This New Year presents a new opportunity for small businesses to reflect on the successes of the past year, refocus and retarget their past failures and ultimately use their strengths to set themselves up for the success they envisioned.
In this blog we’re sharing the top three productivity hacks as used by our team lead for our business success. We also encourage the many small business owners who read our blogs to focus on productivity, as you will learn here, it is an essential element for your small business success.
Planning
I try to do most things with intention and this means to plan. I begin with my calendar where I schedule everything in advance – client appointments, workout session, e-mails, and calls. This way it is scheduled and I am aware in advance of the tasks to be completed. Next, I break it down into chunks where I tackle the most important tasks first, and those which will get me closer to achieving my daily goals.
Goals
Speaking of goals … we must set goals if we are to progress and, how I accomplish goals is that I prioritize. As a small consultancy firm it is almost impossible to accomplish our clients’ services in one setting and at times, they are time sensitive tasks. At DMC we serve many clients and are often busy scheduling new ones. Hence I plan and break up tasks into manageable parts. Next I set daily goals to accomplish and make plan to meet these goals as set out, this means I view goals in terms of their impact, urgency etc. on the daily goals and approach them as such.
Time
There is an old saying, “there is no hand to catch time” hence I try to manage my time as best I can. Planning ahead is where it all starts therefore, my calendar is on all my devices and yes, I use the alarm function. I try not to allow the day to “get away from me” as I often say, in that I plan time to spend during the day on specific tasks. For example, I plan time to return calls, answer e-mails, and so on, this way I am not in a continuous spiral responding to emails, answering every call as they come or any other distraction which may break my concentration from a task that will get me closer to a goal as set. My personal calls I set for breaks, during lunch or after hours.
It is that simple, planning ahead is the key success factor to my days. If for any reason I run contrary to my calendar and I am unable to complete all the tasks as set out in order to reach my goals, I also have a plan for that. As time is the master of everything, I view what time I have available and I try my best to complete that one task which will make me feel as if I have achieved some measure of success for the day although my day has not been a total success.
Tell us in social media how you have or will use our growth hacks for your business.
