- Are you a solopreneur or a small business owner
trying to get a grip and not lose your mind
with all the day-to-day things you have to get done?
Well, then, stick around
because I'm gonna give you some of my favorite tips
for how to stay productive and get shit done.
(upbeat music)
Hi everyone.
I'm Attorney Aiden Durham with 180 Law Co. in Colorado,
and welcome back to All Up In Yo Business.
Before we get into it,
don't forget to like, subscribe, and share,
and check the description
for links to additional information and resources.
I'd also like to thank our special partners
for this episode, our friends over at Sunsama.
Sunsama is a daily task manager and calendar
that organizes all of your tasks and to-dos
and meetings day by day.
It integrates with your online calendar
like Google Calendar,
and all your favorite project management apps
to pull in all of your tasks and to-do
so you can see exactly what needs to be done,
and helps you visualize your tasks
and your calendar side by side.
You can get a free 14-day trial with Sunsama
by going to this link
or checking the link in the description.
All right.
So if you are a solopreneur or a small business owner,
even if you have a few people, maybe on your team,
helping you with things,
staying productive and focusing on your to-do list
can become very challenging.
I've had an assistant at times
that helped me with administrative work,
and I have a few other contractors
who helped me with some things,
but for the majority of my business's life,
it's pretty much all been on me.
And so there are a few things that I like to do
to help me stay focused,
help me stay on task, and be productive,
especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed.
Now, a few of the things I'm not gonna mention,
things like getting rid of distractions,
making time for me time, taking breaks,
go outside, take a walk, all of that stuff's great.
I'm sure it helps with being productive,
but like, okay, if I take some me time and go get a massage,
I'm still not getting anything done.
So I'm not gonna bore you guys too much
with that fluffy productivity stuff.
My first tip for staying productive
as a small business owner or solopreneur
is to set a routine.
Now, this one I think is okay.
I have a hard time with this myself.
That's why I'm saying it first,
I'm gonna kind of blow past it.
Routines are great.
If you can set yourself up
to start work at this time every day,
maybe you have a set,
certain things that you do first thing in the morning,
we close up shop by this time of the day, great.
A routine certainly can help with staying productive,
but things come up.
Sometimes we can't always stick to the exact same routine.
Sometimes we were up late last night
and we want to sleep in a little bit more.
And frankly, one of the reasons I own a business for myself
is because I don't like routine.
If I want to make an appointment
for something in the middle of the day,
I want to be able to do that.
So if you're a routine person, set yourself a routine.
All right.
My next one, which I actually do is set aside work days,
whatever this means to you.
So what I do, I block off certain days on my calendar
when I don't make any appointments with clients.
I focus solely on getting work done,
or doing administrative tasks or working on my business.
That way I know I won't have distractions
with calls coming in or other meetings.
I can focus on the things that I have to get done.
So this can be a day or a couple of days each week,
or maybe a day or two each month,
depending on how much time you need to set aside.
Dedicating a few days here and there
to just getting the things done,
taking care of the things that you need to take care of
is gonna help stay productive.
Next, figure out when you are most productive
and get as much work done at that time.
For me and a lot of other folks,
I'm most productive in the morning
before emails start coming in, before calls start coming in,
when my head is at its clearest, and when I'm most focused
is pretty much first thing in the morning.
So if I have big things to work on or important tasks to do,
I try to get them done first thing in the morning.
Not everybody is a morning person though.
Maybe you work better,
your mind is clearer in the evening or at night.
If that's true for you,
then it's okay to not be super productive in the morning.
Do some easier stuff,
get some other stuff done in the morning,
and save that stuff for when you do your best work.
Next, of course, I don't think this is a big secret,
but delegate as much as possible.
Administrative tasks, maybe social media, marketing tasks,
anything that you can hand off to somebody else
or anything that's not your area of expertise
or your strength, delegate it as much as possible.
I'm terrible with social media.
I hate planning and developing my own social media content.
So I gave that to somebody else to do,
because why would I waste my time
doing something that I don't like doing,
and I'm not good at doing
when I can hand that off to somebody else
and focus what I am good at?
Next, try to plan your schedule in advance,
maybe on Sunday or Friday afternoon or even Monday morning.
Think of everything that you have to get done
or would like to get done the next that following week.
Write down everything.
Do a brain dump of everything that you'd like to get done,
and then try to prioritize what needs to get done,
what would be great to get done, and what can wait.
And this is where Sunsama really comes in handy.
Sunsama allows you to plan tasks on a day-by-day basis.
And you can actually block out time for specific tasks.
You can say how long this task is going to take you
so you can see, visualize on your calendar
here's when I'm gonna be working on this thing,
here's what I'm gonna be working on this thing,
here's when I have this meeting,
oh, I'm gonna get to this thing that day.
You can see exactly how your productivity
is going to play out, all within Sunsama,
and it integrates with all your other apps
and project management tools, which is great.
And again, don't forget,
if you want that free 14-day trial of Sunsama,
you can use this link or check the link in the description.
If you're still feeling overwhelmed,
or if you feel like you've got so much to do,
I'll tell you guys.
When I feel overwhelmed,
that's when I'm my least productive.
If I've got so much going on,
I just kind of shut down and I don't want to do any of it.
And so in those instances when I'm super overwhelmed,
I try to think of one big thing
that I can get done each day.
