Increasing our personal and business productivity can be a daunting task and sometimes we don’t even know where to start. There’s so much information coming toward us, and the list of things to do seems to grow while we’re sleeping. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to do it all right now, and take a different approach. Let me explain.
What if you could do something every day to improve or increase your business by just 1%? I know that sounds insignificant, but think about it—in just one year you would have increased your business by multiples of that 1%, and THAT would add up!
First of all, make a list of all the things you need to do to make a small improvement, things that could improve your overall productivity by just 1%. What might this list look like? If you use blogging or article marketing as part of your online business strategy, do you have any broken links out there? It happens to the best of us. Find them and fix them.
Perhaps you could begin spending just a few minutes a day reaching out to someone new in your Social Media circles. Just one strategic contact could net you lots of new business in the course of the year. Is it worth those few extra minutes? You bet, it is!
Could you be more efficient if your desk and office weren’t so cluttered? Go on a 10 minute blitz and begin sorting out the mess. One box for things to throw away, one for things to file, and so on…
If you did this just once or twice a week, soon you’d be able to think more clearly and put your hands on what you need without wasting valuable time searching for papers and information.
Set aside a small block of time and begin to learn your organization software. If you use Microsoft Outlook, learn to use its organization functions – they’re awesome!
If you’re using another contact manager or email storage system, be sure to learn all you can about how to let it work for you. So many times, we just learn the basics, enough to get by, and we put off digging into what could give us many hours of time in the future by helping us be better organized.
You shouldn’t expect to learn it all in one sitting; instead, just use small blocks of time, and let the learning be cumulative. At the end of a week, or a month, or even several months, you’ll look back and be shocked at how far you’ve come.
So, begin your day by considering what small action you can take to improve your business by just 1%. And remember, it’s taking action that makes the difference! What action will you take?
