Favorite Productivity Tips & Tools – TPW301

As we celebrate 6 years of The Productive Woman podcast, here are a few productivity tips and tools from the TPW community and from me!

Happy podiversary! and a few favorite productivity tips and tools

This week we’re celebrating TPW’s 6-year “podiversary” and talking about some favorite productivity tips and tools.

How TPW began

In 2013, I decided I wanted to try podcasting. I took Cliff Ravenscraft’s online "Podcasting A to Z " course in December 2013, with the intention of launching this podcast on January 1, 2014.

When January came, I had everything ready to go . . . but I stalled.  I was terrified of launching, wondering if people would think it was a dumb idea.

After 6 months I still hadn't launched the podcast and I felt guilty for spending the time and money to prepare. Finally, thanks to the encouragement of some important people in my life, I pushed through my fear and published that first 5-minute introductory episode on July 1st, 2014, which is exactly 6 years ago today (as of the date this episode is published)!

One more thought from the TPW community on what it means to make a life that matters

Last week, for episode 300, I shared some feedback from the community on what it means to make a life that matters. One wonderful answer unfortunately came in after that episode had published, so I want to share it now. This came via email from Elisabeth from Toulouse, France:  

“When you asked us to define what matters in our life and how to know, I immediately thought about war (strange mind!). In France, we were quarantined or almost quarantined for about three months, so we had a lot of time to pause and reflect. Many things and actions were not possible to do. So we had to choose what to fight for. In a war time, I know for what I would have fought: my family, my faith, my freedom and and my access to culture (same as my grandpa who was a 2nd world war Red Cross "soldier"). These are the things which really matters to me. In the daily mundane tasks, that means I’ve chosen to leave my job, to be a stay-at-home mother and wife. Having no job, I’ve got less money but more free time and more creativity. I have now an edible garden, I sew and mend a lot, I cook from scratch, have time to find ways to entertain the family for free (or almost): library, podcast, art exhibition, street festivals, I also have time to help at school or at church.”

Favorite productivity tips and tools

A couple of mine

Before sharing productivity tips from our TPW community, I wanted to share a few tips of my own that have really made a difference in my day to day life.

* Making good use of my calendar-when I put an appointment, conference call, or meeting in my calendar, I add any information I might need for that appointment, such as an address, phone number (in case I need to call because I’m running late or need to reschedule), notes about the purpose, or the people involved. I try to label the meeting in a way that reminds me of what it’s about. So for example:  “Phone conference with [name] to discuss [deal name] purchase terms” or something like that. I do this because I have lots of deals going with lots of different people and can forget the name of the person I’ll be talking to, or which deal it’s about, or which aspect of the deal. If it’s a call or meeting about a particular document, I’ll attach a copy of that document or any reference material I need for the call. I use a digital calendar, specifically an app called DigiCal, which is very helpful for me.