Do you find it hard sometimes to focus on your important tasks? Do you start too many tasks and projects but never finish any? And you’re not achieving the results you’re looking for as a result?
If you answer yes to any of the questions, it’s probably because you’re not managing your time very effectively. The following tips will help you manage your time and get things done fast and efficiently.
1. Become clear of what you want to achieve
Firstly, you work at a project or task to achieve something. But if you’re not clear or don’t know exactly what you want to achieve, it will be difficult for you to know the steps you need to take to achieve your goals and you can’t stay motivated.
So determine what your short term and long term goals are and set deadlines for them. For example, what do you want to get or achieve in a year, or five years from now? What about in a week, a month, or 6 months? And what do you need to do to achieve both your long term and short term goals and when?
First get the general, big picture of the steps you need to take in the long term. Then list down specifically what tasks you need to undertake now.
2. Find an accountability partner
One of the greatest things about being self-employed is the freedom of not having to report to a boss or do what you choose to do. However, that can also be a bad thing if you don’t know how to keep yourself accountable.
The truth is, it’s not always easy to keep yourself accountable or set your goals, create action plans, and check your progress, all on your own.
What you can do instead is agree with someone else to become accountability partners of each other. You’ll share with them about your goals, and plan of actions and they’ll continually check your progress, remind you of your action plans, and from time to time give you a friendly kick in the butt. You’ll also reciprocate and do the same to them so you both can stay on track and focused on achieving your goals.
3. Tackle your important tasks first
Sometimes, your to-do list can have a lot of items and if you start your day with tasks that are not important or urgent, you might reach the end of the day without accomplishing anything of significance.
To avoid this happening, determine what your important tasks are and do them first. Even if you haven’t done everything on your to do list by the end of the day, you’ll still accomplish a lot. Remember, the 80/20 rule always applies.
4. Arrange your files and folders in an organized manner
We sometimes can waste several minutes in the middle of a task browsing through folders just to find a single file.
Not being able to find what you want when you want it, will not only waste your time but also destruct you from focusing on what you’re working at.
Take some time and organize your folders in a way that you can to find files fast and easily. For example, if you were working on a number of websites, you could create different folders for each website with names such as “Site1”, “Site2” etc…
If, then you wanted to start an article marketing campaign to promote your site number 1, for example, you would create a new folder named “Articles” under the “Site1” folder and store your newly written articles in that folder.
Come up with a file management system that works best for you as soon as you can. By doing so you can save time and stay focused.
5. Get a private working place
Another good part about running an online business is that you can work from anywhere or any place. You can work in a coffee shop or in your bedroom in your pajamas as long as you have a computer an internet access.
But if you really want to take your business to the next level, you need to consider getting some private space that is free from destruction so that you can work uninterruptedly. This way, your productivity level will rise and you can achieve more.
6. Block social media websites
How many times have you ever found yourself chatting, watching videos, checking emails or instant messaging on social media websites in the middle of a task? You can get sidetracked easily and find yourself spending more time than necessary on those sites.
If you can’t stop or limit yourself, you can use tools like “Anti-Social” to block out social media websites on your computer.
There you have it, six tips for becoming more productive. All in all, if you set clear goals, become accountable, and avoid destructions, you can achieve what you want in your online marketing endeavors.
Do you have any other tips for getting things done even faster?
Setting goals works very well for me. I use this time table app on my android to plan my day ahead and this helps me stay task oriented through out the day and also allows me to have more control over my work and routine. I would also recommend everyone to read Eat that frog by Brian tracy to overcome procrastination which I do struggle with but the book has really helped me.
Hi Muba,
Glad you found this post useful. And thanks for your comment.
Hey Aeromick,
Really great article, and almost all of the tips are worth implementing in order to get good productivity out of the blogger in us. But for me point number 6 is the most important one since I have been wasting too much time on social media sites lately :D
Regards,
Alex
Aeromick
All the tips you mentioned to increase productivity for getting things done are really awesome. For me the tip no 6 is always so important because social media is one of the worst attention diversion source as and when you start working online. It hardly hits your productivity especially if you are a fun loving or very extrovert person.
Thanks a lot for sharing this wonderful post which has much value for getting things done with increased productivity to achieve your targets within deadlines.
Hi Muba,
Glad you found this post useful. And thanks for your comment.
Hey Aeromick ,
I believe that everyone have its own high productivity period during the day, when your performance would be at it’s peak,
some people are more productive in the morning, others rather work at night etc..
you want to make sure that you handle all of your important tasks during that period of the day when you’ll accomplish the most, as for the rest of the less important tasks you can leave them for the rest of day.
Many thanks and Best wishes.
Hi Mitch,
Definitely yes. If there’s a certain period of time during the day where you feel like more energetic or motivated, you should do your important tasks during that period of time. But generally speaking, the morning is that time of the day for most people.
This is a big thing that I use as well. I always have some sort of music playing it doesn’t have to be classical something that you are comfortable with and could shake your head to in a beat.
Also, while this seems off I always have someone to talk to or to message while working. This way I will have more fun and can have a resolve to finish it as quickly as possible. Like I want to play league of legends with my friend he or she will be like well hurry up and sometimes even offer input this is invaluable to finishing your posts.
People and a comfortable atmosphere are what do it for me.
It’s true, the work from home in your pajamas is not so simple, there’s a lot of problems while you work from home, so much disturbing, can’t focus, get late with work. Not good!
Yes, and that’s why you should work in quiet environment and also put a strategy in place to stay accountable when you for home.
Hi Aeromick
I recommend Point No. 6 to follow by every businessman or Blogger because We spent most of time on social media , which distract us from our goal.
If any person in Web world follow your six points than He/She can increase their Productivity in work.
Thanks You and Ammar for Sharing this Post.
Setting small and achievable goals is one of the most important thing to consider to be more productive in any field. The tips mentioned by you are really helpful.
Thanks for sharing :)
I think the very first thing to consider is your goal or target. Then focus on various ways to achieving it, and choose the best one. Avoid any kind of distractions and give your best, this way you’ll be able to increase your productivity and reduce the wastage of your time and resource.
A very awesome post man,
Being productive is very important if you really want to achieve your goals. I also agree with all the tips you shared here.
While working just as you rightly pointed out, it is very important to block all social media in order to avoid distraction also, having someone you can be accountable to is also a no brainier.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
Great tips. The most important one is to find an accountable partner. Working alone often gives us liberty with tons of side effects. We start postponing things and thus can be less productive.
The second biggest distraction is the social media accounts. We all love it, and sometimes we get lost in them to that extent, we find it hard to get up from it fresh.
Good article, I found it on kingged.
Setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals is first step to effective time management. The productivity tips shared here can complement effective goal setting and time management.
However, my best takeaway from this post is number two tip where we need to find an accountability partner.
This can help to improve discipline in the live of the individual who is trying to manage time and improve productivity.
Yes, it may take some time before you can find a reliable accountability partner but once you do, it’ll have a big impact on your business.
Yes, it may take some time before you can find a reliable accountability partner but once you do, it’ll have a big impact on your business.
Hi Aeromick,
Great tips. These tips will surely helps to increase productivity. Mostly #1 #5 and #6
Thank you for sharing this… :)
Hi Nikhil,
Glad you found this post useful.
I think point number 1 is very important. If we don’t have clear mind on what we are going to achieve we will lose our motivation. When this happen, it will ruin everything
Knowing clearly what you want to achieve is a very important first step to achieving your goals.