Being more productive in your business is a big deal these days. Here are five way that will bring you closer to that goal…
I think we’ve all been there – looking for new and better ways to be productive in your business. The good news is, there are PLENTY of ways to do that you do in a more productive way. Here are five to get you started:
1. Create a daily to-do list for your business. I do this myself and even blogged about it before – it’s that effective. Keeping yourself
and your business on-task is an integral part of productivity and success. If you want to achieve the most you can in a single day, setting a list of the most important tasks will help. Not only will a to-do list help you see what you need to do, after a day of tackling those tasks, you can look back and see everything you got done. For me, nothing looks better than turning a to-do list into a ta-da list.
1. b. Ok, part of creating a list is actually putting things on a piece of paper (I use paper and the Stickies application on my iMac). But, the bigger part is actually putting things on your to-do list that support your business goals and your business productivity. “Get milk” does not go on this list. That’s for another list.
2. Turn off your email. Ok, I’ll admit, I’m not the best person to be giving this particular piece of advice, but I find that when I turn my email off (close the program, don’t just shut off audible and visual alerts) I get much, MUCH more done. The immediacy of email is perceived. What I mean by this is that the person who sends you email does not know you are are at your computer. They don’t know you have it open, they don’t know you see that their email is in your inbox…see where I’m going with this. Only YOU truly know when you get an email, so don’t think that by turning your email off, you’re turning anybody away. You aren’t- and you’ll boos your business productivity at the same time.
3. Break up with a whole bunch of people. This means Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…the list goes on. I recently unfollowed, unfriended and dumped a whole lot of people – roughly 200 to be more specific. Another thing I did was follow people in the right spaces. For example, if someone who gives out great business advice is not a friend, I follow them on Twitter. If I have a friend who has no business relationship with me, I generally ‘friend’ them on Facebook. as for MySpace…I don’t use it. I have one friend on it. But seriously, cutting ties with 200+ people = liberating…for your soul and your time.
4. Know where your time goes. Maximum productivity in your business means knowing where your time goes. You have to identify what your investing your time on, spending your time on and WASTING your time on. Wasting time on Facebook? Twitter? Something else? Don’t walk away from #4 thinking you have to defeat, hide, squelch or quit your time wasters. They key here is to identify them – and then decide what to do with them. Maybe you need to work around some of them because they are an integral part of who you are. Only you’ll know for sure.
5. Get a whiteboard and use it to keep track of your to-do list. My to-do list is on my white board…you can see it in this post. It’s slightly encrypted so that only I know what things mean, but you’ll notice that there are a handful of things that are circled in red. Those are the ‘hot’ items to do. I’ve also got the list broken down into clients and ‘JP’ – that’s me. I circle tings on both sides of the so that I’m working on things that build me bank account and things that build future business opportunities. A whiteboard’s price tag is small when compared to the organization and in-your-face effect you’ll get from it.
Until next time…
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Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina with clients around the world. Contact Jason Pedley today – mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.
