Are you a solopreneur or small business owner trying to get a grip and not lose your mind with all the day-to-day things you have to get done? Well, then stick around, because I’m going to give you some of my favorite tips for how to stay productive and get shit done.
So if you are a solopreneur or small business owner, even if you have a few people maybe on your team helping you with things, staying productive and focusing on your to-do list can become very challenging.
I’ve had an assistant at times that helped me with administrative work and I have a few other contractors who helped me with some things. But for the majority of my business’s life, it’s pretty much all been on me. And so there are a few things that I like to do to help me stay focused, help me stay on task and be productive, especially when I’m feeling overwhelmed.
Now, a few of the things I’m not going to mention, things like getting rid of distractions, making time for me time, taking breaks, go outside, take a walk, all of that stuff’s great. I’m sure it helps with being productive but like, okay, if I take some me time and go get a massage, I’m still not getting anything done.
So I’m not going to bore you guys too much with that fluffy productivity stuff.
My first tip for staying productive as a small business owner or solopreneur is to set a routine. Now, this one I think is okay. I have a hard time with this myself. Maybe you have a set certain things that you do first thing in the morning. We close up shop by this time of the day Great a routine certainly can help with staying productive. But you know things come up sometimes we can’t always stick to the exact same routine.
Sometimes we were up late last night and we want to sleep in a little bit more. And frankly, one of the reasons I own a business for myself is because I don’t like routine. If I want to make an appointment for something in the middle of the day, I want to be able to do that. So if you’re a routine person, set yourself a routine.
2. Block off dedicated Work Days
So what I do, I block off certain days on my calendar when I don’t make any appointments with clients, I focus solely on getting work done or doing administrative tasks or working on my business. That way I know I won’t have distractions with calls coming in or other meetings, I can focus on the things that I have to get done.
So this can be a day or a couple days each week or maybe a day or two each month, depending on how much time you need to set aside. Dedicating a few days here and there to just getting the things done, taking care of the things that you need to take care of is going to help stay productive.
3. Know when you do your best work
Now, figure out when you are most productive and get as much work done at that time. So if I have big things to work on or important tasks to do, I try to get them done first thing in the morning. Not everybody is a morning person though.
Maybe you work better, your mind is clearer in the evening or at night. if that’s true for you, then it’s okay to not be super productive in the morning. Do some easier stuff, get some other stuff done in the morning and save that stuff for when you do your best work.
4. Delegate as much as possible
I don’t think this is a big secret, but delegate as much as possible. Administrative tasks, maybe social media, marketing tasks, anything that you can hand off to somebody else or anything that’s not your area of expertise keys or your strength, delegate it as much as possible.
I’m terrible with social media. I hate planning and developing my own social media content, so I gave that to somebody else to do. Because why would I waste my time doing something that I don’t like doing and I’m not good at doing when I can hand that off to somebody else and focus what I am good at.
5. Plan your schedule in advance
Try to plan your schedule in advance, maybe on Sunday or Friday afternoon or even Monday morning. Think of everything that you have to get done or would like to get done the next, that following week. Write down everything.
Do a brain dump of everything that you’d like to get done and then try to prioritize what needs to get done, what would be great to get done and what can wait. And this is where Sun Sama really comes in handy.
6. Get the easy things done first
If doing one big thing a day is still going to feel like too much, then maybe just do little bits or the easiest parts of each project in one day. The idea here, the goal is to not get freaked out, not get so stressed out and overwhelmed that your productivity tanked.
Whether it’s completing one big project a day or checking off a few of the smaller, or easier portions of each project in a day, whatever works best for you.
7. Get one TINY thing done
If you’re still super overwhelmed, I mean, it happens, you guys. Sometimes we can get productive and still just feel like we’re drowning. And for me, on those days, I don’t want to do anything. And then at the end of the day, I feel like crap because I haven’t gotten anything done and I wasted an entire day.
If you’re just completely underwater and feeling like you’re not getting anything done, find one small thing. It doesn’t matter how important or minute it might be, get one thing done. Find one little thing that you can get done for the day, just to have the satisfaction of checking off that box or clicking that button that you completed that one tiny little task. My next tip, keep notepads everywhere.
8. Keep notepads everywhere
I have notepads all over my house. I have one next to my desk. I have one on my coffee table by my couch. I have one next to my bed. use notepads on your phone or if you have an app on your phone that lets you jot down notes, keep it everywhere. So anytime you think of, oh, I have to get that done tomorrow, write it down.
And that way you don’t have to worry about am I forgetting to do something because at least you know it’s written down somewhere.
9. Minimize distractions
Of course, with distractions, like I said, the fewer distractions you can have, the more focused and productive you’re going to be. What I like to do, of course I keep my phone next to me because I always want to have my phone nearby, but I turn it face down so I can’t see alerts, so that thing doesn’t light up and distract me from whatever else I’m doing.
I keep it nearby just face down while I’m working on something important. And I also like to close out my email on my web browser and any other distracting pages or programs that might tear me away from what I’m trying to focus on.
10. Stop saying yes
Stop saying yes to things if you really don’t mean it. A lot of us, we have a lot of things coming at us. invitations to networking events or people who want to grab coffee with us or maybe we’re being invited to speak at a presentation. All of these things are great, great ways to grow your business and network, meet people. But if you don’t really want to do it, if you’re not excited about doing whatever the thing is that you’re being asked to do, politely decline.
Because in the end, you know, maybe you missed out on the opportunity, but at least you’re not going to have that angst or that stress over, oh, now I have to do this thing that I really didn’t want to do. So as much as you can, just learn to say no, unless it’s a definite yes.
11. Track your time
Keep track of your time when you’re working on common or repetitive tasks or projects. If there’s something that you do on a regular basis or some type of service that you provide or something you commonly do in your business, keep track of how long that takes you. That way you know how much time to dedicate to that project in the future when it comes up again.
Because if it’s something repetitive and common, then it’s goanna come up again. And if we know, okay, this, for me, certain kinds of contracts or certain, when I’m setting up an LLC, I know for the most part, exactly how long that takes me. So when I have one to do, I know, okay, I need to set aside at least this much time, to get that thing done.
12. Do the tough stuff last
One of the most important things that I do to stay focused and productive, is think about the things that drain my energy the most and do those things last in the day. For me, I’m a pretty introverted person. A lot of human contact, face -to -face interaction, it really just drains my energy.
And so as much as possible, I try to schedule client meetings, phone calls, anything where I have to talk to a person I try to set those for later in the day because I know afterwards I’m going to be spent. I’m not goanna have any more energy for getting things all the other things done that I have to do.
I sit on the couch, take Rocky out for a walk, do something to just kind of chill out and get back that energy that was spent in those human to human interactions. But that might not be you. Maybe working on some specific aspect of your business or maybe social media planning.
If you’re doing that yourself, if you know that that really tuckers you out, that drains your energy, plan that for last thing in the day or last thing in the week or a time when you know after that, you can just chill and not worry about anything else.
That’s all for today in this article. If you are learn something with this article, please share this article to your business partner.
