How to get more things done? No matter how many opportunities come your way, the fact is that we all have just 24 hours every day. In this quick tips episode, Mari-Liis Vaher shares 5 simple tips that high achievers use and what you can also start to use to increase your productivity and grow your business in the long run.
When you think that you are too busy, try to imagine being the president of the United States, for example, or Oprah or any other very successful and well-known person. The more your business grows, the busier you get.
You have two options:
- You work 24/7 until you burn out. You don’t want that.
- Or you build systems and processes that make it easy for other people around you to help you and take care of things even if you’re not there.
We would all want this option 2 but how to do it on a daily basis?
Here are 5 tips that help business owners to increase productivity!
- Tip number 1 is to always PLAN ahead. Planning plays the most important role in effective time management. Create and follow your calendar, and plan a minimum of 1 week ahead. Do not forget to use the 8-8-8 principle ideally because you need balance in order to stay productive and effective. Meaning, you should spend 8 hours on working, 8 hours on your family, personal time, hobbies etc. and 8 hours on resting. It is needed in order to live sustainably.
If you don’t know how to manage your calendar, then go find a previous episode by Laura called “7 steps to effective calendar management.”
- Tip number 2 is to track your time for different tasks that you do. For example with Toggl.com or any other time tracking app. The key is to focus on one task at a time because multitasking is very bad for you. If you want to hear more about that go and find one of our previous episodes called “4 reasons why multitasking is bad for you”. When you track your time, you will soon start to realize where most of your time goes and you can challenge yourself to decrease time spent on non-strategic activities and increase time on activities that enable you to grow your business in the long run. The goal here is to do more things today that would free up time for you in the future!
- Tip number 3 is to get the information out of your head and to build a system for documenting, communicating and so on. If you are the only person who knows how to do something in your business, then the business will collapse without you. Build a process or a template for the project that you’re working on and then base any other similar projects in the future on the same template. No need to invent the wheel every time!
- Tip number 4 is to do the most difficult thing first - or Eat That Frog like Brian Tracy says in his book. The idea is that whatever it is that you procrastinate the most, for example having to make an unpleasant call or create a spreadsheet - just do it first thing in the morning. You will feel a sense of accomplishment and will find motivation to keep on going the rest of the day.
- Tip number 5 is to build habits that boost your productivity. You can’t grow your business and not grow yourself at the same time. They are forever linked. Think - what are those activities that give you energy in the long run? For example working out or going for a walk every day or writing in a journal every morning or reading a book. Whatever it is, if you keep working on your habits, your habits will start working for you. Routine can be a very good thing as it is a solid foundation for your growth.
Organizing your time and tasks can be very challenging and time-consuming. But it is worth it in the long run. That is why in Powerful Marketers coaching program, we always start with organizing all the information, planning the calendar and so on, so that in whichever direction you choose to advance in your career, you will have systems and processes in place to support you.