My #1 BEST Productivity Tool

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Do you have something you need to get done today? It's been sitting on your to do list and it is just time to get it done. So I'm going to share my number one best productivity tool with you today. Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I. I am the best selling author of over 40 books and the list keeps growing. I'm the creator of authoraudienceacademy.com I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message and in a way that doesn't feel self promotional and pushy. So welcome to this training. One of the biggest things that I've learned for productivity is the simple task of using.

A timer.

A timer is my number one productivity tool and I teach this technique in my seven day writing challenge. If you haven't joined us yet, you can sign up for free@writingweek.com you get all my training, you get the videos, you get the take action, you get comments where you can interact with me and others and you get all the downloads. You get tons of training. And in that training, I actually give you a $27 value software that can also help you. It's a timer, it's called Productivity Coach and so you can try that as well. So whether it's a kitchen timer, a software that you use like Productivity Coach, which you can get for free@writingweek.com or it's a timer on your phone or online, they have online stopwatches or online timers. What happens is your brain gets a deadline. So it's called time boxing. So you say, I'm going to set a timer for 25 minutes. This is called the Pomodoro technique. My timers, right now, I have them on 25 minutes. Now you can use whatever time works best for you. I coach with authors and some of my authors will say they'll set the timer for an hour or let's set it for 45 minutes. So use whatever time works best for you, set the timer and then just do that one task. Use a timer. Anytime you need to get something done and you're dreading it, you're putting it off, you're procrastinating, you're surfing on Facebook. Set the timer. Whether it's household tasks, whether it's personal tasks, whether it's business tasks, whether it's writing, a timer can help. So let me tell you A story. I had to write a letter. It was a letter for a mailing to go out to a bunch of different potential speaking engagements and, you know, try to get some speaking, some bookings. I needed to write this cover letter. I'd been putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. It just felt so hard for me. It felt like I don't know what to write, I don't know what to do. And finally I was able. I just said, okay, I'm going to take my own advice. I set a timer and I set it for 25 minutes. I sat down, I got out my notes, I wrote that cover letter. And then you take a five minute break. So after the 25 minutes, the Pomodoro technique is you work for 25 minutes, then you take a five minute break. So I worked for 25 minutes, then I took a five minute break. And then I think it was one more 25 minute session. I was done. I had been putting this task off for, for months and I finally got it done. What was my secret timer? Timeboxing gives your brain a deadline, but it also removes all other distractions. So you turn off Facebook, you turn off email, you turn off instant message, you put your phone in airplane mode for those 25 minutes and you say, for these 25 minutes, I'm going to do this one task. You focus, you focus your energy in. This is powerful. I've had my clients and coaching clients say, shelly, this is a game changer. And all it is is a simple timer. So what do you need to do today that you have been putting off? Whatever it is, if it's laundry, if it's going and doing some errands, Sometimes I just put off doing errands because you have to go out and it interrupts my day and my flow. Do you need to write a letter? Do you need to edit your next chapter of your book? Do you need to do some things for marketing? Do you need to write an email? For your email list, what is it you need to do today? So what are your best productivity tips? I have a ton of them. I share them all in my 30 day writing challenge. But you can get started in the first seven days for free@writingweek.com. it's not just free for authors. Whatever writing you do, whether it's blog posts or it's emails or whatever writing you do for your business sales pages, you can use this challenge to help you. And then the full 30 day challenge, you'll get an opportunity to join that. And it Has a ton of productivity tips for you. I mean, 90% of people will tell me that they love the Pomodoro technique and the timer. So if you're a person that it doesn't work for, no worries. But try it. It's like there's something magical that happens in your brain when you set that timer and you say, okay, this is the one thing. What is the number one most important thing you need to get done today? You give a priority to your task. You say, I'm going to go do it. And then you set the timer and you turn off all the other distractions and you focus. There has been one thing I can really credit a lot of my success to this last year and a half and it's focus, focus, focus, focus and being able to focus on my highest impact tasks. I'm going to be doing a live video on this topic soon. So if you're not subscribed to my live videos, make sure you subscribe@shellyhits.com FacebookLive or it's the pin post on my page and I'm going to be talking about what are those high impact tasks? 