Agency Hacks...volume 3

Emails, various channels and tools, strategies, meetings, data analysis, reporting, client calls – as a marketing or PR professional in an agency, you might feel like you spend most of your time juggling an ever-expanding list of priorities and clients. So how can you get more done, without having to find even more hours in your already busy schedule and working late into the night?

Well, increasing your productivity doesn’t mean working longer hours – it means getting more done in the hours you already work and working smarter, not harder.

Here, he shares his top productivity hacks to help you maximise your time and reduce stress and burnout from overworking.\

1. Start your day with a to-do list

To-do lists might seem simple, but for some, they really do work. They provide structure and a plan for what to work on next, which can save you time and mental energy between tasks. Plus, ticking something off a list provides that instant feel-good factor. When humans experience even a small amount of success, the brain releases dopamine; a neurotransmitter related to feelings of pleasure, happiness and motivation.

Simply work out what you need to do, and for which client, at the beginning of each day, and in what order. Then, write down each task, and cross them out one by one. And remember, the secret to a good to-do list is to keep it short and realistic.

2. STOP multi-tasking – yes, really

Multi-tasking is a productivity killer. In fact, research shows that employees can lose up to 40% of their productivity if they multitask. Why? Put simply, it takes more time to switch between numerous tasks than to stick with one until you finish it.

Instead, start time blocking. Block out a specific amount of time – whether that’s one hour, three or a whole afternoon – to work on a project or task and only that project or task. No checking emails, no ‘I’ll just do this one other thing…’ and no last-minute meetings, either.

This brings all of your attention and focus to a single task, rather than spreading your mental resources thinly over several things at once.

3. Design your work environment

When it comes to productivity, it’s not just about how you work, but where you work, too. With data from the ONS showing that 16% of the UK workforce worked from home and 28% worked a hybrid set-up between September 2022 and January 2023, ensuring your environment aids your productivity has never been more important. Here are three things you can do to improve your work environment:

• Create a workspace: Working from the sofa (or bed) can stifle anyone’s productivity as the lines between working and relaxing become blurred, so set up a designated desk in another room if you can - away from distractions and where you’re supposed to relax. Alternatively, a desk in a spare bedroom or under the stairs can still work well if you don’t have much space. There are plenty of storage solutions available with hidden desk space too so you can shut it away once you’ve finished to really set that boundary. 
• Clean & declutter: According to research by Princeton University, clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention. Whether you work from home or in an office, make sure you declutter your desk regularly and give your desk a regular wipe down or polish. This will keep your focus on your work, and not on the mess around you. 
• Put your phone away: You’re much less likely to do things if you make them less convenient. If you’re prone to scrolling, put your phone in another room, in a drawer or your bag. If you still feel tempted to browse on your desktop, get an app to block productivity-killing sites and apps during work hours to help you focus.

4. Block out time for emails

Emails are essential for any business, but they can feel non-stop and can be seriously distracting. In fact, if you measured how much time you spent in your inbox daily, you’d probably be in for a shock.

Instead of constantly checking your emails every few minutes, give yourself certain times to check your inbox. Depending on your position (PRs, for example, may need to have their eye on the inbox more regularly than, say, a graphic designer), this might be the five minutes at the start of each hour, or simply at the beginning, middle and end of each day. This way, you can stay focused on the task at hand, rather than constantly feeling distracted by an endless stream of emails. 

5. Try the Pomodoro technique

Start thinking in tomatoes, not hours. The Pomodoro technique sets rigorous time frames for highly focused chunks with short breaks to rest and recoup. Francesco Cirillo, the creator of this technique, named it after the tomato-shaped timer he used in college to supercharge his studying. Here’s how it works:

1. Set your time to 25 minutes.
2. Work until that 25 minutes has finished.
3. Take a five-minute break.
4. Repeat the break and work cycle for four rounds.
5. After the fourth round, take a longer 15 or 30-minute break.

You’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in those short, 25-minute bursts – and how much a short, but regular, break can help to boost your focus.

6. Make friends with Chat GPT

Whether we like it or not, AI (including Chat GPT) is here to stay. Although Chat GPT has its limitations, it can help to maximise your productivity if you learn to use it strategically.

