Maximizing Your Time: How to Streamline Your Daily Schedule and Increase Efficiency

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Do you often feel like there are simply not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything you need to do? Sometimes, it seems like the laundry or the dishes will just have to wait until later. But as hard as it is, we must tackle tasks when they need to be done, otherwise, they don’t get done at all. Or we find ourselves having to do them when we truly don’t have the time for them. Then, inevitably, something else has to be put off.

This scenario also applies to work. When a project has a deadline, it’s important to devote your undivided attention to it, or it won’t get completed. Time management is a critical aspect of every job – from planning to executing. Your schedule needs to be structured to support efficiency and productivity to reach your goals.

If you’ve felt like you need to streamline your daily schedule and get more done in a shorter amount of time, these tips are for you:

1. Conduct a Thorough Workflow Audit:

  • Analyze Your Existing Processes: Begin by meticulously examining your current workflows and processes. Ask yourself: Are they efficient? Do certain tasks take too much time or space to complete? Are there things you can do to eliminate steps or streamline your workflow?
  • Task Sequencing: Assessing your current workflows is essential in improving and facilitating your productivity. For example, do you need to complete specific tasks in a particular order or time? If you don’t need to do certain activities in the order you listed them, reorder them to streamline your work.
  • Process Ranking: Once you know your current workflows, you can rank them in terms of both the amount of time they take to complete and the extent to which they streamline your typical workflow. You’ll want to use a scale of 1-5, depending on how time-consuming a process is and how much it changes your routine. If it takes less than five minutes, you can probably nix it from your workflow. Consider using a workflow mapping tool to visualize your processes.

2. Minimize Digital Distractions:

  • Notification Management: Notifications in apps can be great when you want to receive a notice for something important, but when you’re working with flowing tasks, they’re distractions. Turn off your notifications and focus only on the task at hand so that you don’t end up losing focus. The truth is, most notifications can wait. You can put news alerts and messages on hold until later.
  • Email Strategies: Implement a scheduled email checking system instead of constantly monitoring your inbox. Use filters and folders to prioritize messages.
  • Social Media Boundaries: Set time limits for social media use and use website blockers to avoid temptation during focused work periods.

3. Prioritize and Focus:

  • Tackle the Hard Stuff First: If you’re trying to jam in as many tasks as you can, chances are you’re not getting anything done. It might even be the opposite; you’re spending more of your limited time on busywork that you don’t need to do.
  • Single-Tasking: To help yourself become more productive, focus on one task at a time and work on that until you complete it. If you find yourself multitasking, try focusing instead for a single 30-minute period using the Pomodoro Technique.

    • The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. It can be a game-changer when you’re trying to streamline your daily schedule. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:

      The Basic Steps:

      1. Choose a Task: Decide on the task you want to accomplish.
      2. Set the Timer: Set a timer for 25 minutes. This 25-minute interval is called a “Pomodoro” (the Italian word for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used).
      3. Work on the Task: Focus solely on the task until the timer rings.
      4. Take a Short Break: When the timer rings, stop working and take a short break (typically 5 minutes). Use this time to relax, stretch, or do something completely unrelated to your work.
      5. Repeat: Start the timer again and repeat steps 2-4.
      6. Take a Longer Break: After completing four Pomodoros, take a longer break (typically 15-30 minutes).

      Key Principles and Benefits:

      • Focus and Concentration: The Pomodoro Technique encourages focused work by breaking tasks into manageable chunks.
      • Time Awareness: It helps you become more aware of how you spend your time.
      • Reduced Burnout: Regular breaks prevent mental fatigue and burnout.
      • Improved Productivity: It can increase productivity by minimizing distractions and maximizing concentration.
      • Motivation: The feeling of completing a Pomodoro can be motivating.
      • Task Management: It can help you break down large tasks into smaller, more manageable steps.

