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If you’re a beginner or even an intermediate online marketer, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work you need to do. There’s the tendency to become discombobulated and discouraged thinking about all the tasks that need your attention – not to mention the courses you’ve bought but have not started on.
To make matters worse, you’ve heard all the quotes on being productive instead of being busy. You’ve even bought a few books on the topic – which of course, you haven’t had the time to read yet.
You want to be productive, but you don’t know where to start. The good news is that this article will give you 5 tips which will increase your productivity and your sanity too – if applied.
Put It ALL On Paper
The first step to becoming productive is to make a list of ALL the things you need to do/complete. Write it all down. It doesn’t matter how menial the task is or how difficult it appears to be.
Pending tasks, courses to complete, websites that need building, content that needs to be written, etc. It all goes down on paper.
Once you’re done, you now have everything in black and white right in front of you. You no longer have to use up mental energy constantly thinking about these commitments. All you need to do is refer to the paper… which brings us to the next step…
Prioritizing
After studying the list of tasks you have in front of you, it’s time for prioritization. Let’s follow the Eisenhower Matrix..
- All ‘important AND urgent tasks’ will need to be done FIRST
- All ‘important BUT not urgent tasks’ will be done SECOND
- All ‘not-important BUT urgent tasks’ will be DELEGATED
- All ‘not-important AND not urgent’ tasks will be ELIMINATED
By categorizing your list of tasks, you’ll know exactly what needs to be completed first and so on. And that means…
Following A Daily Routine
You MUST have a daily routine that is productive and focused. Thousands of beginner marketers try to wing it and decide on a daily basis what they will do. This haphazard approach does not bode well for business success.
You’ll need a to-do list daily, and this list of tasks should come from what you wrote on the paper earlier. You do not need to do it all at once, but your daily work must make a dent in your big list. If not, you’ll always be behind the 8-ball struggling to catch up.
Having a to-do list alone is not enough. You must ‘Eat That Frog’. Wait, what?
In his book, “Eat That Frog”, author Brian Tracy, emphasizes doing the most difficult and unpleasant task of the day FIRST.
This point has been reiterated in another quote by Dale Carnegie, “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”
Very often, the tasks you do not want to do and constantly keep thinking of procrastinating are the ones you MUST do. These are the tasks that matter. They may seem distasteful or unpleasant, but you’ll need to summon up the discipline to do them anyway.
This is what separates winners from losers. Being able to step out of your comfort zone will help you reach success in business and in life. The kite always rises against the wind.
Timeboxing
Timeboxing is a term used to describe a technique where a specific slot of time is set aside to complete a specific task/s. This method will help you stay organized while keeping the main thing the main thing.
For example, if you’re a writer and most of your working hours is spent on research and writing, you may timebox 30 minutes at the end of the day to check your emails.
Assuming you timebox (4 – 4.30 PM) to check emails, that is EXACTLY what you’ll do during this time. You’ll not need to check your emails during your deep work sessions where you’re writing your best content.
At the same time, your email inbox will not become a mess because you’re spending 30 minutes daily keeping it in order. This is how timeboxing keeps your daily schedule AND your business organized.
Timebox any tasks that are important in the day to day running of your business, but not so important that they take priority over work that actually BUILDS your business.
Delegation And Automation
Automate whatever you can. This could mean the emails to your list, or using apps like Tailwind to post on your Pinterest board, or scheduling posts to your Facebook group one week ahead.
Batching your tasks and automating them will save you a lot of time. Once you’re making money online, set aside some of your budget to outsource the mind-numbing tasks you’re currently doing.
These could be answering support emails, or posting content on your social media properties, or proofreading, etc.
Delegating the burdensome and repetitive tasks to others is worth every cent you pay. You’ll not only conserve your energy for work that matters, but you’ll get more done and have more free time.
Apply these 5 productivity tips in your business as soon as you can and you’ll discover how fast your life and work gets easier and better.
“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris
