Category: Business Building

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The Importance of Continued Learning in Life and Business

There is one thing that is certain in life, and that is change. You can always bet that something will change throughout your life, big or small. While change may be scary and uncomfortable to most, there is also a beautiful and different side. The chance to learn and gain something new, an opportunity you should always take no matter what.

 

Reasons to keep learning for a lifetime:

 

To Increase Your Confidence and Motivation

A lot of anxiety or fear stems from a lack of knowledge. If you strive to learn something new as often as possible about your niche and the world at large, you will empower yourself to do better, thus making you believe in yourself, and boosting your confidence while giving you the knowledge to be successful.

 

To Keep Up with Your Competition

Do you remember when Netflix used to mail DVDs to your house before there were streaming companies? If you don’t know, that’s okay too because Netflix did precisely what they were supposed to do to power through their industry and be the leader. Netflix saw a change in technologies and tried to understand and learn new ways to improve its business model.

 

They now lead their industry by streaming movies and television shows straight to your T.V. and skipping the mailbox altogether. They would become the next Blockbuster, whom Netflix and Redbox destroyed with their mail-in service if they didn’t. Something Blockbuster adopted a little too late and ultimately had to shut down.

 

To Fully Understand Your Potential

Learning unlocks skills and resources about yourself that you would have never discovered if you didn’t make an effort to do so in the first place.

 

To Run A Realistic and Successful Online Business

To be successful and keep up with an online business, you must continue learning new technologies, software services, and social media platforms. If not, you will undoubtedly stay behind the crowd and won’t get any foot traffic you may be used to with a brick and mortar store. Even brick and mortar stores have to keep up with social media and techniques as more and more people stay indoors or work from home.

 

To Create the Job or Life You Want

There are so many different paths, careers, or choices to make in life that it is impossible to know them all. You will discover this and unlock worlds, ideas, values, and inspiration you never knew existed when you learn—giving you the knowledge and more choices to live the way you want.

 

In the end, education, knowledge, and experiences are fun and rewarding. They, together with practice, are vital for growth, understanding, and compassion for the world. Education and learning provide no consequences if you want to accomplish your dreams and be more productive. Keep reading, experimenting, and jump out of your comfort zone to learn and gain more knowledge.

Are You Being Realistic About Your Goals?

 

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Top 7 Productivity Tools to Try

If you haven’t started automating some part of your business yet, then you are already behind. Tools and technology make business more accessible and ultimately increase your productivity so you can earn more money or crush more goals. Technology keeps you organized and consistent, allowing you to keep up with your competition.

 

Give these seven tools a try today to increase your business productivity:

 

#1:Trello

Trello is an online, cloud-based project management system that allows you to work anywhere with an internet connection. Create message boards, lists, cards and organize or delegate tasks to different team members.

 

#2:Dropbox

Cloud-based software that allows you to save and share files from any location. Dropbox is an excellent option for businesses that need to share, transfer, or save large files like video production.

 

#3:Zapier

Connect all your different applications to automate your workflow instantly. This application moves information from different social media platforms, email applications, and more. Choose your medium and trigger and watch Zapier do the work for you. For example, anytime someone signs up for your Facebook event, you can tell Zapier to send them a message automatically.

 

#4:Wave

Every business requires accounting, and that’s precisely what the Wave app makes a little bit easier. Create professional invoices, track your business expenses, incoming revenue, pay employees and instantly generate essential business reports.

 

#5:Evernote

Evernote is more than just a notepad. It saves your text, images, files, to-do lists, and more all in the same place to keep track of new business ideas or important events and information.

 

#6:Pushbullet

If you feel like you are juggling with too many devices, smartphone, tablet, desktop, and laptop, then Pushbullet is right for you. It connects all your devices making them easier to use and seem as though you only have one. Get notifications, check your emails, send links, text messages, or files, chat with friends, family, or co-workers all from one device.

 

#7:Todoist

Keep all your to-do lists, and never forget an appointment or important assignment again with Todoist. Todoist provides features that allow you to easily organize and prioritize your most important tasks, from creating the family budget or weekly grocery list to updating important business routines and strategies or instantly share your lists or delegate tasks to your team.