      Variations and Tips:

      • While 25 minutes is the standard Pomodoro length, you can adjust it to suit your needs.
      • Use a physical timer or a Pomodoro app. There are many apps available for smartphones and computers.
      • During breaks, avoid checking emails or engaging in other work-related activities.
      • If you finish a task before the timer rings, use the remaining time to review your work or plan your next Pomodoro.
      • If you are interrupted during a Pomodoro, try to note the interruption and return to the task as soon as possible.22 If the interruption is critical, end the pomodoro and start a new one.
      • Plan your pomodoros at the begining of the day, or the begining of a work session.

      The Pomodoro Technique is a simple yet effective way to improve your time management and productivity. It can be particularly helpful for tasks that require sustained focus and concentration.

  • Combat Procrastination: Trying to work on more than one task at a time can cause procrastination, which is a whole new level of anxiety. Spend time organizing your tasks in order of priority so that the most important projects have the first slot in your schedule.
  • Creative Task Scheduling: For instance, if you tend to procrastinate on tasks that involve creative work, such as writing, brainstorming, and generating ideas, you might find that setting aside 15 minutes a day for those tasks helps you make progress on what you’re already doing. Schedule these creative blocks for when your energy is highest. That will give you the most bang for your buck (or clock) when working to streamline your daily schedule and plan your tasks.

4. Optimize Your Work Environment:

  • Natural Light: Do your work near an excellent natural source of light. A good source of light not only helps you see better, but it also helps you work better. This tip is handy if you work from home.
  • Combat Artificial Light Dependence: Those who work from home can become dependent on artificial light, leading to eye strain, fatigue, and depression. Work in a well-lit area and make sure to take regular breaks away from your desk.
  • Ergonomics: Ensure your workspace is ergonomically sound. Invest in a comfortable chair, monitor stand, and keyboard.
  • Minimize Clutter: A clean and organized workspace reduces distractions and promotes focus.

5. Prioritize Well-Being:

  • Sleep Hygiene: When making important decisions, ensure that you get enough sleep, so your brain can function at its best. Establish a consistent sleep schedule and create a relaxing bedtime routine.
  • Breaks and Movement: Take regular breaks throughout the day to stretch, move, and rest your eyes. Even short breaks can significantly boost productivity.
  • Hydration and Nutrition: Stay hydrated and eat nutritious meals to maintain energy levels and focus.

6. Incremental Improvements:

  • Small Changes, Big Impact: Remember that you might not need to make a complete overhaul of your schedule. Many times, you can make small changes to greatly improve your overall productivity.
  • Regular Review: Periodically review your schedule and workflows to identify areas for further improvement. Be flexible and willing to adjust your strategies as needed.
  • Learn to delegate: If possible, delegate tasks to free up your own time.

Streamlining your daily schedule and increasing your efficiency will help you focus on what’s important throughout the day. Try to limit the number of distractions you have around you. By implementing these strategies, you can take control of your time, reduce stress, and achieve your goals more effectively.

The Worst Time Management Mistakes You’re Probably Making

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Can you answer “How well do you manage your time” with a straight face? Like most people, you probably find it challenging to answer that question. It’s better to think about your time as an asset, not as a burdensome thing that you have to figure out how to use. By taking some time to understand how you spend your time, you can begin to make significant steps toward better time management.

That does not mean it’s a walk in the park. On the contrary, it’s hard work, demanding a lot of dedication. However, once you start to see the benefits of your improved time management, it will increase the motivation to keep at it.

Consider these time management mistakes you might be making:

  1. Procrastination. This pattern is one of the biggest timewasters of all. Procrastination ruins the day. If you’re constantly waiting for things to happen, you’re always behind schedule. You literally can’t get things done on time because you never get started.

    • Being on time is tremendously essential to time management. Procrastination kills productivity. You become irritated and frustrated. Time seems to fly by when you’re always behind. And your blood pressure rises.
    • You expend a lot of energy trying to keep up and it feels almost impossible to do anything right. To work on your procrastination, categorize the things you have to do.
    • Write down everything you have to do, and then divide them into what’s urgent, what’s not critical, and what’s optional. Do what’s urgent first. Then, do what’s not vital, and finally, do what’s optional.

