Tag: Focus

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Yes! You Can Automate That

Automation can simplify your life and provide you more time to focus on the things that truly matter to you. It leads to better communication, higher productivity, and overall success in your business and life. The secrete to gaining more free time or time to accomplish more tasks is automation.

 

Here are five things you can automate in your business and at home:

 

#1: Grocery Shopping

Companies like Shipt, Instacart, and Cornershop by Uber have created a business model to shop and deliver your groceries for you. Grocery shopping can take hours and sometimes be stressful. Let others do it for you. Pick the items you want and the time you wish to deliver, and you’re all set.

shopping

#2: Inventory Management

Keeping up with inventory is costly and time-consuming, even if you have a small business or just buying groceries at home. Setting up a proper inventory management system right away is crucial. Software like NetSuite and Shopify will do this for you after the initial setup.

 

To combat this at home, create laminated lists for each category and mark the items off as soon as you throw them away. This way, you know exactly which items to buy again when you create your next grocery order on Shipt.

 

#3: Budget and Expense Management

Keeping track of everything on paper isn’t needed anymore, and in fact, you are only opening yourself up for mistakes if you insist on staying old school for everything. Accounting software such as Wave Accounting or QuickBooks provides the tools you need to set up a budget, generate sales or other business reports or pay your bills or taxes on time in an instant.

 

#4: Task Delegation or Chore Assignments

Trello, Basecamp, and other project management systems are an easy way to streamline your task delegation. These systems have many different tools and widgets that make it fast and easy to communicate and send or share resources to different or the same people. Chorebuster.net is another excellent resource that automatically assigns, schedules, and sends printable chore lists to the whole family.

 

#5: Contact Forms, Autoresponders, or Other Online Marketing Materials

Pop-up forms or other plugins should be downloaded to your websites or blogs to make email collection almost automatic. If someone has a question, contact forms are a great way to keep it organized too. Other programs like Zapier can help automate your social media campaigns by scheduling the posts for you.

Free and Low-Cost Automation Tools You Can Implement Today

Thankfully as technology advances, your life gets easier with automation, so you can spend your energy and time where it’s needed. One reason you want to work for yourself is to gain free time. You might as well set yourself up to achieve time freedom.

 

 

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The Secrets to Time Management and Why You Need It

The most successful entrepreneurs have this key skill down to a science: time management.

It’s time to get the cold, hard and ugly truth out of the way. If you have not realized your goals and dreams yet, it’s likely your time management skills, or lack thereof, are to blame. As with any skill, there are things you can do and implement to improve it.

 

The following are the secrets to time management and why it’s a must-have skill to run a successful online business: 

 

Proper Time Management Is A Choice and A Skill You Can Practice

You can make a choice and commit to get things done on time and not procrastinate. Poor time management always stems from something, and as a responsible and successful adult, you must make the conscious choice to understand why and develop strategies to overcome it.

Scheduling to Avoid Burnout: Learn to Take More Breaks

Increases Creativity and Makes Innovation Easier

Proper time management means you have the right amount of time for the tasks and areas that matter the most. It means you are no longer wasting too much time on mundane and tedious things that don’t get you to where you need to be—freeing your time and allowing you to be more creative and innovative in your industry.

 

Take Full Responsibility and Understand Your Value

You know why you didn’t get something done on time or what is causing you to procrastinate more times than not. Please take responsibility for your actions and realize the value you bring to yourself, your business, and the world to overcome it.  

 

Schedule and Implement in Order of Importance and Urgency

This way, you can be sure to give yourself enough time for each task required. If you plan a task that needs your total concentration, knowing you will be interrupted quite a few times or need to leave soon, you simply won’t finish it. Don’t ignore reality, or you’ll set yourself up to fail before you even get started.

 

Be Aware of Your Main Objective

Always keep your main objective for the day at the top of your mind. Unfortunately, you won’t always be able to plan for everything. There will be distractions in work and life, but if you train yourself to keep your main objective on your mind at all times, you will know when and how to snap back easier.

 

Be Comfortable with Abnormality

In other words, in order to establish proper time management, you will probably have to go against what your peers or co-workers are currently doing. You have to say no to longer lunch breaks or any other activities you know will only further distract you.

 

Overall proper time management starts with taking responsibility, creating a daily to-do list, sticking to your schedule, and remove unnecessary distractions to ensure you always stay on track.

 

 

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How And Why You Must Remove Distractions

The key difference between a successful entrepreneur and an unsuccessful entrepreneur is action. In order to take action, you must remove the distractions preventing you from doing the work to achieve your goals.

