Being productive is crucial to the success of any entrepreneur, but it is especially important during the first year of business when you are building the foundation of your company. It is just too easy to get distracted and off course when you don't have a boss handing down strict deadlines.
Due to the importance of this topic, I thought it would be appropriate to add my own two cents to
Mark's post on Productivity. With that, I give you Eric's Five Tips For Being A Productive Entrepreneur:
1) Plan your day the night before:
Take 10 minutes every night to put together a structured plan for the following day. By looking over your calendar and to-do list the night before, you will be able to wake up and know exactly what it is you need to accomplish.
2) Wake up early:
Start working while everybody else is sleeping. This is a great way to get work done without any distractions and it also allows you to build momentum for the day ahead. Not an early riser? You can change that. Start going to bed and waking up a little earlier each night. Eventually you will get acclimated to your new sleep schedule and 5 am will feel like 10 am.
3) Clear space on your calendar for uninterrupted work or strategic planning:
How do you make sure that you don't forget to go to an upcoming meeting or event? You mark it on your calendar! You should do the same for big projects and strategic planning. Mark off a few hours each week that you can spend working on those difficult projects. During that time make sure that you turn off your phone, log out of your email and Facebook and get to work!
4) Break up your big projects:
The thought of taking on a huge project is overwhelming. It can cause you to push off the start of a project because there is no end in sight. To help you take on these large and complicated projects, start breaking them into small, attainable pieces. Set small goals that eventually lead to the finished project. For example, rather than trying to get 50 new clients this year, shoot for one new client per week. This will give you a ton of small victories throughout the year, which keeps you motivated and on track.
5) Find an accountability partner:
One of the beauties of having a boss is that there is always somebody to hold you accountable. Unfortunately, when you are your own boss it becomes all to easy to push off that sales call, networking event, or other unfavorable item on your to-do list. That's why it is important to find an accountability partner who will keep you on track. Check in with each other every week. Discuss what you intend on accomplishing over the next week, then check back in and make sure you both did as you said. This is especially important for those of us that are solopreneurs.
Nice tips, Eric. I can definitely vouch for number 3 and number 5.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to use your time that you set aside for 'strategic planning' to do things that aren't actually that productive - like checking Google Analytics or your Facebook Page Insights. These things are sneaky because they give you the feeling that you're being productive when, in fact, you aren't. You're right, log out of Facebook, log out of Google. Checking these things compulsively, even if they are part of our marketing strategy, is not helpful.
As for accountability, those are all great tips! Never underestimate the power of committing to something (either verbally or in writing), especially when you communicate your commitment to somebody that will ask you about it down the road. There's something great at work there - suddenly you'll want to follow through so you can look that person in the eye and say, "Yep, I did exactly as I said, and here's how it turned out."
Great stuff.
Spot on! Thanks, Mark
ReplyDelete