  2. A lack of personal goals. Where would you like to be in the next year, five or ten years? A person who lacks personal goals will go through life doing whatever they want. That can lead to procrastination because you’re not working on things that are truly dear to your heart.

    • A lack of personal goals affects your time management because you don’t have a target to reach. You end up putting in minimal effort because there’s no reason to push yourself.

  3. Dealing with distractions poorly. Distractions are bound to happen, and if you’re not good at dealing with them, then procrastination will overtake you. All the time you’re getting distracted, you’re preventing yourself from achieving your goals.

    • When you can’t focus on what you want to achieve, you will limit your productivity.
    • Spending time on social media is one of the worst distractions. You’re no longer focusing on the task at hand because you’re distracted by what everyone else is doing. And let’s face it, some of those lives on social media aren’t real.

  4. Failing to plan your day. You can’t accomplish anything without a plan. If you’re spending ten minutes writing out what you want to achieve that day, then you’ll be able to stay focused in the workplace and at home.

    • A plan doesn’t have to be complicated. As long as you know what you should be doing, you can accomplish those tasks. Also, you don’t need to plan your day down to every minute of the day.
    • You don’t have to list every activity you’re going to do. But simply incorporating a few important tasks into your day is better than randomly going through your day.

  5. Not delegating. If you’re trying to take care of everything by yourself, you’re not going to have time for everything. If you try to do everything by yourself, you’re going to feel overworked. And when you have too much on your plate, you’re going to be stressed out.

    • At work, delegate tasks to other employees, and you’ll be able to clear your schedule.
    • At home, delegate household tasks such as laundry and cooking.
    • Alternatively, you can consider hiring a personal assistant that can help with work and personal tasks.

Final Thoughts

Time management is just a matter of honing your skills over time. And the more you learn, the better your time management will be and the more you can do in less time. This will leave you more time to spend on the things you really enjoy!

5 Essential Tips for Hiring a Personal Assistant

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You’re advancing in your career and beginning to feel overworked. Maybe you’ve finally gotten to the point where you have the money and want to spend more time with your family. You think it’s time to hire a personal assistant.

Hiring a personal assistant can free up your time to focus on the bigger picture, spend more time with family, or have more time to spend on hobbies. The personal assistant can spend time doing tedious but time-consuming tasks, overall giving you more energy throughout your days. Your personal assistant can also be a second pair of eyes and ears. You will have the benefit of someone working closely with you who can provide a second opinion or insight that you might have missed.

If you’re just reading this to get an idea of where to start, but aren’t quite at a place in your business where you can hire yet, check out our tips on how to be more productive right now!

Here are the things you want to consider when hiring a personal assistant:

  1. Write down what you want to delegate by deciding what you need help with. Start by paying attention to what you spend time on during the day or week. What easy, repetitive tasks do you do that you can delegate to someone else?

    • Do you need help with administrative tasks such as preparing a meeting agenda, managing your inbox, managing your calendar, or filing documents?
    • Do you need help coordinating travel such as reserving flights and hotels, booking reservations, or setting up itineraries?
    • Will the personal assistant be in charge of personal tasks such as grabbing your coffee, picking up groceries, or doing errands for your home?
    • Will the personal assistant be empowered to support your business? Examples include creating processes or meeting with clients.

  2. Determine your budget for the role. Think about how much you want to allocate weekly to hiring a personal assistant.

    • What value will a personal assistant bring to you or your business?
    • Consider how much your time is worth and try to put a number on how much of your time will be saved by the assistant. Then consider the amount of work you’d like to delegate to the assistant and try to find a happy medium between your budget and the amount of work you’d like for them to be able to do per week.
    • Be practical with your budget so you don’t spread yourself too thin – you still want your business to be profitable!
    • Consider any extra costs that may be associated with hiring an assistant, including things like benefits and taxes (if you choose to hire them as a W4 employee instead of an independent contractor – see more about this below).

  3. Do you want your assistant to be an independent contractor or W4 employee? Will they be part-time or full-time? Will you be hiring locally, or remotely? Decide how much help you need to begin with and whether or not that help will be in person.

