How to Stay: Productivity Tips for Small Business Owners

Owning a business is like juggling. Once you drop one ball, it’s easier to drop all of them. Making each day count and staying efficient is a struggle for a lot of business owners (including me!).

With this in mind, I wanted to offer some productivity tips that I’ve found helpful from other business owners.

Photo by Latoya Dixon Smith

Rest

Yup, I’m highly aware this feels counterintuitive. But something my father in law has told me time and time again:

“You’re the asset. Protect the asset.”

You are the asset that runs your business, so if you’re not spending time resting, actively pursuing hobbies that set your soul on fire, or simply taking a few moments for yourself, you’re not protecting your most valuable asset: you.

Photo by Latoya Dixon Smith

Scheduling

Some people hate schedules, others love them. Having set hours (even if you work from home) allows you brain to think in terms of “I’m working from x to y, and that’s it.”

Learn your own body. Morning person? Protect those mornings and work for a few hours before taking a break. Evening person? Protect those evenings and work after dinner and into the night hours. There is not one-size fits all when it comes to scheduling.

Try breaking up your day into chunks of work times. For instance, if you want to start work by 10am, wake up, have your coffee, and work from 10-12, break for lunch, work from 1-3, take a break, and then work from 3:30-5pm.

Photo by Latoya Dixon Smith

Priorities

It’s easy for our priorities to shift throughout a day or week, but keep them consistent towards your ultimate goal. If your daily priorities are disengaging you from your future priorities, maybe it’s time to take a look at them and reevaluate!

Management

Both personal management and business management work together hand in hand. For meetings with clients, certain tasks, etc., trying adopting a silent cell phone approach. Taking away distractions as you try and finish projects is healthy and rewarding.

If you have a task you despise (like me), see if there’s an easier way to work through this. Can you delegate it to someone else on your team? Are you able to do it in smaller chunks that add up over time? Think through ways to finish the task but not pull your hair out.