Maybe you work in content marketing? Chat GPT could help you structure a new article, generate creative headline ideas and streamline your editorial calendar. If you work in SEO, it can expand your keyword research, analyse content and assist with on-page optimisation. And no matter what your role, Chat GPT can help with administrative tasks, such as writing emails and summarising documents.

Ultimately, the way you use Chat GPT will vary widely between job roles at an agency, but doing some research and learning to use AI in a way that complements and enhances your work could be a productivity game-changer and free up more time for projects.

7. Automate, automate, automate

Given the less-than-easy landscape in which PR and marketing professionals find themselves, it's important to give yourself the best chance possible for success, with investment in the best tools being a vital part of the puzzle. Are you still manually tracking client rankings or spending hours creating PR coverage reports? Repetitive tasks like this can drain valuable time that could otherwise be spent on more strategic or creative projects.

Automation is the process of systematising essential, but repetitive, marketing tasks through tools or software. Automating some of your tasks could free up time, supercharge productivity and reduce errors all at once.

The good news is that there are tools that can help you with all the core parts of a PR campaign such as ideation, research, data management, design and outreach. Moreover, the right tools can automate manual processes and increase efficiency, giving you more time to work on delivering results for your clients or stakeholders. In short, having the right tools to assist you as a digital PR professional is an absolute must, here are my favourite tools that you should be investing in this year:

• Coveragely - My favourite tool; Coveragely aims to help businesses of all sizes streamline their PR, Marketing and SEO reporting. Offering a user-friendly platform, the tool helps customers create and share visually engaging reports to showcase the success of their campaigns. It provides easy collaboration, particularly for agencies who are working remotely or with a hybrid set up. Admins can set up an organisation on the tool and then invite new members to collaborate on reports. Multiple team reports, grouped under one organisational name, can be hosted on a custom subdomain too. This keeps all reporting and coverage data in one place for easy access and management.
• HARO - Connecting with journalists is one of the more challenging sides of agency life, but HARO (Help A Reporter Out) can easily help you connect with those seeking expert comments or contributions. Whether you’re looking for a journalist to cover your latest PR campaign or need to quote an expert in an article you’re writing, HARO makes it easy to send out pitches and respond to relevant queries. You’ll be able to filter by specific industries or even keywords, enabling you to only connect with the most relevant people and taking some of the guesswork out of pitching. Basic membership is free with a sliding scale of up to £149 for the top package.
• SEMrush - One of the best all-around digital marketing analytics tools, SEMrush helps you to monitor the success of your PR campaigns through its backlink tracker and media monitoring tools. While the tool’s backlink insights are often used by SEOs, digital PR is most often linked to the impact it has on overall organic traffic. As a result, paying attention to which links are driving traffic and conversions can help to inform your decisions going forward. You’ll be able to see which publications are providing the most value as well as track the number of links you have from different websites.
  SEMrush’s media monitoring tools, on the other hand, can help you track mentions of both your campaign and the competition. This will not only help you to gauge the influence you’re having, but allow you to quickly respond to both positive and negative responses. It’s also a great tool for getting fast traffic scores of potential outreach targets, particularly those you are unfamiliar with.

8. Take regular breaks

It’s important to make sure you’re taking regular breaks and setting boundaries throughout the day. It can help improve your productivity, reduce fatigue and improve your posture and physical health too, while promoting better mental health. If you work in a creative job, it can also help get those creative juices flowing. 

With computers and other devices within instant reach, some workers often feel the need to be available 24/7, and is a key contributor to workplace stress and anxiety. Never switching off from work is guaranteed to increase stress levels and, ultimately, lead to burnout. All of which can have an impact on your productivity and focus levels while you’re at work. 

If you struggle to find the time to take regular breaks and find yourself working for hours without one, set a timer on your phone or laptop to remind yourself to take a break. There are plenty of apps that can help you do this too. A quick five minute break, on top of your lunch hour, every other hour can really help boost productivity, improve energy levels and reduce burnout. By having a regular reminder, it will force you to step back from your work for a little bit and break your concentration so you don’t end up working for hours without a break.