 

Successful entrepreneurs understand they must remove distractions for three key reasons:

  • For Better Time Management and Productivity

Distractions only take up your time and resources, therefore, reducing your productivity. Removing distractions prevents you from wasting this time on things that ultimately don’t matter.

 

  • For Better Creativity and Quality Work or Products

Zero distractions mean you gain more time to develop a deeper focus and concentration that allows you to work better and produce higher quality work. It fuels creativity and inspiration.

 

  • For Proper Business and Personal Organization

Removing distractions means removing possible frustrations, stress, and constant confusion of wondering where you left off last. Keeping your personal and business life organized. Organization allows you to stay focused and on track to accomplish your goals. When you have a clear path and understanding of what needs to get done, it’s easier to achieve it.

 

Follow these four tips to help remove distractions to achieve your goals faster and easier:

 

Establish Realistic Work Hours

If you can create your own schedule and work hours, take advantage of it and be realistic and honest. If you know you are a night owl, for example, then don’t expect yourself to work by 6 AM.

 

If this isn’t a good time for you, no matter how good you are at getting up on time, you won’t be working at your best or produce your best work. Schedule your work hours during times you know you will be fully rested and ultimately distraction-free.

 

Understand Your Limits and Willpower

In other words, if you know you won’t stop looking at your phone, then you must put your phone in a separate room. Create strategies that work with your weaknesses to ensure you don’t limit your success. If you want it, you will find a way to work around your downfalls.

 

Stop Multitasking

Believe it or not, multitasking is a distraction. Every time you switch between a different task, your brain needs time to reset even if you don’t notice it.

Positive Attitude

Let Others Know Your Goals and Needs

The more you inform people upfront about your intentions, the less likely they will keep you from them. If they do, then they are not there to support you, and best to keep them out of your life.

How to Identify Over the Top Goals to Make Them Reasonable

If you aspire to be a mover or shaker or achieve your dreams at all, you need to be the one creating the distractions, not entertaining them. Implement these tips and tricks into your daily routine to keep distractions from interfering with your dreams.

 

 

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5 Household Management Tips for Parent Business Owners

Battling the household and running an online business at the same time is hard work. A business requires just as much of your time, if not more, as do your children. Both will create more work and stress, but you can manage.

 

The following are five household management tips for parent business owners: 

 

#1: Work in Batches and Block Schedules

Keep similar work together and schedule work time in batches. If you know your kids need to get to school at a certain time, for example, schedule a block of time around that. If you can get two hours of work in before they need to get ready, then find similar activities you know you can do in that time, like checking email or creating your daily to-do lists. Block these times out in your schedule and let your household know when you plan to work. Put the schedule somewhere they can all see it and treat it no differently than you would if you were to clock in for a shift somewhere else.

 

#2: Designate Workspaces and Keep Them Out

Create an area in your house that everyone knows is only for working. Please don’t allow them to come in at any point. It may sound harsh or brutal to do at first, but over time everyone will understand that this area is not for fun, only business.

 

Establishing appropriate boundaries like this is crucial to create a distraction-free workspace. When you are in this space, you work. When you leave this space, you get to take a break or have free time and stop working. Likewise, you won’t need to work when you’re in your other spaces.

 

#3: Schedule Special Time with Your Kids Away from Business

Always add in time with your kids and put it in your schedule. This way, you know you always have time to be with them. Don’t expect yourself to use after work or school hours to do it.

basketball

If you don’t schedule it, you will give yourself permission to be distracted. You don’t have a boss to tell you to stop working. You have to set those boundaries yourself. Scheduling your personal time and time with your family is a way to ensure you stick to your work hours.

 

#4: Create Daily To-Do and Expectation Lists for You and The Household

To ensure you have the time you need to get work done, make daily to-do lists for you and the household. Include chores or fun activities they can do while you need to work. Set up timers and don’t allow them to finish until it’s done. Make sure the tasks you do can be done within these times. Don’t use this time for any critical tasks that require more of your attention.

 Don’t Forget That You Can Automate and Outsource Your Home Management Too

#5: Communicate as Much as Possible and Expect to Make Compromises

Most importantly, you must communicate. You can’t expect others to know what to do just because you work from home. Creating your own home business comes with compromises from you and the entire family. While it provides you the freedom to be a parent and make money, it can also be disrupting. As a carefree space of their home is now for business. Proper communication and not expecting perfection will go a long way to ensuring your success.

