If you’re reading this, I bet you’ve uttered the words:
“There’s just not enough TIME!!”
OR
“If only there were more hours in the day!”
Now, whilst I can’t magic you up any more hours, I can help you utilise the time that you do have more effectively!
Here are some of my Top Tips:
Stop reinventing the wheel!
Do you spend a lot of time staring at a blank screen when it comes to Social Media? Do you stare at the ‘Write Post’ box on LinkedIn or Facebook Page and sigh? Before you know it, you’ve given up and have got stuck in the scroll!
Firstly, create your posts outside of the Social Media platform. Use a Notes or a Google doc and start with something you have already written and tweak it! It looks WAY less threatening than a blank page.
Then store your new posts in a safe place, as they can be repurposed too!
Be organised – stop searching for things!
Decide on a system for your online filing. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive etc… Organise your folders and sub-folders logically and give them appropriate and searchable names.
And even if you work alone, create a project management system. Trello is great for this but other good ones are Click Up, Asana – find one that works for YOU!
Prioritise!
Look at your To Do List and prioritise. Does it need doing right now or can it wait?!
Think about the way you organise your ‘To-Dos’ – A long list can look threatening and ruin your productivity.
Be realistic about how long things will take you. If you plan for something to take 15 minutes and it is more of a 30 minute task, it will make you feel that you are ‘running behind’ . Definitely allow contingency time and create white space in your calendar to give your brain space between tasks.
Do like with like…
Do similar things all at the same time – e.g. batch write your social media posts all at the same time and do your invoices on the same day of each month.
You could have certain days for certain tasks e.g. Monday morning, plan out your Social Media posts in one go for the week.
This saves masses of time, and feels more productive than ‘flitting’ from task to task.
Time block
Block out time in your calendar for different tasks. You could block out certain times in your diary for Client Calls and Meetings and send a link for people to automatically book in, rather than have conversations like this:
Client: “I’m free on Monday morning”
Me: “I’ve got a meeting – can you do Wednesday afternoon”
Client: “Oh sorry, I’m at the dentist. How about Friday?”
Me: “I’ve a Zoom webinar then.”
etc etc.
Pomodoro/Working Together sessions
Make yourself accountable!! Jump on Zoom with a friend for a set amount of time. Tell each other what you are going to Get Done in that time. Mute yourselves and Get it Done! There are even special websites for this- try Focusmate…
Automate
If you can automate things, do it! There are so many things that people do manually that could be automatic. Automation does not have to mean that you lose the personal touch – it just frees you up with time that you CAN spend being personable.
You could automate:
📅 Booking appointments and reminders
💳 Invoicing
👌Collecting testimonials
📝 Adding repetitive tasks to your To Do list on your Project Management system
Automation saves MOUNTAINS of time!!
Outsource
Do YOU personally need to do it? Is it in your Zone of Genius or is there something more specialised and productive that you would be better off spending your time doing?
Those little tasks are the ones that take up massive chunks of your time – make a list of them and see if you can pass some on!
If you’d like to look at YOUR business with me and work out how you can save time each week, I’d love to spend a focussed 90 minutes with you. My ‘Beat the Frog’ sessions do just that. Find out more here.