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Practical Tips To Increase Productivity In Your Business

As an entrepreneur your productivity determines the outcome of your results, many entrepreneurs struggle in the area of productivity. In today’s blog post I am going to give you practical tips to help you increase your productivity so your business can flourish.

As a solopreneur it’s very easy to get burnout in your business which then lowers your productivity, however the key is not to overwhelm yourself. There are many entrepreneurs who feel the frustration of having to wear so many hats in their business.

I hear many entrepreneurs who are now seeing success in their business, tell aspiring entrepreneurs are you running a business or creating another job for yourself. Truth be told unless you have money to invest in your business then you can outsource areas of your business like marketing, graphic design, or hire a virtual assistance. 

Truth be told not many entrepreneurs who start out have money to invest in their business upfront so yes they have to take on areas of the business themselves until they are able to properly finance their business.

The key is to know how to stay productive in your business without burning yourself out. 

Key #1 Have Smart Goals

Have smart goals in place, SMART stands for:

* Specific. Make your goal clear.

* Measurable. If you can’t measure your success, how will you know when you’ve achieved your goal?

* Attainable. Your goal needs to be realistically achievable. This step increases productivity.

* Realistic. Does your goal contribute to your business? What does it mean to your overall plan?

* Time-bound. You need to be able to set a date to reach the specific goal, you can always go back and tweak it if necessary.

When you have a goal in place it equips you to stay on task to see if your goals are producing any results, while some goals take longer to achieve however you want to be able to ensure that each goal fits into the above list criteria.

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Key #2  Start Small

The key to ensuring you will keep the momentum in staying productive in your business is to start small. Don’t try to spread yourself thin by trying to be on every popular platform.

Determine the platform that your target market is on and master that platform before moving on to another one, this will help to increase your productivity because you only have to focus on doing the tasks for that specific platform.

Key #3 Use Productivity Apps

There are literally thousands of productivity apps out there, however the key is to find the right one that will increase your productivity as well as be user friendly, you don’t want to devote time to an app that has a huge learning curve unless it has all the features that you need in one place.

 

  1. Asana: Task Management Asana is one of the best productivity tools for task management available.  Asana is free to use for up to 15 people. If you want Premium features in a Workspace or team, or you want to gain Administrator capabilities in your Organization along with increased member limits, you have the option to upgrade. .  From inside the easy-to-navigate dashboard, you can create new tasks, assign them to specific teammates, and monitor the progress of multiple projects.

 

  1. Google Calendar: is an efficient way to keep track of events across all of your devices. You can access the calendar online from a smartphone, tablet, or PC, and it’s compatible with Windows, Android, and iOS. It works with Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. You can share calendars and events with multiple users and groups, while keeping certain events private.

 

  1. Trello: Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process. Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team. … That’s Trello!

 

My goal is not to overwhelm you with too many tools which can also be a hindrance to your productivity. Here is a list of productivity tools that you can choose from for 2020, choose the one that best suits your needs. 

Key # 1 Set A Schedule 

We are now living in a new normal, gone are the day’s when you could just pick-up your laptop and head to the nearest Starbucks or brick and mortar location that hosts free wifi and hammer away on your laptop, 

You will have to become creative in getting your work done now that everyone’s home.

If you have children, set up a time for their activities where they can be working on a project or reading a book and writing a summary of what they gleaned from the book.

This will allow you to schedule time around their schedule to get some work done, if you have the luxury to have a home office, approach this place as you would any outside office space, have small plants for visual effects and have instrumental music playing that will gear you up for the work day.

Add a scented candle, I love clean linen and on day’s when I’m feeling a little drained I use  Nature’s Truth Essential Oil, Pure Sweet Orange, it gives me a burst of energy to get through some tasks that may take more time.

Turn off notifications on your phone and computer, this will keep you focused and lower temptation to scroll on social media.

I like to check my email first thing in the morning for about 5 min, and then I don’t check it again unless I am expecting an email from someone.

Email has become a beast in the last 5yrs and what I do to cut down on the amount of emails I receive is 

  1. I have 1 email strictly for business that I only give out to clients and potential clients. 
  2. I have another email for resources that I want to read up on later, like e-books, guides, checklists, free master class etc… that helps me to stay on top of my industry.
  3. I have another email for my personal interests.

When putting your email on social media platforms determine the email that you will utilize, I have had countless people inbox me about purchasing a product or service and the problem is there is no unsubscribe link, so make sure you are giving out the email that your comfortable with to keep intruders from spamming you with countless offers.

I hope the tips presented in this blog post has helped you to begin setting up a plan to see your productivity go to the next level.

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