 

As you can see, running a business and your household as a parent is possible. However, you must know what it takes to set yourself up for success realistically.

 

 

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The Importance Of “Why”

Before you start any business or goal in life, you should get to know and truly understand your “why” first. Knowing why you’re doing anything in life is a crucial step as it can easily make or break your business or goal before you even get started. When you know why you want to do something, you can better understand the actions and resources needed to get there.

 

Your why is the determination, focus, inspiration, and motivation you need to keep working towards your goals each and every day. As uncomfortable as it may feel to accept your daily actions are the direct results of what you want in life and have already achieved.

 

If you don’t achieve something even if you want it, it’s likely because you didn’t take the necessary action to get there. Your “why” to get there either wasn’t clear enough, or you simply weren’t true to yourself.

 

The following tips and tricks help discover your true “why” and how to use it to your advantage:

 

List Your Values and Aspirations

Start by listing your values and aspirations for all areas of life. List the most important thing you would like to achieve. The first value or aspiration that comes to mind is likely the one that you value the most.

 

Are There Consequences to Not Getting There?

Ask, “What will happen if I never do it?” Take notice of your emotions and write down precisely what you are thinking and feeling. Then evaluate what you wrote down—your true why is likely within these words.

 

Be Sure It’s for The Right Reasons

Why do you want to achieve what you want in your life? Whether it’s money, fame, or happiness, make sure it aligns with you, your values, and your morals; no one else’s. Even if everyone else is doing it, it may not be for you, and that’s okay.

 

Passion Doesn’t Always Equal Business Success

While this may be hard to hear, it can also be a great and beautiful thing. Just because you love something or are very passionate about it doesn’t mean it can be a viable business opportunity. You must make this realization before you get started and fail. Use it as a hobby and a great way to de-stress instead.

 

Be Aware: Money Won’t Ever Be Enough

While money unlocks some freedoms and can reduce stress, money by itself won’t be enough. If you didn’t need money, would you still want to do it? If the answer is no, then start somewhere else.

the purpose

As you can see, your “why” is what empowers you to get things done. Your “why” helps you become successful. If it’s not realistic, you likely won’t get there no matter why you do what you do.

 

 

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The Only Action That Matters

The only action that matters is action.  Action constitutes the work, the steps, the “action” necessary to reach your goals and aspirations. While planning and creating your vision is a vital step that many fail to account for, it’s hard to fix it.

 

People often create new plans and ideas repeatedly but never take the necessary first step or action to make it happen. As long as you create a realistic action plan for your business goals, you won’t fall into this trap.

setting goal

Here’s how to create a realistic action plan for your small business:

 

Start with A Main Objective

What is your company mission or goal in life? Highlight 3 to 5 main objectives and why they are needed to be successful.

 

Break It Down

Then take each main goal and break it down into two to five smaller actionable steps. This means you should have a different to-do list for each main objective you created earlier. If you started with three main objectives, you now have three new to-do lists.

 

Put Them In Proper Order

Next, you must put them in a timely order. Start with the most relevant or urgent tasks. Keep in mind your daily schedule or any critical meetings.

 

Create Hard Deadlines

For each goal, set a hard deadline and don’t give yourself any more time. Please add the steps and tasks you need to do to complete that goal in your calendar and let yourself and other important people know about it. This way, you are sure to follow it and get it done.

 

Understand Your Limits and Be Focused

While the saying “the sky is your limit” may sound motivational, it can be unrealistic when running a successful business. You need to be laser-focused on your overall goal, and if you believe you can get everything, you may lose focus on what truly matters for your specific business and goals.

Benefits of Creating Processes and Systems

In other words, it’s the difference between staying on a clear road or always scrummaging to “shiny object” syndrome. Shiny objects are leading you down a path of uncertainty and disorganization. Each task you do needs to support your main objective; otherwise, you are putting in more input than is productive for the amount of output generated.

 

Lower Your Expectations

Especially if you are new to this business or anything, expect less from yourself and others. If you lower your expectations about everything you do in life, you’ll be less frustrated, but you will also know to schedule more time throughout your day in case you need a little extra time as you make mistakes and learn.

 

Lastly, don’t fear the first step. Stop planning and just get going. Take the first step. Make it so easy that you can’t avoid it. Get your first customer or create an LLC. As you get going, the momentum will give you the confidence and desire to keep going.

 

 

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What Does Productivity Mean to You?

How do you stay focused and Productive?

