Emails, messes, and Facebook – Oh my! It seems like it’s easier than ever to get distracted and derailed from our work, today. If you’re running a business, however, every minute counts. You can’t afford to let productivity drop, or else you and your business suffer for it. It’s up to you to recognize and eliminate productivity killers so that you can work smarter. To help in this regard, here are some of our strategies for beating productivity killers:
Turn off specific phone notifications
Some articles tell you to turn off your phone when working so that you can focus without distracting texts or phone calls. However, this isn’t always realistic for small and self-employed business owners. Our smartphones work as our business line, CRM, bookkeeping system, and even POS device! Today, your entire business can be run from your phone. But you can still be smart about how you use it. Go into your app setting and your phone setting to disable specific notifications. This way you get the functionality your smartphone provides without disruption from social media, gaming, and other personal apps.
Take a real break when attention waivers
Ever had one of those days where you just can’t seem to focus? I know I have. Rather than trying to force yourself to pay attention, listen to what your mind and body are trying to tell you. Something is not clicking. Our advice – take a break from what you’re doing. Breaks give you the opportunity to rest your brain, get in the right mindset, and most importantly, ask yourself what’s wrong. Are you overtired? Are you stressed? Is there a personal issue bothering you? Is this just a task you don’t enjoy? You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what’s wrong first.
Pick a cleaning/organizing day
If you’re like me, disorder can get distracting. Organization is key to a productive workplace. However, if you’re interrupting your schedule to clean at irregular times, it may not be all that helpful. To keep my space well-organized and better manage my time, I pick a designated cleaning/organizing day. This is a day where I set aside time to dust, throw out scraps, vacuum, file old papers, and similar activities. Having a designated cleaning day will ensure that your space stays consistently neat and organized so that you can focus on your work during the rest of the week.
Get some sleep!
Studies continuously show that sleep is essential to performance during the day. Yet, so many business owners burn the midnight oil to finish that last task, only to wake up at their normal time the next day for work. Stop pushing yourself to exhaustion, and go get some sleep! Even after a couple of nights, you will notice the difference a full night’s sleep can make. If you do need to put in those extra hours, here’s our advice: rather than stay up late, go to sleep when you’re tired and wake up a little earlier to finish your work. That way your brain gets some well-needed rest and you will likely do a better – and faster – job.
We all have habits that can affect our productivity whether it’s staying up late or checking our phones too often. Be smart and try to nip those productivity killers in the bud. When you do, there’s no better feeling then shutting down your computer at the end of a productive and successful day.