What drives you to stay motivated throughout the day? How do you balance the projects that excite you alongside those that drain you, and still keep your energy up?
The secret often lies in how you plan your day and choose your tasks.
In my agency, the individual contributors (the designers, developers and strategists) had their workdays scheduled for them. They knew exactly which projects and tasks to focus on, right down to the order.*
The rest of us didn’t have that benefit though, (the project managers, account managers, finance, ops and management team) – we were responsible for managing our own time. I often found myself pulled in a dozen different directions. My focus would change based on my excitement—or lack of it—for the tasks on my to-do list.
I’ve shared my productivity hacks before, like planning my calendar the day prior so I’m not left firefighting or ignoring priorities on the day-of. You can catch more tips in my previous webinar on productivity here.
But in the latest episode of The Handbook podcast, our guest – performance consultant Amy Hopper of the TOA Group – gave us even smarter advice.
Amy suggests using her Lift List technique. Create 2 lists: one with activities, tasks, people and clients that motivate you and make you happy, and a second list with those that bring you down.
Next, she suggests using the TOA Trafficlight System to color code your to-do list. Green is for tasks that will lift you, yellow for those that could go either way, and red for things you won’t enjoy.
Then, when it comes to planning your calendar, sandwich the red tasks with the green or other activities from your lift list. Plus try to avoid putting in any red during the afternoon slump.
The result? The difficult tasks feel easier to manage, and you emotionally regulateyourself throughout the day.
If you haven’t caught my conversation with Amy yet, I highly recommend it—we dive into a range of issues that can hold us and our teams back from doing our best work. From lack of delegation, to struggles with change management. So much of it comes down to our psychology, and Amy tells us that little tweaks can make a big difference to people’s motivation, focus, and productivity.
Check out more on this episode below.
*Here’s a powerful time-tracking hack: have a system in place where contributors just confirm what was in their schedule, no manual timesheets needed. Hint: Scoro has this time tracking automation built in – what’s in someone’s schedule automatically appears in their timesheet.
Until next time,
Harv Nagra
Ops consultant & former agency ops director
🎧 The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast:
Amy Hopper is a former agency owner and now founder of the business consultancy TOA.
In this episode, Amy opens up about her journey through some serious challenges in life. She explains how this helped her build a system to keep teams focused, engaged, and productive.
Amy dives into practical tips on:
- Planning your day in a way that energizes you instead of draining you
- Letting go of perfectionism so you can delegate more and grow faster
- Overcoming resistance to change, both personally and within your team
🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Key Takeaways:
- Workplaces that prioritize wellbeing are 21% more productive (according to a 2022 Deloitte study). Small tweaks to structure, culture and psychology can make a big difference in achieving your company goals. (22:17)
- People thrive when equipped with emotional regulation, personal resilience, and empathy for oneself and one’s colleagues. (18:51)
- Growing teams can struggle when leaders hesitate to delegate. Letting go of perfectionism takes some coaching and a little short-term discomfort but results in long-term growth. (20:05)
- Psychology plays a big role in implementing change successfully. Maurer’s three principles of resistance boil down to: I don’t like it, I don’t understand it, and I don’t like you. In larger companies, change becomes more challenging when there’s a disconnect between those driving it and those affected by it. (21:19)
- To improve productivity and focus, Amy suggests creating her Lift List technique. This is a list of tasks you enjoy that energize you. Making time for these tasks each day will keep you feeling inspired to move forward. (31:31)
- Use TOA’s Traffic Light System: categorize tasks as red (draining), yellow (neutral), and green (enjoyable). Then, sandwich red tasks between greens to stay motivated and emotionally balanced throughout the day. (32:31)
Learn more:
📕 Case Study
This marketing consultancy improved collaboration with Scoro, and explains how bringing on a new tool was more of a culture initiative than an IT initiative.
🔎 Help Center
Find out how to simplify time sheeting for your team with Scoro’s built in automation.
💡 Blog Article
Getting your team on the same page is simple in Scoro. Manage time, projects, finances, and integrate with tools including your accounting software, CRM, and Slack—all in one place.
