4 Ways to Increase Productivity

We all strive to have super productive workdays, but it doesn't always go that way. Most people aren't effective because of bad work habits or working on whatever comes their way throughout the day. In addition, no structure can sometimes cause a person to lose confidence in their abilities. While the solution to becoming more productive is simple, it's not always easy. Follow these four tips on increasing productivity and becoming your best, most productive self at work. 

1. Eliminate Distractions - I've found that this can be the hardest thing for most people to do. Whether it's Instagram or another app on your phone, it's so easy to get distracted from your daily tasks. It's important to know what your distractions are so that you can eliminate them. The funny thing is, email can be a distraction as well. Setting those admin hours is vital when it comes to focusing on the work you need to do daily. I would highly suggest turning off all notifications on all technology so that you can have total concentration. Allow yourself 15-minute breaks where you can take a peek at your notifications or brown Instagram. But don't allow yourself to go overboard.

2. Handle Hardest Tasks During Optimal Hours: This one is tricky because no one can tell you WHEN to do the most demanding tasks. It depends on when you are at your best. If you're a morning person, like I am, you want to start with the heavy hitters in the morning. But if you're a night owl, it's best to stagger your work and handle the delicate items in the earlier half of your day.

3. Stop Multitasking - Multitasking can be a productivity killer, and trust me, that's not something you want to happen. I recently read that research shows that productivity can be reduced by 40% by the mental blocks created when people switch tasks. So it's essential that you stop trying to do everything at once and instead give your full attention to one task at a time.

4. Make To-Do Lists the Night Before - While this may sound simple, it's one of the most important things that you can do to help you increase your productivity. So often, we spend the majority of our morning mapping out what needs to get done. Unfortunately, what this does is decrease your work time and set you back. So spend the last 20-30 minutes of your workday writing down what needs to get done the following day in order of importance. That way, you can hit the ground running the moment you get in the office.

These four productivity tips have helped me so much over the past year. If you're someone who struggles with feeling like they're getting anything done daily, implementing these tips will make everything a little easier. 

Comment below and let me know what works for you or what you're planning on doing to help increase your productivity.

6 Signs of Business Burnout

If you’re an entrepreneur you know burnout can happen at any moment. The key to avoiding burnout is to take the necessary steps in your business to avoid it all-together. If you look at the definition of burnout, it will tell you that it’s a type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity. Here are 6 signs of business burnout that you need to be aware of.

1. Emotional Exhaustion - constantly feeling like you’re tired and lacking the energy that you need to get your work done.

2. Physical Symptoms - are you getting random headaches or having stomach issues due to stress?

3. Irritable - you become frustrated with the people that you work with, and also become very impatient with clients or customers.

4. Lack of Performance - the tasks that you do daily are likely becoming affected. Your creativity and ability to concentrate are likely suffering as well.

5. Insomnia - not being able to sleep and overall changing of sleep habits are one of the biggest signs of burnout.

6. Lacking Satisfaction - things that you would normally be excited about aren’t meeting your expectations. Nothing is ever good enough, and you’re no longer proud of the work or your achievements.

Just because you’re experiencing burnout, that doesn’t mean you can’t recover or bounce back from it. You need to make adjustments to your work environment for the change to happen though. Finding the proper help and learning to delegate is often one of the hardest things for a business owner to do, but it is necessary to avoid continual burnout.

It’s imperative to evaluate your options. Learning to set goals in order of importance is also a huge helper. Write down what must get done in that day, and also what can wait until the next. This will help you to work in order of importance and not get so frazzled by executing as things come to you.

If you’re tired of the mundane tasks, find someone who doesn’t mind. Every one of my clients has an issue with being inside of their inbox and having to respond day after day. So what did I do? Eliminate that task for them, which then makes it easier for them to be the talent of their company and eliminate stress. When all else fails, seek support and never be afraid to ask for help.

7 Essential Organizational Tips for Small Businesses

There are so many people who think that their business is organized, but wonder why the business isn’t profitable or growing. If you’re currently in a place where you don’t have the money to hire someone to perform a system audit and get your business in order, here are 7 essential organizational tips that you should implement immediately.

1. Keep Up With Customer Support - This is VITAL. Loyal customers are the heart of your business and what helps you to continue expanding. Customer service overall can be a very tedious task, but satisfied customers/clients typically become returning clients. Customer retention is key here.

2. Have a Password Keeper - It’s so important to have an app that holds all of your passwords. NO, I’m not talking about a Google Doc/Sheet, I mean a real password protecting app. My favorites have been 1Password and LastPass. Another word of advice is to make sure that your passwords aren’t the same for every aspect of your business. Allow the password protecting app to develop the password for you so that it’s unique and not easily hackable.

3. Have a Scheduling System - While it’s easy to think that you know what you have lined up for the week, it’s best to utilize things like Google Calendar. Why? Because life happens. If you’re someone who needs meetings scheduled often, using a program like Acquity or Calendly works best. This will keep you from having to constantly offer your available times to people. Set your hours for calls and let them choose.

4. Take Control of Your Time - It’s so good to clock the hours that you’re working daily. This will help you to better organize your day to ensure that your productivity is at its peak. There are plenty of free options available for time trackers, so be sure to utilize them.

5. Schedule Your Social Media in Advance - Having your social media scheduled out for the week takes so much pressure off of you to keep your social consistency up. You should always be scheduling a week ahead so that you’re not working in time.

6. Spend Time Organizing Your Inbox - Having a clean and easily viewable inbox helps tremendously. Start by creating labels that represent the main types of emails that you receive. From there, file items away that are completed to avoid clutter.

7. Keep a Clean Workspace - There is seriously nothing worse than having to work in a cluttered and busy workspace. Try to ensure that you’re keeping your desk area free of anything other than what is needed at that time. Create a space where everything is easily accessible, but not visible.

If you’re reading the above list and know that it’s not something that you can handle on your own, our agency is here to help. Click HERE and fill out the form so that we know what type of virtual assisting service that you need.