Owning your own business is a dream for many people. With the flexibility of making your own schedule, doing what you’re passionate about, finding balance between work and home, and creating a work environment you love (comfy pants and messy buns included), there are many benefits. However, the demands of running a business can be time consuming. The beauty of owning your own business however is that you are in control. You get to create a business that works for you, not vice versa.
While solopreneurs can fill their time with many tasks, not all work is created equal. Today we are talking all about finding ways to be productive for your business, not just busy.
Prioritize your time and the quality of work you are doing! This helps move your business forward and save you time in the long run!
What does it mean to be productive, not busy?
Not all work is created equal. Being productive means doing work in a way that helps to accomplish your goals in the most efficient way. Productivity is optimizing your time and resources so that you’re doing tasks that actually help you achieve your goals.
On the flip side, busy work is work that is time consuming. It doesn’t necessarily help your business grow or profit.
In order to acknowledge the difference between the two, you need to have a defined idea about what your goals are for your business. What are your priorities?If you are in a season of growth for your business, prioritizing tasks or opportunities to book your calendar or grow your income would be considered productive. Organizing your desk or cleaning up your hard drives would be busy work. These tasks wouldn’t be actively helping you move forward in your business. Another example of a productive task could be creating an email to send to your email list about your upcoming calendar.
How to prioritize productivity over being busy
If you have trouble focusing on your business, there are a few things you can do to help get clarity in your priorities and get work done.
First and foremost: know your goals.
If you haven’t taken the time to define the goals for your business, this is a must before we begin. You need to know why you are doing what you are doing. Are you in a season of growth – wanting to expand your portfolio and grow your income? Or are you in a season of nurture, where you want to maintain and focus on your existing client base? Whatever the goals look like for your business, it’s important to know what they are so they can help guide your decisions in your daily activities.
Stay organized!
Create a system that will work for you to stay organized and focused on the tasks that will move your business forward. Being organized will cut out the clutter and allow you to see both your goals and tasks without distractions. The goal of being organized is to always have a clear path for what you are supposed to be doing. The last thing you want to do when you do find time to devote to work is spend time getting organized.
Learn how to prioritize goal-driven tasks
Once organized, get used to assessing your to do’s based on what is goal-driven and what is not. You want to prioritize those tasks that will help you make progress towards those goals. When you find a pocket of time to dedicate to work, get used to asking yourself questions that help you get clarity on the tasks you should be focusing on.
Create a distraction-free space
One of the biggest deterrents from productivity is distractions. It’s easy to pick up a phone, scroll social media or check email when you don’t want to focus on the work you need to do. Be proactive in this area to create a work-space that allows you to focus and work distraction free. For myself, this means keeping a clean workspace, keeping my phone out of reach and setting time goals for myself to finish my work.
Like most things in business, being able to focus on being productive – not just busy – takes planning and thinking ahead. You have to decide what’s most important for your business’s growth right now so that you can do what needs to be done to make those big goals happen for yourself. Tell me below: what do you struggle with when it comes to productivity? Do you not know what to do or how to help yourself focus?
Other Articles You Might Like
5 Mistakes New Photographers Make
