As a business owner or entrepreneur, you’re always looking for different ways to maximize productivity. Working smarter, not harder, is the mindset you have and you’re willing to try anything to get there.
There’s many tips out there that will help maximize productivity throughout the day. We have three core concepts that will ensure your success and maximize productivity.
MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY WITH A SCHEDULE
There’s not a single day that will go by where you are not busy. Not only does being a business owner/entrepreneur bring more busy to your life, society also breeds the desire to be constantly busy. This is why we strive to maximize productivity on a daily basis. One of the crucial elements to maximize productivity is a schedule. The successful folks who manage it all while still looking effortless have one of two things: a personal assistant or a schedule, and the former uses schedules.
When you’re trying to maximize productivity, scheduling all the things that are on your daily or weekly to-do list and writing down the master list of things that you want to accomplish is the absolutely mission-critical first step. I write things down for a couple of reasons:
First of all, until I go through the motions of spelling out and documenting a task, it isn’t concrete in my mind. Is this a mental thing? Absolutely, but you have to do what works to maximize productivity.
Second, it’s easier to grasp how much you have to do when the visual is there to go with your thought processes. Get it all down on paper, figure out how much time each task is going to take you, and then assign an urgency. It’s about scheduling the time to complete the tasks and enforcing those time periods. This will greatly maximize productivity quickly.
SET REALISTIC GOALS
A crucial element to maximize productivity is to determine how much time you’re spending on tasks. This will set yourself up for success instead of failure. Don’t under-estimating how time much you truly spend on the things that you do regularly.
For example, let’s say you spend 4 hours per day reading and replying to email. Even if you find that number shocking, don’t schedule only 2 hours per day to work on email. Forcing yourself into a smaller time block will increase stress and pressure. You’re likely to end up running over into other time blocks, which will not maximize productivity.
What about travel? Your travel time is 60 minutes of actual driving. However, you also take time to get back and forth to your car, start up or shut down your work area, chit-chat with other employees, etc… You must include this time in your schedule. Being realistic about the many things that take up time every day is the hardest part for most people when trying to maximize productivity.
We find it difficult to believe that out of an 8 or 10-hour work day, much of that time is spent NOT working. So we tend to mentally block out the things that are not productive. Here is the thing to remember, though: Whether you are being productive or not, the clock is still ticking. You might be amazed at how much time you spend each day NOT accomplishing the tasks that are in front of you.
Consistency Will Maximize Productivity
Scheduling your time and being realistic is only the beginning of the path to maximize productivity. Realizing that you have many things to do every day and that you could clean up your productivity habits, is not enough to effect change. You have to “stick to your guns” and follow through on whatever plans you come up.
It’s necessary to be consistent in order to increase your productivity. Do you want to beat the traffic rush by leaving 30 minutes early each day? Only doing so occasionally won’t net you any serious amount of additional time over the long-run. You’ve got to commit to doing it every day. That’s only going to serve to cancel out your efforts. Do you want to avoid home-based distractions during the work week? It won’t work if you only stay the course on Monday and Tuesday.
It doesn’t matter what your systems look like as long as you follow those three success secrets: Schedule your time. Be realistic about what you have to do each day and how long it takes. Stick to a good plan of action to start increasing your productivity.
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