How to be productive without breaking your back(1)

Starting a business is an exciting path, full of daily challenges that means giving your all. Beyond all this, there are some aspects that can be quite hard, no matter how gratifying they may be. 

We want this post to help you rethink the way you do some things and get more out of your effort. But - this nuance is important - nonetheless it implies you reach the end of the year with your tongue out and huge dark circles under your eyes. 

Summing up, we can say that it is to do more in less time and using a minimum amount of resources. Basically optimize processes to the maximum. 

Of course, at least from our point of view, it is a mistake to confuse productivity with breaking our back. 

There is a way of being productive while maintaining a reasonable work pace, because, in addition, pushing our capabilities to the limit creates tension that in burns out in the long run. 

If this happens, you will stop being productive or, in the worst case, you will even stop at all, completely stopping producing. 

We could sum it up in a lot of ways to work more hours, but no: we want you to work the same (and if possible a little less). Remember that business is the most important thing after your life and the priority must be yourself. 

Let´s start with the tips, you will realize that it is possible. 

Take a look at your table, what can you see? I was afraid of it, you have fallen into the classic mistake of accumulating papers, coffee cups, packages, invoices. 

The less you have mixed in, the better. Only what is necessary for the specific moment and the task you are doing. This not only helps you to be more relaxed, it also implies that you will find things faster, because that of "I organize myself in my disorder" is quite debatable. 

By the way, apply these tips from the physical desktop to the virtual one and do not have the computer in a mess as well. 

I think it is not necessary to tell you to look for a comfortable place, illuminated (natural light even better) and airy. If you are uncomfortable working, you will hardly get the most out of your time and effort. 

There is something very negative and that, without noticing, embodies a exterminator of productivity : the negative routines. They are situations that occur progressively and that we end up making them normal. 

Do do you want some examples? Let´s see a couple of them. 

For example, arrive rushing to work and start directly at the highest level of intensity Do not get out of bed and get to work: give yourself some time to become aware, do some exercise, eat breakfast and get acclimatized to work progressively. 

Another example: eat badly and all the time. Anxiety can lead you to be snacking nonstop, drinking coffee and carbonated soft drinks. Or, when it comes eating a hot meal, you order anything and swallow it in front of the computer. The alternative is to have fresh fruit and drink plenty of water. When it comes to eating, take it as a break and a time for yourself outside of work. 

Those kinds of things, which make your life more rewarding, involve a healthier work mechanic and work is no longer a burden. 

From our point of view, one of the deadly enemies of productivity is multitasking. 

When you run a business, sometimes it costs a lot to abstract and focus on one thing.  But if we jump from an email to a call while we upload the catalog and set up a Google Ads campaign ... we are likely to make mistakes and surely the situation will cause stress. 

A good idea is to divide your day into blocks of minutes and try to stick to them. If, for example, you spend half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon to answer emails, do not do anything else in the meantime and focus those periods most of the activity in that sense (there will always be emergencies, but there are less than the one you believe) 

I imagine you have a thousand things to do, so it is very easy for one of them, number 788, for example, you end up forgetting if you do not take control of your tasks. 

Organizing your day, week and month into lists is the best way to be clear at a glance what you have to get ahead. To be totally useful, it is optimal that you also set a priority for each task to be truly productive. 

You can use a simple spreadsheet or even a notebook in which to cross out the completed tasks or postpone them for the next day. There is something really gratifying in the fact of crossing out that text and seeing how they disappear, is motivating. 

Yes, I know I just told you that you can use a notebook and a pen, but we can go to another level and use management tools for projects, especially when they involve more than one person or a team.

It is much more productive to centralize all communications, calendars and files in a single platform than to have each of those responsible looking in their email accounts or computers locally. 

Solutions like Trello, Monday or Basecamp are not especially expensive, they are simple to start using and help to be productive even to the most chaotic of entrepreneurs. Some have trial versions and others even quite operational lite ones, you do not lose anything by checking them out.