{"id":2391,"date":"2026-07-13T11:54:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:43:11","slug":"productivity-series-webinar-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2391","title":{"rendered":"Productivity series webinar report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, the French Network welcomed speakers Louise Miller and Martina Abagnale for the Productivity series.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re confident in your time and project management and feel secure in how you\u2019re working to achieve your goals, or whether these are areas you want to work on, these two sessions offered valuable insight and tools. By no means did Louise and Martina attempt to sell us a one-size-fits-all plaster to solve our issues. Instead, they offered ways we can reflect on our practice and feel better in our work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo by\u00a0<\/em>Nick Morrison<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<\/em>Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In the first session, Louise Miller began by sharing her definition of productivity: \u2018Getting the important things done efficiently to create space for the things you love<\/em>\u2019. These \u2018important things\u2019 are often client work, invoicing, those things with a hard deadline which always get done. Whereas the \u2018things you love\u2019 \u2013 working on your website, reading and writing articles, practising your hobbies \u2013 fall to the wayside.<\/p>\n

Louise offered 5 steps to help us be more productive in our working lives: 1. Get clear on your vision, 2. Get clear on your goals, 3. Choose what to work on first, 4. Protect time for what\u2019s most important, and 5. Get it done.<\/p>\n

Of course, the act of \u2018getting it done\u2019 isn\u2019t necessarily so simple. Louise encouraged us to reflect on where we spend our time, how our energy fluctuates throughout the day, and what we can do to maximise our attention spans. She reminded us that, ultimately, self-awareness is the key to improving productivity.<\/p>\n

Louise has more insight and resources on her website: https:\/\/www.bettylouonline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the second session, Martina Abagnale continued the discussion and echoed Louise\u2019s encouragement to reflect on our goals. She spoke about SMART goals and reinforced the importance of getting clear on how, why, and when you want to work on a goal.<\/p>\n

Martina also spoke about how we can be more intentional with our time. It is easy to say you\u2019re going to work on something, but again, the actual work can be daunting. Like Louise, Martina recommended that we think about how we can make our work easier to manage, be it Pomodoro methods, time-blocking, or distracting yourself (like throwing a ball when rehearsing a presentation!).<\/p>\n

Overall, Martina encouraged us to find ways to give our brains a break. She shared how she used to burden herself with trying to remember everything about every client and project, and how she eased that stress by writing things down. With her husband, Martina built Lemon Twist, an adaptable project management system for freelancers. Lemon Twist is designed to be a canvas that you can adapt to suit the way your brain likes to work. You can find more information on its website: https:\/\/lemontwist.ing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both talks reminded us that productivity is something you have to actively work on. It doesn\u2019t just come overnight, and we\u2019re not necessarily just born with it. For a lot of us, it takes real reflection, self-awareness, and trial and error to figure out how we can be more productive and content in our work. Check out Louise Miller\u2019s and Martina Abagnale\u2019s websites for more!<\/p>\n

Thank you to Louise and Martina for their presentations, and thank you to Sophie and Sarah for organising this valuable mini-series.<\/p>\n

By Maddie Sangway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, the French Network welcomed speakers Louise Miller and Martina Abagnale for the Productivity series. Whether you\u2019re confident in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2425,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions\/2425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}