6 Simple Productivity Hacks for Small Business Owners

Whether you are in the early stages of business growth, or just want to do more with less, increasing productivity is a must.

There are many tools and strategies to achieve this, so many in fact, that it can be difficult to know where to start. This list of productivity hacks is a great place to start as you begin to make better use of your work day and propel your business in the right direction.

1. Shift Your Beliefs About Time

Time is often compared to money. While this is true to some extent, time is actually more valuable than money. Your time has a hard limit, end of story.

Give your time the value it deserves, and learn to distinguish between real hours and clocked time. Even if you’re at the office for eight plus hours a day, you will really only be working for six or seven of those hours (on a good day). Place realistic expectations on yourself and take this into consideration as you are setting deadlines, organizing meetings, etc.

1. Don’t Hoard Your Favorite Tasks

It’s easy to fall into the trap of holding onto the tasks that you do the best. It can even be painful to release them into someone else’s hands, but if you want to increase both your skills and those of your employees, you need to learn how to delegate.

This strategy will give you a more well-rounded view of your business and make it so that you take advantage of a “plug and play” setup with your employees. If you happen to take a day off things will no longer come grinding to a halt.

1. Invest in Employee Satisfaction

Employee engagement has been a heavily discussed topic – and for good reason.

Employees that are engaged and satisfied at work are more productive, take less sick days and are more likely to stay with the company for longer periods. The question is, how do we increase employee engagement? This Reward and Recognition survey may offer some answers.

1. Lock Down Distractions

This is definitely easier said than done, but if you manage to cut down on distractions your productivity levels are guaranteed to jump.

This can be particularly troublesome for those of us that work on a computer all day. If you need some additional help reinforcing your goals, check out SelfControl. This tool blocks your access to any websites that you find to be distracting. Just be warned, that once you implement it you will lose your access until the timer expires even if change your mind.

1. Use the Right Technology

This may seem like a no-brainer but many small business owners do not take full advantage of the technology available to them.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to this area. Some business may greatly benefit from HRIS Software, while other may have an outstanding need for collaboration and planning tools. The time that you spend researching apps and tools will often be well worth it.

1. The Gift of Outsourcing

Your business doesn’t have to be limited by your skill set or those of your employees. Rather than trying to take everything on yourself, outsource projects that will be too time-consuming or that you have limited knowledge of.

By using contractors for targeted tasks, you can get high-quality results without hiring a full-time employee. This will also free up your time for other projects that are vital to the health of your business.