One of the hardest things for many business owners is to be as productive as possible. However, it is vital that you boost your productivity as a business owner — otherwise you won’t have time for anything but your business.
While I love what I do, sometimes I like to do other things, like hang out with my family, go camping, or read a good book. If I’m not maximizing my productivity, I can’t do any of those things. The folks at Wrike put together a helpful infographic that includes a number of tips that can help you get on the right track with your productivity:
Some of my favorite tips from this infographic, especially for a business owner, include:
- Fight off distractions: This is something I often have a hard time with. It’s easy to get distracted by my Skype master group, or by my email — which is often open. However, it’s important to keep those distractions at bay. Right now, I’ve shut down Skype, and closed my email. This is important. I’m far more productive, getting more done and improving the cost-efficiency of time. Often, I’ll put on classical music to help keep my brain going, and avoid the distractions of lyrics. Whatever works for you, do it so that you are able to stay on top of things.
- Delegate: I love this one. I don’t delegate much, since my home business pretty much consists of just me, providing content. However, I’m finding that there are some administrative and non-writing tasks I can outsource. I’m looking into the benefits of a virtual assistant who can take up some of the slack. Consider your workload, and figure out if some of it can be done by someone else. From social media help to scheduling to other tasks, consider delegating to free up some of your time.
- Prioritize: Take a look at what’s most important to get done. I list out things that need to be done, each day, in order of importance. If something doesn’t get done, it’s usually not a big deal, because it’s often something that can be taken care of the next day — first thing. Prioritizing works in almost every aspect of your business, from which clients to keep, to which project needs to be completed, to which equipment to buy. Determine what’s most important, and focus on that before you focus on other things.
- Small tasks immediately: This was an interesting piece of advice that I found intriguing. Rather than putting off small tasks, do them first. Anything you can do in two minutes or less, take care of immediately. Of course, that could mean doing several small things, one after the other, for a reasonable period of time. I kind of like the idea of setting aside 15 or 20 minutes, and seeing how many small tasks I can accomplish in that time.
Miranda is freelance journalist. She specializes in topics related to money, especially personal finance, small business, and investing. You can read more of my writing at Planting Money Seeds.