Brittany Dixon: Famous three Ps of productivity.
So it’s process, plan, and prepare.
So basically, I take all of my notes on GoodNotes on my iPad, and the processing piece of this for me is I basically scroll back through all the notes I’ve taken from clients and meetings and calls and anything.
I put a star next to action items, and I make sure those go into Asana. If it’s a calendar item, I make sure it goes into the calendar.
If there’s something that I need to do for follow-up, basically I take anything that has action to it and put it in Asana or where it needs to go.
So I’m processing the day. That really helps me shut my brain off and make sure I’m not forgetting things.
So then the next piece is planning.
So I plan for my week on Fridays, but we all know Monday comes and that goes to shit.
Yeah, I plan for the week, but then on Monday at the end of the day, I will basically recalibrate that plan and make sure I look at the calendar.
I’m like, “Okay, cool. Here’s the meetings I have.”
I make sure there’s buffer time, and then I look at my tasks and basically say, “Where are those tasks going to fit in between those meetings, and if they don’t fit, how can I shift them?”
So I’m essentially laying out the roadmap for the next day.
And then prepare sounds a lot like plan, but it’s honestly me getting any materials ready that I need to execute the plan.
So if I’m recording a podcast, I make sure I have the outline.
If I have a client call, I make sure I have their notes up and I have bullet points of what we’re talking about.
I’m basically preparing all the stuff I need so that when I hit the ground running the next day, if the kids are late or we have a delay for school or whatever happens, I can still sit down at my computer and I have a plan.
Because I saw so many entrepreneurs, myself included, would sit down at 9 a.m. and they’re like, “What do I do? What am I working on?”
And then it’s like information overload.
Your team needs you.
Here’s emails.
Here’s texts.
And then it’s 2:00 and you’re like, “I literally got nothing done.”
Brittany Dixon: Yeah, but that happened.
What exactly did I do?
I feel like I’m doing so much but yet getting nothing done.
Brittany Dixon: The process of the three Ps, I’m telling you, was a freaking game changer in my business because I was processing what happened.
I was able to shut it off, and I had a plan before I even went into the next day.
So I could literally sit down and hit the ground running.
Now, does that still go awry sometimes? Abso-freaking-lutely. Stuff pops up, whatever.
That’s where boundaries and filters and notifications and so many things come into play.
But that alone made stuff stop slipping through the cracks because I kept forgetting about stuff that I wrote down and then did nothing with, right?
Yeah, I was able to actually sit down and know what I was working on versus going into it completely blind.
So I honestly think that was probably what got me to scale so quickly.
Sabrina Chevannes: That’s amazing.
I feel like it’s funny because I use Asana and I love it too, but I still have a Productivity Planner notebook. Like, I love it.
So I have the Intelligent Change Productivity Planner.
I don’t know if you guys have that over there, but I love it.
Any listeners who want a discount code? Yeah, I can see that.
But I actually just love them because even though we’re a digital agency and this is what we do, we utilize everything. We use Asana 100%.
But the reason why I love this particular planner is not only does it have an inspirational quote every day, so it kind of lets you soak that in, which I love, but it does that “one thing” thing.
So it gives you, for example, your week goals and makes you think ahead about your weekly goals.
And then it asks you, “What is your one thing for today? If you are happy that you got done, what is it?”
So every day you feel better.
And then it does the next tasks and asks, “What are the next tasks?”
And then it has the Pomodoro Technique where you do 25 minutes at a time and it makes you circle them.
You predict how long you think it’s going to take, and then you actually write how long it took.
It’s like a planner and self-reflection guide in one.
So I’m like, “Okay, so I thought it was gonna take three times 25 minutes, but it took eight. What?”
Brittany Dixon: Everything takes much longer than you think it will.
If you think it’s going to take five minutes, it’s going to take an hour.
And if you’re unorganized and have no systems, it’s going to take longer than that because you’re not able to find things.
So literally everything that you do, just plan on at least double.
Sabrina Chevannes: Yeah.
And so I think it’s great because it makes you reflect. You think, “Why did that take so much longer?”
At the end of the day, it asks you to rate your own productivity out of 10, which I loved.
And then sometimes I forget to use them.
I wasn’t productive again. Well, that’s probably why.
So actually I still need it. I still love the old-school writing.
Brittany Dixon: Yeah, and actually I use my iPad, and this is actually just like a notepad with check marks beside it.
And when I plan out, I actually map out my appointments.
So I’m like, “07 a.m., this is what I have.”
And then I go in and fill in the tasks between because then I can kind of see the full picture.
But I love the quote piece though.
What I found with most planners is I like so many pieces of them that I just need to create my own basically.
Sabrina Chevannes: You should. That is exactly what you should be doing because I have a friend as well who has one that is amazing, but it’s way bulkier because it’s got so much value in it.
So she’s got everything to do with your whole life.
She’s got finances, your personal life, wellness, and everything.
And she created that because that’s what her jam was, and she found that she couldn’t work with other planners, so she did that.
So again, shout out to her. She’s amazing. She was actually on a podcast episode.
She does mind maps, and I love it because I mind map.
So it’s just an amazing journal as well.
So I leave that one here because it’s quite bulky, but it’s got coloring, it’s therapeutic, and I just love it.
So journals are great. I think they are so much fun, and they’ve definitely helped my productivity.
But I feel like this last 45 minutes has been some of the most productive time because I feel like the knowledge I’ve got from you has maybe gained hours of my life, which is amazing.
So I really like, you know, to all the listeners who are thinking, “Right, how the hell do I get in touch with her because I need her in my life?”
How do listeners get in touch with you?
Brittany Dixon: Yeah, for sure.
So I hang out on Instagram and then in my community the most.
So Instagram is Brittany Dixon Consulting for my handle, and then the community is the Productivity Pod Community Co.
We actually host it on Mighty Networks. It’s similar to a Facebook group, but Facebook’s really distracting, so I wanted a different platform.
And we do so much fun stuff.
We have a happy hour every month.
We do office hours where you can pick my brain completely free.
We also have coffee chats so members can connect, and there’s a messaging function in there.
So we really are just on a mission to help people reach that true end goal of productivity, which is having a meaningful, impactful life and business but not working 27 hours a day, right?
So those are probably the two best places, and then our website’s just BeCoHQ.com.
Sabrina Chevannes: Perfect.
So I’m going to put all those links in the show notes so that everyone can hit you up.
But thank you so much for being on the show today. It has been amazing.
Brittany Dixon: Thank you so much for having me. This has been great.