Whether you are a business owner or an entrepreneur, productivity is key for your success. Habits, lifestyle, discipline, and technology matter.
Here are some productivity tips to become more efficient:
1. Create a To-do List
List your tasks, organize them in order of priority and set deadlines.
To-do lists will give you a structure, and a plan to stick to. Luckily, nowadays you can carry your to-do list on your phone. With digital to-do list apps, forgetting is not an excuse. Make sure you go for an easy-to-use option that lets you share tasks with other people – even if they don’t have an account.
Tools like this can help you track your work in one place and get peace of mind that things will get done on time.
2. Get rid of unnecessary things
“Essentialism is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”
― Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Just as Greg McKeown mentioned in his New York Times best-selling book, essentialism is a mindset and a lifestyle. When you get rid of unnecessary things, you avoid distractions and you can focus on your most important goals.
3. Use a Learning Management System (LMS)
“We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning.”
– Elliot Masie
Productive and successful people never stop learning. Continuous research and learning are crucial to staying up-to-date with the latest market and technology trends. A culture of learning drives productivity. Fortunately, there are many eLearning options available for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to enhance their skills.
For their teams, there are also many learning management systems that provide training programs. By using an LMS, progress and performance can be measured. Be sure that the right LMS platform will boost the organization’s productivity in the long run.
4. Take Breaks
“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”
– Alan Cohen
Taking breaks increases our work productivity. They are a chance to re-focus. There are many ways to spend your breaks but it’s important that the activity gives you energy.
For some people, this could be some physical activity or eating a healthy snack. For others, it could be meditating or socializing (but NOT on social media). So the next time you feel unproductive, stop what you’re doing and think about recharging yourself!
5. Take advantage of technology
There are many factors that affect productivity such as your attitude, sleeping hours, health habits, stress, miscommunication, time and task management.
Fortunately, you can take advantage of technology. There are many apps available to increase your productivity and the efficiency for you, your business and teams.
Here are just a few examples:
For you
Calm: a meditation app. Meditation helps to relieve stress, making you more productive.
Sleep Time: a sleeping control app. A lack of sleep affects your health. If you don’t sleep enough you won’t be able to focus properly.
Fitness Buddy: an app for your workouts! Exercise will boost your energy and reduce your stress levels.
MyFitnessPal: an app to track what you eat. Healthy food, healthy mind.
For your business and teams
Slack: A software that improves communication between your teams. Miscommunication means inefficiency.
Sendtask: A task management and team collaboration software. A task management tool will help you organize, plan, and manage your workload effectively.
Google Drive: An “all in one place” tool. With Google Drive, you can improve your organization, communication, and your team’s productivity
Time Doctor: A time tracking software. Time management makes you accomplish more in less time.
6. Remind yourself of the “why” behind your business
Motivate yourself and motivate others frequently. Reminding yourself of the reason you started your business can provide a substantial boost to your personal and team morale. Think about the customers you help and how you make their lives easier. Or maybe your employees and their families who support themselves by working with you.
Whatever you do, there are multiple people who are better off because of your company. The more you and your team think about this, the bigger the impact on your productivity levels.
7. Manage your energy
To improve your productivity, you need to be in a positive mental state and energized through good habits. Some of the habits that give you more energy include:
o Eating healthy: Less junk food and a balanced diet can impact your energy and productivity immensely.
o Sleeping well: Getting an optimal amount of sleep can boost your mood and improve your ability to focus
o Working out: Consistent exercise makes you more alert and provides a great energy boost
8. Cultivate self-discipline
Self-discipline is crucial to reaching your goals. Without self-control, you cannot stay focused. Establish a clear plan, stay consistent, and don’t let go of your dreams. The value of cultivating self-discipline will be reflected in your levels of productivity without a doubt!
Here are some practical tips on how to do it:
- Set detailed and clear goals
- Reward yourself for a job well done
- Get rid of temptations and distractions
- Create accountability by sharing your goals with someone who will make sure you stick to them
9. Remove distractions
Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short. – Adam Hochschild
We are all distracted from our daily tasks several times per day. Negative people, social media, smartphone notifications, and noise are just a few examples.
To stay focused you have to get rid of distractions, and this for sure is not easy. Some recommendations to defeat them are:
- Plan, prioritize your daily tasks and set deadlines
- Turn off your social media and smartphone notifications
- Avoid unexpected meetings or visits
- Turn emails into tasks (you can use a task management tool to achieve this)
- Get away from noisy or uncomfortable environments
- Avoid personal phone and texting
10. Coffee O’clock
Don’t forget the coffee! Coffee increases energy, focus, and attention. Coffee breaks also stimulate teams and are linked to happiness. And as we all know, happy people are productive people. Apply these productivity tips and get ready to be efficient, not busy!
Krystel Winiker Villalobos, International Marketing Communications and Startup Ambassador
