How many times have you arrived at the office intending to smash out the to-do list you pro-actively wrote the previous day, only for you to become unstuck within the first 15 minutes?
What should have been an extremely productive day, kicking goals and checking off the items on your to-do list is now a complete sh*t fight!
The day continues getting busier, the to-do list gets longer and before you know it's the end of the day and you've achieved absolutely nothing, zero, zilch, nada on your to-do list.
On your way home you might be asking yourself, what went wrong, and, what could you of done to avoid such a day?
Now I'm not a betting person, but for argument's sake say I was, I bet if every single person who had a humdinger of a day attempted to retrace their steps as they arrived at the office that morning, a large majority would have one thing in common.
CHECKING THEIR INBOX
Of course, it's a natural occurrence among many every day. Turn on the laptop and check your emails, pick up your phone and check your emails, Karen in the elevator on the way up to the office says 'did you check your email'? In that very moment when you open your inbox, is where the path to oblivion sneakily awaits.
As you sit there with your latte in one hand scrolling through the emails which arrived overnight, and early that morning it seems like a good idea to reply to just a few of them as you go. Sound familiar?
If you want to maximise your productivity and make a start on the carefully planned to-do list, with tasks listed in order of priority, leave emails until later in the day.
Committing to a self-imposed deadline and focusing on your to-do list for the first two or even three hours of your day will go a long way to creating a day of maximum productivity, providing you with a great sense of achievement.
If you are struggling to keep up with the essential administrative tasks required to run your business, why not consider outsourcing? Engaging a virtual assistant to handle your email, as well as things like your calendar is essential to becoming more productive as a small business entrepreneur.