As a business owner and entrepreneur, I’ve learned that productivity is a skill that takes time to develop. and I know that I was not alone when I was struggling with my productivity. Ask any entrepreneur whether she’s busy and pressed for time, and she’ll probably laugh in your face. It comes with the role! and I am yet to see a successful entrepreneur whom hasn’t mastered the productivity challenge.
Here are my top 10 productivity tips….
1. Release yourself from the 9-to-5 “grind” In today’s world, the traditional 9-to-5 workday is no longer a necessity but it has become a habit – but habits can be broken. So if you’re more alert and ready to go in the morning, get to the office at 6 a.m. so you can get out by 2 p.m. And if you’re a night owl, call in at noon and close up the office on your way out. But remember, burning the candle at both ends will actually damage your productivity because you’ll never get a chance to recharge. You can’t take care of your business if you can’t take care of yourself.
2. Cut out arbitrary tasks, set up productivity rituals. At the beginning of each day (or the night before), establish your to-do list and prioritise the top three things you need to get done for that day. Setting up rituals to automate behaviours that will make you more productive, will automagically see many tasks completed without much effort or planning!
3. Don’t get sucked in by technology. Technology is crucial in my productivity drive, but it can also be a time suck. As a confessed technogeek, I sync my calendars,task lists, project plans and mind maps to my various devices, which is great. However, I know I am easily be seduced by the promise of greater integration or more intuitive dashboards in name of productivity and have literally lost days chasing improvements in productivity. When it comes to technology solutions to aid productivity, leaders must weigh the time investment in learning the technology against how much it will actually improve productivity in the long term.
4. Self-reflect. So when it comes to your own strengths and weaknesses who could know you better than you do, so only you can choose productivity hacks that play to your particular strengths. If you pay more attention to automated task lists and pop-up reminders on your computer or phone, use technology to aid your productivity. But if your mind works best by writing tasks out and physically ticking them off, invest in a paper planner or a giant desk calendar and a favourite pen.
5. Support your team. Being a more productive leader isn’t limited to checking things off of your own list, the role of a leader is to help and encourage others to cross things off of their lists. The key to a successful organisation is in your entire teams doing many tasks, successfully at once. If you can help other people achieve their daily tasks and overarching goals, you’ll be able to lead your entire company in being more productive.
6. Build the right team until you are the dumbest person in the room. When building your team, concentrate on hiring people who are better at specific things than you are. Actively working to ensure you’re the dumbest person in the room, ensures you become less needed on a day-to-day basis to complete projects, and the company’s talent achieves more than you alone ever could. As my team accomplishes more and becomes increasingly independent, I’m able to focus on the big-picture tasks I’m responsible for so my company can continue to grow and evolve.
7. Don’t lose it: Read it later. Don’t miss out on important information because you’re in a rush and have no time to read. Two programs help you scoop information to read later. Get Pocket allows you to put articles, videos and any other information into a virtual pocket, saved directly from any site. Another worthwhile program is Instapaper, which allows you to save long Web pages to read later when you have time.
8. Turn off alerts. It’s genuinely tough to get into your into your productive zone when your phone is buzzing every few minutes or your outlook is showing every email as it arrives. Depending on how chatty your phone is, you may get notifications for everything from emails to retweets. Shut these notifications off, also turn off the preview option of your emails – all they actually do is impact on your productivity, few emails cannot wait a few minutes until you have finished the task you are in the process of completing – There are enough interruptions in every day without your phone or email client adding to them.
9. Don’t Be Afraid to Say No. This is a pretty standard productivity tip, but it makes the rounds for a reason, when you’re too eager to please, you often end up getting in over your head. Remember, it’s not simply a matter of being agreeable, when you take on too much, all your work suffers. You may end up missing deadlines, and despite good intentions, you could end up disappointing others when you are unable to meet the extraordinary expectations you’ve created for yourself. Sometimes you just have to say no, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
10. The Two-Minute Rule. The general productivity consensus is that if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, you should finish it immediately. Whether that means responding to an email or confirming a doctor’s appointment, get those small (but often weighty-feeling) tasks done with, rather than let them collect and snowball.
