Many of us dream of being our own bosses someday and being able to really take control of our lives in a big way. With today’s world of interconnectivity and e-commerce, this dream becomes more attainable by the day.
Online business has the opportunity to be incredibly lucrative for those that are up for the challenges involved, and it is relatively easy to get involved in. Since it is a relatively new arm of the market at large, many people look at getting into it while they still have a full-time location job.
Switching career paths can often be difficult, especially when you are used to a routine that you have been doing for years.
So if you are struggling with being able to maintain your productivity while branching out into online business, we have assembled 19 productivity hacks that will help keep you moving, thinking, and working towards your goal of being a self-made man, or woman.
Productivity Hacks For Online Businesses
1. Use Mind Mapping
How the education system teaches hasn’t changed its approach to teaching in decades, even though we have learned how the mind learns. Mind mapping is a powerful brainstorming tool that utilizes the natural learning functions of the brain in order to get the most out of your mind.
It involves what is called radiant thinking, the natural way in which the mind organizes data. Think of the map as more of a hub where related ideas and relationships branch out from a central idea in different directions, versus traditional linear thinking.
Mind mapping is a great tool for small online business owners to use to work on their ideas, products, or services. It also serves as a great tool for the salesman, as it allows for better memory recall as well, which in turn will create a more convincing sales pitch.
2. Staying Healthy is Key to Success
Staying healthy can at times be a little more than difficult, but it is one of the most important aspects of being able to maintain drive and productivity. While running a business, whether at location or digital is no easy feat, it is crucial that you make time to eat, rest, and exercise properly.
Even the act of thinking burns calories, so if anyone tells you it’s not working, they are wrong.
Your physical health will directly affect your mood and your mood will directly affect the quality of your work. So be sure to count your caloric intake, eat plenty of healthy foods, put the computer down and go for a walk or jog every now and again.
3. Develop a Time Management Routine
Time management is a very helpful tool that every professional should practice, whether or not they are an entrepreneur.
Building a daily and weekly routine will help put you ahead of your competition in the race for success.
Thanks to а proper time tracking apps, you can easily find and eliminate time wasters, and learn how to manage your tasks in an effective way.
Tips for effective time management:
- Use blocks of time for self delegating tasks.
- Track your time usage.
- Keep distractions to a minimum.
- Prioritize effectively.
- Limit multitasking.
4. Take the Time to Relax
All this hard work and time management isn’t just so you can work yourself into the grave. Giving yourself a break every now and again allows you to feel re-invigorated and help to avoid the sense of burnout.
This is especially true for small business owners who hardly have the chance to pass the buck. These operations generally only stay operational due to the efforts of a small tireless team.
But knowing when to switch off is important, not just physically, but being able to take a step back may provide valuable insights into your company’s operations.
5. Stalk the Competition
Oscar Wilde said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ and when it comes to creating business models, this saying holds true.
Once you have figured out what niche, or niches, you are going to want to work in, be sure to study your competition in these areas as they already have found success to some degree, don’t be scared to mimic winning combinations.
6. Create a Comfortable Workspace
Creating a comfortable workspace for yourself is crucial for being able to work long hours. Don’t be scared to personalize your workspace with whatever makes you happy and feel at ease.
Keeping quality and nutritious drinks and snacks nearby will help keep you at your desk longer, reducing the number of distractions you may interact with. If you and your team work at a location, then having an open workspace can allow for instant knowledge-sharing and promotes a less stressful atmosphere.
The workspace is a surprisingly powerful tool for increasing daily productivity. In fact, this study on enhancing employee performance and well-being with exposure to nature shows how innovative office design can affect the productivity of a company as a whole.
7. Develop an Efficient Flow of Work
Having an efficient workflow is incredibly useful towards maximizing the use of your time just as it is for any business, large or small.
Similar to mind mapping, process mapping allows you to refine your workflow. Often, when a new business gets started the flow of work arises organically, and needs to be pruned in order to save vital time and resources in those first formative years.
Process mapping allows you to see where inefficiencies in your workflow are and increase productivity.
If you are a solo entrepreneur for instance, such as content writer and amateur tattoo artist, having an all in one device such as an iPad pro allows for researching, writing, art design, and scheduling, and sending proposals to clients all from one device.
What is equally important is familiarizing yourself with your equipment, such as learning shortcuts across the operating system, or even utilizing multiple monitors to bypass using keyboard shortcuts.
8. Socialize with your peers
Socializing with peers in the industry and the niches you are focusing on is paramount to increasing your learning curve quickly.
This is known as Vygotsky’s Theory of Learning, where people are influenced by what Vygotsky coined as the sphere of influence.
Take every chance you can to find and learn from those in your field, this will allow you to develop a very well rounded and depthful understanding of your respective field quickly.
9. Tackle the Largest Problems First
Taking care of your biggest problems or projects early in the day is a good way to maximize the way your body and mind works naturally.
