One of the biggest challenges small business owners face is staying organized.
When your work life is constantly interrupted by phone calls, clients, and other disruptions it can be hard to get anything done.
Fortunately, there are lots of tactics you can use to keep yourself on track and keep your business running smoothly.
1) Use a Task Management Software
A company like Be Bloom has created an amazing task management software company that helps busy individuals stay on top of their ever-expanding checklist.
They’ve created a simple way to set up your daily/weekly/monthly tasks once and then see everything in one place …
2) Conduct Work From Home Days
Working from home can increase productivity if done correctly; however, it can also lead to distractions that will make you less productive.
If you are dedicated to working from home, it’s important you have a specific time each day when you are working in the office and another time when you are working from home.
This helps avoid distractions which …
3) Reduce Interruptions
The number one reason employees get distracted is because of constant interruptions during the day.
Studies show that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on track after being interrupted!
That means if your average task only takes 10 minutes, then over half of your workday has been wasted dealing with distractions instead of getting …
4) Organize Your Work Space
When people work at their kitchen table or in their living room they tend to get distracted by things like the television, their kids, the mailman, etc.
It’s important to create an environment where you can be productive without distractions.
In situations like Kanban Zone is helping out tremendously!
This means creating a space in your home that is dedicated to working and organizing it so there are no distractions …
5) Track Your Time
We’ve all heard of time management strategies like “write down everything you do during the day”.
However, time management is only half the battle!
The real key to success when utilizing a time management strategy is tracking your time so you know which tasks are taking up most of your time and allowing you to prioritize accordingly.
You can use a program like Toggl or any one of these other free apps for this …
6) Prioritize Tasks
One of the most important parts of task management is deciding what to work on next.
When you have a long list of tasks, it can be overwhelming to figure out where to start.
The best strategy for successful task management is prioritizing your tasks by importance than working your way down the list from highest priority item to lowest priority item …
7) Take Time Off
There’s nothing more important than taking some time off every once in a while (even if it’s just 5-10 minutes).
This will help you recharge and feel re-energized throughout the day.
It also helps you avoid burnout which can happen when you’re constantly grinding away at work without any breaks or vacations.
Taking time off also gives you a clearer perspective and will keep you from worrying about tasks that aren’t urgent so you can focus on what really matters …
8) Prioritize Emails The biggest time killer for many people is replying to emails.
While it’s important to check and reply to your emails throughout the day, there are also strategies you can use to prioritize email replies based on importance and urgency.
After writing up an action plan for each email, number them by priority then work through them in order until your inbox is empty!
9) Eliminate Time Wasters
There are a number of things that most people will tell you to cut out of your day if you want to be successful.
These include Facebook, Twitter, TV, fast food, etc.
If there’s something that wastes your time and doesn’t directly help you grow your business (or life), then you should stop doing it as soon as possible!
Our lives are too busy and we only get one chance at this thing called life …
10) Only Work on One Task at a Time
Multitasking is not always the best strategy for getting things done quickly and efficiently.
In fact, multitasking can actually make us less productive by forcing our brains to work harder than they need to.
Our brains aren’t wired to multitask and doing so can lead to a lot of frustration and wasted time.
Instead, experts recommend working on one thing at a time until it’s finished before moving on to the next task …
11) Set Realistic Goals
I think we can all agree that if you want to be successful you need a strategy for getting things done.
Without goals, your chances of being successful are slim at best.
The problem is most people set unrealistic goals that have no chance of ever happening which causes them to lose confidence in themselves when they don’t accomplish their goals quickly.
In order to succeed you need REALISTIC goals that will stretch your abilities just enough without discouraging or frustrating you along the way …