 Tools and Tips to Help You Automate Email Marketing

Don’t be behind anything longer. Find the right tools and technology for your business to be more productive. Start by adding just one of these productivity tools to your daily routine. Remember, technology will only go as far as you allow it. Learn how to use it right and give it time to see the rewards and benefits.

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How Sleep Impacts Your Productivity

American businesses lose an estimated $60 billion of revenue yearly simply due to poor sleep. A Baltimore sleep study in 2018 found that those who received less than a whole night’s rest of 7 to 8 hours of sleep regularly had significant productivity loss.

 

Anywhere from 19 percent less for those who got five hours of sleep and up to 39 percent for those who got even less sleep – showing just how important even one to two hours of sleep can make.

 

The numbers got worse if the employee experienced insomnia, snored, or have sleep apnea. Poor sleep and other factors contributing to your health affect every part of your body and your business. It compromises your memory, decision-making and problem-solving skills, mood, performance, bone, organ health, and more.

 

Proper sleep as well as adopting a good diet and exercise routine prevents:

 

  • Burnout – Sleep deprivation is the number one cause of burnout. You must rest to expect your body to work at its best.
  • Lowering Your Life Expectancy – Being sedentary, not getting enough or getting too much sleep, and getting the wrong foods can ultimately lower life expectancy. You can significantly increase your life expectancy by fueling your body appropriately, exercising at least thirty minutes a day, and getting eight hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.
  • Memory Loss – When you get the right amount of sleep, you can improve your ability to remember things and learn. Sleeping well gives you the mental clarity to make better decisions and perform at your best.
  • Mistakes or Injuries – Sleep deprivation leads to mental and physical impairments that can cause poor decision-making and accidents that create significant consequences like lost revenue or, worse, your life.

 

Three Tips to Help You Get More Sleep:

 

  1. Exercise and Diet – As annoying as it is, always to hear this, exercise and diet are the most important if you want to get a whole night’s rest or live a healthy life. Most problems stem from a poor diet and exercise routine.
  2. Avoid Stimulants – You may be drinking too many cups of coffee in your morning, which is easily crossing over into your sleep time. Start reducing your coffee intake; no more than 2 cups a day or less.
  3. Stay Consistent – Pick a nighttime routine and set a time and stick to it. Eventually, your body acclimates, and you’ll soon want to go to bed without you even trying.

The Areas of Life You Need to Design for Success

If you want to live your most productive life, feel better about yourself, your body, mental and physical well-being, you must sleep. Your business success and health depend on it.

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6 Habits That Are Destroying Your Productivity

Are you constantly scratching your head at the end of the day, wondering why you feel like you worked so much to get nowhere? The good news is that you are not alone, but unfortunately, there is bad news too.

 

The bad news is the habits you have adopted over time are killing your productivity. It doesn’t matter how busy you are. If you are not doing the right tasks to complete the job, you will never get it done.

 

Here are six habits that are destroying your productivity that you must end today:

 

Doing Everything at The Same Time

Most tasks require your undivided attention to get done and get it done well. Stop multitasking and expecting too much from yourself at all given times. You are not productive. You are only causing unnecessary stress, confusion, and poor-quality work.

 

Avoiding Technology or Using Too Much

Are you still keeping track of your bills, inventory, and tasks on paper? That is slowing you down too. Utilize technology where appropriate but be sure not to overdo it. Technology can be great until it becomes a distraction instead.

 

Not Following A Schedule or Routine

While it can seem like a business owner waking up and going with the day’s flow would be fabulous, the truth is, it’s not great for business or productivity. Routines and schedules make your day easier and help guide you in the right direction. When you have a clear idea of your goals and what to do next, you can get it done faster and with more confidence.

 

Poor Sleep and Diet Choices

It’s not something anyone wants to hear or admit to, but your diet and exercise routine has a direct reflection on how you perform throughout your day. Your work, business, relationships, and mental state are all affected by what you do and eat, negatively and positively. You’ve already heard the common phrase “you are what you eat,” and it’s true. Too much sugar and not enough nutrients from your diet leads to mental fog, body pain, and fatigue that can negatively strain your overall performance.

 Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

Poor Communication Skills

Too much back and forth and confusion takes away the time you need to get work done efficiently. Not only that, poor communication means it’s likely not getting done correctly either. You are only pushing your schedule back and getting you off the path.

