If you're looking for business productivity hacks that will both save you time and get more results, you've come to the right place.
When I was building my business “on the side” while working a full-time job as a healthcare professional, one thing became abundantly clear…
I needed to leverage technology to save time AND…
I had to spend my limited time doing what mattered MOST for my business.
In other words, work smart, work less. I had no other option.
Now that I've left my full-time job at the hospital, I've kept this philosophy and work only a couple of hours a day on business while spending the rest of my time doing whatever I want.
That's TRUE time freedom, but it didn't come easily.
Business Productivity Hacks That Actually Work
In the business productivity hacks that follow, you'll find my best tips and strategies for working towards true time freedom in YOUR life. None of these hacks are particularly complicated but do require action to put into place.
Let's get started!
1 — Identify Activities That Yield Results
One of the biggest breakthroughs I had in my business was when I learned to identify those activities that mattered most in my business. In other words, the actions that had the best chance of yielding results.
And when you consistently put those activities into action as part of a Daily Method of Operation, your success becomes inevitable… regardless of how much (or little) time you have.
If you need help identifying the activities in YOUR business that matter most, I highly recommend this free mini-training.
2 — Prioritize Activities Identified in Step 1
Once you identify the business activities that matter most, the next key is to PRIORITIZE THEM.
One of the biggest mistakes I see struggling entrepreneurs making is they focus on minor activities, mostly because they are easier and more fun.
If you want to get results faster, it's simple:
Prioritize Your Major Money-Producing Activities and Do Them FIRST
When you're short on time, you can't afford to do it any other way.
3 — Eliminate Physical Distractions
Now that you understand focus and priorities, it's time to get rid of the inevitable distractions that will pull your attention away from what matters.
Physical distractions can be easy to eliminate once we become aware that they're a problem.
Distractions like:
- work area clutter
- phone noises and notifications
- a loud work environment
- social media notifications
All these and more can pull you away from your priority activities and waste valuable time.
Take some time to NOTICE these distractions and do your best to eliminate them straight away.
You'll be far more productive and focused in your actions.
4 — Minimize Mental Distractions
Physical distractions are relatively easy to spot. Not so with mental distractions.
The biggest culprit here is how many voices you're allowing inside your head.
When you're listening to too many leaders and “gurus”, each telling you different ways of doing things, your mind can't help but lock up.
In your mind, you'll be saying things like…
“This leader said to do this, but this other leader said something a little different. Then this 3rd leader said something totally opposite.
What should I do? I'm so confused!!”
Remember this: A confused mind does nothing.
And that's exactly what happens if you allow too many voices inside your head.
My advice is this: Choose 1-2 leaders to follow and block out the rest, at least for now.
This includes their emails, their podcasts, their videos, and even their Facebook groups.
Block out the unwanted noise now. You'll thank me.
5 — Utilize the “Nooks and Crannies” of Your Day
What are “nooks and crannies”, you ask?
I first heard one of my mentors use this term, and it refers to those little 15-30 minutes chunks of time in your day that are currently being wasted… and how you can use them to boost your business productivity like never before.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
You're waiting for your kids to come out of school, sitting on that long car line that seems to go on forever. You know you'll be waiting at least 15 minutes to get your child. Instead of turning on the radio and cranking up the music, you whip out your phone and catch up on your Facebook messages or friend request a bunch of people to build your audience.
~or~
You've got 30 minutes for lunch until you have to go back to work. Most people are chatting away in the cafeteria. But not you! You go outside for a walk, pull out your phone, and listen to 30 minutes of a great personal development podcast. Or go Live on Facebook and do a 30-minute training sharing what you learned the night before.
When you learn to utilize the nooks and crannies of your day, your business productivity will skyrocket.
Resource: This micro training will teach you many other ways you can leverage your time to maximize your results.
6 — Time Blocking
Along with using your time as outlined in Hack #5, you can use Time Blocking to effectively boost your business productivity.
Whenever you have big blocks of time for your business (60 minutes or more), you can and should focus on bigger projects like content creation, video production, audience building, etc.
For example, you can…
- create all your social media posts for the week
- create 2-3 videos
- write out 4-5 emails to be sent later to your list of subscribers
There are so many other ways to use blocks of time, the possibilities are endless.
What if you don't have these time blocks in your schedule? In this training, I provide some tricks and strategies for making it happen even when your schedule is tight.
7 — Get Used To Saying No
I am a reformed people pleaser.
I always wanted to say YES to people's requests, hoping they'd like me more.
As a result, I rarely had time to do what I wanted to do.
Over the years, I recognized how counterproductive this is, especially when it comes to business.
And I got much better at saying NO.
It's not always easy, but it's essential if you want to grow your business and you're short on time.
NOTE: This may take some time, especially if you've been a people pleaser like me for a long while. Be patient with yourself, become aware of when you're doing it, and gradually turn those YES' into No's.
8 — Stop Working Off Someone Else's Calendar
This is another lesson I had to learn — and the “gurus” are gonna hate me for this…
Stop giving away the POWER of your time!
It wasn't uncommon for me to be on live trainings several nights a week, after work, before work, during lunch… whenever I could.
But pretty soon I realized that… EVERYTHING IS RECORDED! (even when they say it won't be).
Flash forward to today…
I rarely watch a live training. I'll wait for the recording and if I still want to watch it, I do it ON MY OWN TIME.
That last part “one my own time” is crucial.
Whenever you interrupt your own activities to do something like attending a webinar — on someone else's time — you're cutting your business productivity dramatically.
You cannot afford to let that happen, especially if your business time is limited.
Train yourself to “watch the recording”, no matter how much FOMO the trainer is trying to instill to get you to watch “live”.
9 — Stop Learning and Start Implementing
Remember how I mentioned in the last business productivity hack that I used to attend webinars/training several nights a week?
I wasn't kidding — I was a webinar junkie!!
As a result, I had lots of notes and some solid marketing knowledge — and was BROKE when it came to my business.
One of the biggest changes I implemented in my business — that actually helped me generate income — was to IMPLEMENT something I learned before moving on.
This is so important.
Knowledge without implementation is wasted knowledge.
You've got to take action on what you're doing if you want to break free from your job and go full-time in your business.
If not, you'll join the ranks of many online marketers out there who show off their knowledge but hide their bank balance.
TIP: I highly recommend this Focus and Implementation Challenge if you need help implementing what you learn.
None of these business productivity hacks are particularly difficult. It's not rocket science.
And you don't have to try to do them all at once.
Pick one or two hacks and make a change today. Be consistent. And don't stop. Don't EVER stop.
If I can make my business successful after YEARS of struggle, so can you.
Recommended Courses To Jumpstart Your Business
Crush Consistency NOW! - if you find yourself lacking consistency in your business, you must own this course!
Focus and Implementation Challenge - learn how to dramatically improve the focus in your business and become an implementation machine!
Part-Time Shortcuts - who says there are no shortcuts to success? This course reveals 4 shortcuts that will cut your learning curve in half.
Part-Time Mastery - if you're short on time for your business, this course is the answer!
Part-Time Profit Machine - my flagship course, this 7-module course covers all aspects of your Side Business, from mindset, time and focus, prospecting, lead generation, building a list and selling to your audience... all using the most time-effective strategies.
It's Your Time to SHINE!
Dr. Bob Clarke
Email: Bob@BobandRosemary.com
Join our Part-Time Essentials Facebook Group
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