8 Light Bulb Ideas That Keep You Productive as an Entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur, you should constantly be on the lookout for ideas to improve the productivity of your business and your workflow. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to avoid doing busy work and focus on activities that are actually productive.
However, trying to maintain productivity on the things that require your attention is not easy. Especially when you’re busy juggling multiple tasks at once, while still trying to keep all the distractions at bay.
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To help keep your to-do list from becoming longer, we’ve gone and compiled some great light bulb ideas that you can use to keep you productive as an entrepreneur.
But before we can do that, let’s take a look at some of the things that can get in the way of your productivity.
1. Not establishing boundaries
This might be weird to consider but most entrepreneurs are not great at establishing strong boundaries in the way they use their time. If you scheduled the time to do something, you need to actually follow through and do it.
Resist the urge to answer unimportant phone calls, check on social media, or even to meet up with a friend for coffee when you have important tasks to deal with. It might difficult to separate yourself from all these interactions but it is worth if you want to get things done.
“Just saying yes because you can’t bear the short-term pain of saying no is not going to help you do the work” — Seth Godin
2. Too many distractions and interruptions
There are two main reasons that distraction happens: you either need a break or you fail to limit your exposure to them.
It’s important that you understand the difference between both, and enforce boundaries on them if needed while still allowing time to rest and rejuvenate whenever necessary. With the ability to fight distraction, you can perform better.
3. Doing everything yourself
As an entrepreneur, you’re often burdened with multiple roles and responsibilities in both life and work. When you’re trying to take on more than you can handle, you end up draining your productivity away.
Relinquishing control can be hard for an entrepreneur, but in doing so, you give yourself more opportunities to work on the things that matter most. Learn to delegate or automate tasks within your life, or at the very least, find ways to streamline the process.
“Never automate something that can be eliminated, and never delegate something that can be automated or streamlined. Otherwise, you waste someone else’s time instead of your own, which now wastes your hard-earned cash.” — Tim Ferriss
4. Productivity ideas for an entrepreneur
When you’ve faced the issues above and solved them, you will see a noticeable improvement in your overall productivity. Set up your boundaries, keep distractions to a minimum, and learn to let go some of your tasks to be a better entrepreneur.
With that out of the way, let’s get down to the tips and ideas that will keep you productive as an entrepreneur!
5. Plan and use time blocks
Struggling to prioritize your tasks? Then you need to do some planning and utilize time blocks to be more productive.
Haddy Folivi, the founder of Clarity Media, plans out her day to have as minimal distractions as possible. In order to stay focused, she makes sure that the most taxing work gets done in the morning.
“I do most of the work that requires a high level of concentration first thing in the morning,” she says. “I find this routine increases my productivity greatly, and I can get a lot of work done.”
To go even further, set time blocks in which you focus on tackling one specific task at a time (i.e. replying emails between 9:10–9:30 every day, creating a website in an hour, etc.). Throughout the day, use mini blocks of scheduled time to achieve maximum efficiency and to ensure that you complete the important tasks of the day.
“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” — Mike Murdock
6. Try not to multitask
Entrepreneurs lead a busy life, and because of that, you’re often tempted to try and multitask multiple things at once. Here’s the thing, if you want to be productive and effective, you need to avoid multitasking whenever possible and focus on the current task at hand.
Being pulled in multiple directions every day means you’ll end up bouncing from task to task and leaving them either incomplete or full of mistakes due to simple oversight.
Sure, there will be moments where you have to be juggling multiple jobs at once but try to stay focus on the task until completion so that you can cross it out completely and make sure that it’s done to the fullest potential.
7. Use productivity tools
Work management software and tools are a great way to increase the overall productivity for yourself and even your entire business.
There are a number of tools and software available today that focus on improving certain aspects of productivity. Slack, for example, is a great software for companies with big teams to reduce miscommunications as you can easily set up chat channels that focus on certain tasks or projects.
To take it a step further, you can even use work management software such as ProofHub that provides you with all the different tools you need to run your business effectively. From setting up discussion groups to creating task management charts, you have all the necessary tools to be more productive with ProofHub.
“Don’t let poor project management become a barrier in your success. Start using ProofHub.’’
Follow the Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle (or the 80/20 rule) is the idea that 20% of your input or activities are responsible for 80% of the outcome or results. It’s a rule that’s often used in business to determine certain factors, such as having 80% of their sales coming from 20% of the customer base.
You can use the 80/20 rule beyond business to improve your overall productivity by focusing on the 20% of your work that gives 80% of the result.
When you’ve implemented the 80/20 rule into your life, you will find that you will become better at managing your time as you can put 80% of your focus into the 20% of your business or startup that actually matters.
“80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” — Pareto Principle
8. Break down the task
Faced with a huge task or project? Try not to do it all in one go. While it’s important to finish the task that you’ve started, trying to complete a huge task in one stroke can be overwhelming.
Instead, break down the task into smaller sub-tasks and focus on completing them one at a time. This way, you can make sure that each task is performed perfectly and maintain high productivity without having to sacrifice quality.
9. If you get stuck, get out
There will be times where you find yourself staring at your laptop and not being able to get any work done. Odds are, you need to give yourself a change of environment to get right back in a productive mood.
A lot of entrepreneurs tend to work from home and one of the biggest mistakes that they can do is to work while sitting on their couch in front of a TV. First of all, working on a couch is bad for your back and second of all, you know you’re going to end up watching TV instead. If you want to be productive, get away from the distractions of home life and get out of the house.
Go to a nice little coffee shop or even a new office environment and you might find yourself being more motivated to do your work.
10. Be more accountable
Accountability can be a great way to motivate yourself to work even better, but it’s hard to do it by yourself. You might say to yourself that you’ll go to the gym at 8:00 pm, but if you don’t feel like going, then you’ll end up staying home instead. If you made plans with a friend to go the gym, then odds are you’ll go.
The same goes for being productive as well. If you make plans to accomplish certain entrepreneurial goals, share them with a fellow entrepreneur or a close friend to keep you accountable.
You’re more likely to follow through with your plans when you have someone to be accountable to. When you know that you have to report back to someone and answer them for not meeting your goals, it can add that extra motivation that you need to see them through.
11. Have short breaks
Contrary to popular beliefs, taking short breaks do not hamper your productivity. If anything, taking breaks between works will do wonders to re-energize yourself and contribute to your productivity.
Take 10 to 15-minute breaks after accomplishing a big task to recuperate yourself before going back to work. You can even go for a quick walk or settle down with your favorite magazine, whatever it may be, just take a quick breather and then jump back into work.
The trick is to not let these breaks distract from your workflow. Sure, take a moment to watch an episode of Stranger Things on Netflix but don’t binge through the whole season and risk wasting your day. Use these breaks as rewards for the hard work you’ve done and to motivate you to be more productive to get more work done so that you can enjoy more of those rewards.
Conclusion
It’s hard for an entrepreneur to maintain productivity throughout the day. Hopefully, with the ideas that we’ve listed, you will be able to keep your productivity levels high and knock out those tasks, one-by-one.
Are there any other productivity tips that we’ve missed out? Let us know in the comments below!
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About Author:
Jason is a fan of technology, WordPress and entrepreneurship from Webrevenue.io. He likes to read about news related to internet marketing and startups. He believes reading and practicing what we read are important. Get in touch with him on social media via Twitter.
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