Productivity: Do You Need to Restructure Your Time?

There are pros and cons to everything, and being an entrepreneur is no exception. One of the biggest pros in most people’s eyes is that you’re working for yourself—no boss is going to pop his or her head into your office to check up on you. Congratulations! That said, here’s a productivity con: no boss is going to pop his or her head into your office to check up on you.

How do you make sure that you’re keeping yourself on track when you’re having a mental freak-out? You are your own boss—so be the boss of your time. Below are a few tips to help you get through the roadblocks and on your way to success.

Organize your workspace.

Take a five-minute break from what you’re doing and carefully scrutinize each individual item on your desk. What is its purpose? Does it need to be there? When is the last time you used it, and when is the next time you plan to use it? Find a place out of your immediate line of vision to stash things that aren’t doing anything for you but stressing you out. Your desk is not a bookshelf, filing cabinet, or kitchen. You’ll probably find that it’s just as easy to reach into a drawer as it is to reach across your desk for things you actually occasionally reach for, and you may be surprised what a clean surface does for your outlook—and your productivity.

Write a list.

Feeling overwhelmed with a huge task? Break it down into its components, and make a list of the steps involved in completing it—the more sub-steps, the better. Depending on what makes the most sense for the task at hand, order that list either by highest to lowest priority, or chronologically. Now, work your way through your list step by step, concentrating only on the step at hand. Your task will be done before you know it, you’ll start training your brain to break things down into more manageable pieces, and you’ll love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with crossing tasks off of your list!

Walk away.

If you’re stressed out and trying to figure out the smoothest way past a particular roadblock standing in your way to success—if all else fails, just walk away. Go get a coffee, take a walk around the block, or read an article online. When you come back to your problem with a fresh set of eyes, the solution may prove to be simpler than you thought.

Hire someone.

Sometimes you just don’t have the time to get everything done, regardless of how you structure it. If you’re focusing on the details so heavily that you don’t have the time to step back for some big-picture thinking, it might be time to bring someone onboard. With good help by your side, you can stop crunching numbers and start acting like a business owner!