Wearing all the hats required to run a business can make us scattered and inefficient if we don’t learn systems for keeping ourselves organized. Here’s one great way to streamline your brain-power and energy.
Self-management, time-management, and productivity are three key concerns of an entrepreneur.
And the first two can have a profound effect on the last one.
This is why I am a huge proponent of creating intelligent self-management systems that allow you to streamline your productivity.
It not only helps you accomplish more over the course of your workday. It also helps keep you feeling sane and avoiding burnout.
Anyone who has ever run a business is keenly aware of the pitfall of feeling like you are being pulled in all directions and having your energy drained only to get to the end of the day and feel like you’ve accomplished very little of your to-do list.
One of the best ways to avoid this scenario is to batch your tasks.
Returning phone calls and answering emails are two of the main tasks that can create an inefficient workflow.
It’s not a great practice to answer every phone call as it comes, or to reply to emails as soon as they arrive in your inbox.
Why?
Because every time you interrupt your flow on a task to answer a phone call or reply to an email, you take time and energy to transition from one task to another… and then back again. Doing this multiple times throughout the day wastes valuable time transitioning from task to task.
Batching tasks that are similar helps to eliminate these multiple transition phases, and it helps to keep you feeling more productive and sane.
So, instead of being a slave to your phone and your inbox, set a time aside each day during business hours for doing call-backs and sending out email responses.
If your business requires more attention in these areas, set aside a couple of different time slots that make the most sense.
When you batch like activities together in this way, you get in a rhythm and your workday moves along more efficiently.
In addition to batching, I recommend NOT answering phone calls during meal times.
This is a very important part of self-management and self-care.
As long as everyone is safe, there is nothing so urgent that requires you interrupting meal time (or other important activities) to answer the phone.
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And if you know a friend or neighbor who could use hearing the advice in this article or needs The Job I Love Toolkit, please forward this to them.