How to effectively manage your time, boost productivity and get on the path to success

 

Introduction

So, you’re anxious to reach those goals you’ve set for yourself and your online business, but you quickly realize that there’s only so much time in the day and you find yourself asking this question: How can I effectively manage my time, boost  my productivity and get on the path to success ? Because, no matter how hard you try, you feel as though you’re always one step behind.

 Then one thing becomes very clear: You need a plan.

 No matter what business or industry you’re involved in, learning how to effectively manage your time is one of the most important skills that will set you on the path towards ongoing success.

This article was written for one purpose only: to help you get more done in less time by levelling up your productivity score quickly and easily.

You will learn here to value your time, make informed decisions about the kind of work you’re focused on and ultimately, beat the clock.

How to effectively manage your time, boost productivity and get on the path to success

The way so many people seem to struggle to manage their daily activities is one of the reason for which they are unable gain traction in their business. And this typically points to one major problem:

 People are stuck in an employee mindset!

 They’re so used to it that they aren’t equipped to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, which will help them make the transition so they can train themselves to focus on the most important tasks: prioritizing their time and assigning value to the time they spend building their business.

 When you work for yourself, your time is more valuable than it has ever been. You’re no longer an employee, paid for each work day regardless of the outcome. If you aren’t ruthless with focusing on the most important tasks, you can easily fall behind or find yourself constantly treading water trying to stay afloat.

As an entrepreneur, you’re solely responsible for your business, so your ability to value your time and make every minute count will have a major impact on how successful you’ll be.  

 Fail to make this important shift in the way you spend your time, and you’ll always struggle to get to where you want to be.

Thankfully, it’s not all that difficult to break that cycle and transition your way of thinking from that of an employee to a boss.  It starts with preparing yourself for the realities of being an entrepreneur.  

 

And this means you need to:

Set Realistic Goals.

You must be honest about what you’re capable of getting done on any given day.  Then you need to determine how many hours you’re willing to invest in your business and then assign those hours to specific projects.

  

Break tasks down into smaller, focused projects. 

Tim Ferris, author of “The 4-Hour Work Week”, refers to this as “chunking”. It’s a great way to boost your productivity and get more done in less time by deciding to focus on just one major task at a time (or even per day). Depending on the type of business you’re involved in, this might include one day exclusively focused on graphic design, then one day dedicated to marketing. 

Consider creating a detailed task list of all the important aspects of your business; the things that keep it all afloat and absolutely require your time.  This can be tricky because we tend to think all things are important but the reality is, they’re not.

When it comes to any business, there are a handful of critical tasks that need to be taken care of daily, and the rest just adds a little more gas to the tank. They can be done later once the main tasks are out of the way. 

 

Cut out Distractions.  

Your work environment will change drastically from what you may be used to as an employee, and you need to optimize your workspace so that it’s supporting a focused, productive workflow. 

In this regard, you should do everything possible to separate your personal life from your work life, which means talking with friends and family who may feel that just because you now work from home, you’re free for conversations throughout the day. Additionally, create a routine for yourself and try to stick with it.  If you can create a realistic work schedule that everyone in your life understands, you’ll be able to minimize distractions while making each hour count. As for your office environment itself, it all depends on what helps you to stay focused. For some, they find that music helps them focus while others need it to be completely silent. Do your best to figure out what kind of routine will get you into a working mindset.

By doing all of this, you will be less encline to suffer from a potential burn out.  You can only go full-speed ahead for so long before you’ll suffer the consequences including a dried up creative well.  Pushing forward without breaks or any sort of normal schedule will also leave you scrambling to fix errors, revise projects and will cause you to overlook important tasks.  

 

Identify the Truth Behind Procrastination. 

And the truth is Procrastination is the closest ally to underachievement, and for good reason: Procrastination is a business killer.

