We're interrupting our regularly scheduled content revolving around branding, strategy, and social media with this timely post.

With the COVID outbreak, we're juggling roles, projects and tasks more than ever. Is it just me, or does it feel like there is even less time in the day to accomplish everything on your to-do list?

This is especially true for those of us juggling family and running our businesses on our own. It’s easy to get stuck in the trap of answering emails at all hours of the day, feeling spread too thin on different tasks, and finding yourself putting off the tasks that will actually move your business forward.

This quarter, we are focusing on achieving work-life balance while growing our business and removing chaos from the household, which means we need to work smarter, not harder. Today we are talking about strategies that will help you improve your productivity at work.

These 5 productivity hacks will help you stay organized, complete your tasks more efficiently, and move your business forward.

1. Write down three tasks you want to accomplish each day

Do you ever get done with a workday and think, what did I even accomplish today? It’s so easy to get pulled into handling whatever pops up and getting sidetracked from the tasks that are important.

We like to start each day making a list of three things we want to accomplish that will help move the business forward. Before we move onto anything else we complete these tasks. This ensures that whatever else happens during the day - we have already had a successful and productive day.

2. Limit time on email and messaging apps

Another time suck for entrepreneurs, and workers in general, is email and messaging applications. Don’t get me wrong, staying connected with your team and clients via email, skype, slack, etc has a lot of perks. But, it can also become a constant distraction and pull you away from the task at hand.

Instead of moving your attention every time you hear a “ping”, we suggest scheduling dedicated times for connection. This could look like 30 minutes at the beginning and end of each day where you read and respond to messages. Schedule it on your calendar and make sure to let your team know what times you are available.

Take it a step further by disabling notifications so that you aren’t tempted to check new messages as they come in! This can feel like a huge change if you are currently tied to your inbox, but we promise, you’ll see a big uptick in your productivity.

3. Batch Working

If you follow recommendation two above, you will have a lot more time in your day for focused work sessions without distractions. This leads up to our next recommendation: batch working. Batch working simply means taking a set amount of time to create content in batches.

We love batch working for writing blogs, crafting social media captions, creating graphics, and basically anything that we need to create more than one of! The timescale is up to you, for instance, you can create all of your blog content for a week or a month at a time. Play with what works best for your business and watch your efficiency skyrocket.

4. Streamline your meetings

Much like email and messaging, meetings can easily consume your day if you let them. We suggest designating at least one day a week as “meeting-free” so that you can have concentrated time to knock out tasks without interruptions.

It’s also a great idea to evaluate your meetings and see if there is any way to combine or streamline them. This could mean scheduling one hour-long meeting with a colleague to check in on multiple tasks instead of three 30-minute meetings scattered throughout the week.

5. Delegate, delegate, delegate!

We can’t stress this one enough - finding ways to effectively delegate is essential as a small business owner. Write down all of the tasks that are part of your job and then review them to figure out which tasks can actually be done by someone else.

Your time is precious, and you need to use it wisely! By offloading the things that you don’t need to manage, you are freed up to tackle the big strategies and plans that will help your business thrive.

Do you have any other productivity hacks that help you in your business during these crazy times? Tell us below!