When you think of being productive, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Before you continue reading, briefly write it down in your journal or a notepad. Really think about your own definition before you continue. This way, you can be sure your perspective is really where it needs to be to run a productive business.

Productivity has a variable definition and affects every aspect of your life, both business and personal. When you think about it, every decision you make and action you take affects your productivity somehow. Your health, creativity, journey in life, or direction of your business all depends on the type of productivity you produce.

 

 

In business, reaching the tasks required to achieve specific sales goals, gaining more subscribers or followers, or being the next innovator within your industry are a few examples of being productive. In your personal life, a few examples could include following a daily or weekly budget to buy a big purchase, paying bills on time or setting up auto-pay, or following a healthy exercise and diet routine such as meal planning and weightlifting.

 

While productivity can have variable perspectives and definitions depending on who you ask, it is vital to make sure that the procedures and strategies you implement lead to high rewards for your business or goal. At the same time, the effort you put into it is worth it when the results show it is worth it. This is the basic definition of productivity and can be measured with a simple math equation.

 

Productivity is equal to your output divided by your input.

 

If your effort is greater than the reward, it may not be worth it in the end. If you’ve determined the reward is good enough, then it is. All of this is really up to you to decide. However, you should use the math equation above in real life to be sure you are realistic.

 

For example, if you are a writer and you wrote six articles this morning in three hours, your productivity would be calculated as two articles per hour. You could further compare this number to your overall writing goal to see where you need to improve or work harder.

 

Another way to be sure you are the most productive is to create a list of all the activities you did each day and compare them to the goals you wish to accomplish. How do they compare? Do the tasks that you’ve chosen to do get you closer to your destination, goal, or job, support you in any way? Don’t be too shocked if many of the tasks you do end up getting you nowhere. It is easy to equate being busy to being productive.

Use a to-do List to stay on track

Once you take a moment to evaluate your actions, you can change your plans and daily to-do lists to do what needs to be done to accomplish your business goals. Starting each day with a primary goal and to-do list, implementing proper time management strategies, and taking advantage of tools and technology are a few tips to improve your productivity throughout the day.  Remember, if you want to run a successful online business or achieve any goal, improving your productivity is a must.

 

 

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Benefits of Creating Processes and Systems

As you design your business, you’ll start to realize it all comes down to having dedicated systems and processes in place for the good times and the bad.

work space

Why? Well, no matter who you are or where you live, stuff happens. Weather happens. Illness happens. Heck, sometimes you just wake up, and you’re tired and don’t want to do the things you planned. Other times the crises happening seems so hard to overcome that you just don’t know what to do first, but if you create processes and systems, you can overcome most things, even a lack of motivation.

Systems and processes create:

 

  • Consistency – It might seem tedious, but if you set up a process or system in your own home to keep it clean, it will end up cleaner by setting up a schedule to clean the floor every Wednesday using a particular method instead of waiting for it to get dirty. When you know when and you know the technique, you can ensure you have the time and the right products to accomplish your goal. The same can be said for your business. If you know that at 2 pm on Tuesday, you’re going to write three blog posts about a particular topic, it’s more likely to get done.

 

  • Focus – Once you develop systems and processes, you don’t have to think about it every time. Due to this, you’ll be able to focus on doing the job instead of setting up the job each time. If you have a snow day and have plans for what to do on that snow day, you’ll focus better because you knew in advance that if a snow day happened, this is what you are going to do.

 

  • Transparency – One thing that customers like is honesty. If you can’t be honest or even if you appear to be dishonest, it can really harm your brand. If you have a plan in place, it enables you to communicate more comfortably with your audience or other stakeholders regarding what will happen than if you have no idea what your process is on a good day.

 

  • Scalability – Being able to scale your business isn’t all about scaling up. A well-planned business can expand and contract as needed without you experiencing all that much upheaval. For example, suppose your traffic goes down due to a natural disaster. In that case, your server space or email software can contract, and the price goes down, enabling you to maintain profitability and lower expenses. This idea also works with hiring contractors instead of employees. You use contractors only when you need them and don’t have to support them all the time.

 

  • Resilience – Being able to bounce back from a problem is at the core of building a resilient business. Having systems and processes in place is the first step to doing that because creating these systems and processes highlights the recourses you need to use to get the job done, allowing you to identify redundancies and new opportunities.

What Does Productivity Mean to You?

It’s easy for a singular business owner who runs their business online working from home to believe that they don’t need to set up systems and processes – but if you don’t, you’re flying by the seat of your pants. You will end up delaying your progress or even going out of business probably before you even really get started. Having systems and processes in place enables you to focus on other things every day that make an impact instead of reinventing the wheel each workday.