 

Poor or Distracting Work Environments

Working at a coffee shop or home is a dream come true for many entrepreneurs, but they quickly learn it comes with many challenges. If you are easily distracted, your work environment needs to be completely free of distractions.

Being busy and thinking that busy means productivity is also a bad habit. That thought process must be changed. Break your bad habits now so you can work less and do more.

 

 

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Get Your Goals into Your Calendar

Accomplishing your goals requires action. Stop waiting for the perfect time. You can create the perfect time. Pick a time relatively soon and realistic to your goal needs and put that goal into your calendar.

 

This means you need to:

  • Pick a start date and time for your ultimate goal
  • Set proper and realistic deadlines
  • Fully understand the tasks needed to reach your goal
  • Then schedule times and deadlines for each task required to reach your ultimate goal.

 

Adding your goals to your calendar forms a sense of commitment and re-establishes your sense of purpose or direction. It develops healthy routines and habits that inspire you to stay on track and keep you working towards your goals. It’s a great way to create instant motivation. When you can see it, you are more likely to want to get it done.

 

Essential Things to Keep in Mind When Goal Setting:

  • What is the end or ultimate goal?
  • How much time do you need? Have you timed yourself doing these tasks before? What if you don’t get as much sleep?
  • Are there things that could protentional go wrong or get in your way?
  • Who needs to do it? Can you complete each task or do some things that require help from others?
  • Group similar tasks and utilize technology to work more productively and save you time.
  • Get the most crucial items out of your way but keep in mind that little tasks add up over time.
  • Once you set a time, stick to it and don’t permit yourself to change it.

 

These are important questions and tips to keep in mind so you can pick the right deadline for your goal. You don’t want to create the opposite reaction and turn your goal into a nightmare because you took on too much work too fast. Slower is better than rushing it and pushing out shoddy quality work or products.

 

Research shows that more time is better for creativity anyways; however, just like too little time can have the opposite reaction, so can too much time. You must be realistic and take the time to evaluate. On the other hand, get going. Don’t wait or sabotage yourself any longer.

What Methods Work Best to Ensure You Make Your Goals?

The most productive and successful people utilize their calendar any moment they can.

Overall, the number one tip to achieving your goals and improving your time management skill and productivity is setting deadlines, adding them to your calendar, and then sticking to them. The more you schedule, the more you will achieve.

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Learn to Create Realistic Schedules

Take a look at your schedule right now. Are your goals listed yet? Do you even use one? If not, you should be. They improve your productivity, organization and help you achieve your goals both personally and professionally. However, adding them to your calendar is only the first step, you must think realistically too to be successful.

 

Keep in mind the tips and tricks when creating realistic schedules:

 

Define Your Goals and The Resources

For every goal and main objective, there are little tasks or to-do lists needed to get there. Highlight each one and then list the resources required to complete the work. For example, do you need to purchase specific equipment, or can it all be done from home?

 

Always Include Breaks and Vacations

Schedule your breaks, or you won’t take them and cause yourself to burnout. Burnout, fatigue, and lack of motivation won’t allow you to work efficiently no matter how much time you schedule yourself to work. It’s a myth that breaks are only for lazy people. The most highly productive people take breaks, and they take long ones too.

 Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

Schedule Extra Time

Add around ten to fifteen more minutes to any scheduled task for things you can’t predict. Over time, little tasks you weren’t aware you were even doing, but are required to survive – like go to the bathroom – will add up and steal you away from doing the important tasks. To keep you on track and still complete what is required, expect to use a little more time than you believe you need, just like showing up to work fifteen minutes early, for example.

 

Be Aware of Shortfalls and Potential Snags

Each task you need to get done will likely have different variables or expectations, such as driving time to various onsite meetings or working with clients with different time zones. These examples can cause different kinds of delays that you are not used to or even aware of.

 

Commit to Distraction-Free Work

When you schedule tasks, you need to commit to the work time. If you don’t, you will only permit yourself to work over your breaks or other essential duties. If you commit to distraction-free work, you can ensure you get your job done on time every time.

 

Expect Change and Variability

Planning is only there to support you and guide you. It is not full proof. Don’t expect it to be.

 

Reevaluate for Accuracy

To improve any systems, you must schedule a time to review where things go wrong and where they went right to do even better next time.

 

Don’t Forget About the Little Things

Little tasks build-up, even five minutes or two minutes here and there, which could affect your schedule.

