“The essence of self-discipline is to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing.”
– Barry Werner
There is way too much to do. If only you could make more time.
You can “create more time in the day”. More hours to get to all the essential things that need doing. You only have to be more efficient in managing your time. If you are, you will take less time to do more. As a small business owner this is a critical skill.
Here are some tips to give you more hours in your day.
Minimize Distractions
When you work, it is okay to shut off your electronic communications devices. This means your phone, pager, computer and any other device you have that by going off, can distract you. Focus on the job at hand. Every time your attention is diverted, you have to refocus all over again. Each time you do this you eat up time. If you work straight through, it will get done more quickly.
Checkout Sid Savara’s Action Solution Time Management Course
Rather than having to force yourself to refocus and stop procrastinating…
- You’ll become the type of person who “naturally” is able to quickly focus on the task at hand and get it done.
Rather than stressing out about what you have to do today…
- You’ll become the type of person who effortlessly identifies what’s most important to you – and you’ll complete it
Instead of worrying about whether you’ll be able to achieve your dreams and reach your potential..
You’ll be the type of person who knows they can achieve everything they put their mind to
Dedicate Focused Time
Carve out a time to get the job done. Schedule two or three hours (or whatever is needed) to complete a task. Shut your door and get it done. This follows the same logic as above. The more times you let yourself be interrupted, the more time you spend refocusing. If you have a block of time scheduled, you can plow straight through the job, getting it done faster.
Try the Pomodoro Technique to boost productivity at work and school. It’s a schedule of timed work sessions sprinkled with scheduled breaks.
Be aware of the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule states that you earn 80% of your revenue from 20% of your clients. Focus your energy on the 20% of your clients or tasks that provide the bulk of your income or have the maximum benefit. Want to find out what the 20% is? Try reducing your workhours to find what really matters. A great, mind shifting book to checkout is The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.
Prioritize
Prioritize everything. Do the top priority jobs first. Let the lower priority items slide. Delegate them perhaps, or just eliminate them from your list. For one week, write down the 3 absolute, most important things you will get done at the beginning of each day.
Start Early
Get up early. Say 5 AM. Research has shown that people work more efficiently in the early morning hours. If nothing else, your commute will be faster and when you get to the office you will have no interruptions for a while.
Checkout The Action Solution Course on Productivity and Success.
Break from Multitasking
Multitasking is over rated. This goes back to the issue of focus yet again. Time spent re-focusing on a task is time that is wasted. Do one job at a time. See it through to the end. Then and only then, start the next task. Do not waste time playing a juggling game.
Outsourcing
Consider outsourcing. Those jobs that are at the bottom of the list, that have low priorities, maybe you could get a freelancer to do them. This would be a good thing to do with that stack of projects you have waiting to start to. Just be sure that guiding the freelancer does not take more time than would doing the job yourself.
Good places to look for freelancers are oDesk and Elance. Freelancers from these sites are often from third world countries. Their rates can be extraordinarily low. However, don’t think you will get a great website designed for $3/hr. Many folks misrepresent themselves, so interviews and short assignments are a necessity. Use Skype to communicate with folks around the world.
Time is wasting, and you know what they say, time is money. Get busy today saving yourself time and making yourself more money.
