7 Ways To Increase Productivity - Tip 1: Evaluating Obstacles to Increase Your Productivity

As small business owners we juggle many tasks and must make decisions on issues that could effect the business for the long term. One of the most important assets, yes assets, to any business is its productivity. 

Productivity is defined in different ways, but I have narrowed it down to simply mean 'how much you can make your time work for you.' 

If you are a sole proprietor, this is life or death for your business because your earning potential is directly proportionate to your productivity. 

How can you increase your productivity? 

Here is the first of 7 ways you can increase your productivity which will undoubtedly make a positive impact on your business:

Assess Current Productivity & Evaluate Obstacles

Be honest. This is crucial for the remaining steps in increasing productivity as it is the starting line. Where are you now? Are you a person who works well for 4 hours and really wish you could add at least 2 more hours before a break, or are certain activities holding you back from really reaching your productivity goals?

If you are honest and find that you need vast improvement or moderate increase in your productivity, this is perfect timing to begin your improvements. 

A part of this step is to also honestly evaluate the obstacles that impede you from being as productive as you'd like. Obstacles may sound negative, but it could something essential to your life, like a child coming home from school, an unforeseen illness in the family that requires your attention, or just life in general. 

Anything that gets in the way of your productivity is an obstacle and evaluating them is the only way to mitigate their effect on your working ability.

After identifying your obstacles to productivity, I would rank them in their ability to distract you. For example, my son gets home from school at 2:30pm which is a definite obstacle to my productivity (though often a welcomed break), after identifying this, I would rate this high on my list of obstacles. 

Resolutions would include play-dates with other children, childcare, or me taking some time to spend with him and me returning to my work later on. 

If a social networking site is on your list as a high ranking obstacle, you may delete the icon from your bookmarks bar, set limits on how often you will log in per week, or go on a fast from these sites to break the habit. 

Set a goal for your productivity and benchmarks to measure success.

A benefit to this exercise is also uncovering obstacles that you were not aware hindered your productivity. After assessing that you are putting in 4 hours of work and you begin to look at what takes up the rest of your time you should be working, you may find the following tasks are obstacles, but you never noticed:

1. House chores - working from home may bring to your attention chores you overlook -- DO NOT start any chores when you should be working! Even though it is a necessary and constructive task, your goal is to increase productivity for your business (during working hours), not your home.
2. Phone calls, Visits - Does your friend begin a texting conversation with you daily at 10am? That is definitely detracting from your concentration, even if you are still managing to work, and is therefore an obstacle.
3. Impromptu visits - Does your neighbor think because you're at home, you are the perfect coffee buddy? Definitely set the record straight, nicely, of course :-)
4. Errands - We all have them, but they must be put in their proper place OR the time missed working made up during another time
5. Naps - Staying up late last night for your favorite television program is no excuse to call in to work, right? It is no more acceptable as an obstacle to your productivity.

My next post will reveal Tip #2 in increasing your productivity tomorrow. As small business owners, every opportunity to learn and grow will help us on the path to success.

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