Tips to Streamline Your Workday and Become a More Successful Entrepreneur
As an entrepreneur with multiple directions you’re being pulled into, and the tasks that need to be completed, how would you like to shave some precious time off your work day? Nobody wants to waste valuable time and that’s exactly what you might be doing. From a business mindset if you think about your day in a billable hour, you really need to assess whether your investment in certain tasks can be delegated or streamlined in some way so that you can be more productive. Make it a priority to re-evaluate certain tasks or your daily routine to ensure that you’re as productive as you need to be.
Simply put, it’s smart business to take an opportunity throughout the year to take a look at what’s working, and what’s not. Streamlining certain processes can also help you gain back some of that much needed personal time that you can spend with your friends, family, or even with yourself. Here are a few great ideas to get you started:
Have you thought of a helpdesk?
If you sell a product or service and people are sending emails at all times of the day it’s impossible for you to deal with them. By the time you wake up you might have multiple emails that need a response. It may not seem like a revenue generating task, but good customer service is. A customer who receives a quick response will more than likely return with more business. You could hire a part-time employee or even a virtual assistant to work on your helpdesk and they would deal with any emails as soon as they could. You’d need to evaluate, but the investment could pay off if your customers are happy and you are free to continue performing tasks that generate income for your business.
Skype or just pick up the phone
Multiple emails back and forth about a particular job or set of tasks can be a real waste of time, especially if the email thread is keeps growing. Sometimes it’s necessary to schedule a Skype session, or even just pick up the phone and call the person(s) you need to discuss certain matters with. Even in the technological age, we do still need to verbally communicate with one another. There is also less opportunity for things to get lost in translation. With Skype you can read someone’s body language, and of course even talking with someone would allow you to better understand how someone may feel about a certain topic of discussion. Depending on the details of the task, a thirty minute conversation can significantly cut down on multiple hours invested in crafting email responses.
Write the big tasks down
Big tasks are more than likely the ones that generate revenue and they are essential if you want to grow your business. That means you obviously need to take care of them before anything else. Smaller day-to-day tasks do need to be completed, but not having the bigger picture outlined could ultimately result in not achieving those much larger goals that need to be met. Whether you use a digital task management system, or pen and paper, just make certain you have easy access to them and that you are reminded in some way that they are there waiting for you to attend to them. It’s also best to scope out the work needed to complete these bigger tasks and set realistic milestones to check off so that you are aware of how much of the task you’ve completed and still need to work on.
Minimize the temptations
There’s always the temptation to look at some funny videos while you are working. Maybe you can’t let 30 minutes pass without looking at what’s happening on Twitter or Facebook. It’s okay to set some time aside during the day to check personal emails or social media, but schedule this time just as you would a meeting or phone call. Most importantly, stick to your allotted time, and close those particular screens when you need to get back to work.
About the Author:
Stanley Cooper is a self made man who knows the value of money and hard work. He believes nothing can substitute for just plain hard work and experience.