    • If an assistant works remotely for you, will they need to be available during a specific time period so that you can communicate with them?
    • Based on the budget that you determined in step two, will you be able to hire an assistant part-time or full-time?
      • Hiring a personal assistant to work for you part-time would cost you less than hiring a full-time assistant, both in salary and possible health benefits.
      • Overall, people generally look for full-time employment so it’s possible that hiring a part-time assistant may limit your candidates.
    • Do you want to hire your assistant as a W4 employee or as an independent contractor?
      • You would not be responsible for an independent contractor’s benefits and they generally specialize in their field so they require less on-the-job training, but at a higher hourly cost.
    • Do you want your assistant to be local to you or work remotely? Especially in this pandemic era, hiring remotely can greatly expand the pool of candidates who apply.

  4. Write the job description. It’s important to think about how the assistant will be spending their time working for you and what qualifications or skills you may require.

    • What experience do you want the personal assistant to have? What traits are you looking for that would make this position successful? Keep in mind that some things (like attention to detail) are difficult to train.
    • If the position is part-time, will the candidate be able to grow into a full-time role?
    • What kind of on-the-job training or benefits can you offer applicants?

  5. Use the hiring process as an opportunity to learn about the candidates. Everyone can make a resumé look impressive, but that doesn’t always mean they are the perfect candidate for the job.

    • Include a sample task for the assistant to do so you can see how they work. Think about a task that will require the applicants to demonstrate the traits you’re looking for but that would be possible to complete during the interview.
      • Be sure to consider that the interview may be over the phone or over a video chat.
    • Think about a task (or tasks) an assistant would do regularly. Ask them about their process to achieve a certain goal or finish a task.

Final Thoughts

The best part about hiring a personal assistant is that you can completely tailor the job role to what you need. When you find and train the right personal assistant, your everyday life can feel easier! With someone doing tasks that shouldn’t be on your radar at all, you’ll have more time and energy to give to your business, family, or personal growth.

Prevent Burnout on Your Team – A Guide For Managers

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More than half of employees in the United States say they’re burned out, and two-thirds say the pandemic is making their symptoms worse. That’s according to a recent survey by the job search site Indeed.

Burnout is a big concern for any manager. It lowers performance and morale and interferes with job satisfaction. The World Health Organization has deemed it an occupational hazard, and many experts believe it costs the economy as much as $190 billion a year.

In this current environment, how can you keep your team energized and engaged? Learn how to prevent burnout by recognizing and responding to signs in yourself and in the employees you manage.

Prevent Burnout on Your Team

You’ve probably read headlines about the Great Resignation, as millions of employees voluntarily quit their jobs. Exit surveys reveal that burnout is the main reason. If you’re proactive, you can help your team to enjoy more balance.

Try these tips:
  1. Be alert. While many employees have their own definitions of burnout, the official classification depends on three symptoms. Those are exhaustion, cynicism, and decreased performance. Recovery is easier if you can spot signs early.
  2. Monitor workloads. Set realistic expectations and watch workflows to see if anyone is having trouble keeping up. Use staff meetings and one-on-one sessions to adjust assignments as needed.
  3. Encourage healthy boundaries. Remote and hybrid work can make it more difficult to keep business matters from spilling into your personal life. Encourage employees to take precautions, like creating a designated workspace and avoiding excess overtime.
  4. Reward innovation. Feeling appreciated counts too. Give employees credit for effort and creativity even when some experiments are less successful than others.
  5. Provide flexibility. Arranging work differently could help employees to manage their responsibilities more effectively. Explore four-day workweeks, hybrid work, and job sharing.
  6. Ask for feedback. Use surveys and other tools to learn more about what your team members really want. Their priorities may be different than you think.
  7. Build community. Focus on inclusivity and team spirit. Establish ground rules for civil communication and respectful conflict resolution. A congenial environment reduces stress and strengthens connections.
  8. Hire carefully. Employees are less vulnerable to burnout if they feel like their company shares their values. Make cultural fit part of your hiring criteria. Talk with a professional recruiter if you need more guidance on understanding and implementing the process.

