Small Business Productivity
Small business productivity; mastering the art of working smarter rather than harder. It really can have a big impact on your success.
If you find yourself frustrated by feeling unproductive, like you can’t get the important stuff done, then you’re probably falling into a trap. A trap of letting others control your time and tasks.
A good example of this is email. If you’re furiously trying to attend to them all (like a never-ending in-box), then you’re letting other people control how you spend your time and what tasks you attend.
This means you are not prioritising your tasks (and being in control of what you do and when you do it).
So how the heck do we influence our own productivity? How do we create new habits that will help us prioritise & take back control of our time and tasks?
One way is planning. And as I’m one for all-things systemised, I’d like to share with you a planning tool I found which I think is highly valuable and worth your attention.
It’s called the High-Performance Planner (https://www.highperformanceplanner.com) I purchased mine from Amazon (Australia). The planner is not geared just to business-types, it’s for anyone who wants to take control of their day and their life in terms of tasks, time & mindset. As a Mum (and business owner), it also helps me feel more productive in my personal time.
Athletes already use these types of tools (not necessarily this particular one), because performing at their best is non-negotiable.
Or if you’re like me and not much of a book worm, then use the Blinklist App (https://www.blinkist.com/). If you’re not familiar with Blinklisk let me explain a little more. Blinklist condenses nonfiction titles (of all varieties) into 15 minute summaries available on audio or to read. Another title in the Binklist Library that wowed me is Smart Teams by Dermot Crowley. Even if you don’t have staff it’s worth a read as many concepts are more general in nature (as they relate to productivity).
Another way to improve your productivity is to reduce emails generally. But how? Well, little by little you need to make changes.
Here are 2 changes you can make that will have a big impact:
• Replace “collaborating, emailing jobs & setting tasks using email” with an app like Asana. Asana is a simple project management tool where you can set tasks (for yourself and others). • Avoid email tennis & pick up the phone. I know it’s tempting to type rather than talk, but one quick phone call will save you time (and remind you of the power of dialogue). You’ll avoid the back-n-forth & increase your productivity
Another tip for increasing productivity is to implement systems and templates. I use Process Street for my Standard Operating Procedures & MS office documents for my templates. Depending on what type of business you have there are lots of ways you can choose to document your systems & processes & create your templates. As Bookkeepers, we use the gold standard of productivity for our profession, Xero Bookkeeping Software.
The important things to remember here for small business productivity are:
• If you are no longer working by yourself, then your focus should be on systems and processes to ensure quality is maintained. In terms of productivity, this is about being clear with others about how things need to be done by documenting it. • Save things like proposals, contracts, quotes and invoices so you can “copy & use” them as templates. Refine them over time so you can use them to quickly create new documents, using your templates. I do this with Employee packs, proposals, invoices and more.
Hi, I’m Jeannie from Cloud 9 Bookkeeping and I will personally discuss with you, your small business productivity needs. We can provide advisory help with regards to selecting productivity software. We’ll review your current systems and recommend software, that can help improve your personal and business productivity.
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