Are you considering working with a productivity consultant in your business?
Do you want some tips on how to work as productively as possible with a consultant?
Working well with any professional requires an investment of time, energy, and thought.
That’s why it’s important to have the right mindset when you work with these professionals.
In this article, you’ll learn how to work effectively with a productivity consultant.
Key Takeaways
- A productivity consultant helps individuals and professionals improve how they manage their time, energy, and workflow
- Consultants act as mentors, accountability partners, and unbiased guides and can help you strengthen your productivity skills and confidence levels
- Focus on preparing your environment, sharing your past experiences, current routines, and desired goals to make the most out of your sessions
Table of Contents
What is a productivity consultant?
A productivity consultant is a professional who helps people better manage their time and energy in their businesses, careers, and personal lives.
Productivity consultants work with entrepreneurs, small business owners, and professionals. What’s more, they can work with anyone looking to be more productive in their daily routine.
Consultants can help with a variety of work-related concerns. They can help with streamlining your schedule, reorganizing your workflow, and planning assignments.
What does a productivity consultant do?
Productivity consultants can help in a multitude of ways. And it’s important to keep in mind that service offerings may vary from consultant to consultant.
It’s a good idea to do your research and search for a consultant who can address your specific needs and concerns.
Consultants can help with skills like delegation, prioritization, and project management. They can assist with setting goals, managing your time, and organizing your workspace.
They can also teach you how to evaluate, test, and use productivity systems, tasks, apps, or tools for your needs.
Other consultants may evaluate business operations or workflows. They can identify weaknesses that need to be modified, adjusted, or strengthened.
Productivity consultants can help you:
- Strengthen, hone, and sharpen your overall productivity mindset
- Help you set and reinforce boundaries for better work-life balance
- Create useful systems, methods, and approaches for your personal work
- Develop practical checklists, templates, guidelines for your business
- Identify weaknesses, opportunities, challenges, and troublesome spots
- Work more effectively with staff, clients, customers, vendors, and others
That being said, productivity consultants can also serve as:
- Guides or mentors when it comes to learning productivity skills or using tools
- Accountability partners to help you stay on track while learning new habits
- Coaches to help you reflect on your actions and changing situations
- Cheerleaders or inspirational guides to help you stay motivated
- Trusted partner to bounce ideas and thoughts off on a regular basis
- Unbiased observer of what’s going on in your professional workflow
How can working with a productivity consultant help you?
A productivity consultant can not only help you in your business, but in your professional life as well.
Since our work lives are part of our personal lives, the two often influence one another.
The benefits gained from working with a consultant can be far reaching. And this goes further than time spent working with your consultant!
When you work with a productivity consultant, you learn highly valuable processes, skills, thoughts, and approaches.
These can be used for the rest of your life in your business, career, and personal life too.
You can learn how to:
- Delegate tasks to others quickly and efficiently
- Say ‘no’ to unsolicited requests, tasks, and asks from others
- Schedule your day, week, and month in a way that works for you
- Plan projects, assignments, and work flow with thought and care
- Tap into your innate talents and use them throughout your daily work
- Practice the art of gently directing time to your advantage
These learnings can be invaluable. Why? They influence how you work with yourself, clients, customers, vendors, and contractors.
As a productivity consultant, I find my clients learn a lot about themselves, how they work, and relate to it.
Some of the benefits of working with a productivity consultant include:
- Peace of mind knowing your business affairs are well-organized
- Balanced work schedule that respects your time and energy
- Feeling more confident in your ability to manage your work
- Having more time and energy to spend with family and friends
- Better understanding of how your business works as a whole
- Sense of structure and control in your professional and personal lives
How to work with a productivity consultant
Now that you know more about productivity consultants, let’s move onto how to effectively work with one.
These pointers will be most beneficial once you’ve signed up to work with a productivity consultant.
However, they’re still a good foundation for working with a consultant in future, too.
Remove distractions from your immediate area
One thing you should do when working with a productivity consultant is to ensure you won’t be distracted.
Now, this may seem like common sense. After all, no one likes being interrupted!
But when you’re well into your session and there’s a distraction…well, it’s too late to do anything. That’s why we’re talking about distractions now.
Whether you meet virtually or in person, plan for an uninterrupted session.
Let others know you’ll be unavailable. Make it clear you are not to be disturbed.
That goes for communication via phone, text, or messages. If need be, temporarily disable non-urgent phone alerts and updates.
You should also ensure your physical environment is prepped and ready for your session.
Remove unnecessary files, folders, books, supplies, and materials from your desk. Tidy up areas in your workspace or office. Close email, browser tabs, programs, and apps.
Similarly, avoid booking meetings in your calendar immediately after your session so you don’t feel rushed.
