Simple Daily Habits to Make Running Your Business Easier
There’s no question that it’s tough to run a business. It takes up most of your time and can be pretty stressful. But you wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t helping you to achieve your goals. Your business might stress you out, but you don’t have to let everything add to your frustrations. In fact, doing just a few small things could help your day to run smoother. If you get rid of some of the tasks and annoyances that are getting in the way of doing your job properly you could be more productive, less stressed, and happier altogether. Here are some of the things you might want to do.
Stop Getting Email Notifications
Are your emails set up to notify you whenever a new one comes in? Some people might find this necessary because they always need to be on their toes and keeping touch with the latest news. However, for many people, you don’t need to know the second an email comes in. Reading that new email and possibly replying to it can usually wait an hour or two. If you check your email every time a new one arrives, you end up getting distracted and getting less done. Turn off your notifications and check your email at set times instead. Let people know that if the matter is urgent, they can contact you in another way, such as calling you or using instant messaging.
Allow Yourself Breaks
If you’re a determined business owner, you know that time is money. So it can be hard to take breaks when you know you could be doing something productive during that time. However, if you don’t allow yourself to have a break now and then, you could actually be decreasing your productivity. As you get bored or tired, or you begin to get distracted, you might not be getting as much work done as you tell yourself you are. And if you are working, the quality of your work might not be so great. Allowing yourself the time to take short breaks, even of only five or ten minutes, means you can refresh and reboot your brain.
Have Frequent Documents Ready to Go
There are sure to be some document types that you use again and again. From invoices to order forms, making up and sending out these documents can get tiring. If you mostly run your business solo, this is likely to be something you have to do yourself too. You can use templates to make it easier, so all you need to do is input relevant information, rather than having to do the same things over and over. An invoice template is one of the most useful things you can have if you invoice for your orders. You can choose a template in the file format you prefer and make sure it has all the lines you need.
Stop Dealing with Paper
Modern offices are increasingly relying on being digital and doing away with paper use. While having everything stored digitally can store some problems, the payoff of not having to deal with paper is usually worth it. If you spend all day shuffling sheets of paper and trying to keep them organized, you can change things by going digital. One issue you might contend with is your mail, but you can make that digital too. Choose to receive online statements for services like your bank or utilities. You can even have all your mail sent to a PO Box or virtual address, where they will digitize it for you, so you don’t have to deal with the paper.
Remind Yourself That You Can’t Multitask
You might think that you’re excellent at multitasking. Maybe you’ve even told yourself that women can multitask and men can’t. But studies actually show that no one can multitask well. When you’re trying to do a number of things at once, it doesn’t make you more productive. All it means is that you’re doing several things worse than you would be doing them if you just concentrated on one thing at a time. Multitasking slows you down, so stop trying to convince yourself you’re great at it or that it’s useful. Tick off one task at a time, and your work will be much better. Plus, it’s really satisfying to cross things off your to-do list one by one.
The smallest things can help to make your day easier. If you change some of your daily habits, you could be more productive and run your business more efficiently.
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