Take Control of Your Time & Reclaim your Focus as a Marketer

Let’s be real – marketing can be chaotic. Most marketers feel overwhelmed on the job more often than not. Keeping up with trends, analyzing reports, creating content, managing a team, getting distracted by hundreds of emails and Slack notifications every 30 seconds, an endless to-do list, back-to-back meetings... I could go on.

The result? Zero deep work, constant context-switching, and feeling like you worked all day but got nothing done.

Does this sound familiar?

That’s exactly what Oskar Eklind, marketer-turned-productivity expert, experienced before making a radical shift.

In this episode of Marketing Mondays with Maria, Oskar shares his journey, along with actionable productivity strategies every marketer needs to hear.

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From Marketing Overwhelm to Productivity Expert

Oskar wasn’t always a productivity guy. In fact, his career in marketing started just like many of ours –

“I was struggling with a lot of things that marketers usually struggle with – an endless to-do list, endless meetings, multitasking, 20 priorities but zero real priorities.”

But in 2019, everything changed. After contracting meningitis, Oskar’s energy levels plummeted. Returning to work, he realized he didn't have the same amount of energy anymore. And he started dealing with brain fog & fatigue, which led him to trying to find methods that would help him get focused and productive.

And guess what? Since educating and helping himself with productivity strategies, Oskar has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and marketers reclaim their focus.

The Reality of Marketers Today

If you work in marketing, you probably relate to Oskar’s past experience:

• Meetings consume your day → No time for deep work
• Your to-do list is overwhelming → You don’t even know where to start
• You’re constantly being interrupted → Slack, email, coworkers tapping on your shoulder
• The “urgent” tasks pile up → At the cost of actually business critical long-term work

According to Oskar, the solution lies in intentionally creating time for deep work.

The Productivity Fix: Deep Work Sessions

When Oskar starts working with overwhelmed marketers, the first thing he asks is:

“How much time and energy do you actually spend focused on one thing at a time?”

For most, the answer is "not much" – and that’s the problem.

His first recommendation is to add deep work sessions into your day. Here’s how:

Step 1: Time-Boxing

Instead of having an endless to-do list, assign a specific time slot for each task.

“My biggest and best productivity hack is to ask yourself two questions: What am I going to do? And when am I going to do it? Take the what and the when and combine them.”

Add the exact tasks to your calendar and commit to them.

Step 2: Start Small & Build Up

You don’t need 8 hours of deep work. You don’t even need 4.

“If you schedule just two hours of focused work every day, you’re already in the top 1% of marketers.”

You need to work smart & ensure those two hours are truly focused.

Step 3: Remove Distractions

Focus time is useless if you’re still getting interrupted. Oskar suggests:

• Use “Focus Mode” on your devices and limit the calls and notifications that get through to 1-2 max.
• Listen to focus music → Lo-fi beats, binaural sounds, or whatever keeps you in the zone.
• Turn off Slack notifications → Set expectations with your team.

Step 4: Schedule Your Focus Time Around Your Energy

Not all hours are equal. Some people are sharpest in the morning, others in the afternoon.

Find your prime focus time and protect it at all costs.

Why You Procrastinate (and How to Fix It)

We all have been through it. Avoiding a task not because we don’t have time, but because we keep putting it off. Here's why procrastination happens and how you can finally beat it.

1. Your Task Is Too Big → Break it down into bite-sized steps
   • Example: If “Write a presentation” feels overwhelming, start with “Look at past presentations” or “Do an hour of research for my presentation”
2. No Clear Deadline → Set a deadline for yourself, even if it’s artificial.
3. It’s Not Fun or Stimulating → Find ways to make it engaging
   • Listen to focus music
   • If it's a task you can do on autopilot (not deep work!), feel free to pair it with an task (e.g., updating spreadsheets while watching youtube)
4. You’re Afraid of Failing → Just start for 5 minutes
   • “Tell yourself, ‘I’ll just do this for five minutes. If I don’t want to continue, I’ll stop.’" And actually keep that promise to yourself if you don't feel like continuing.
5. The Task May not be Important After All → Ask yourself: "Why do I procrastinate on this? Is it even a priority? What happens if I just delete it?”‍
   • If it’s important but not urgent, schedule time for it and commit.‍
   • If you’ve been delaying it for weeks, it’s either not a priority or too big – break it down or remove it completely.

How Marketing Teams Can Get More Done

Productivity isn’t just an individual challenge – it’s a team challenge. The most efficient marketing teams have:

1. Clear priorities → Everyone knows what actually matters.

And, they have so-called "Team Agreements", like:

1. Set focus times → Decide on when meetings happen (and when they don’t!)
2. A shared workspace → A central Notion board to track projects and responsibilities
3. Respect for energy levels → For example, no 9 AM meetings for morning-focus people‍
   • “If your prime focus time is between 9–11 AM, it makes no sense for me to schedule a meeting with you at 9 AM.”

Start by protecting everyone’s ability to do deep work. Everything else will fall into place faster.

Best Productivity Tools for Marketers

Oskar swears by a few key tools to help marketers stay focused and productive:

✅ Notion → Use Notion for project management, but don’t over-optimize. Keep it simple and only track what you actually use.

✅ Focus Mode (iOS & Mac) → Build your own ‘airplane mode’ to block distractions. My setup only allows my daughter’s preschool to reach me.

✅ Raycast → An application launcher that also works as a shortcut tool. It can help automate tasks and quickly access Notion pages and websites. And much more.

✅ Endel, Lo-fi Girl & Headspace for Focus Music → Use binaural beats or lo-fi playlists to get in the zone.

✅ Headphones for Office Work → In an office, wearing headphones can signal ‘Do Not Disturb’ – a great way to create focus time.

Final Advice for Marketers Drowning in Work

If Oskar could go back and give advice to his marketer self from 2-3 years ago, he’d say:

“Create clarity. What are you actually trying to accomplish? What are you actually going to do? And when? Schedule time for that, and minimize distractions. Just focus on the what and the when, and everything else becomes easier.”

Inspired to level up your productivity?

Start with just two hours of deep work per day – and watch how much more you get done.