5 Tips To Help Increase Your Productivity (And Your Profits!)

Posted by Karl Foxley in Blog, Coaching, Online Coaching

Whether you work from home or in an office, there are many distractions that can reduce our efficiency, making the attainment of our goals just that bit harder.

If you are running an online business you will have discovered the many extra distractions, however small, that can have a big impact on your productivity and profit.

One of the elements I frequently work on in my daily work life is the reduction of distractions and the creation of habits that promote productivity.

I’m sure you’ve experienced the feeling of being exhausted after a long days work but when you’ve sat back and reflected on what you’ve achieved you don’t feel like you’ve actually achieved all that much.

Before I share my tips I want you to sign-up for a free Simple.ology (opens in a new window) account. Simple.ology, the simple science of getting what you want, is the best productivity training around and will teach you strategies for being hyper-productive!

The following tips work for me and I hope you find a tip that you can apply to your business. If you have a tip to share then be sure to share it in the comment section below.

1. Set Clear Goals and Start Your Day With An Agenda

I start my day with a list of at least 3 things that I want to achieve. The list should, ideally, only include things that are important for growing your business. My list for today included:

• Follow-up with new Joint Venture partner
• Write a press release and submit it to a press release service
• Update content for my private membership site (exclusive to my business coaching clients)

I set three targets and give myself an hour for each. I then visit the Online Stopwatch Countdown Timer and set the timer to countdown for 60 minutes. You’ll get a real buzz when you beat the timer and complete the goal you set yourself.

Take a break and then come back and tackle goal two in the same manner. Completed your list! Well done, make a new list and start again. This simple tip will really explode your productivity.

2. Set Aside Dedicated Time For Social Networking, Email and Phone Calls

I was guilty of this one myself, guilty in a big way; I’d pop onto Twitter and Facebook and get chatting (telling myself I’m networking and building relationships). My Instant Messenger would pop up and I’d respond and then my Skype line would ring… and , before I knew it, I’d lost a good part of an hour (sometimes more) that I could not get back.

Close down everything when you are working and only have what you need open. Your email can wait, unplug the phone or set it to answer-phone, do the same for your mobile (cell phone), if it’s important they will call back or leave a message.

I set aside twenty minutes in the morning for Twitter, Facebook and catching up with email. I set out some more time around 2.30 pm for half an hour where I respond to the emails that I need to respond to. Remember, you are running a business and not a hobby, you will reap the rewards of how you work.

3. Create Systems: Email Folders

I recommend putting as many systems into your working day as possible. I have my email client, Mozilla ThunderBird to download emails into specific folders. I also have folders entitled ‘action’, ‘important’ and ‘archive’.

I put all emails that I need to take action on by the end of the day into the ‘action’ folder. I put all emails that are important but do not require immediate attention into the ‘important’ folder.

Lastly, I put the emails that I need for future reference into the ‘Archives’ folder; everything else gets deleted.

4. Newsletter Broadcasts

I automate as much of my working day as I can. A good example of this is how I keep in touch with my email subscribers.

I have multiple lists for different services and products so contacting everyone with a single message can be very time consuming. I now use AWeber to handle this for me and I haven’t looked back. I use Aweber to send out newsletters and promotions to my subscribers at the required intervals I determine.

AWeber allows me to sit and write months worth of newletters in one go and set them to go out weekly, fortnightly or whatever I specify. You NEED this in your business!

5. Make A Video

I regularly help clients create screencasts (you can use Jing, it’s free) of tasks that need to be repeated on a daily / weekly basis that could be time better spent.

For example: A web design company I partner with uses an in-house built content management system.

The management team was spending a lot of time training new customers on how to use the CMS and also training each new member of staff that joined the team on how to use it.

We created an instructional video series that we then uploaded to an area on the website. Anyone that now needs help with the CMS can be pointed to a specific video that will show them what to do, and this has freed-up a lot of time of the management team.

Making videos can be great if you regularly out-source or out-task parts of your business or your have a high-turnover of staff.

Be sure to take some time and look at what can be automated in your business to increase your productivity.

What productivity increasing strategies do you use in your business?

To you success,

Karl Foxley

P.s. Be sure to take a minute to check out Simple.ology and take your productivity to the next level.

About Karl Foxley

Karl Foxley has written 127 post(s) for FMS SEO.

Karl Foxley is an SEO Consultant, Internet Marketer, Small Business Advisor and Co-Founder of FMS SEO. Karl seeks to make SEO and Internet Marketing jargon free for the every day user.

• View all posts by Karl Foxley →
• Blog