Daglar Cizmeci July 30, 2021 As an entrepreneur, staying positive throughout your journey can be challenging. Despite fluctuating markets and ever-changing consumer behaviours, the need to keep your business or idea growing while innovating within the means of new products and services aligning with demands can feel draining, to say the least.
Thanks to the covid-19 pandemic, we have seen an influx of start-ups and new businesses born, launching at unprecedented rates in the past year. However, in all trueness, many new companies do not withstand the test of time as they cannot make it past the first year. A staggering 60% of new businesses don’t make it to their third year of trading, but why?
(Image Source: Failory)
In most cases, there are generally two main factors that hold entrepreneurs back: money and time. And although both are important along with entrepreneurial spirit, let’s concentrate on the latter. Time is a fantastic concept, and as an entrepreneur, it has to be used wisely.
Procrastination is wasted time and so, as an entrepreneur, staying productive to succeed is key. Successful entrepreneurs make sure productivity is critical in all aspects of their lives, including daily habits, their lifestyles, how they use technology and their disciplines. Here’s a look at three productivity hacks that most successful entrepreneurs use.
Importance comes first
Daily, several tasks need to be done to drive the business forward to success. Granted, there will always be an endless list of things to do, but concentrating on the list in its entirety makes tasks seem draining and more unreachable than they are.
Prioritising on a to-do list at the start of your day the task you want to accomplish is the most important start to your day. Not only do you start with a fresh mind and more energy early on in the day, but once the momentum of completing tasks begins, smaller tasks feel more accessible and more accomplishable.
Defining the main task or tasks is key to productivity and a tip most entrepreneurs use. They believe it sets the tone of the day, and you’ll start your day as you mean to go on, making the rest of your day productive.
If you struggle with prioritising tasks or even focusing to stay more productive, then using time blocks can help. Time blocks are small blocks during the day that you schedule into your to-do list to carry out specific tasks whilst ignoring everything else. This gives you the time and concentration you need for maximum efficiency, ensuring you are able to cross off all your priorities for the day.
Use technology as a tool
There is a chance as an entrepreneur, you are already using a wide variety of technologies to help your business function and grow. However, sometimes, we overlook using technology to do some of the smallest and simplest of tasks.
Although this may sound relatively obscure, why wouldn’t you use technology to do these tasks? The fact is, every task, no matter how big or small still takes time to do. Being efficient in the way you work can help make you more productive. Businesses have to connect with audiences, and one of the best ways to do that in today’s day and age is to use social media platforms. The use of social media has skyrocketed over the years.
(Image Source: The World Economic Forum)
Many businesses are using social media today, which is great at using advanced technology like Augmented Reality but adding another layer of technology such as a scheduling platform can help boost productivity and make life much easier.
A platform Like Later, which is a social media scheduling platform can elevate productivity allowing businesses to schedule and automatically upload posts across all their social media sites. This will save time and increase productivity, primarily if you use a time block as discussed above at the beginning of the week to schedule and write all your posts for the rest of the week, freeing up more time to concentrate on other tasks.
Delegate, do not multitask
Despite what some may say, the ability to multitask and give multiple tasks your entire effort is a myth. Multitasking is counterproductive and can reduce productivity by almost 40%. When multitasking, the tasks you accomplish are less effective. Instead, doing fewer things at once is more effective and is crucial to productivity and consistency in your work.
Attempting to save time and do more at once can have the opposite effect and take a longer time to finish with the heightened chance of making errors. Multitasking can only work when one task is automatic, requiring little or no thought. For this reason, delegation is key.
Giving an external agency or an employee control over different parts of your business can be hard, especially when you know what you’ve put in to get the result you have. However, as the business expands, the need for a more hands-on deck is vital for the success of the business.
Therefore, for productivity and to avoid burnout yourself, delegating tasks is the way forward. As an entrepreneur, you know where your strengths lie, and ultimately you are the expert, so it’s what you do that helps grow the business. If you are busy doing tasks that can be delegated, the important tasks, which you need to concentrate on will become neglected over time.
Delegating minor tasks to others gives you free time to explore other avenues and ideas to push your ideas and business forward, rather than having it eat away your precious time. In addition, hiring help doesn’t always have to be on a full-time basis. Hiring a part-time assistant or freelancer is a great way to get the job done with short term commitments and low cost.
The success of your business can be measured by the quality and productive time you put into it as an entrepreneur. The more productive you are, the more likely you will have the freedom to do more for your business and your customers, which will ultimately flow into success.
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