Prevent Burnout in Yourself

As a manager, your example has a big impact on your team. Investing in yourself makes you a more constructive role model.

Keep these ideas in mind:
  1. Set personal goals. Heavy workloads feel lighter if you’re passionate about your work. Reflect on the purpose behind your activities. Spend more time on the aspects of your job that you enjoy. Give yourself targets to strive for.
  2. Practice self-care. Look after your health and wellbeing. Eat healthily, and exercise regularly. If worrying about your job keeps you up at night, try sticking to a consistent bedtime even on weekends.
  3. Think positive. Project confidence and stay calm under pressure. Let your team know that you recognize their strengths and praise them for their contributions. Use appropriate humor to lighten up tense moments.
  4. Seek support. Cultivate relationships inside and outside of your workplace. Join professional associations and find a mentor. Spend time with family and friends. Ask for help when you need it.
  5. Consider counseling. What if you’re still stressed, but unable to quit your job? Talking with a therapist can help you develop coping skills and identify factors you can control.

Final Thoughts

Burnout may be an epidemic, but there are practical steps you can take to help your team and yourself. Recognize when you’re at risk of becoming overwhelmed and take action promptly to begin the recovery process.

Write a Book the Easy Way – By Blogging It

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Whether you’ve always wanted to write a book or it’s a new idea (and you should write a book, by the way), there’s an ever-present problem for would-be-authors. It’s not a lack of writing talent. It’s definitely not a lack of knowledge. And for sure it’s not a lack of desire. If you asked most people why they have not finished their book, the answer is simple: time.

Entrepreneurs are busy people. You have clients to serve, a business to run, a family to care for. Not only that, but you’re spending time creating new training courses, marketing on social media, managing your team…the list is nearly endless (by the way – here’s how you can get it all done without losing your mind!) So, when would you have time to write an entire book?

You’ve Probably Already Written It

It’s true. If you have a blog and you’ve been maintaining it for more than a few months, then you very likely have already written all the content your book needs. All that remains is to organize and give it a light edit.

If you don’t have a blog (why not?), or your blog is young, blogging your book is even easier, since you can plan your content around your book topic, then you can write a book one blog post at a time.

Here’s how it works. Think of your blog categories as sections, and each blog post as a chapter. You can loosely organize your book by sorting all your blog posts by category, then listing them in logical order. Your book may only contain a single category, or it might contain several. The choice is yours.

Remove self-serving, time-sensitive, curated, or other content that doesn’t fit into a book. Remove the calls to action. It won’t make sense to promote your paid programs—or worse, affiliate offers—within a book.

What you’re left with is a rough draft of a book. All that remains is a few passes with your editor engaged:

  1. For flow: Books should follow a logical path from one chapter to the next, so you’ll likely have to add or edit the beginnings and endings of your posts.
  2. For spelling, grammar, and punctuation: Don’t skip this part. In fact, get someone else to do it. It’s too difficult to spot our own mistakes and book readers are less forgiving than blog readers.
  3. For content: Enlist the help of a few friends or colleagues who you trust to share their honest opinion with you. Ask them to read through and note any content that is confusing or that could be explained in greater detail.

That’s it! Revise and you’re ready to publish.

People Will Actually Read It

Think no one will read a book that’s repurposed from your blog? Think again. Bloggers have used this method to write books for years and some of them are spectacularly successful. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net fame wrote and published his wildly popular blogging guide based entirely on the content he’d already published on his blog. He found that even though the content was freely available, people bought the book because they wanted the convenience of having it organized for them in one document.

Even fiction writers have discovered the power of blogging a book. Andy Weir, the author of “The Martian,” first published his book one chapter at a time on a blog.

Don’t continue to let excuses hold you back from publishing your book. Use the content you’ve already written, or strategically plan your blog to turn it into a book, but either way, write a book and get publishing!

Online Apps That Hurt Your Productivity

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Apps are fun and cool, which is why they’re so popular. And while many apps are useful and time time-savers, many others do a lot to lower your productivity.