 

Don’t let the best productivity tool lead you down the wrong path. Use these tips and tricks and take the time now to rethink your schedule so you can achieve all your goals and aspirations quickly and productively.

 

 

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How to Outsource to Save You More Time

Stop doing everything yourself. Outsource your work before it’s too late. To be successful, you need to save your time and energy for what you do best. If accounting, customer service, marketing, or technology isn’t your thing outsourcing the work by finding an online freelancer is a great option to save you more time and frustration.

Positive Attitude

The following are a few areas to outsource in your life and business to save you more time:

 

  • Making hotel reservations or booking meetings and other appointments.
  • Social media, email, and other marketing projects and tasks.
  • Laundry, cleaning, and other housework or maintenance.
  • Content writing, administrative or human resource tasks such as payroll.
  • Customer service and support.
  • Shopping and dry cleaning.
  • Other repetitive, time-consuming, and frustrating tasks.

 

What to outsource depends on what you need the most, what you can afford, and what goals you are looking to accomplish. Ask yourself this one simple question to get started: “What takes up most of my time?” Then decide from there if it something someone else could be doing for you instead.

 

Depending on your needs, there are many different platforms to choose from online to hire independent contractors to do various tasks from content writing, social media marketing, answering phone calls from customers, sending out emails on your behalf, or even delivering your groceries other materials.

 

The following are a few popular choices:

  • upwork.com – Post your job and let freelancers come to you with Upwork. Their freelancers offer many different services, including development and IT, sales and marketing, finance, accounting, administrative or customer support, etc. Whatever it may be, they likely have the freelancer for you.

 

  • fiverr.com – Graphic design, video, and animation, voice overs or content writing are just a few of the many different categories of freelancers you can find on Fiverr. For just five dollars a service, you can outsource just about any project on this platform.

 

  • getfriday.com – This is the best online marketplace to find virtual assistance that can perform repetitive, mundane, or time-consuming tasks for you and your business. If you need help with market research, bookkeeping, web, or IT services, you can also find that here with their Business Support Services.

 

  • instacart.com – With Instacart, you can pay a monthly or delivery fee per order to get your groceries, prescriptions, alcohol, or other similar items delivered. This application has partnered with many popular stores, including Publix, Costco, CVS Pharmacy, and more.

 

As you can see, depending on your needs, you can find a freelancer to do the job for you. Doing everything and not outsourcing only decreases your productivity. While we often joke about business owners working 24/7, the truth is that you do not have to work all the time to be successful as a business owner.

The Ultimate Boost in Productivity: Automation and Outsourcing

 

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How to Find Your Most Productive Hours

The news is out. The standard 9 to 5 is dwindling, and many studies show that it’s bad for business. Even worse, you only have about two to three actual productive hours. To get the most done, you should take advantage of them and figure out what time and day you perform the best.

 

Experiment with Your Sleep Schedule

Figure out what your body likes the best. Are you a “night owl” or a “morning lark?” Even if you think you might know, give each type of schedule a try. Don’t just stick to the traditional 9 to 5 unless you have to. Research shows these are not the most productive hours. They were only designed to help offset manufacturing workload requirements and prevent child labor.

 

Keep Track with A Journal

Keep track of the information above in your journal. Take notes of both periods of inactivity and activity. Write down the times, the project you worked on, your mood, and other important details like obstacles that happened that normally don’t or if you got something done even faster than usual.

 

Also, keep in mind the environment you are working in, how much sleep you got the night before, or other stress factors – the more information you can provide, the better. After a week of building and experimenting with this data, you will determine your best hours to work.

 

Use Applications or Technology

If keeping track of this information on your own seems tiresome, then take advantage of technology or applications instead. RescueTime is an automated time tracker that pools all this data to track where you spend your time the most. They also generate reports and provide other tools that allow you to block distractions and improve your productivity.

 

Peak, Trough, Recovery

These are the stages you go through as you work. When you first get going, this is the peak where you have most of your energy and motivation. Then as your energy starts to go down, you are in your trough period.

Never Quit: Go After Your Breakthrough

Recovery is at the end of your shift, and best left for mindless or easy tasks. This means that when you get to work, no matter the time of day, always do the most important or most challenging work first. You will have the best energy and mental focus to get through it faster and more efficiently.

