It’s National Productivity Week! It’s been all the diary days lately – Blue Monday last week, followed swiftly by National Hug Day (essential oxytocin hit to keep us happy and focused!). 

We’re freshly inspired by the brilliant people who joined us last week for the Blue Skies Challenge – three days of challenge tasks and sharing our experiences in a supportive community.  

But positive productivity is for life and not just for Blue Monday – we want to support many PR and comms pros to really get a handle on their workload and energy levels in 2025. 

Productivity Week 2025

So this National Productivity Week, we’re launching a new programme – EPIC Teams. It’s aimed at those busy managers of small but mighty teams.  You could be working in communications, marketing, fundraising, client services or beyond – any function or industry where demand on your time and expertise is high and the requests come in thick and fast. 

I’ve been working as a PR and journalist more than 20 years, and a Chartered PR, coach and agilest for 12 years. I work with complex organisations, small teams, one-man/woman bands and everything in between.  

Throughout this time, I’ve seen professionals get busier and busier. We should have the technology and systems for work to get easier, not harder – instead, I’m seeing people be overwhelmed and at risk of burnout. It’s one of the reasons we work a 4-day week.

My mission is to help teams work smarter, not harder. And we walk the walk. 

How do we stay positive and productive?

To give you a flavour of how we already work, here are some of the principles we already live and work by at the Agile Communications Academy and Agency: 

Setting our team for success 

We have clearly defined goals across all areas of our delivery. This maps across our business, and also through to an individual level.  

We log and celebrate how we’re working towards these goals every month – from long-term programmes of work such as our B Corp Assessment to quick-win client projects. We create systems for sharing our goals set and goals smashed and transparently share these every month. 

Delivering value, not just ticking boxes 

It’s incredibly easy to get stuck in “doing content” and “delivering comms”. Working in the PR and comms industry is a never-ending conveyor belt of content that needs working through, urgent web requests and tasks. 

We focus on the activity that will “nudge the needle” and often, that goes beyond the content. It’s usually about problem-solving and making our client’s lives easier.  

Managing capacity and setting boundaries 

Part of the secret sauce of working a 4-day week at Agile is in how we plan our capacity. We carefully balance client work, project work, in-house content delivery (we need to practice what we preach!) as well as all the other operational aspects of running an agency.  

This enables our team members to plan their workload (time-blocking is an essential habit for some of us!). This way, we know when to embrace the change and say yes, or when to push back with a friendly no. 

Operating at 80% Awesome 

I run entire workshops on this principle. This is about the idea that running at 100% effort and perfection is unsustainable – instead, we aim for 80% Awesome. 

Some days we are running at 100% effort. Other days, we may not feel brilliant and could be at 50% – that’s actually ok. We create an environment where we share when we’re struggling, and that’s when another member of the team can step in to support. 

The magic of gratitude practice. 

Expressing gratitude is part of our daily synch meetings, and it’s incredibly powerful. It can also be very varied and at times, quirky – from almond croissants to “monks” (this one from a history buff team member who was grateful to those who started writing things down). 

Establishing a daily gratitude practice is one very simple technique to bring connection and grounding to an overwhelmed team. 

Want to be EPIC?

Are you a team manager, leader or part of a team that wants to go from  “just about holding it together” to EPIC? 

We’re looking to work with a limited number of team managers to support them to thrive and not just survive their workflow in 2025.