You Should Be Working Smarter, Not Harder

Stop procrastinating. No one is paying you to sit and do everything else apart from what you should be doing. If you have made the decision to go into business by yourself and you are finding that you are wasting time doing other things you need to ask yourself why you thought this was for you. If you are feeling overwhelmed by everything you need to do and are avoiding it, then you need to stop and get organised. Some people work better when they have their to-do lists written down and in an easy to follow structure. Others have a set agenda for each day of the week and work by that, you need to do what works for you – but either way, you need to put the work in.
No one said you have to work harder, working smarter is a different thing altogether. The joy of being in business for yourself is that you can flip your phone over a deal with it later, or you can jet off on holiday – no stress. But, before all of that? You should get your processes in order.
Set your week up like this (or in a way that suits your working days)
o    Monday – Admin – Emails – Catch up Calls – New Business Leads
o    Tuesday – Creative – Research – Notes
o    Wednesday – Finance – Bookkeeping – Invoice Follow up
o    Thursday – Social Media Scheduling – Engagement
o    Friday – Mix and Match – anything you couldn’t cover in your four days should be here
If you set your week up well, you can spend as little as an hour per day and still be highly productive. Try to start all new business on a Monday morning, that way you can jump to the top of the email inbox.
If you know you’re going to need to set up some face-to-face meetings, try and schedule them all to the same date. That way you can book somewhere online, like https://www.londonofficespace.com/oxford-street and make great use of the space.
In your monthly calendar, you should have at least two networking opportunities booked in. Why? Well, as much good work will bring you plenty of word-of-mouth clients, circulating and keeping your face in people’s minds might bring new clients you hadn’t considered yet. You should also look to have some type of learning booked in too. It doesn’t matter what sector you work in; you should always be looking to gain new skills, increase the skills you currently have and implement them into your work.
If you have a mentor or a coach, book at least one face-to-face session a month. Business coaches and mentors keep you on track and focused in a way that is fundamentally incomparable to anything else. They keep track of the goals you have set, where you are and your next steps, but they guide you and help you really drill down to what will benefit your business and push you forward and what won’t. Upping your focus, will up your game. Upping your game will up your income AND free time.
So work smarter, get organised, and reap the rewards.