Whether you run a department of a large firm or are a small business owner, you know how frustrating it can be to have a long to-do list that doesn’t get addressed. If you spend the whole day putting out fires, not of your making, you will quickly burn through your work energy. The tips below can help you focus on your goals.
Own Your Schedule
Our brains are always forming habits. If you come into the office, close your door, put down your bag and get a coffee, you have a starting habit that meets your needs.
Interruptions as soon as you get in the building or before you can set down your briefcase will create frustration and stress because the pattern has been damaged. Let your co-workers know that you need the first 5 minutes to yourself. If you need to, hire a gatekeeper.
Your body can also have an impact on your habits and your efficiency. If you tend to be a little sluggish after lunch, schedule simple or maintenance-type tasks at that time. Try not to ask your brain to do expansive thinking when your body is lagging. Instead of fighting your needs and rhythms, work with them.
Protect Your Decision-Making Energy
Routines can also protect your decision-making power. For example, you may want to set out your clothes before bed or eat the same thing for breakfast each day.
For most people, early morning is the time when the brain is freshest. If that’s not you, do what it takes to keep that fresh brain from getting overloaded.
Early morning larks and night owls can both set up their daily lives so their most productive brain time is protected for best efficiency.
You may find that you do the best working remotely from another time zone as a freelancer. Self-knowledge and a little self-compassion can greatly increase your productivity.
Use Consistent Software
If you’re a Mac user and the whole office is already set up on another program, take the time to use the other program. Clunky interphases, challenging crossover data programs, and software that refuses to mesh will not serve you as your business grows.
There are enough hurdles in the world of business without having to stagger from software to software or program to program.
Quality enterprise resource planning, or ERP, can make it easier for your employees to easily communicate from screen to screen and from project to project. The right ERP for professional services can also make it much easier to scale up and grow your business.
Know When to Quit
Growing your business can take 24 hours a day if you allow it. Dial it back so you can enjoy a full, healthy life outside of work. This may take the help of a brutally honest spouse or friend. If you choose to bring your work laptop on vacation and your spouse takes it out of your hand and puts it back in your home office, take the hint.
Your assistant or gatekeeper can also serve in this instance. Let them know what projects or issues are worth breaking into your time away and what isn’t. Be patient if that line gets blurry; gatekeepers are under a lot of pressure.
Mirror Time Away from Work for Your Employees
If you respond to every email that pops up when you’re away from the office, your employees will get the message that they also need to be constantly connected. Guard your time away from the office.
Your brain and body need time to wind down; if you don’t take it, you will lose creative power over time and may start to make limited decisions because your brain is protecting itself from pressure and stress.
You need your team to bring their best creative and problem-solving powers to the table. If they’re chasing small problems in multiple emails, you may find that they lose the ability to see big picture issues effectively. Finally, if you’re always providing fixes for small problems, you will teach your employees dependence.
Wrapping Up
Recent world events have made a lot of professionals nervous about the future. Working yourself into the ground and limping along on software that doesn’t work and plays well with other programs is not the answer. Efficiency has a price tag and it can be well worth the money.
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