But this is one of the hardest things to acknowledge at times, especially if you’ve gotten into the habit of procrastinating for reasons you aren’t aware of.  It’s also a dream killer because if you’re allowing negative thoughts and self-doubt to lead the way, you’ll never have enough faith in your abilities to see things through.  You’ll not only take longer to get ahead, but chances are you’ll never reach your desired destination.

Indeed, when you’re dealing with self-doubt, everything feels a lot more difficult than it is. We find a million reasons not to get something done because internally we’re constantly sabotaging ourselves believe it’ll likely fail, so why bother? And this monstruous feeling is only amplified when you see others in your industry succeed. You might wonder whether you know enough, are informed, skilled or equipped enough to be in a position of authority. 

However, deep down, you know it’s not true. You’ve likely worked hard to get to where you are at the time and deserve every bit of success you achieve.  Overcoming these negatives feelings will take personal will and determination, but if you make the commitment to yourself and your business, and you persevere, nothing will stop you from reaching those goals. 

Don’t be your own worst enemy in business.  Be careful not to sabotage your own efforts.  Identify your weaknesses and move on to focus on your strengths. Then take action every single day so that you’re too busy killing it in your industry to let that negative voice cost you those aspirations.  Dig deep and diligently work towards improving your work flow while letting go of those negative assumptions. 

Be Ruthless in Prioritizing.  

Does your email really need to stay open while you work so that all those notifications cause you to continuously check your inbox? 

 Cutting out distractions, as we just mentioned, plays a huge role in your ability to prioritize. Every hour needs to count and you’ll get a lot more done if you focus each segment of your time on only one task. No outside interference!

Hold yourself accountable when you mess up.

If you’re struggling to get things done, it’s easy to switch up your routine believing that will help you get back on track.  However, if you take the time to analyze why you really fell behind in the first place, chances are you’ll be able to identify where things went wrong and it’s not always deserving of a new routine.

 Take a step back and think about where and when your efforts were derailed. 

Were you spending too much time in email or on social media?

 Did you fail at prioritizing your goals and ended up spending too much time on things that don’t matter as much?

 Self-correcting and holding yourself accountable are two very important lessons when it comes to being successful in your business.  

The key is to develop habits that help you to work and to play.  Sound strange? It’s not really.  Just like you need to figure out a way to get into work mode, you also have to develop habits that help you shut it down when your creativity or quality begins to decline because your business deserves the best of you and so do your clients or customers. 

 If you take the time to identify where you went wrong, you’ll stay clear of self-doubt by immediately correcting the issue and moving on.

Perfectly imperfect

It’s easy to get caught up in wanting everything to be perfect. This can also go hand-in-hand with procrastination.  These two entrepreneurial struggles are like twin brothers. You can’t always tell them apart.

 When it comes to business, wanting your business or project to be too perfect can lead to delayed launches or projects that never get to market.  We pick it apart, come up with new ideas or ways to constantly improve it. 

 Now, being a perfectionist can be an incredible asset for entrepreneurs because it also means that we won’t just throw out lousy products or services just to be doing something.  

 That being said, you also need to learn to let go and that nothing will ever be perfect no matter how much time or energy we spend on it. Because, available is better than a project sitting on your hard drive.  Sure, there’s always room to improve and you will, but only by being consistently productive and seeing things through.

 

Conclusion

In closing, here are a few tips to help you to stay on track and maximize the value of the time you spend on your business. 

Failures Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur

It's a hard truth but once you accept that despite the best laid plans and the most detailed business strategy known to man, you’re still going to encounter struggles and failures, then you’ll become a better, more confident and focused entrepreneur.  

 

Don’t let mistakes or failures weigh you down.

Instead, learn from every mistake because they’re important lessons that will help you create better products or cater to clients and customers in a more effective way.

Set time limits on everything.

Try to create a balance between having a personal life and a consistent work one.  Commit to a schedule and stick to it. 

Prioritize

Work towards prioritizing your goals based on what’s most important.  Focus on getting that done and you won’t struggle to meet deadlines or find yourself scrambling to get other things done because you spent too much time on just one thing.