As an entrepreneur, it is important to ensure that you have your productivity in check so that you are able to get more things checked off your list in a timely manner. However, there are some individuals that feel that they are productive, but aren’t utilizing their productivity to the best of their ability.
Today, we will take a look at a couple of tips that entrepreneurs can make use of to ensure that the focus is brought on their projects at hand and not the clutter of life around them. Let us know in the comments below what productivity tips are the most important for entrepreneurs, including those mentioned and not mentioned in the article.
Know When to Cut Off
There are some individuals that work by the adage that the more you work, and the longer you’re at work, the more you’ll get done and in the end the more productive you turn out to be. However, this isn’t the case. The more you work, the shorter time it takes for you to burnout, and along the way, the drive to work at the same consistency decreases. In the end, you become less productive by not having a time to cut off. This can be as little as an hour in the middle of the day to as grand as 24-hours offline (a Saturday).
Consume The Right Info
Chances are good that you have a Facebook account, a Twitter, and other social media. The chances are also less but still prevalent that you keep up regularly with print and television news, all of this information and differing opinions can clutter your mind. Keep yourself productive by sticking to certain sources to consume your information and ridding yourself of social networking sites that aren’t benefitting you in terms of increased communication or productivity (i.e don’t get rid of LinkedIn or Quora, reconsider Tumblr or WhatsApp).
Schedule the Night Before
Instead of winging it throughout the day, schedule all of the tasks you have to get done for the next day the night before. This means about a couple of hours before bed, look at the day you just had and see what you’ve accomplished. Also, look at what needs to be accomplished for the next day and put it into an application like Wunderlist or another to-do reminder application.
Start Your Morning Right
Your mornings heavily influence how you will perform for the rest of the day. If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you will find that the rest of your day is unproductive. The start to a great morning is a goodnight’s sleep, between 6-8 hours is a good goal to have.
Any more than 9 hours has been proven to be more detrimental than helpful. Once you’ve gotten up and had a hearty breakfast, knock out your hardest tasks first for a more productive rest of the day. Also, look into waking up earlier. Those who wake up before, let’s say 9, are more likely to feel better about the tasks they’ve gotten out of the way before noon.
Discover Your Track of the Day
Before you even get out of bed, there are certain tracks that you can take to ensure a successful day. Some choose to do what I suggested earlier, tackling the hardest tasks first. Others look to the morning as the opportune time to focus more on their inner wellbeing, such as taking their time getting ready and even a little bit of yoga. Ultimately, you can truly do both, for example, by looking into possibly having a yoga session twice or three times a week on your less busy days. This will spark you to think intuitively rather than impulsively.
Time Yourself
With the work that you have to get done, it can be tempting to want to look at a to-do list and take your time to accomplish them. You may even internally justify that doing so will make you complete tasks in a quality manner. However, taking your time will only move your other tasks further back, causing you to stress about the load of work ahead. Instead, schedule yourself to finish a task within a certain timeframe, either fixed (09:00AM) or more general (in 30 minutes).
Keep it Short
Email is still the standard form of communication for most entrepreneurs. In emails, it’s important to be concise and to the point. This is done by making sure that you tie your emails to no more than two-three sentences at most. The recipient will appreciate your ability to get to the point and this will result in getting the response you are looking for. When in the zone of work, this practice should be followed with in-person communication as well. Keeping communication short will allow you to not get distracted by idle conversation.
Let us know in the comments below of your opinions of the productivity tips mentioned above.
