If you are an entrepreneur and searching for ways to drive your business forward, there are three things that you should start doing right now. The main objective of increasing productivity is cutting down distractions and learning to be intentional with your time. Finding strategies to stay focused, manage your projects, and reduce noise can help prevent entrepreneurial ADD and help you reach your goals.
Unsubscribe From Things You Don’t Read
To increase your productivity – eliminate distractions. One great way of doing this is to unclutter your email inbox and unsubscribe from the things you don’t use or read. This is important because it cuts down on notifications, and unnecessary emails keep you from finding and using the emails you actually need. Many people never delete the emails they didn’t use, which creates a messy inbox full of junk mixed up with the good stuff you need – get rid of it. Don’t worry about hurting someone’s feelings; if you are not reading it, unsubscribe and move on. This will allow you to cut down on some of the noise and focus.
Use A Project Management Software
If you are using email to manage your team and keep projects organized – stop –it’s time to move on. Email is the absolute worst way to communicate with your team and keep your world organized. Get into the habit of using a project management software like Trello or Asana. I love Asana; others use Basecamp or Monday – it doesn’t matter, pick the one that works for you and start placing every project into a workflow. This will reduce the number of emails you are getting and the time you waste looking for things. Another plus to project management software is having your to-do list with due dates right in front of you. If anything gets stalled in the workflow, you can see exactly where the work paused and address it to get things moving again. All entrepreneurs should be using one – start today!
Be Deliberate With Time
Learn to be deliberate with your time. If you give yourself a timeout – be intentional – don’t just let it happen; plan it. If you give yourself 10 or 15 minutes for a coffee break, set the timer and get back to work. The goal is to keep your brain focused, which is more complicated than it seems. When you strive to concentrate for an extended period, your brain will try to escape from the activity. You will find yourself tempted to check Facebook, the news, or whatever your distraction of choice is. To trick your brain into staying on task, plan your breaks. Set your timer to work in focus for 45 minutes, and refuse all distractions during that time. When the timer goes off, you give yourself 10 or 15 minutes to break and make that phone call, check your Instagram, or tune into the news – whatever tries to pull you away from your work.
Every entrepreneur needs to find ways to become more deliberate about how you run your business and how you operate your time. Once you determine patterns of distraction, you can remove these barriers and really begin to drive your business forward.
At the Growth Architect, we want to help you find strategies to increase your productivity and multiply your results. That’s what we do! If you enjoyed this article on cutting distractions and managing your time, watch my video.
Let’s grow!
Beate
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, and provides visionaries and leaders with strategies, blueprints and results-oriented, tangible tools and techniques that give clear steps to improve business systems, strengthen leadership skills and teams so that you can scale your impact.
A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, Beate bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal. She is amongst the “Top 100 Global Thought Leaders” by PeopleHum and “One of 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” by HuffPost.
Recent clients include Amazon, Reckitt (the maker of Lysol), Chevron, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, the Women’s Legislative Caucus of California Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Shelter Inc., Mental Health First Aid and thousands of small businesses.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” –a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!