6 Ways to Become More Productive and Start Saving Time in Your Business

Stay productive by listening to podcast episode 001 “What’s our most valuable commodity? TIME!” or carry on reading!

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As busy entrepreneurs trying to grow our own businesses, our to do lists are never done. I’m sure you’ve all experienced this – you feel like you’re getting to the end of your to do list, and then BAM, there’s a voice in the back of your mind and it says, “hmm, we should do this” – whether that’s shake up your welcome sequence or reorganise your CRM – then suddenly your to do list is as long as your arm again. I find this is especially the case for me as an Online Business Manager, because my clients also have these same thoughts and they come to me for help with managing getting these extra things done. So, it’s important that we don’t waste time as entrepreneurs and continue to stay productive, because we have a lot to do. We could work all the time (if we really wanted to) but you definitely can run yourself into the ground and struggle to feel like you’re actually living your life and not just a workaholic.

To help you keep your productivity high, today I’ll be sharing with you some of my favourite tips that I’ve picked up on how to actually save time (and this isn’t going to be the generic stuff like write a to do list – we all know to write a to do list! And if you don’t write a to do list, then, sorry – but that is going to be your number one tip – you’ve got to actually know what you need to be doing!).

1. Use Templates

My biggest time saving tip as an entire category is to use templates. I love using templates for anything and everything! Why would you bother creating the same thing over and over, when you could have something that’s already created that you can just tweak to make it suitable and then use that again.

Some ideas of how you can begin to use templates in your business:

• ClickUp/Asana/Notion templates: You can create templates for tasks you do on a recurring basis so that you don’t have to re-think “How do I do this again?” every time you sit down to get it done. For example, the steps required for recording and releasing a podcast episode would be already created in your ClickUp and you would just pull up the template, apply the correct due date and get to work!
• Email templates: It’s really helpful to draw up templated replies to common emails you receive. So if you receive a lot of email enquiries, or customer support type emails, create a standardised response that could be sent. This isn’t to say you have to send the same email every time, but it gives you a great jumping off point! You could save these somewhere like your ClickUp so that everyone in the team can have access to them. This will keep you so much more productive than spending hours and hours writing up new emails each and every time!
• Canva templates: Everyone and their dog knows and loves Canva, so getting some templates for your social media posts is a brilliant idea. There are so many available on Creative Market for a low price that you can buy and simply switch them out with your own brand colours and fonts!
• Podcast & Blog templates: If you edit your own podcast and blog (which I do!) a handy way to make it easier is to create a template version that you never publish. So, inside GarageBand I have a project created called “Template” and in there I have my intro, outro & space for my edited track to pop in the middle. It’s much easier than creating that from scratch each time! And for blogging, you can create a template post with Lorem Ipsum text in, with your headers and spaces for pictures already laid out and simply duplicate and switch out the text each time!

2. Use Automations

Automations are a great way of “getting the computer to do the work”! (They obviously do a lot of work anyway, but why not make them work 24/7? 🤓)

• My favourite program for automations is Zapier, by far – and btw, it rhymes with happier! It basically links any two programs you can think of and when a trigger happens in one, an action happens in another. It’s like magic!
• Another great place to use automations is in ClickUp. For example, when a task is moved into the “Review” status (for your OBM to check on, of course 😎), you can get ClickUp to automatically assign that task to your OBM (or to you, if you’re still handling all that work yourself!)
• Airtable is another tool which I love for the automation side of things. As an example, this can be great as a client tracker, and it can send out emails automatically to your clients when you check certain boxes, like if they are ready to be offboarded or they need to provide feedback on deliverables!

3. Outsource to a Pro

A huge way of maintaining productivity is outsourcing work that you either don’t like or aren’t good at to someone who loves it and is good at it! I know that this is often talked about, and it can be really scary to make that jump and put trust in someone.

Ideas for roles to outsource to:

• Virtual Assistant: Whether a general admin assistant, so someone who would mange your emails and calendar or a tech VA doing course setups, email sequences and sales funnels.
• Copywriter
• Graphic Designer
• Social Media Manager
• Podcast Manager
• Online Business Manager 😎

4. Prevent Interruptions

Something I’ve noticed the longer I’m in business, and the working world generally, is that I was getting interrupted all the time – not anymore! Getting interrupted means you can’t get into that productive flow of a task.

Ways that I’ve learned to help me stop getting interrupted:

• Closing Slack and emails whenever I’m working on a task: That pesky notification gets me every time!
• Put my phone on Do Not Disturb: And put it in another room, if I’m in a “scrolly” mood. Out of sight, out of mind!
• Batch working: When you’re in flow state, you don’t want to interrupt that! (After a distraction, it takes 23 minutes to get back into flow state.) So, make sure you have enough work lined up of the same type (ie, make 10 Instagram posts in one go while your brain is in the mood for it).

5. Consider When You’re at Your Most Productive

Another tip for saving time is considering when you’re the most productive in your day. Obviously this is going to be completely different for everybody because we’re all completely different people! Some of us are morning people – some of us are not morning people (I’m an odd mix of both!).

I recommend you work out your most productive hours by opening up a spreadsheet and tracking what you’re doing hourly. You can also track your mood and how productive and motivated you’re feeling at each of those times.

Another thing to consider – are you feeling motivated or productive towards a certain thing? Are you thinking “I really fancy getting on with some admin right now?” or are you thinking, “I’ve got so many ideas, I could come up with loads of content right now” – because you’re going to find that different parts of the day are going to be better suited for you to do different tasks.

6. Remember Why You’re Trying to Save Time!

My final tip for saving time is to always remember why you’re trying to save time! There’s nothing more motivating than when you’re sat down thinking “I just want to scroll on my phone right now”, and then the little voice in the back of your mind says, “Didn’t you want to take Monday afternoon off?”. Or, consider why it’s important to you that you’re running your business. Is it having time for your family, your friends and your hobbies?

Have you enjoyed this blog post? I hope you’ve come out with some tips that you can actually use that will help you save time. Ensure you have a little think about why it’s important to that you save time and not just a generic, “I should be more productive, I should save time”. I think we all know that being productive is a good thing, but we always need to keep in the front of our mind why. That will help motivate us towards actually saving time, spending more time on our family, our hobbies, our friends and the things that matter to us. And obviously your business matters to you too! But, life is all about balance – it’s so important to have that work life balance.