Increase productivity as an entrepreneur and employee: 10 tips

Part-time entrepreneurship, slashing, employee at X and owner of; more and more people are working part-time and employed and part-time as entrepreneurs. There are now all sorts of terms for this way of working. Yet this is not always the most convenient way of working; you want to keep your business afloat and you also want to keep doing your regular job well. The key to solving this is to increase your productivity.

That's why I wrote this blog specifically for entrepreneurs and employed people about improving productivity.

What is productivity?

Productivity means getting income from work. Therefore, how high your productivity is may depend on the revenue model you have. In any case, you are productive if you are engaged in activities that are part of your revenue or that ensure that the company where you work can run its operations optimally.

Research shows that women entrepreneurs are more likely to be part-time entrepreneurs than men, and they are also less productive per hour worked as entrepreneurs than men. In this study, this could also mean that they earn less per hour, so that doesn't even necessarily mean anything about how much work they do in that hour.

It feels like productivity, but is it?

A big trap that many people fall into is that they think they are doing all kinds of productive things, but they sometimes end up being unproductive. Some of those activities are:

• Checking your email
• Monitoring your (corporate) social media

Email notifications that pop up on your screen while you’re working at your computer can be particularly stressful and cause frequent interruptions. The more time people spend on their email, the less productive they feel. People often feel more productive only when they have a set time to check their email.

Checking your business’s social media can sometimes feel very productive, too. When you get a “like,” it makes you feel good. Apparently, people are happy with your social media presence. It’s also an important part of your marketing, but in principle, simply posting the messages is enough, and you can check them at the end of the day. Especially if your real job involves something other than social media.

For salaried employees, using social media can improve collaboration with colleagues. If social media is actually used for work purposes, it can even boost productivity. As a result, the ways in which entrepreneurs and salaried employees use social media differ significantly.

Issues that hurt productivity

In some companies, it is popular to reward people extra when they do something good to improve productivity. This is often something that happens too, but if handled incorrectly it has a nasty side effect.

Bullying at work.

For example, people who are very good at their jobs may start bullying those who cannot take advantage of the extra rewards. They might do this by, for instance, stoking competition and instilling the feeling that the other person will never achieve what they have achieved.

With this, the "bully" seeks to move even higher up the relative ladder in the workplace and increase the distance between less-performing colleagues. This reduces the productivity of the less-performing colleague. The gap may seem larger, but this does not mean that the bully really remains more productive after the first time an extra reward is given.

Health issues often also reduce productivity at work and also as a business owner. As an employee, you may be at work, but you just don't function optimally. Pain, for example, can reduce your ability to concentrate and cause a deterioration in focus.

As a self-employed person, you can easily take the day off if you are feeling down for once, only in the long run this does not help and you may also suffer from concentration problems.

Tips to improve productivity

There are several things you can do to improve your productivity. That's why I'm going to offer some tips that will come in handy for business owners and employees.

Tip #1: Keep your body healthy

To improve and maintain productivity, you can start by keeping your body healthy. Research shows that when you alternate between sitting and standing while working, people experience less fatigue and back pain. As a result, productivity remains at roughly the same level throughout the day.

Tip 2: Improve your sense of well-being

Well-being is a very broad concept. For example, a person's well-being depends on physical health, which you work on through the first tip, as well as a person's mental health. Feeling good also increases productivity at work.

To improve your well-being, you can, for example, practice meditation. Research shows that meditating for 10 minutes a day significantly reduces stress, making you feel better.

Tip 3: Start with the tough jobs

For most people, the day begins with checking your e-mail. However, this is a very simple task and it is actually a waste to spend your good energy on this. Therefore, it is better to start with the heavier tasks of the day that require more focus and concentration. Then checking your mail afterwards will also feel more like a break than work 😊.

Tip 4: Stop multitasking

Focus on 1 task. Doing multiple things at once actually makes you take longer on everything and also gives that work less quality than you could. Turn off your phone notifications and stop checking your email. In fact, research shows that multitasking lowers your productivity by 40 percent. In the process, it also lowers your IQ. So if you know what's smart for you focus on 1 task.

Tip 5: Make a to-do list for the next day

Really only for the next day and only with the most important tasks, otherwise that list gets so long and that in turn demotivates. By doing this at the end of your working day you don't waste your good energy in the morning and you avoid adding to your list during the day and only causing yourself more stress.

If you can, you can also talk with a colleague about your or each other's to-do list, this makes you think more about the activities and what you need to do. Then you don't have to repeat that thinking the very next day and you can also be more confident that your to-do list is not too full.

In the process, you can also make your to do list shorter by doing only the things that are really important, this will also improve your focus for those tasks.

Tip 6: Remove distractions

Distractions, such as social media and email pop-ups on your screen, are very detrimental to your productivity. If you don’t need the internet for your work, it’s actually best to just turn off the Wi-Fi.

If you have other distractions it's best to remove them from your office. Is it just colleagues who distract you with their mutual chatter? Then buy headphones and listen to classical or focus music so you can properly focus on your work.

Tip 7: Schedule your phone calls

Most people find it annoying to call someone. Or even to pick up the phone. Fortunately, everyone understands that you also have other things to do and you will call them back later. Therefore, set a time in the day when you check who has called you and who is going to call you back. Then you are in control instead of your phone.

Tip 8: Activity gets your brain active

Alternating between standing and sitting at work will keep you energized. Alternating your work with activity, such as squats or lifting weights a few times, also re-energizes your brain, allowing you to focus better afterwards and, yes, become more productive.

Tip 9: Get enough sleep

Sleep is incredibly important for your focus and productivity. If you don't sleep you suffer from concentration problems and everything actually takes longer, this may cause you to make longer days and sleep even less.

By actually taking the time to really sleep 8 hours a night, you are more rested and can actually work better and you also finish your work faster and are therefore more productive.

Tip 10: Stay optimistic

Whether you are salaried or an entrepreneur sometimes things take a turn for the worse. Then it's very easy to become pessimistic, but optimism works to keep your productivity high.

To stay optimistic, it’s important to understand why you become pessimistic and then work to change those underlying beliefs. Hypnosis can help you with this.

Want to learn more about mental techniques to work better? Then come to a workshop or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses.

Sources:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-009-9174-x

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2858262

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321300366X

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105348221300048X

http://oem.bmj.com/content/71/11/765.short

http://journals.lww.com/joem/Abstract/2015/04000/Well_Being_Improvement_in_a_Midsize_Employer_.4.aspx

https://www.thebalance.com/top-ways-to-increase-productivity-2948669