If you feel like you don’t have enough time in the day already, it doesn’t make sense to spend time on things that have minimal value.

Turn the silly things off. Focus on your work and when you take a short, timed break, you can play for a few minutes.

Here are a few such online apps that probably hurt more than they help:

  1. Twitter. You don’t need to know what your favorite celebrity is up to. Surely, it’s more important to focus on your own life! Is it critical that you be informed (while you’re working) that your friend from high school just left the movies to go shopping for a new pair of shoes? Come on, now. Really?
  2. Any kind of messaging app. Messenger apps just make it easy for people to interrupt what you’re doing. You jump at the chance to take a little break and, before you know it, 30+ minutes have passed. Don’t log into these things unless you’re done working for the day. Even at night, it would be better to just get on the phone and talk like a real person.
  3. Email notifications. Email can be a great tool but it can also be a huge waste of time. Check your email in the morning and at night. The last thing 99% of the population needs is an email notification every 5 minutes because then you just know that you have to check it. It will drive you nuts until you finally cave and see what’s going on.
    • Many highly efficient and successful people make it a point to check their email no more than twice a day. Most only check it once a day. Some only check it a couple of times a week. They have better things to do, and you could, too, with such a system.
  1. Blogs. Good blogs are highly interesting and informative. Give yourself a time limit or limit yourself to a set number of blogs. Life is all about prioritizing, so set some priorities.
  2. Facebook. It can be a great way to keep in touch, but it’s much like Twitter: 99% of the stuff you’re exposed to is fluff. Viewing pictures of someone’s trip to Africa is interesting. Reading that your friend is sitting on the deck drinking margaritas is of questionable value. You have a life to live, do you really have time for this stuff?
    • Again, set some limits and strive to stay within them. Also, consider limiting the number of ‘friends’ that you have.
  1. Social bookmarking sites. Websites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and other bookmarking sites are great tools for finding blogs, articles, and sites related to your interests. Just be careful how much time you’re spending on them. It’s easy to be fed 1,000 interesting sites every day. It’s also easy to burn a lot of time on them. Be careful.

Online apps can be wonderful if they’re used wisely. Don’t spend a lot of time on what are essentially frivolous things. Life is short! Focus on what you want to get done each day and avoid letting such apps steal away your time that you could be using to increase your productivity and make your dreams come true.

Want more? Here are more strategies to increase your productivity.

The Two Most Effective Ways to Increase Your Productivity

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For some people – perhaps even for you – increasing productivity is akin to finding the Holy Grail. Why has upping productivity taken on such mythical proportions?

Simply put, increasing productivity means increasing earning potential. If you own a business where you provide any type of service, taking steps to increase your ability to deliver the service in less time will allow you to take on more clients and earn more money.

Likewise, if you sell a product, finding a way to make or deliver that product faster will enable you to serve more customers, once again, making more money.

When you find ways to do the same thing in less time, you’re being more efficient. Efficiency and productivity go hand in hand.

Undoubtedly, the more efficient you can make the process of completing any task, the more productive you’ll be.

Use these strategies to increase your efficiency so you can be more productive:

  1. Create a prioritized schedule for your work. Whether using a post-it note, a Microsoft Word file, or an online task management tool (such as Toodledo or Remember the Milk), almost everyone has some type of system for creating and editing the classic “to-do” list. These lists are sometimes a hodgepodge of ideas and tasks that need to be completed in the future and not-so-distant future.

    There is nothing wrong with maintaining a to-do list, as it can make the difference between getting stuff done and going crazy trying to keep everything organized in your head. Still, the typical to-do list leaves much to be desired. Unlike a conventional to-do list, having a prioritized schedule takes things a step further, allowing you to increase efficiency and productivity. This is because prioritizing all of the tasks that you have in front of you while keeping track of a longer-term picture of your schedule for weeks to come, will allow you to really figure out what is the most important thing that needs to be done right now.

