Plan out a time to check and respond to e-mail
and social media.
This month has been crazy for us so far. We travelled for 2 weeks in a row to deliver workshops and then spent this week with follow-up calls with workshop participants. Don’t get me wrong, I love being in a room full of entrepreneurs delivering a workshop, and I also love hearing about their business in more detail, but the weeks have felt packed and there has been a lot of jumping around. This means I haven’t had the time needed to focus on working on projects and creating content. While I havebeendoingwork that is important tomybusiness, I haven’t been very productive with my core business activi- ties for the past 3 weeks. This is because of the scheduling – I haven’t been giving myself the time to focus on these things for long enough. Our calls have been at any time of the day. When you have so much on your plate, it’s important that you budget your time so that you can get the important things done. If you just wing it day by day, you will feel overwhelmed and as if there is never enough time! The best strategy is to batch your time so that you can focus on one thing at a time, and get it done right! Here are my strategies for getting it all done. (Of course, all of our businesses are different, so the way you focus your time might be a bit different than mine). Block off your mornings Use morning for creative, productive time. Relax knowing that you will have this time to focus on the important things. If you are an artist, use this time to create pieces, if you provide training, use this time to create your courses, if you are a writer, use this time to write, and so on. The important thing is to focus on one thing at a time, and generally, you should focus on one thing a day. Giving yourself the space to accomplish this is so important. The creative process is something that can’t be rushed and takes time to get right. Give yourself the time to get into the zone. In my case, this means I am usually working on a project for a client, or creating content. Turn your phone to silent and do not check e-mails or social media during this time. Protect this time, and as much as possible do not schedule meetings or other activities during this time. Afternoons Now that you’ve spent all morning creating and being pro- ductive, it’s time to get other business activities done. Schedule your meetings or calls in the afternoon. If you need to run errands, do them in the afternoon. If you have other tasks to accomplish, such as accounting, website main- tenance, posting to social media etc, when should you do them? You got it: in the afternoon. It’s all about planning.
I could spend my entire day responding to e-mails and not actually accomplish anything all day.
We get an e-mail and we feel as if it’s urgent that we respond to it. To limit this distraction turn off the notifi- cation on your screen and don’t check your inbox every 5 minutes. Before you refuse, realize that in most cases, you do not need to send an instant reply. As long as you get back to the sender within a day it should be adequate. Check your e-mail after Hammer Time and again towards the end of your work day. Set your phone to silent Again, there are so many distractions that come with a smartphone. Texts, facebook notifications, tweets, messages, game notifications, oh and calls! It is very rare that a client or potential client calls me out of the blue. The majority set up a specific time if they want to talk by phone. This means that I don’t need to feel guilty about turning my phone to silent for a couple of hours. The benefits of blocking out all the noise outweigh the off chance that someone calls. If by chance someone important does call – that’s what voicemail is for. Plan in advance Plan your week in advance. It’s so much easier to know where to focus your time if you know what you are trying to accomplish. At the beginning of every week take a look at the big picture and see what needs to be accomplished. Then you can make a plan of action for the week. At the end of every day I like to make a list of what I need to accomplish the following day, that way when I wake up, I know where to focus. I am also a big believer in a content calendar for blogs and social media. Having fixed dates on these things makes you use your time wisely and help you stick to deadlines. While multitasking might make us feel as if we are getting lots done, constantly changing our focus makes us a lot less productive. Of course, all of your days won’t look like this. Also, know that you won’t be perfect. No one is, but having the schedule will keep you accountable. Knowing that you have the time to get things done will relieve the pressure and let you focus on the task at hand. The important thing is to focus on one thing at a time and get the most important things done. Plan your time to make sure you make the most of it!
Looking forward to sharing more with you in 2018!
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DECEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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