Career Advice

My favorite hack for being more productive is using a pomodoro timer. As someone who can be easily distracted, working in social media can be especially challenging (anyone ever suddenly scrolling through a page about starting a hobby farm when you started out doing market research? lol).I like to use an app called Be Focused. It lets you create your to-do list for the day and to set how long you want your working sessions and breaks to be. I like to do 25 minutes of work, followed by a 3 minute break, 3x. On the third round, I get a longer 10 minute break. My rule is no phone during the short breaks, only during the long one!This process has helped me be so much more productive and focused over the past year!

Making your bed in the morning goes beyond just shuffling around your sheets to make things look a little less messy. It may be a small task, but it sets the tone for having a productive day. This action encourages you to tackle other items throughout the day and helps start the day with a sense of accomplishment and order 😀

I personally cannot function if all of my work things are not in order!! To keep everything in order, I make sure that everything is documented and lives in our internal intranet. It doesn’t do anyone good if it just lives on my computer! I make sure things are clearly organized and uploaded so everyone has access.  I also rely so heavily on PM tools to keep me organized. I’ve used ClickUp, Wrike and Asana at previous orgs and at my new org we use Loop. Loop isn’t the best of the PM tools out there, but it still helps get what i need done to help me remember all of the little things that are so easy to forget!

If I am feeling overwhelmed and scattered, it helps to focus on my breathing and transform the anxiety into productive energy that I can channel into work. 

It used to be that, unless I was in a meeting, my door was always open and my online status was always “available.” It never occurred to me to do it any differently until one day, when I was overwhelmed with tasks I needed to complete and venting to my boss, that she told me to just shut my door and set up a “do not disturb” message. I had a bit of a “I’m allowed to do that?” moment before I took her advice, and lo-and-behold, cranked out all my tasks in record time!So, my advice, don’t be afraid to shut everyone else out for a little while and prioritize your time. My door is still open most of the time, and I love chatting with my coworkers, but it’s also nice to know that if I never need some time to really focus on a task, I can just shut my door and turn off my notifications for a bit.We use Outlook and Microsoft Teams at my job. If you do, too, I really recommend diving into the settings and customizing your notifications to your preferences (though, I’m sure

For me, one of the ways I’ve always stayed productive is by balancing my checklist each morning.The two things I am always sure to do are:Plan 1-2 easy <5min tasks first thing, to drive up my sense of accomplishment and feel some motivation for longer, deeper projects. Have a bank of 5-20min tasks that I can jump to when I fatigue on a bigger project. This helps to change things up and keep the momentum running.These tasks don’t always have to be “work” related to. It might just be cleaning my personal inbox. Scheduling a doctors appointment, ordering dog food, anything like that.

My go-to productivity tool is a simple paper booklet divided into a "To Do" list and an "Ideas" list. Crossing off tasks keeps me focused, while the "Ideas" section captures inspiration without interrupting my workflow. At the end of the week, I review my ideas to turn them into actionable tasks for the next week. Simple, satisfying, and effective!

Each day, I focus on 1 big task, 3 medium tasks, and 5 smaller tasks. This rule helps me stay realistic about what I can accomplish, while also ensuring I tackle important priorities without feeling overwhelmed. Breaking my workload into manageable chunks like this has significantly improved my focus and efficiency. I don’t have to accomplish all of the big task, but knowing that I’m putting in work on it helps make sure I’m staying on track.

☝️ This one feels so obvious and (almost) goes without saying, but you should only have one top priority. 🗓️ When you start your day, focus in on one priority to measure your success against. Starting your day by saying “my top priorities are scheduling social posts, brainstorming new content, and answering emails” can feel overwhelming and impossible to achieve. “My top priority is scheduling content.” You can do that! Focus in, be honest with yourself, and declare your one top priority for the day.

My productivity tip is a good old fashion pen and paper to do list. Nothing feels as good as crossing something off your list!

Here's how it works:Choose a task: Pick one specific task to focus on. Set a timer: Work on that task with intense focus for a set time (e.g., 25 minutes). Take a short break: Step away from your work completely for 5 minutes. Stretch, grab a coffee, or do something non-work related.   Repeat: Continue this cycle throughout your workday.Why it works for me:Improved focus: Knowing I have a limited time to work on a task helps me avoid distractions and stay laser-focused.   Increased energy: The short breaks prevent burnout and keep my energy levels up throughout the day. Reduced procrastination: Breaking down tasks into smaller chunks makes them feel less daunting and easier to start.   Enhanced creativity: Stepping away from my work allows my

As a social media manager/ parent/ person with lots of interests and activities, the distractions are endless. I frequently have ideas when reviewing feeds or working on projects, but in order to stay on task during dedicated project or task time, I have a “parking lot” where I write down or screenshot any ideas I want to revisit. I block time weekly to review this list. During that time, they’re either deleted, filed away, or lead to inspiration or new projects. This helps me reduce the number of “SQUIRREL!!” moments during focused periods of work. Would love to hear what works for others!

