Stova’s Influencer Series: Liz King Caruso on Productivity Q&A

Liz King Caruso is a thought leader in the events industry who works with other industry professionals to plan conferences, product launches, build audiences, engage online audiences, and improve other aspects of a company’s event. In addition, in her independent event planners Facebook page, “Event Hustlers”, Liz offers planners a six-month mentorship program called Ignite in which she helps planners reposition themselves in the industry to uplevel their revenue and help them escape the “lows” of business ownership.

In this interview, Liz will expand on episode four of her podcast “I’ve Been Thinking”, which focuses on productivity hacks for event planners.

Influencer Series: Liz King on Productivity Hacks for Planners Q&A

Q: In episode 4 of your podcast, you talk about productivity hacks for event professionals, like the power of routine and rhythm.Why do you think routine and rhythm hold such power for event professionals?

Independent event professionals have very unpredictable schedules and, with a lot of planners, the default is just to do whatever our clients want us to do. Planners don’t understand the value of having routine and rhythm and don’t encourage their clients to stay within that. Obviously, you can’t have that one hundred percent of the time, but we can do it a lot more often. Part of the power of routine and rhythm is their ability to keep the chaos organized.

Another reason these elements are powerful is because they help planners focus, and we are definitely much more productive when we’re focused. Everyone likes to believe they are an amazing multitasker, but people really are not. If you can sit down and only do emails for a half an hour you will blast through a ton more emails than you would if you just responded as they come in and tried to keep up with them like that.

Having a routine, like reserving time, is very important for planner’s mental health, for organizing their work, and for getting stuff done. I think most people don’t get stuff done because they are too easily distracted, and they don’t have enough routine.

Q: You mention calendars and blocking time in your podcast as productivity hacks. Can you expand on these hacks for event professionals?

I like to refer to blocking time on your calendar as chunking your time. Basically, chunking is having a certain time to work on a specific thing, like emails and projects. Chunking allows for business development time, which is really important, especially for independent business owners, because development time always gets pushed last. For example, if a client needs something, we forget that we haven’t written a blog post in a while. Chunking your time doesn’t mean that every single second of your day is blocked. It means that for the big things, you reserve time in a day that is only for a single task. You turn off your email, phones, etc.; remember that people will be fine if they don’t hear from you for an hour or so.

Q: What are some other specific routines you have found useful to establish your rhythm?

I’ve found that getting to know the kind of worker you are is important in establishing your routine. For instance, I’m a spurt worker. I’m not someone who can sit and work straight from 9 to 5. I can work really well for two hours and then I need a 30-minute break. And then I can come back and do really, really good work. If you get to know your optimal working habits, then it will be easier to set the optimal, realistic schedule for yourself.

Q: Do you have any other advice you’d like to give our audience on productivity hacks?

I’ve realized that the biggest reason people don’t make time for the things they need to get done is because they lack a vision, either for where they want their business to be or where they want their career to be in five years. Instead of focusing on lifestyle goals and the impact we want to make on the world, we just focus on what has to happen in a day and then it becomes so easy to push things off. There are billions of people in the world who have the same amount of time in a day and get a lot more done than others. The question is why, and I think it comes down to a lot more than just productivity hacks; I think it comes down to vision.