20% of your efforts will produce 80% of your results. So, so if you find, okay, this is my 20% and then you say, I'm going to get this done, I'm going to focus, I'm going to set my timer and I'm going to get er done. Let's get her done. So many times we're just overwhelmed. So what do I do? I get out my bullet journal and I have another video on my bullet journal if you're interested. And I do a brain dump. I'm in the process of hiring staff right now, virtual assistants. And so I, I think it was yesterday, like 1, 2, 3, 4. I have four pages of just notes and stuff. I had to get it out of my head onto paper and then I just did the next thing. So you break those big tasks and you do a brain dump. You get it all out of your head because otherwise it's just spinning around up there and causing stress and anxiety. And I need to do all these 100 things. You just need to do the next thing, do the next best thing, set that timer and do it. So what is your next thing you need to do? What thing have you been putting off? Maybe you need to research some keywords for your book and you've just been lazy about it and haven't done it because you feels overwhelming. Set the timer, do it. Maybe you need to sit down and Write an email to your list that has a great story about you and you need to really just sit down and write it. That's something that I don't really just. I'm a prolific content creator. But to sit down and write an email and share it in a way that's entertaining and informative and shares a personal story, that still is hard for me. So sometimes get out my timer and just do it, you guys. Sometimes we simply have to just set a timer and do it. It doesn't get any easier. Like, copywriting is not my favorite thing. I love teaching. Teaching like this. Encouraging. Encouraging is my thing. I love encouraging you. I love teaching, I love delivering content. I love sharing what I'm learning. But sitting down to copyright, it's like, ugh, okay, you know, but sometimes, like, I just have to set the timer and do it. Because copywriting is one of the 20%. The task for me that's going to bring 80% of my results. And it probably will for you too. I mean, if you're in any kind of business, you know, copywriting includes writing the descriptions of your books, writing emails to your list, writing blog titles, writing social media posts sometimes. And so it's a really important thing. But sometimes I don't know if anyone else is this way, but sometimes I'm just like, oh, I dread it. Sometimes we just need to set the timer and do it. Because many times, and I just talked about this on my video yesterday. Many times, the things we resist and the things we put off are the things that are going to have the biggest impact. They're going to be the things that grow our business, that get our message to more people, that help us with the marketing. Writing those emails to my list, I recently did this. I'm working with a business coach and she was like, shelly, you need to do this. I sat down, wrote out my email. I had my story that I was going to share. And you know what? It was a lot easier than I was dreaming. Sometimes we make it harder. We just think about all this and we're like, I'm not good at this. Or we tell ourselves a story like, this is too hard, or I'm not good at this. And then we put it off. Where when I sat down to write it, it just flowed and it came. I sent it to her for feedback and she was like, I was almost gonna tell you that this was perfect because it was so good, but I do think you could add this. And I thought, I'm so bad at copywriting and I can't do this and this is hard. And guess what? Stinkin thinkin'. Anyone else been plagued by stinkin thinkin lately? And many times we're plagued in the areas that are gonna have the biggest impact. They're gonna have the biggest results. And this copywriting thing has been plaguing me, but I am more than an overcomer in Christ who gives me strength. Amen. And you are too. YouTube. You can do this. And so get that timer out, whether it's a regular one or on your iPad. Do it. You can also download the productivity Coach software@rightyweek.com you know, many times I just posted this on my page today. Action cures fear. So sometimes it's fear we think we're not good enough or we're fearing that we're going to mess something up or I don't know, there's fear of some sort. And action. Even a little action. What is the next little thing you can do? The next little step that you can do? Many times that will cure fear and it will get us rolling. It's like, get the ball rolling. And once you get rolling, it's like, oh. And like for me with copywriting, when I wrote that email and then my coach actually said it was near perfect, I was like, you've got to be kidding me. This girl? No way. But it was like, wow, I can actually do this. This is something that I can do. And I'm going to continue to keep refining that skill. We can keep learning and growing as we go. Again, this is Shelley Hitz and go to writingweek.com if you have not signed up yet for my free writing challenge and I'll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.