3 Tips for Staying on Task

Photo Credit: Dan Brady

I was reading a post on Get Paid to Write Online, and one thing Jeanna said really stuck out to me:

"With all that needs to be done, you may find yourself jumping from one task to another. Not helpful. You’ll look up at the clock and see all kinds of time has passed while you’ve accomplished nothing. This then creates anxiety for you, which then leads to procrastination, which then leads to you not doing what you need to for your business, which ultimately leads your business to a bunch of nowhere if you don’t get back on track."

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This is my daily life. Really. Time management is an important skill to gain when you work with little or no supervision, and it's not my strong suit. It's something that I haven't yet conquered, and thus, my life is sometimes a bit chaotic. I start with good intentions of conquering it all, but I end up with nothing more than a few start/stops.

Like when I talked about income tax anxiety, I want to share with you some of my thoughts on what can help fix this situation and overall help you overcome the overwhelm that many new (and seasoned) freelancers face. I'm in the thick of it. It is very real, and no you are not alone.

Oh, and I hear you saying "how can you help someone else and you can't even help yourself?" And I answer that with because I can and because I want to. So there. *smile*

So, here are a few tips for staying on task:

1. Plan your tasks hour-by-hour. Your tasks should be planned in advance so that you can dedicate all of your time to that task. After your time is up, you should move to the next task (even if you aren't finished). Leave some "pad" time at the end so that you can finish up anything you didn't during the time allotted. You can also plan your tasks by half hours, quarter hours, or whatever works for you as far as time is concerned.
2. Schedule "fun breaks". When you work from home (especially if you are a freelancer), it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of working until your fingers bleed (hopefully that's not a literal statement in your case). If you don't set aside some time to have fun during the day, you will resent your work even more. 15-30 minutes is normally sufficient. This way your mind won't wonder to something you perceive as "more fun" when you're working on a more important task.
3. Use a task list. When you're working on your tasks for the day, you should make a list so that you can "scratch things off" when you complete them. It may sound a bit silly, but the mind likes the feeling of completion. Even if you aren't finished with all that you have to do for the day, it's good to be able to check a few things off the list as you go along. That will help fuel your productivity.

Have you heard that Marianne Williamson quote that tells us what "our deepest fear" is? That's pretty much spot on. We are not at all afraid of failing. On the contrary, we are afraid of people seeing is as a major success. It may sound silly, but your lack of good time management and procrastination is deeply rooted in being seen as the success that you are. It all goes back to another saying that goes something like this: "To whom much is given, much is required.". When you are given those praises, you have a certain "reputation" to live up to.

Do you have any other tips for staying on task?

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Your Guide to Remaining Productive Even on Non-Productive Tasks

There are two things that are productive in business: serving clients and attracting clients. Everything else is not productive. Many of these tasks don't fall into the category of "counterproductive", but they are not doing anything to grow your business. These non-productive tasks are things like: bookkeeping, filing, reading emails (unless it's an email needed to service a client), shopping for supplies, etc. While these tasks are often necessary, they aren't productive. They aren't going to make you any more money in the long run. So why do freelancers waste their time on such tasks?

Well, most small businesses doesn't start off productive. As a matter of fact, most business owners spend countless hours doing things that don't grow their business. They can run a one or two man show giving up their time to do things themselves instead of paying others. More often than not, they aren't able to afford to pay anyone else to do these things. New business owners are much more "stingy" (for lack of a better term) with their money, and they should be. After all, according to the Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years. The time from launch to maturity of a startup is critical. There must be money available to continually reinvest in the business. If this is spent passing off non-productive tasks, the average small business owner/freelancer can easily find themselves in a bind.

It's simple enough to find someone else to do the work for you, but it's more challenging (and arguably more rewarding) when you find a way to do it yourself. I know what your next question is -- there are only 24 hours in a day. How can I make time for these activities when I should really be growing my business? That's a great question.

The best thing for you to do is to review how you spend your day. That means it's time to start tracking your time. How much time do you actually spend working? Are you spending too much time reading blogs (other than this one), browsing social networking sites, etc.? Once you know how your time is spent, you are then able to figure out where to "trim the fat". If you spend over an hour per day on social networking sites, that is probably too much. Try cutting it down to 30 minutes to see if that will allow you more time to work on those non-productive tasks.

Do you have any other ideas for staying productive while running a small shop?

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