Do you want to feel more relaxed with your work as an entrepreneur? Want to feel more productive in a day? Then this article can help you discover better productivity hacks that can help make for fulfilling work days. Check them out.
Use time blocks
If you don’t know what it is, time blocking involves setting aside specific blocks of time for dedicated tasks or activities. When you dictate these periods as dedicated to certain activities, you avoid doing activities that are distractions and get right back on track.
Time blocking benefits entrepreneurs who want to find a way to enhance their focus. It helps keep you immersed in deep work since it takes a bit of time before you get into the rhythm of doing specific types of work.
When you do time blocking, you also identify priorities in your tasks.
Entrepreneurs can allocate specific blocks for high-priority tasks or strategic planning, ensuring that essential objectives get as much time as they need. Since you have a schedule, there’s a sense of urgency since you want to ensure that you follow how you blocked the time for each activity.
You can even schedule a time block for personal reasons. That way, you don’t get swept away from the business of your life, and you still remember to do things that enrich your life and spend time with the people who truly matter the most.
Five-minute rule
Time blocking works because it gives you that mental space to focus on just one type of work instead of bouncing from one activity to another. However, for many people, the most challenging part of getting into the groove of working on one action is the first few minutes, given all the distractions around them.
That’s why you can apply the five-minute rule in conjunction with time blocking.
The five-minute rule is simple: do the task you need to do for five minutes straight with no distractions. And then, after five minutes, you can take a break if you want.
For many people, this helps them get a running start with their work, so some end up not even taking a break even after five minutes have passed. It’s simple and yet quite effective at getting people to get the ball rolling enough that they can eventually push it themselves.
Define Your MITs
If you find yourself beating yourself up at the end of the day because you didn’t get your tasks over with at the end, then you should consider getting into the habit of defining your MITs, a.k.a. Your Most Important Tasks.
Do it either at the start or end of each day of work to prepare for the next day. Also, stick to around one to three MITs.
Remember, although all of your tasks feel important, not all are.
It can be confusing for an entrepreneur that has to manage all the things by themselves. This issue is why taking a few minutes to dictate your next work day’s MITs is a helpful exercise. That way, no matter what happens, if you’ve finished these tasks, you know you’ve done the things you needed to do in the first place.
Make use of technology.
The right gadgets for productivity and tools can help improve your life in multiple ways, from how you live your life during work but also outside of it.
For example, you can use project management tools when working with other people on a project. You can even use software that blocks out distracting websites on multiple devices for a specific amount of time so you don’t get tempted and fall into that rabbit hole.
There are plenty of ways to make yourself more productive with technology. It’s all a matter of building that tech toolset for yourself.
Minimize distractions
This step is more straightforward said than done but consider being stricter with yourself regarding sources of distraction. This step can differ from person to person. However, you can start by:
- Having a dedicated work area
- Placing gadgets (like phones) away from your work area
- Using website blockers
These are just a few simple ways you can use and apply to improve productivity by removing distractions, so if you’re particularly prone to them, use these tips.
Monotasking
Anyone with their pulse on all things productivity knows that multitasking is a myth people should stop believing in. You need deep focus, or if you want a fancier term for it, you need monotasking.
As mentioned earlier, that’s essentially what you’re encouraging when you do time blocking. Sometimes, the distracting thing in our lives is the other tasks we must do. If you’re monotasking, learn to recognize distraction patterns like that to stay on track.
Task batch
Aside from viewing tasks daily, batching them throughout the week is also a good idea.
This approach can be ideal for an entrepreneur with many tasks. For example, you can do one-on-one calls in one day. Admin work on another day. You can then do content creation on functions the next day.
Conclusion
These productivity “hacks” are all about finding the best way to focus and avoiding overwhelming yourself with the tasks you have on hand as an entrepreneur. The best “hack” is to listen to what works for you. Just because a guru says it works for them doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for you.
Work with your strengths, and use these productivity tips if you find they work for you.