Angeli is the Founder and COO at Workast. Her team ensures our users have an exceptional customer experience with Workast and takes care of all user issues.
How to complete all of the scheduled tasks on time if the startup is based only on you? Start completing tasks from your to-do list in just 3 simple steps. Here are a few secrets of effective self-organization for individual entrepreneurs.
A solopreneur is a person who develops a small but scalable business alone and is the only employee in it. However, this does not mean that the solopreneur takes on one hundred percent of the load: he can hire contractors and freelancers. Delegating tasks is a popular tactic of individual entrepreneurs, but they continue to bear full responsibility for their business, without employing anyone there. They also tend to work independently rather than networking, so managerial tasks and staff management are not their cup of tea.
Individual entrepreneurs work for themselves. There is no one else to rely on: the business starts with them and ends with them.
This is the key way to keep up with everything. Create a to-do list and distribute them in a paper or digital calendar, or day planner. When you have a plan for the day, it becomes easier to live and work.
If you have absolutely bad business with time management, even fix tasks such as showering, deleting spam in your mailbox, and social media communication in your calendar.
Finally, completing the tasks recorded in the list helps to track personal progress. This has a positive effect on confidence in their actions, mood and, as a result, greatly increases productivity.
In any undertaking, there is a component that is more important than the others combined. Of course, other tasks are also important for the enterprise, but they are not supercritical. Therefore, leave the key part in the to-do list, and delete the rest. Imagine that you have become a minimalist, only instead of the acquired, which has become unnecessary, you throw out unnecessary tasks from your life. If it does not serve your sole purpose – it needs to be forgotten!
It is impossible to relax with a solo enterprise: every day of rest means easy work. The problem is that if you relax on Monday, you will immediately want to relax on Tuesday, and then Friday is just around the corner – why then turn on a productive regime for two days?
Instead of the habit of resting, you need to develop the habit of being consistent. Load resistance is a natural state of mind, so do not play along with it. In general, rituals such as a schedule, getting up every day at the same time, and a separately designated unchanging workplace (even if you work remotely) help to tune in to productivity. It is like vessels that you fill with diligence and concentration. Be consistent – and soon these vessels will begin to pay dividends, filling you.
Important things are often hidden under a motley layer of small tasks. The three-minute rule helps to unload small tasks in order to free up time for large ones. The main idea: if the execution takes less than three minutes, do it right now. This can be related to both work (send an email) and family life (download and turn on the washing machine).
If the task seems difficult to you, or it will take a long time, or you do not like it corny – you will avoid it. What to do? Tell yourself: "I will sit over it for 10 minutes and then I will stop." Of course, a major task cannot be closed during this time, but you will get acquainted with it in more detail, or maybe you will catch an impulse, and then you will not be stopped. Just above we wrote how to choose an important task. There is no repetition here. Here it is about small things that you can definitely "scatter", and then decide on big things.
Your fatigue during the day depends on many factors, including sleep and wake cycles – in other words, on your circadian rhythm.
Listen to your body. Mark the hours when you feel tired, and when, on the contrary, you are focused, attentive, and your thinking is as clear as possible. Obviously, in the hours when you are full of energy, focused, and grasping on the fly, you should work on the most valuable tasks.
Your goal is to focus on business processes, but delegation can cause discomfort for those who are obsessed with control and are convinced: "No one will perform this task at least half as well as I do!" So it may be so. But in nine cases out of ten, it is better to get a quick, though not perfect result, especially if this task does not carry high value. Mistakes can be worked on, and the quality can be improved. In a word, at least some result is always better than none.
This ironic law was formulated back in 1955. We have all come across him! If you are given ten days to complete a task, and you can do it in two, it will expand in an unknown way for the entire allotted period. You can show extraordinary strong-willed qualities, tear the navels of all freelancers, and do yourself what is lower, and do it ahead of time, but the director will say "OK" and that is it. Why go against the "system"?
Switch all notifications, except for important work chats, to the “do not disturb" mode. Within the framework of popular mobile and desktop operating systems, native tools have already been implemented that include all notification functions in the “working” mode according to a schedule.
The businesses of individual entrepreneurs work exactly as long as they themselves work. In order for the solopreneur's business to develop more actively, it is important to focus not on debugging operational processes, but on your own time management.
Being a solo entrepreneur is an incredible experience, especially when you stop drowning in procrastination. We hope these tips will help you balance the amount of work and find pleasure in daily tasks.
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