Ever get the feeling that you’re constantly on the go? Always busy doing something, whether it’s for your business, household chores or daily life admin. How often do you often feel that you’re adding more to your task list than ticking off?!

 

Over the years, it’s been ingrained into us that the busier we are, the earlier we get up, the more hours we work, and less sleep we get, the more productive we are, but that’s just not true. Being busy doesn’t equal productivity. You can do far less yet be far more productive if you plan properly.

 

 

Productivity matters. It is a sign of a leader, an effective business owner or entrepreneur. If you plan properly, your productivity will improve, which in turn will lead to better results – and who doesn’t want better results whilst working fewer hours? Planning is about working SMARTER, not harder.

Let’s be clear, planning for productivity is not your Business plan – it should be part of your business plan, but not instead of. Your Business plan should detail your overarching goals and vision for your business over 1, 3, 5 or 10 years. A productivity plan is planning how you work on a daily, weekly and monthly basis in order to complete the tasks and actions needed in order to reach your goal, in the most productive way possible.

 

So, how do you plan to be more productive?

Planning for productivity involves building steps to help you plan not only your daily routine but also how to reach your goal or target and the steps or actions you need to focus on to get there.

Here are 6 steps to look at when planning for productivity:

 

1.  Be clear on your goal 

What do you want to achieve? This could be ‘what do you want to achieve by the end of the week’, or ‘by the end of the quarter, or year’. This should be directly aligned to your goal in your business plan. When you have clear, written down goals, it is easier to design a course of action.

 

2. Plan your operations

Think about the main product or service your business offers and then think about the steps it takes to reach your customer. Write down each step. Is every step necessary? Are there any steps of the product or service journey which could be streamlined?

Do you have these steps written down as a clear system for team members to follow? Even if you don’t employ anyone else, having a clear system for your operations ensures that every process is systemized and becomes a habit, speeding up the process.

 

3. Plan each project

This depends on what kind of business you have. If you offer a product or service which is more bespoke and can vary from customer to customer, make sure that you write down a plan of action for that specific project. It doesn’t have to be very detailed, but a simple timeline with tasks, deadlines and who is accountable for each task will help to keep you on track.

 

4. Track your progress

Tracking how much time you spend on certain tasks is so important to evaluate your productivity. It shows how long you are spending on things such as managing your accounts, lead generation, social media, responding to customer queries or fixing any problems and it highlights the areas where you are unproductive or could be improved.

For example, if you find that you are spending a large portion of your time responding to customer enquiries – ask yourself, why is that? Are the queries often similar? Could you add a FAQ section to your website or social media page to alleviate this?

By having a tracker, you will also get a boost when you see how many things you have completed (or a tap on the shoulder if you haven’t!)

 

5. Work on your time management

Anyone who wants to improve their productivity needs to work on their time management. At the end of each week, plan for the following week. Organize your schedule for each day, planning your daily tasks and workload around important meetings. Any big tasks that you dread starting – tackle this first.

Without a plan, deadlines will get missed, tasks will go uncompleted and you will feel deflated. Planning your day is crucial for managing your time effectively.

 

6. Review your plan

It’s rare for anyone to get a plan 100% right the first time, so it is vital that you review your productivity plan. Ask yourself:

  • Are your goals still relevant?
  • Are there any areas of your operations which could be streamlined, or outsourced?
  • Is everyone following the systems? If not, why? Do they need to be tweaked?
  • What did you discover when tracking your progress? Is there anything you are spending time on which is making you unproductive?
  • Are you sticking to your daily and weekly plan? If not, why?

Regular reviews are so important to ensure that you are being as productive as possible. A quick review of your must-do tasks each week is a great place to start, then review each month and each quarter, ensuring that your productivity plan is still in line with your business plan.

 

Taking the time out of your business to work ON it, rather than IN it by creating a clear plan, will ultimately save you so much time and resources in the long-term. Spending time planning your operations, projects and how you spend your time will increase your productivity, reduce burnout and create better results for you and your business.

 

 

“No-body is too busy, it’s just a matter of priorities and planning”