 

Overall, it’s important to remember that you don’t need to work a total of eight hours to be productive. You need to find the time that is best for you.

 

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Learn to Say No to Be More Productive

Fear of conflict, disappointment, social awkwardness, or dealing with any negative consequences is a few of many reasons why many people can’t say no.

However, saying no more often can lead to more productivity and isn’t as scary as you may think once you get started.

 

Here are four ways to learn how to say no to live a more productive life:

eliminate, delegate, automate

Take Control of Your Life

Instead of saying no, directly offer a different time or day that better suits your schedule. However, only offer this if it’s something that will provide you benefit or something you can genuinely offer. Helping people is great for your health and growth, but just because you are busy doesn’t mean it is valuable to your goals. Remember, you’re not selfish to take care of yourself first. You are the only one who can provide or offer your time. Don’t allow other people to control you.

 

Provide an Alternative

The best way to say no to anyone is by suggesting who will do a better job. This way, you don’t need to feel any pressure saying no. You can simply explain why you are not best for the job and who will be better—giving the other person good reasons to move on without you feeling guilty or pressured to do the job.

 

Look at It from A Different Perspective

Saying no is also saying yes to another opportunity and vice versa. If you keep saying yes to opportunities you don’t want to do, you also say no to things that you would enjoy or get value from. While helping people is healthy and beneficial to the world, it can’t overshadow your dreams and aspirations twenty-four seven. If you skip your self-care, you will not provide value to them either-even if they think you will be better for the task.

 

Be Honest and Clear

Overall, the best policy is honesty. If you can’t do something because you don’t have the time or have other important things to get done, explain it to them. Even if you have no reason other than you don’t want to, they will appreciate the honesty and won’t take up your time in the future asking again. It’s essential always to be yourself, even if there is a little awkwardness in between. It only saves you time and frustration in the long run.

Avoid Burnout: Reassess Your Goals

Saying no can seem harsh and uncomfortable at first, but you won’t want to stop once you get started. Just because you are saying no now doesn’t mean you can’t come back later either. If you’d like to get more stuff done, try saying “no” more often.

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How to Use the Right Tools and Technology for Your Business

Around 77% of all small businesses in American use technology for personal and professional purposes. There is no surprise or shock to this as technology provides many incredible and different benefits.

 

As a small business, you should always take advantage of tools and technology for the following reasons:

 

  • To earn twice the revenue or more.
  • To save time, energy, and other resources.
  • To have more energy, momentum, and focus on producing higher quality work.
  • Provides you the opportunity to improve or be the leader in your industry.
  • Ensures proper communication between your customers, you, and your business team or both depending on your company’s size.
  • To make your life and business more manageable, more organized, and productive.

 

This is only a shortlist of the many benefits that technology can bring to your business. However, to reap these rewards, you must find the right tools and technology for your business and needs. Just because a tip works for everyone else doesn’t mean it will benefit you too.

 

The following are a few things to keep in mind when using and choosing the right tools and technology for your business:

 

Be Mindful of Your Pain Points or Frustrations

What areas of your business provide you the most pain and discomfort? When having trouble organizing all your projects, customer information, or delegating tasks, for example, project management systems such as Trello or Basecamp, will keep you and your team on track.

 

What Is Taking Up All Your Time

Are there tasks that need three hours or more of your focus at a time? Accounting and other administrative tasks are the first spots to look at in this case. These tasks are often time-consuming and require a lot of concentration and understand to get done correctly. QuickBooks helps keep track of your inventory, invoices, projects, customers, bills, and more.

 Benefits of Creating Processes and Systems

Be Aware of Your Workspace and Workplace Requirements

While there are many tools and technology that can benefit you, they may not be best suited for your workspace or environment.

 

What Are Your Weaknesses and Strengths?

Your lack of skills can be made up for with proper use of technology—freeing you from stress, frustration, or taking away your time trying to learn something you don’t want to or care to know. Just because you own or run a business doesn’t mean you have to be a mastermind or an expert at every and all skills.

 

Ask Your Customers or Employers

The best information to help is directly from the source. Your customers and employers want to use technology that makes their life easier too. Opening up this line of communication also shows your audience that you care and want to provide value.

 

As you can see, tools and technology can increase your productivity and provide many benefits. Find your weaknesses, pain points, and frustrations, and let technology do the work for you.