As the day drags on, and you complete task after task, you will find that your mental acumen will fade and your drive to tackle the next task will wane.
So to get the most out of your day, go right after the biggest obstacle first.
10. Online Team Management
When and if you happen to manage a team, such as a small marketing group, efficient communication and collaboration are crucial for efficient team management.
Using online applications like Klutch knowledge base, Trello or Slack are great ways to manage this. These applications can automate certain processes, help manage timelines, and allow for efficient communication between teams on a project.
11. Develop a Daily Must-Do List
Writing a list of things that you absolutely want to accomplish in a day will help you prioritize your goals. For instance, if you are an aspiring affiliate marketer, then taking the time out of a 50 – 60 hour workweek to learn Google Analytics can be difficult.
It’s a fact that business owners and entrepreneurs deal with very high levels of stress due to their workload. As it turns out, making a to-do list actually helps alleviate stress and improve task-based performance.
Waking up in the morning and setting goals beyond your necessary tasks will help keep you growing in the direction you want, ensuring positive growth in your career.
12. Build a Support Group
What I mean by a support group, is that when you find yourself becoming so busy and profitable, it may be in your best interests to seek the services of assistants. Virtual assistants and personal trainers are great options for helping you to stay on top of the game.
Virtual assistants can help manage your communication, freeing up your time for the most important decisions and granting you more time to work on more profitable ventures. Whereas personal trainers can ensure that you are getting enough exercise and nutrition throughout your day.
13. Remove Daily Distractions
When it comes to getting the most out of your time, it is important to unplug from modern distractions. Social media, expensive cable packages, sensationalist news articles, these are all things we are guilty of spending our time engaging with.
Removing yourself from these things will free up a significant amount of time you could be using in a more profitable way.
Minimalism is a great philosophy for online business owners.
14. Never Stop Learning
When you take on business in the online setting you will find yourself in a highly competitive environment.
This is where many of the aforementioned productivity hacks will come into play. After removing distractions, creating a daily routine, and maximizing the use of your time through a fine-tuned flow of work, you will have created free time to study new tools and techniques so you can keep gaining ground on your competition.
15. Learn How to Delegate
One of the more difficult skills to master is how to delegate tasks appropriately.
This can be especially difficult when working with an online team because a large percentage of human communication is physical.
Being able to draft out priorities for your team in a visually constructive way will help them effectively manage the task at hand.
16. Automate as Many Processes Possible
There are many ways for online businesses to automate processes that would otherwise take up a large amount of your time or an employee’s time.
With email and social media campaign management software, you will be able to coordinate newsletters and product releases weeks if not months ahead of time with little time investment.
This frees up valuable time to work out kinks, do product testing, or develop the next product or newsletter.
Email Management Software Suggestions:
- Mailbird integrated with many services such as Facebook, Asana, Dropbox and several more.
- SaneBox is an AI-based email management program, that allows you to direct your time efficiently towards the most prominent emails.
- Hiver is great for collaboration between a team on emails. It allows priorities to be set and has scheduling features as well, a perfect accessory to a small marketing group.
In addition, you can automate the creation of professional business proposals, which significantly increases your chances of success with a tool like Prospero.
17. Stop Doing What Doesn’t Make Sense
In many different types of businesses from retail to factories, online to office places, there are generally processes in place that is still being done simply because they’ve been doing them that way for a long time.
This happens whether or not the processes are profitable for the business as a whole.
Taking the time to sit back and find out what doesn’t work is a great way to free up valuable time and resources that could otherwise be put elsewhere.
18. One Problem at a Time
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
This is shorthand for saying that tackling one problem at a time is generally best practice instead of trying to multitask.
According to studies from Stanford, multitasking puts a strain on your ability to appropriately and accurately handle tasks and associated problems efficiently.
While you may feel like you are getting more done, you may not be doing the best job.
And there isn’t any point in doing a bad job.
19. Outsource When Necessary
If you happen to have a task that falls outside of your team’s traditional skillset, outsource the work.
With the emergence of the gig economy, the everyday business person has access to a wealth of qualified freelancers.
So if you need to save time, websites like Upwork can provide a solution for you.
Your Success is All in Your Head
When it comes to increasing your productivity, self-discipline and the creative use of your time are key.
Most people don’t inherently have the drive to bend their total existence toward achieving a goal. This is generally nurtured into a person. Or develops after they have realized that a certain dream of theirs is indeed possible.
Regardless, when you begin to look at your habits and personal preferences as something that can be changed into productivity hacks, you are heading in the right direction.
With the online marketplace being as competitive as it is, and with the presence of proposal management software and automation tools, these productivity hacks will surely give you an edge over the competition.
Imagine your competition at a sports bar, while you are busy learning new industry skills.
If you’re not first, you’re last.