 

 

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What Does Productivity Mean to You?

When you think of being productive, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Before you continue reading, briefly write it down in your journal or a notepad. Really think about your own definition before you continue. This way, you can be sure your perspective is really where it needs to be to run a productive business.

work space

Productivity has a variable definition and affects every aspect of your life, both business and personal. When you think about it, every decision you make and action you take affects your productivity somehow. Your health, creativity, journey in life, or direction of your business all depends on the type of productivity you produce.

 

In business, reaching the tasks required to achieve specific sales goals, gaining more subscribers or followers, or being the next innovator within your industry are a few examples of being productive. In your personal life, a few examples could include following a daily or weekly budget to buy a big purchase, paying bills on time or setting up auto-pay, or following a healthy exercise and diet routine such as meal planning and weightlifting.

 

While productivity can have variable perspectives and definitions depending on who you ask, it is vital to make sure that the procedures and strategies you implement lead to high rewards for your business or goal. At the same time, the effort you put into it is worth it when the results show it is worth it. This is the basic definition of productivity and can be measured with a simple math equation.

 

Productivity is equal to your output divided by your input.

 

If your effort is greater than the reward, it may not be worth it in the end. If you’ve determined the reward is good enough, then it is. All of this is really up to you to decide. However, you should use the math equation above in real life to be sure you are realistic.

 

For example, if you are a writer and you wrote six articles this morning in three hours, your productivity would be calculated as two articles per hour. You could further compare this number to your overall writing goal to see where you need to improve or work harder.

 

Another way to be sure you are the most productive is to create a list of all the activities you did each day and compare them to the goals you wish to accomplish. How do they compare? Do the tasks that you’ve chosen to do get you closer to your destination, goal, or job, support you in any way? Don’t be too shocked if many of the tasks you do end up getting you nowhere. It is easy to equate being busy to being productive.

 

Once you take a moment to evaluate your actions, you can change your plans and daily to-do lists to do what needs to be done to accomplish your business goals. Starting each day with a primary goal and to-do list, implementing proper time management strategies, and taking advantage of tools and technology are a few tips to improve your productivity throughout the day.  Remember, if you want to run a successful online business or achieve any goal, improving your productivity is a must.

 

 

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What is Business Continuity Planning?

To build resilience into your business, you’ll need to understand that your business continuity plan will provide the resilience necessary to overcome setbacks and disruptions in essence. Business continuity planning consists of examining your business for weaknesses based on known threats that may affect your ability to do business on any given day.

 

You’ll have to go through your processes, systems and examine what you do each day along with the resources you use (human and otherwise) to help you mitigate problems and issues. Business continuity planning includes:

 

  • Determining and listing possible types of distributions – You need to set up a plan for every eventuality that you can think up. Illness, lousy weather, destroyed technology, government regulations, and so forth are already known issues. Listing them out will help you figure out what you’re going to do for each of them automatically.

 

  • Studying your workflows – Part of the process includes having standardized workflows to identify bottlenecks and note the software and other resources you regularly use so that you can develop a plan if something within that system and process goes wrong. For example, if you outsource blog writing to one person and uploading the posts to another person, you can eliminate the problem of relying only on one person for everything.

 

  • Establishing key performance indicators – As you study your processes and workflow, you can also establish a few important indicators to track that can signal a problem or lead to a solution.

 

  • Setting up benchmarking – One key to overcoming a setback is to live by your data more than your gut. A combo of the gut with data is always better than just doing things without any idea of the metrics. For example, if you set up an emergency budget for your business that allows you to keep going during hard times, what is the number you need to meet? Do you know what your break-even point is?

 

  • Including redundancies – As you set up your processes and systems and examine your workflows, you can identify areas to create redundancies. For example, instead of using only one server space for your website, you can set up two, which will enable you to switch if one goes down quickly.

 

  • Developing plans – Using all the information you derive from a thorough study of your business and enabling you to keep going during hard times, you can use that information to develop concrete plans that you simply implement during a hard time instead of creating it from scratch.

 

When it comes to crisis management, having a plan in place before anything happens is essential. A proper continuity plan will include actual plans in place for the things you know will occur, such as illness, whether governmental or other issues. While you cannot plan for everything, any of these ideas can be adapted to unknown emergencies when needed. The act of planning and putting in place this plan will make your business more resilient and even eliminate many of the pitfalls that cause more than half of all businesses to fail in their first three years.