Instead of trying to cram it all in on one day
and knowing that I'll get overwhelmed,
I'll say, okay, as long as I get this one thing done,
I can say it was a good productive day.
And again, that's where Sunsama comes in super handy
is scheduling out what one big thing
am I gonna get done today,
tomorrow's big thing's gonna be this,
the next day's big thing, and so on.
Or maybe even that might be too overwhelming.
So if doing one big thing a day
is still gonna feel like too much,
then maybe just do little bits
or the easiest parts of each project in one day.
The idea here, the goal is to not get freaked out,
not get so stressed out
and overwhelmed that your productivity tank,
whether it's completing one big project a day,
or checking off a few of the smaller, easier portions
of each project in a day, whatever works best for you.
If you're still super overwhelmed,
I mean, it happens, you guys.
Sometimes we can get productive
and still just feel like we're drowning.
And for me, on those days, I don't want to do anything.
And then at the end of the day, I feel like crap
because I haven't gotten anything done
and I wasted an entire day.
If you're just completely underwater
and feeling like you're not getting anything done,
find one small thing.
It doesn't matter how important or minute it might be.
Get one thing done.
Find one little thing that you can get done for the day,
just to have the satisfaction of checking off that box
or clicking that button
that you completed that one tiny little task.
My next tip, keep notepads everywhere.
I have notepads all over my house.
I have one next to my desk,
I have one on my coffee table by my couch,
I have one next to my bed,
I carry a notepad in my purse,
you can use notepads on your phone,
or if you have an app on your phone
that lets you jot down notes, keep it everywhere.
So anytime you think of (gasps)
oh, I have to get that done tomorrow, write it down.
And that way you don't have
to worry about am I forgetting to do something
because at least you know it's written down somewhere.
Of course, with distractions,
like I said, the fewer distractions you can have,
the more focused and productive you're going to be.
What I like to do, of course, I keep my phone next to me
because I always want to have my phone nearby,
but I turn it face down so I can't see alerts,
so that thing doesn't light up and distract me
from whatever else I'm doing.
I keep it nearby.
Just stay, stay down
while I'm working on something important.
And I also like to close out my email on my web browser
and any other distracting pages
or programs that might tear me away
from what I'm trying to focus on.
My next tip, stop saying yes to things
if you really don't mean it.
A lot of us, we have a lot of things coming at us,
invitations to networking events
or people who want to grab coffee with us,
or maybe we're being invited to speak at a presentation.
All these things are great,
great ways to grow your business, network, meet people,
but if you don't really want to do it,
if you're not excited about doing whatever the thing is
that you're being asked to do, politely decline,
because in the end, maybe you missed out on the opportunity,
but at least you're not gonna have that anx
or that stress over, oh, now I have to do this thing
that I really didn't want to do.
So as much as you can, just learn to say no,
unless it's a definite yes.
Keep track of your time when you're working on common
or repetitive tasks or projects.
If there's something that you do on a regular basis
or some type of service that you provide
or something you commonly do in your business,
keep track of how long that takes you.
That way, you know how much time
to dedicate to that project in the future
when it comes up again,
because if it's something repetitive and common,
then it's gonna come up again.
And if we know, okay, this, for me,
certain kinds of contracts or certain,
when I'm setting up an LLC,
I know for the most part exactly how long that takes me.
So when I have one to do,
I know, okay, I need to set aside at least this much time
to get that thing done.
Of course, use technology
and automate things as much as possible.
Any way that we can leverage
all of this wealth of technology that we have
to automate things and have things done
without us having to do them ourselves
is of course going to save time,
it's gonna make our businesses more efficient,
and it's gonna let us focus on the more important things.
I did a video a while ago
about some of the my favorite tools in managing my business
and automating my business.
So check the link below for that.
I think it's called the essential tools
for running your business.
But check that out
if you want to know more of some of my favorite tools
for automating and simplifying your business.
And lastly, I think one of my favorite ways
of staying productive,
one of the most important things that I do
to stay focused and productive
is think about the things that drain my energy the most,
and do those things last in the day.
For me, I'm a pretty introverted person.
A lot of human contact, face-to-face interaction,
it really just drains my energy.
And so as much as possible,
I try to schedule client meetings, phone calls,
anything where I have to talk to a person,
I try to set those for later in the day,
because I know afterwards, I'm gonna be spent.
I'm not gonna have any more energy for getting things,
all the other things done that I have to do.
I also know that wherever that's not possible,
if I have to have a meeting in the morning,
I know that I'm gonna be pretty tired after that meeting.
So that tells me, don't plan all of these important,
difficult to-dos after all those meetings,
'cause I'm gonna need to take a nap,
I'm gonna need to sit on the couch,
take Rocky out for a walk,
do something to just kind of chill out
and get back that energy
that was spent in those human-to-human interactions.
But that might not be you.
Maybe working on some specific aspect of your business
or maybe social media planning,
if you're doing that yourself,
if you know that that really tuckers you out,
that drains your energy,
plan that for last thing in the day
or last thing in the week
or a time when you know after that,
you can just chill and not worry about anything else.
That's all for this episode, folks.
Drop a comment below, let me know what you think,
and again, don't forget to check the description
for links to additional information and resources,
including a link to get your free 14-day trial with Sunsama.
Thank you all so much for watching.
I'm Aiden Durham, and I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)