Using Focused Energy And Action To Increase Your Productivity
May 29th, 2013 by Diane Conklin under Business - General. No Comments.
It’s the end of your business day. That’s enough work for one day, and you’re turning off the lights in your office or your shop. You’re going home. Do you feel fulfilled? Do you feel as though you accomplished everything you wanted to do today? Or are you really not sure if you accomplished anything?
A lot of times, as a small business owner, you might find yourself taking the shotgun approach to your day.
With the shotgun approach, you’re putting holes all over the walls, you’re here and there all at the same time, you’ve always got three or four things going on at once. Maybe you feel a little disorganized, and overwhelmed by the time you get to the end of your day.
It’s time to start being more focused, more efficient, more effective in your business.
So, how do you do that?
Well, are you picking up the phone every time it rings? Are you jumping every time the email dings in your inbox? That’s not focused energy or effort. That’s not honing in on what needs to get done.
Instead of doing those things that are hurting your productivity and your business, and stressing you out, try giving yourself some time. Set yourself up with the one thing, the one specific task that needs to get done. Block your time. Spend 15 minutes here doing this thing, or 20 minutes there doing that thing, or 90 minutes doing one thing. And do just that one thing.
Help yourself focus your energy on just one thing by setting a timer. Whatever it is, decide how long you’re going to do it for, set the timer, and do it. When the timer goes off, that’s it, you’re done. Even if you’re not completely finished.
If you need to write an article and it takes you thirty minutes to write an article, set your timer for thirty minutes, sit down and write the article. Don’t get up to get a drink, or to go to the bathroom. Don’t stop to answer the phone, or reply to an email. Just write that article.
As you do this more frequently, start decreasing the time you give yourself. Instead of giving yourself thirty minutes, give yourself twenty minutes. What you’re essentially doing is training yourself to be more productive in your day, so at the end of the day, you know what you’ve accomplished, you feel less stressed, you feel more organized, and less overwhelmed.
You can easily work six or seven days a week. You can work 60, or 70, or 80 hours a week. That’s fine, if that’s what you want to do. Using the shotgun approach will certainly allow you to keep working like that.
Maybe you don’t want to work like that. Maybe you only want to work four days a week, or five days. Maybe you only want to work 40 or 50 hours a week. Start blocking your time. Start finishing the tasks you give yourself by blocking your hours and you’ll start seeing an increase in productivity, less time spent in the office, and at the end of the day wondering what you accomplished.
No matter what you do in a day, you’re never going to feel as if you accomplished enough when it’s your business. You’re not going to feel like everything got done. That’s OK. Using this approach will allow you to know that what needed to get done got done, and you’ll feel more satisfied because of it.