If you work from home, you may want to remove any pets from your immediate area.
You could also hire a babysitter, ask a family member, or a neighbor to mind the kids while you’re on your call.
These small steps can go a long way towards helping you stay focused during your session.
Describe your routine and workflow in detail
Your consultant will ask questions to understand your unique situation, challenges, and goals.
You may be asked about:
- Structure of your work day, week, and month
- Your role and responsibilities in your business
- Ongoing client and customer tasks, projects, and assignments
- Your daily and weekly schedule, including meetings, appointments, and events
- How you go about your day and manage your work flow
- When you take meal and vacation breaks throughout the day, week, month, and year
- Which apps, tools, techniques, and materials you currently use
It’s important to answer these questions as accurately and clearly as possible.
Even mundane items, like when/if you take lunch, is incredibly important to your productivity overall.
So, the more concise you can be in your answers, the better.
It will help your consultant make suggestions and recommendations based on your situation.
Discuss the intersection of work, life, and productivity
Our lives don’t exist in a vacuum. What happens in one area of our life can spillover and influence others.
Health issues, relationship challenges, and environmental stressors. Financial concerns, family, and friends can affect our workflow.
That’s why it’s important to consider how our businesses are influenced by our professional and personal lives.
When working with a productivity consultant, you may seek guidance when it comes to managing your time or energy throughout the day.
Your consultant can offer suggestions to help you balance and manage your schedule overall.
Share your approach towards work
You’re a unique individual with one-of-a-kind experiences and viewpoints.
You have unique thoughts, opinions, and concerns about getting things done at work.
Believe it or not, this can be incredibly important when it comes to your productivity levels.
For starters, what’s important to your in your business and career?
What matters most to you when it comes to successfully serving clients and customers?
Likewise, how do you want to be known for your work, services, and products?
Sharing your approach will help your consultant better understand what matters most to you.
Discuss your past experiences and challenges
Discussing your past experiences and challenges is an absolute must when working with a productivity consultant.
It shows them the path you’ve taken to get to where you are right now.
Think carefully about your productivity-related experiences, challenges, and frustrations.
Which books did you read? What articles did you review online? What videos did you watch?
Have you attended trainings in-person? Participated in online workshops? Tried specific techniques?
In addition, what were the results of your previous experiences? Was there anything you found helpful or useful? What didn’t you like or like?
If you worked with a computer app and didn’t like it, you should let your consultant know.
Perhaps you tried a planner recommended by your friend. But you only found one part to be helpful. Be sure to mention that, too.
These are all important bits of information for you and your consultant to work with.
Step into your future productivity dreams and goals
Lastly, the final part in working well with a productivity consultant is to describe your goals.
What would you love to be, do, or have in future for yourself both professionally and personally?
Some people may simply want to be more productive in their business. That’s a great start.
But what will really help move the needle forward? It’s to be as specific as you can about your dreams and goals.
Do you want to be able to find your client files on your desk in a pinch?
How about feeling in control of your daily schedule?
Want to say ‘no’ to unsolicited requests with confidence?
Do you want to spend time together with your family…on a Tuesday evening?
Want to feel less overwhelmed by your workload and projects?
Finally, let me ask you this: what do you truly want to experience?
If you could wave a magic wand and change things, what would you change?
That’s some true food for thought!
Remember, your future is not too far off.
Above all, the more clearly you can describe your productivity desires, the better you can plan for them.
FAQ: How to work with a productivity consultant
What does a productivity consultant do?
A productivity consultant helps businesses and individuals improve their efficiency and effectiveness in their daily routines. They may provide insight and guidance into productivity skills, processes, and procedures.
How does a productivity consultant work?
Some consultants offer one-time services, while others work on a monthly or recurring retainer. Other consultants may also offer productivity coaching and training services to their clients.
Where can you find a productivity consultant?
Research websites, blogs, articles, talks, podcasts, webinars, books, and presentations. Make inquiries at professional, trade, association, community, or membership organizations. Ask professional contacts, friends, and acquaintances for suggestions or recommendations.
Who should work with a productivity consultant?
Entrepreneurs, small business owners, executives, and professionals can benefit from working with these consultants. Those struggling to complete tasks, feeling overwhelmed by work, or feeling disorganized in their business may choose to work with a productivity consultant.
What’s the investment for a productivity consultant?
Productivity consultant fees can range anywhere from several hundreds to several thousands of dollars, depending on the service offered. Some consultants specialize only in consulting, while others offer productivity coaching as an additional option.
In case we haven’t yet met virtually, it’s nice to meet you! Hi, I’m Rashelle Isip, The Order Expert®, productivity coach for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and professionals.
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