Do you feel like there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all your work tasks? Are you stressed with the challenges of being a business owner and wish you could better maximize your time? If you make small adjustments in your daily routine, you can significantly improve your productivity. Consider the following five ways business owners can increase their daily productivity to see if you feel more empowered and in charge of your day.
1) Stop attending to distractions immediately
No, you don’t need to answer that email right away or update your Facebook page with the latest cat GIF you found. Keep a notepad in your pocket or add a voice dictation to your smartphone; those distractions will wait. Focus on your task at hand before starting a new task.
2) Learn the power of delegation.
Why have employees if you’re not going to delegate tasks to them? The more challenges you give your employees, the stronger they’ll become. When you trust staff members to complete tasks on your behalf, it shows them you trust their abilities. Delegation not only helps you be more productive, it builds stronger team members at the same time.
3) Develop a defined email management plan
Don’t check your email throughout the day. Set specific time periods where you allow yourself to read and respond to emails. You can significantly boost your productivity by not attending to emails first thing in the morning. Force yourself to work for at least one hour before even looking at your email inbox.
4) Track your productivity and reward yourself for your efforts
End each day with a special treat when you have managed to cross off items on your to-do list. Reinforcing good behavior doesn’t just work for pets and children. When you reward yourself for a particularly productive day, it encourages you to repeat your performance for the rest of the week.
5) Learn to create weekly task lists
Spend time on a Saturday or Sunday reviewing tasks you want to accomplish in the week ahead. This one simple habit can help you feel supercharged when Monday rolls around. Instead of dreading the upcoming week, you can feel invigorated by all the business-building goals you hope to achieve.
Becoming a more productive business owner is easy if you are willing to make a concerted effort to improve your work output in small ways. Little tweaks in your daily routine can have a huge impact on your overall weekly productivity. How many of these productivity tips will you be trying this week?