3 Steps To Be More Productive

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When you take the leap from cubicle worker to business owner, one of the things you need to be good at is managing your time and being productive. No longer will you have someone watching your every move to make sure the work gets done. Your lunch hour isn’t timed and no one notices when you don’t come in on Friday.

You better learn how to be productive or your business will take a hit, and perhaps, never even be profitable.

Track Your Time

Right off the bat you need to determine how you’re spending your time right now. Business hours aren’t the only time you need to be tracking either. Keep an eye on your entire day if you want to be most productive.

Let’s talk money for a minute. If you want to get better at managing what you earn, first understand how you’re spending it right now. You can’t improve on something if you don’t know how you’re currently using it and time is no different.

One of the simplest ways to track your time is to create a spreadsheet. Break it down into 15 minute increments and write down everything you do over a two week period. Don’t forget eating meals, taking breaks, driving to and from your office, family time, church, sports, watching TV, etc. If you do it, it should be recorded on your sheet.

If you spend a lot of time online, a program like Rescue Time will break down your activities for you. It keeps track of the active window on your machine (Mac or PC) and lumps activities into categories. Then it charts out whether those activities are good or bad, based on the input you provide.

Budgeting Your Time

Once you know how you’re spending your time you can begin to plan your ideal schedule. First, make a list of everything you need to do throughout an average week. I make a simple list and fill the activities into a calendar.

When I did this last I found Google Calendar very helpful. While you can do it on paper, I like being able to drag and drop appointments without having to erase. Create a new calendar and find a month that starts on a Sunday or Monday, just to make it easy. May, 2011 happens to be one of those months and provides a full four weeks to plan. Now, add everything you need and don’t forget things like lunch.

In the past I’ve had to block out my drive time home so I made sure to arrive on time. Do whatever it takes to make your schedule work.

Plan in Advance

You can see I block off time in my calendar for writing every day of the week. If you’re trying to figure out why you never have time to write blog posts and newsletters, or record those videos you’ve been wanting to get to, it’s probably because you haven’t prioritized it enough and put it on your calendar.

Now that I have a schedule outlined, I can begin to work around it. On this average week, I find I’m left with only 15 or 16 hours to meet with clients. Is that enough? If not, I need to figure out what I’m going to take off. You’ll never know how much you have available unless you monitor your time.

Set notifications in your calendar and follow them. When your calendar says it’s time for lunch, take it. Figure out what’s most important to you, put it on your calendar and live by it.

Any suggestions to increase productivity?