In my adventure to have freedom of time, location and cash flow. I started running my own business from home full-time in August 2014. The first few weeks, were great because of the excitement of freedom of time. Then I quickly realized I had to be extremely disciplined and have a plan otherwise, it’s easy to waste time on unnecessary things.
These are my best strategies that keep me productive.
1. Make a list the night before and keep it short – Before bedtime, I think about my day, what I did and didn’t do. The must do for the next day. Keep the list short (5 items) to the must do items that will cause the biggest impact in your business.
Maintain the 80/20 principles: Not everything is beneficial. Only a few things are important in a given day. I ignore the trivial things
2. Have a filter system to gauge urgency – My filter is “Does that contribute to the business sales or not”. If yes, that task is listed amongst the top 5 things to do.
3. Have a morning routine – I credit this routine to increasing my productivity exponentially. It’s like an energy boost for mind, body and soul. Wake-up at a consistent time. Mine is 6am with the exception of Sunday.
• Have devotional time – Read/Write and Pray, so you can keep your spirit robust to handle the day ahead. This helps with positioning your mindset and attitude.
• Physical activity – I take a gym class and relax in the sauna (1hr)
• Get breakfast and do an hour of reading (for my personal development)
• Then I am ready to start work. Notice, I don’t check email or media before breakfast, in order to control the amount of “negative news” intake for the day.
4. Maintain a calendar and schedule everything including sleep time. It’s puts tasks in perspective that you don’t have much time to be messing around. Also, include fun time, family time and all things that make life worth living for you.
5. Allocate time for each task: For example 1hr for emails, 45minutes to return calls, 1hr coaching call, 1hr respond to inquiries etc. It creates a sense of urgency to get the task completed in the allocated time slot.
If case you don’t follow through, don’t be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow is a great day to start on your new schedule.
Allow at least 60days for these new habits to become second nature. It doesn’t matter where I am in the world, I always make a list for the next days’ activities, have a devotional time, physical activity, read and breakfast then work.