I find that sitting in the same environment day in and day out - whether you work from home or in office - can often stifle productivity and creativity.If you have the flexibility, work from a coffee shop for a few hours or even just work from a different room in your home (the kitchen table instead of your office) or a different space in your office building (get outside on the patio if you have one or hang out in a lounge space).A simple change of location can sometimes break the monotony and help stimulate your brain with new ideas from your surroundings. 

My productivity tip is borrowed from the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. He suggests you time block the same couple hours every day for deep work. This is time where you are pushing your brain to its capacity and putting in your hardest effort, in order to create work that cannot be easily duplicated. It’s where you are really adding value to the workplace. The more you stick to it, the easier it gets. 

More recently I’ve found that always having ChatGPT and Gemini open as tabs on my screen makes work a lot faster. Time I used to spend trouble shooting something, or brainstorming, thinking of marketing copy, or researching is so much faster with the tools. I must get an hour a day back minimum just by making sure i have those resources at the ready and have already trained chats so that I get what I need asap. It’s also helped me keep on top of the ever changing landscape of Ai with new custom gpt and integrations with other tools like canva! So, have you’re preferred Ai tool open and at the ready and think about the tasks you’re doing, can you do them faster with some Ai assistance? 

Sharing a quick productivity tip from a blog writer and social media manager. Upon downloading image and video files, name them appropriately and include the date. Most of my visual elements come from Canva, and sometimes in those designs, there can be 20+ pages in a single design (for example, if using the images for an Instagram carousel). Name the designs in chronological order (e.g., Advice Cover Image, Advice 1, Advice 2, Advice 3, Advice 4, Advice Conclusion). This sounds tedious but saves me a headache later on when I’m sifting through 200+ image files that will be used for social media, web, paid ads, etc.

I keep a blank piece of paper next to me on my desk and whenever I get an idea that doesn’t relate to what I’m working on, I write it down there so I don’t lose focus. I used to keep this as a running list on my laptop’s Notes app, but found that I’d end up forgetting about it or it’d get lost in the mess.At the end of the day (most of the time 🤭), I go through the notes and either add them to my to-do list for the next day or slot them into my calendar wherever makes sense. It has been helpful in cutting down my constant clicking back and forth between tabs/projects and I find that when I physically write down my to-do’s I remember them better.

EVERYTHING goes into my calendar, including blocking off time for lunch.  Being sure to step away from my desk occasionally to detach from my email. When planning social posts - I always start with the “set in stone” posts (holidays, anything tied to an event). I then fill in our re-occurring posts (e.g. employee highlights). Then you can see what space you are left to work with and start tackling filling them in with content. 

Instead of trying to not get sidetracked, I find it’s way easier to just build time for distractions into my plan. So if I am taking a coffee break, I’ll give myself extra time to check my phone, scroll IG, etc. Or plan in advance to use the 30 minutes between meetings as downtime rather than productive time. Knowing when I’m taking breaks and not feeling guilty about using that time “unproductively” makes it a lot easier to stay focused when I do need get stuff done.

As someone who’s job heavily revolves around social media like many of you, the biggest difference I’ve seen with productivity is starting out my day NOT looking at my phone. The urge to scroll on IG/TikTok to catch up on trends, news, etc. is REAL. But I find myself wanting to doom scroll much less when I resist that dopamine rush first thing in the morning. Airplane mode/Do Not Disturb mode is your friend! 

lol not sure how this got posted to the wrong place and can’t figure out how to delete. 

Invest in noise-canceling headphones if you’re in an office space. It helps to focus and prevent too many interruptions in-person when you need to dedicate time to your screen. 🤓

As a social media manager who’s balancing multiple projects and deadlines at once, time blocking has been super helpful. Instead of just using my calendar for meetings, I like to block off time to work on specific projects so that I’m not jumping from one task to another. Once the time’s up, even if the task isn’t finished yet, I’ll move on to the next one. Time blocking (along with writing daily and weekly to-do lists) helps me prioritize and get work done.

As someone with ADHD, I have a lot of productivity tips, failures, and everything in-between. I can be sporadic, stuck in strategy, you name it. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in this profession, especially when you’re a social team of one (but still want to do the work of a team). I’ve kept journal, sticky notes, digital planners, physical planners, pomodoro timers...yeah. The biggest productivity tip I have is this:Keep a list with 5 essentials for your brand. What do I mean? I’m talking audience, color scheme, adjectives describing your brand - that kind of thing. You’re probably like me and have no trouble looking through analytics, learning about the “algorithm” for whatever platform, thinking about ways to repurpose content and make fresh, new ideas stick. But at the end of the day, come back to that list when you sit down to draft content. Have the strategy and all the fancy things you’ve thought of in the back of your head, but come back to that