As an entrepreneur or owner of a small business owner it’s a daily struggle to find balance between work and life. These are some of the essential productivity hacks that I’ve found worked well for me. I personally make use of these on regular basis and I couldn’t recommend them enough:
To-do list – Make a list for tomorrow before leaving your workplace. It’s important to be realistic with what you can complete in a day, so don’t be overambitious.
Set time limit – Prevent tasks from dragging or eating into time reserved for other tasks.
Use a calendar – We use Google apps to handle our emails, calendar and docs, so I have my calendar reminder on desktop, mobile and tablet.
Say “No” – This goes back to my first point about overambitious, don’t take on more than you can handle.
Plan to be early – When you plan to be on time, you’ll either be on time or late. So aim to be at client’s office at 8:30am when the meeting is at 9:00am.
Wear a watch – But not those gimmicky “smart” watches, they’ll just distract you with notifications. Make yourself look good and be reminded of time often. Also buy a massive wall clock.
Don’t be social – You are at work, you don’t need to know what your friends are having for lunch. Shut out Facebook, Twitter and put WhatsApp on mute.
Focus – Don’t believe in multi-tasking. If you are going to do something, do it right or don’t do it at all.
Delegate – Most difficult thing when running your own business is to trust somebody else with it but if something can be done better by others or not so important tasks, consider delegating.
Celebrate – Celebrate completion often, I take 5 minutes break or go for a walk to refresh my mind before tackling the next task.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below or to share it on your Facebook and Twitter. I am still trying to be better at time-management so it’s a learning curve me as well.
