Being busy is part of an entrepreneur’s life. There’s no way of escaping it. But being busy is far different from being productive.
To be productive, you have to use your time wisely so that you can stay efficient and achieve more in less time. As Tim Ferriss once said, “Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
With a few hacks, you can stay productive and achieve more than you ever thought possible.
1. Get up and unwind.
Entrepreneurs are known as serial sitters. You’d be surprised by how many hours they spend sitting on a chair. But this is unhealthy as prolonged sitting has been found to increase the risk of several health complications, including heart diseases and diabetes.
Moreover, the problem of overworking among entrepreneurs costs you in terms of productivity. As fatigue rises, productivity drops. So working 50+ hours a day is not going to help you accomplish more. In fact, you would achieve the exact opposite.
So, it might seem counterintuitive, but to stay productive, you have to get up, leave your work, and unwind. It can be through exercising, reading a book, watching the TV, taking your pet out for a walk, or meditating.
2. Do your least favorite tasks first.
Brian Tracy, in his best-selling book “Eat that Frog,” claims that if you put off doing your least favorite task until the end of the day, you’ll experience a looming sense of doom throughout the day.
What task do you often find yourself procrastinating? Maybe it’s exercising or making sales calls. Or having that meeting or posting on social media. Whatever it is, getting it done as soon as possible will lift a burden and leave you feeling accomplished and ready to slay the day.
3. Enlist the help of technology.
Lastly, you should use various pieces of technology to help you. For example, if you’re finding it harder and harder to stay on top of your daily schedule, use a scheduling app that allows you to manage your plans on the fly.
If you’re struggling to keep track of your sales, a sales management app can help you. This kind of app will help you oversee how many deals you’re closing and even give you crucial statistics like conversion rates.
4. Stop multitasking.
For years, you’ve been taught that to achieve more, you have to do more tasks at once. The ability to multitask is such a bragging right that you likely wear it as a badge of honor. But do you know that studies suggest that multitasking can actually reduce your productivity by 40%?
According to researchers Rubinstein, Meyer, and Evans, the executive control process has two stages:
1. The first stage, known as “goal shifting,” is where you decide to do one thing instead of another.
2. The second stage, known as “role activation,” is shifting from the rules of the previous task to those of the new task.
When you multitask, you’re actually shifting from one task to another. The fact is, you’re incurring added time for goal shifting and role activation every time you switch to a new task. So stop multitasking. Do one task at once and focus so that you can finish sooner and get better results.
In the end, staying productive is not an option if you want your business to thrive. Productive entrepreneurs are not necessarily busy, but they use their time wisely.
