I have been self employed, for over a year now and I know how hard it can be to be proactive and get things done. Especially when you have no one telling you what you need to do.
Being able to structure time can become very difficult and doing things efficiently, even harder. I find the more time you have to do something, the more you end up procrastinating. You kid yourself you are working, when really you are looking through Facebook or daydreaming about your lunch.
So how can you get things done productively?
- Make a daily to do list – I always find it best to write the list the night before.
- Prioritize your to do list, getting the most important completed first and then the easy tasks later in the day when you don’t require so much concentration.
- Exercise first thing in the morning- (I know you are probably thinking its easy for me because I’m a personal trainer, but sometimes, I don’t feel like exercising first thing either.) When I do I always feel so much better and can be a lot more productive during the day. If you don’t have time to exercise, take a morning walk.
- Turn off your phone when getting work done! (stop using social media when you need to get work done.) Focus solely on the task to be completed.
- Allocate a specific time to get task completed set a immediate deadline. For example getting the task completed in 2hrs rather than completed in 2 weeks.
- Be decisive; don’t spend ages trying to make your mind up about something. Instead make the decision and then move on to the next task.
- Put your headphones in. You are a lot less likely to be distracted by people if you have headphones in.
- Personally my favorite, drink coffee! it can help you concentrate, it tastes amazing and gets you 100% into the work mode.