When I started my career in the field of marketing, I more than not felt like I did not accomplish anything of significance at the conclusion of the day. I felt as if I was doing all the right things: Being in an office for 40+ hours each week, being at my desk on my computer, and finding ways to keep busy. However, I later discovered that being busy and being productive are two very different things.

As professionals (and perhaps even more importantly for entrepreneurs like me), if is critical that we manage our time properly.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve harnessed productivity habits that I’d like to share with you. In this blog, I will highlight 5 hacks you can use to be more productive.

1 – Get a Planner

Getting a planner was a game changer for me and my internet marketing company. By being able to physically write down tasks, meetings, goals, and other key information, I am able to set an intention in my mind and turn that intention into action.

2 – Plan Your Week in Advance

One of the most effective productivity hacks I’ve implemented in my life is planning my week in advance. This is not a perfect process as things come up, but when I set the intention of my goals and all the tasks that are need accomplishing, I find that actually accomplishing those goals and tasks happen.

To plan my week in advance, I sit down at a coffee shop each Sunday afternoon and clear my head. I pull out my planner and start thinking about all the tasks that need accomplishing for the week. I then think about goals that I want to accomplish in the week. Each day is a day we should be using to accomplish our long-term goals.

3 – Schedule Time for Both Strategic and Tactical Activities

As an entrepreneur, I know that tasks each day need to be accomplished to be successful. My company has needs, my clients have needs, and my team has needs that need to be accomplished.

In addition to these daily needs, big picture strategies need to be planned and executed to be successful.

It’s important to make time for both of these activities to be successful.

4 – Get Your Most Important Tasks Done When You’re Most Awake

In my planning stage, I typically put a ‘star’ next to my most important tasks. I’m most awake in the morning, so for me, I like to take care of these important ‘star’ events in the morning. However, you need to decide when you’re most alert and awake so that you can use your best time to accomplish the most import tasks you encounter.

5 – Turn Big Projects Into Bite-Sized Projects

Feeling overwhelmed can stop us dead in our tracks. For this reason, I typically break up large projects into many micro projects. For example, when I am hired to build a business’ website, I don’t simply mark this in my calendar as “build website for X company” but rather something like this:

• Discuss necessary pages with client
• Build sitemap
• Build home page
• Find images for home page
• etc.

This can be done for each day in your calendar that you’re assigning to this project. The simple ability to check off a line item is therapeutic.

6 – Turn Off Distractions

What are your “time vampires,” or things that take up your time? I noticed that once I started browsing on Facebook, I’d get lost and reappear 30 minutes later. It’s important when you’re trying to be productive to remove these things that take up your valuable time.

Final Thoughts

I hope these six productivity hacks were beneficial to you. Following these principles have greatly helped me be more productive, grow my business, overcome anxiety and practice good mental well-being.

Thank you for reading my post and I’d love to hear your thoughts or some productivity hacks you’d like to share!

My name is Anthony Bart, I’m the owner of BartX Digital. We help psychologists, dentists, and other medical professionals grow their practices. If you or your medical practice need any guidance, I’d be more than happy to connect with you!