, pattern writing for me is a morning task. No way can my brain attempt that stuff after dinner. Hand sewing, stuffing etc, after dinner? – no hassle.
Also trying to keep an ordered workspace saves so much time. It is hard but clear large ziplock bags for each project are my true friends.
These little tips and tricks that keep us productive and organized are the key to working efficiently. Thank you for sharing yours, Jodie!
Interesting to find out a method I (sort of!) follow has a name. I agree that if something is put to one side it easily gets forgotten, so I try to reply to emails, fulfill obligations etc. as soon as I can. As I have a day job as well as the creative work, I tend to have one day a week where I totally blitz the housework so that for the rest of the week I just have to do the bare minimum in order to keep it all running – it helps that my children are grown and theoretically don’t need me running round after them.
If I have a lot of work, list making helps – it makes me look at what is outstanding, prioritise and there is a great feeling of satisfaction being able to cross things off. I have a long ‘post it’ note on my computer screen which ensures I don’t lose the list – no excuses!
It also helps not to be too precious about what needs to be done around the house – sometimes a job really can wait until another day.
These are great tips, Caroline. I'm a big fan of lists. I always say, "If it isn't on my list, it isn't getting done." Consequently my list is always very long, but having it helps me relax. I know everything is spelled out there so I don't have to have it all swirling in my head.
This is what I do, too! It really helps, especially with email.
It ends up being a real time saver. Even if my reply is, “Thanks, I have (writing x) on my to-do list for next Wednesday” (and put it on my list, then it’s taken care of.
Exactly. I think it's always nice to respond to someone, even if it's just to say that you have read their email and have added them to your list for a particular day. Then they aren't left wondering if you received it and they feel good knowing that they are on your radar. It's polite and it's good business practice, too.
Sometimes it seems that the only way I get things done is when I am procrastinating something else!
My head gets full of ideas and makes me dizzy. I need to stop thinking and get on with it. And schedule downtime.
I am the same way!
My husband has been telling me forever to just finish what I start, put things back where they go, and to calm down.
She just made it sound so nice and easy! I think I can, I think I can!
Wow, I really needed to read this! I am constantly asking myself why I can’t ever seem to get things done. People make excuses for me, that I have children and this and that, but I see so many other people with more children and other things to take up their time, but who manage to get so much more done than me. I will definitely be giving this a try! 🙂 Lisa
It is tricky, Lisa, and I’m certainly not always as productive as I could be. I do find this one touch method works well for me. And I try to get everything done while the kids are awake and with me so that my time when they are asleep or at school is truly my own.
Good to hear you do your house chores while your children are with you. I do the same as well and if I need to do house work while my little one is asleep, it’s because I wasn’t organised and focused enough. I have a few friends who put their children in day care so they can catch up with the house work. Gaah…poor use of time! I’d rather be sewing up a storm and building my business, too! Thanks for the post.
I think everyone is different. My approach certainly wouldn’t be the right one for all moms, but it does work well for me and keeps me very happy!
Thank you so much for this post!
Although I’ve heard this suggestion before and tried using it, I had forgotten it or not really established the habit. I liked that you gave several examples including work, family, and chores. I have a major cleaning out/putting things away project to do and I’m going to do my best to use this. Thanks!
You’re comment about hemming the pants really convicted me. I had made necklaces for all of my children and all but one of them broke their necklace in some manner and asked me to fix it. The last one broke about 4 months ago and I have not fixed even one of them yet! And they required after them for a while and I kept putting it off to the point where they don’t even ask anymore. This week I’m going to take one day to sit down and restring all of them! I don’t want to be a disappointment to my children and I want them to learn to be reliable., like I’m going to be from now on! Thanks for having such an awesome and inspiring blog!