Top 10 Productivity Tips for Small Businesses

Small business owners are constantly seeking the holy grail of production. Unless your business employs Santa’s elves, you need a productivity plan. A few efficiency-boosting guidelines can help increase effectiveness in any business.

1. Delegate

There is power in delegation. All employees should know their responsibilities and what is expected of them. Delegating tasks breaks bigger jobs into smaller, manageable parts that speed up output.

2. Prepare for Change

Only the salmon swim upstream. There’s a reason the masses go with the flow. Accept the fact now that someone is going to constantly be moving your cheese. The sooner you accept the idea of change, the easier it will be when the time comes to adapt to it.

3. Use Technology

Mobile technology is an extremely efficient tool for businesses. The fact 52% of the population looks at its smartphone at least once per hour means your business needs an app to help increase its productivity. Apps bring with them countless benefits—all which revolve around people’s most prized communication tool. Don’t forget to protect your business with Cyber Liability insurance from prevalent threats in today’s tech-driven society.

4. Time Management

Your time is your most prized possession. Don’t allow yourself or your employees to get distracted by frivolous events or meetings that have no bearing the responsibilities to doing the job. Set up one or two days a week dedicated to meetings. Allow the majority of the week’s time for accomplishing the tasks that are crucial to productivity.

5. Prioritize Tasks

A to do list is not enough. Your to do list should be ever-evolving as new tasks enter the day that require a higher priority than what is already there. Try using a task management tool like Trello or Things to make prioritizing your tasks more efficient.

6. Avoid Multitasking

Although many people feel that multitasking is a way to accomplish more, studies indicate those who multitask are actually harming their creative ability. Creative thinking is crucial to any business, and it cannot be jeopardized just so that people can do more than one thing at a time—it’s not worth it.

7. Keep Things Real

By all means, set goals! Keep them realistic. Most clichés will tell you overreaching is not harmful, and if you want to aim big, by all means do so. Just make sure that you do so in a realistic manner. Don’t set the goal without giving enough time to accomplish it.

8. Schedule Email Time

Email can be a major distraction—especially if you try to answer it immediately. Doing so forces you to quickly read correspondence, which creates the possibly of overlooking important information. It can also yield rushed responses. Schedule a time to answer emails. This way you are staying fully informed.

9. Self Reflection

It is important that you look at your role in both positive outcomes as well as negative outcomes. There is always room for improvement. Keeping your mind open to see where change is warranted will go a great distance in streamlining processes and boosting efficiency.

10. Prepare for the Next Day

Take a few minutes at the end of the day to set up for tomorrow. Most people come in to work in the morning raring to go. If you are set up and ready to work, you won’t disrupt that flow, and you will produce more.

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