    If you are creating a prioritized schedule and realize that you have a best friend’s wedding in two months, you’ll be able to bump getting a dress or tux way down the list, while still making sure to place it somewhere on your schedule. A prioritized schedule essentially puts things into perspective, allowing you to figure out what truly needs to get done this very moment and focus on that.

  1. Seek out and accept specialized help. Whether you run your own business or are a stay-at-home parent, it will save you lots of time and energy at the start if you’re open to collaborating with others.

    Bill Gates may be quite capable of developing all of the new programs needed to advance Microsoft as a company while working with prospective clients in addition to handling customer service and PR. However, Mr. Gates and most other successful individuals would never be caught doing this. No matter how much you can do by yourself, your resources are finitely limited by one single factor that trumps all others… time. So, rather than spend 8 hours a day answering phone calls, working on new products, shopping for groceries, and cutting your own hair, it may be a more productive use of your time to zero in on the one or two things that give you the most results for the amount of energy that you put into them. For example, if developing a new product will eventually double the size of your business by being able to cater to an additional market or consumer demographic, then this is time well spent.

Paying someone else to answer phones, freeing up your time to be devoted towards projects that will give you more returns for your time invested is the sure sign of a future Fortune 500 executive at work. (Check out this article from our parent company on how to find and Combining this strategy with using a prioritized schedule will enable you to focus on what’s most important for you and get it done. Your productivity will soar!

Build a Business, Not Another Job

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Many people dream of working for themselves, being their own boss, and having the freedom to only take on clients and projects they love.
What they don’t realize, though, is that there is a huge difference between building a business and being self-employed. People who build a business are far more likely to succeed than those who are simply self-employed. So what’s the difference?

  • Business owners scale their income. Self-employed people trade dollars for hours
  • Business owners leverage the skills and talents of others. Self-employed people rely only on their own skills.

Discouraged yet? Don’t be. Every business owner started out self-employed. Just don’t stay there. These tips will help you build a business that’s sustainable instead of just another job.

Don’t Try to Do It All Yourself

Building a sustainable business requires that you leverage the talents and time of others. While it might seem cost-effective to simply do everything yourself—especially in the start-up phase when you likely have more time than money—it’s a path to burnout and stress.
Instead, separate your tasks into those that you love and are especially suited for (such as marketing) and those you dislike and aren’t good at. Then make a solid plan to get those that you aren’t good at off your list of things to do. If you feel like you can’t afford to outsource it all right now, start with what you tend to procrastinate the most on, even if it’s just a few hours each month.

Don’t Allow Yourself to Work All the Time

The trouble with working at home is that you live at work. And that means that there’s no clear line in the sand between your workday and your home life.
Since there’s always work to do, it’s easy to find yourself working every available moment—often to the detriment of your family relationships.
You can help avoid this by:

  • Setting—and maintaining—clear work hours
  • Having an office with a door you can close when you’re done
  • Scheduling time for family and other activities
  • Taking time for yourself

Vacations and Downtime Are Important

Don’t build a business that requires you to be “in the office” every day. At the start, you may need to be available more, but you should definitely be planning for the day when you can be “off the grid” for extended periods of time.

  • Have trusted contractors who can handle things when you’re not available
  • Leverage automation tools such as autoresponders and autowebinar systems
  • Create repeatable systems so you’re not always re-inventing the wheel

While you might not be able to hit the road with no internet access for weeks at a time, at the very least you should be able to reduce your workload to a daily check-in.

Sound impossible? It’s not. With some forethought and planning, you can create a team—and the systems they need—to successfully build a business and run it without becoming overwhelmed and overworked.

How to Turn a Dream Into a Workable Plan

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As an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to watch the lack of progress of so many promising business owners and coaches. They’ve dreamed for so long about creating a solid, sustainable business, and yet, all they do is dream.
You know the people I’m talking about. They attend conferences, sign up for free webinars, buy paid training, and sometimes even work with a coach or two. And yet week after week, month after month, year after year, they fail to make any progress toward their dreams.
Are they just lazy? No. It’s something worse. They don’t know how to move from a dream to a plan and they’re stuck. How do you prevent the same fate for yourself? Keep reading.

Start With the Long-Term

If you’ve ever been on a job interview and were asked, “Where do you want to be five years from now,” you might have thought it an odd question. But as a business owner, that might just be the most important consideration you can have.
Without knowing where you’re headed in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there. You need to know what your destination is, so that every day, week, month, and year you can check your progress to be sure you’re still headed in the right direction.

Create Milestones

Once you know your ultimate destination, you can draft a plan for getting there, and create the interim goals that will help you stay on track.
For example, if in five years you want to be free to travel for 8 weeks every year, then you need to have a few pieces in place before that can happen:

  • Enough income to cover travel costs
  • Passive income to sustain your business while you’re not working
  • A staff who can manage the business while you’re away

With this list, you can then work backward from your five-year goal, and create milestones along the way. If you know you’ll need to earn $150,000 annually in order to fund your travel plans, and right now you’re earning $60,000, then reasonable milestones might look like this:

  • Year 1: $70,000
  • Year 2: $85,000
  • Year 3: $105,000
  • Year 4: $125,000
  • Year 5: $150,000

With these milestones in place, it’s much easier to figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve them, by setting monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Create Small Goals

If you say to someone, you need to move from $60,000 to $150,000 in five years, that’s a pretty overwhelming task. After all, it’s a $90,000 increase and most people will look at that and immediately dismiss it as impossible.
But when you break it down as we have above, and then again into smaller steps, it suddenly doesn’t look so daunting.
In the first year of the plan we have outlined here, your income needs to increase only by $10,000. That’s less than $1000 per month! Surely that’s easy enough to accomplish!
You can further break that down by week: $1000 per month is just $250 per week. If you sell just one more group coaching package or five more of a $50 training program, you’ve already reached your milestone.
That might mean sending one more email to your list, or investing an additional $20 per month in Facebook ads, or perhaps reaching out to one more affiliate partner. The point is, reaching this much smaller goal is far easier than thinking about that five-year plan.

So what’s your big dream? How can you deconstruct it into achievable milestones, workable goals, and finally, daily and weekly tasks? If you can do this (and you definitely can) then you can achieve anything in business and in life.

Mindset Tricks of Successful Entrepreneurs

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Want to know what sets the uber-successful apart from the wannabe entrepreneurs?
It’s not money, or brilliant ideas, or even powerful friends.
All of those things (and more) are nice to have, but they’re not a requirement of success. What is a must-have, though, is a good attitude. Without the proper mindset, you’ll constantly be battling your own brain, and that’s exhausting.

  • You’ll allow yourself to believe your ideas are no good
  • You’ll remain convinced that you aren’t smart enough
  • You’ll be certain that someone else did it (whatever “it” is) better

And before you know it, you’ll have talked yourself right out of launching your new program, asking for an affiliate partnership, or writing your book. In no time at all, you’ll be back at your day job, working away on someone else’s business because you don’t have the confidence to create your own.
But a simple mindset change can make all the difference.

Dress for Success

Ladies, this one is for you. When we work at home, it’s easy to fall into a habit of wearing sweatpants and T-shirts to the office. After all, why dress up just for the dog?
But if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to instantly shift your mindset in the right direction, ditch the yoga pants and break out the lipstick. You’ll suddenly find you feel more professional, more confident, and sexier, too. (That last one won’t help your business, but it might just help your love life, and that can’t hurt, can it?)

Never Let Fear Drive Your Decisions

Too many would-be entrepreneurs operate with a scarcity mindset rather than approaching business from a place of abundance. Rather than telling yourself that you can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant or work with a coach, try reframing your thoughts.
Rather than thinking, “I can’t afford to attend that event,” ask yourself, “How can I earn the money to invest in this trip?”
Rather than saying, “I have to do everything myself because I can’t afford to hire a VA,” remind yourself that your hourly rate potential is much more than you’d pay a virtual assistant. Then fill those hours you’re saving by outsourcing with money-making tasks of your own.

By reformatting your thoughts, you’ll turn that negative money talk into positive solutions that help you grow.

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