Entrepreneurs need to keep as many tools at their fingertips as possible. We need to keep our productivity up as much as possible and look for ways to increase it. There are many ways you can do this as a business owner.
So with the help of some credible sources on this matter, we have come up with some great productivity tips that will help you maximize your productivity and reach your goals.
13 Tips to Increase Productivity
The following tips will help you increase your business productivity and help you fine-tune your business plans to move forward with your goals.
Delegate strategically.
In a now, wildly popular book, “The Four Hour Work Week,” Tim Ferris describes what you can do to increase productivity in your workplace. If you like this book, you should also check out my recommended books on Amazon for entrepreneurs as well.
He states that you should learn to delegate strategically by contracting others to do what you don’t have time to do yourself. By following a plan to outsource the right jobs to the right people, you can save a great deal of time that you would normally spend trying to do the job yourself.
Forbes Magazine echoes this principle in an article they wrote on how to increase productivity in 2013.
Create “To Do” lists
This may seem to be an old-fashioned piece of advice, but the old-fashioned traditional “To Do” list is one of the best things you can do to make sure you keep your eye on the important things. You can create your list in some ways, but one idea is to the put the most important things at the top of the list.
Some like to go by the idea of doing the hardest task first and before 11 am. This idea, sometimes referred to as “eat the frog first,” has been adopted as one of the main ways you can be sure that the most critical things get done first.
Another way is to put the time that you plan to do the jobs out to the side of the task and stick to the time as closely as possible.
Mobile Apps that Help You Increase Productivity
If you like mobile apps to help you maximize your productivity time, there are several out there. One app you can use is Hours Tracker. This is a mobile app that allows you to clock in and out like you would in a real-world timeclock. It allows you to start and stop the time you are working on particular tasks so that you know how much time you devote to a task.
Other apps allow you to track the amount of time you spend in various categories such as business, research, and other categories and shows you a 30-day, weekly, or daily trend on these results.
Google Tools and Notifications
If you are a Google user, you already know the power of using Google Calendar, Google notifications, and other features. If you haven’t taken advantage of these nifty tools yet and you are an Android user, you already have to connect to Google to use your apps and other aspects of your Google account to keep you on track.
You can put in detailed information on tasks and dates that you need to remember and have it automatically notify you when you need to complete a task. This kind of tool keeps you on track especially if you tend to work alone.
Limit meetings.
When it comes to scheduling meetings, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to hold numerous weekly meetings just to say you did it! Many corporate executives of both large and small businesses want to have meetings to give their staff an agenda for the week or lay out plans of what they want to do in the future.
That’s all well and good as long as it fits a company goal or other objective. But having meetings simply for the sake of having them is lost time.
Look to the future
Entrepreneurs always need to look forward to the future and put a plan in place that is going to help you move toward those goals. By having an overall plan in place that you can adjust as you go, you create a realistic plan for achievement while keeping it open to change.
Be practical
Your goals should be adaptable and open to change. This is one very basic truth that entrepreneurs understand better than anyone else. Even if you have a crystal clear plan for success in any given venture, it is always best to look ahead and see how you may need to alter your plan to fit the growing needs of customers and the market that you serve.
Take breaks between tasks.
Whether you work alone in your home office or a real-world office, taking breaks between tasks is a good idea. Even just a five-minute break to have a cup of coffee or drink between major or minor tasks can keep you ready to tackle the next one. If you work too hard and too long without a break, you will start to feel the stress more readily than if you took breaks between them.
Divide your tasks into smaller chunks.
Lifehacker.com shows you how to break larger jobs into smaller tasks. Organizing your larger jobs into smaller jobs will alleviate some of the stress in completing a large task within your business while letting you decide how you will spend your time to achieve your goals.
Organize your plan of action.
Organization is one of the most important aspects of running a business. How you decide to organize your business and tasks if up to you. But the key is that there is a plan to keep it organized that will work both over the short term and long term. This can involve anything from brainstorming on a weekly basis where you want to go during that span of time and how it will affect your overall progress. Part of the organization is delegating tasks to others, planning meetings, and creating “to do” lists that you follow on a daily basis.
Create incentive plans for employee success.
As mentioned before, part of your plan for success should be to motivate your workers and contractors to get the jobs done that you need to be completed. By also adding incentive plans to your business plan, you may inspire them to achieve a higher degree of success on given tasks.
Talk to your employees and contractors and find out what types of incentives would motivate them and empower them to achieve more in a shorter period.
Summary: Increase Productivity
In summary, utilizing some or all of these ideas may help you to increase your level of productivity and work smarter, not harder.
Remember that one of the most difficult things is letting go of responsibilities to others. But, by doing so, you free yourself more to focus on the most important aspects of your business. Not only is productivity important for all aspects of life and business, it’s also one of the most common traits among entrepreneurs.
Start with a good old-fashioned legal pad and brainstorm ideas as to how you plan to implement your business plan. Delegate jobs to others that you trust to carry forth your plan. Then sit back and analyze the results to plan what to do next.
Learn to let go of some of the most minute details so that you can work on the big picture of how you will achieve your business goals and minimize downtime.
Visit us regularly for more tips on how to maximize your time and productivity and increase your revenue at the same time. Because when productivity increases, so does your bottom line.