Being an online business owner, especially if you’re a team of 1, can be pretty isolating. If you struggle to work solo, you might have noticed you find it difficult to focus or stay productive throughout the day. Having working solo online since 2015, I’ve tried and tested a few productivity hacks over the years to see what works well for me. 

So, I’m going to share 5 of my favourite productivity hacks for keeping focused.

Set intervals for checking email

So stick with me, as if you’re a notification genie, then you might be thinking “but what if I miss that really important thing?” According to Gloria Mark (digital distraction specialist at University of California) it takes 23 minutes to return to an original task after an interruption. So those little pop up email notifications can really knock your entire day off course.

I’m a millennial, so the concept of not having Outlook open the entire working day seemed alien. But think about it. If you check in at 9am and again at say 1pm, finally at 4pm… There’s every chance you were travelling or in a meeting for those 4 hours… So, if you don’t ‘jump on it’ would the other person even notice… Chances are in most cases, that’s a no.

So, if no one will even bat an eye… But it’s going to make a huge difference to your day… It’s worth doing!

Since doing this in my business, I now only check twice a day. I’ve even seen people outline in their email signatures ‘this is a calm inbox and will be checked twice weekly’. It’s happening more and more!

Always have daily critical tasks

Not everything on your ‘to do’ list will be time critical. It might sound obvious but spend 10 mins before you clock off the day before outlining your critical tasks for the next day. This way when you come in fresh faced the next day you’re not immediately faced with the task of ‘OMG I can’t get everything done today’. 

Make sure you smash those critical tasks first, so that you feel that burst of achievement early on in the day and it’ll set the tone for the rest of the day.

Put distractions away

Much like the email checking… Put your phone out of the way, on silent (or as I’ve now done… completely turn off all noise, vibration and notification.) So that those requests for your attention happen at a time that’s convenient for you.

Work when you’re most alert

You’ll know yourself better than most… Maybe you’re a morning person. But maybe you do your best work in the evenings. I can’t work past 7pm at night, or I’m wired until 3am. So if you know you’re most focused after your first coffee. Put the important tasks into your morning. The longer you work, chances are your attention and productivity will decrease, so admin tasks are great for the afternoon.

2 minute task rule

Don’t add small stuff onto your ‘to do’ list and clutter it up. If it’s going to take less than 2 minutes… Just do it there and then.

There you have it… 5 productivity hacks for online business owners to stay focused throughout the day and get the best out of your work.

When you start, run and scale a business… You need to do so many things. You need systems, resources, energy, determination, passion and time (lots of time!) However, it is so easy to get caught up and end up acquiring way more systems, processes, offerings and resources than you really need to scale your business.

Always ask yourself… Are you actually making money from your efforts, or do you just have all the moving parts of a business, without the income?

It’s all too easy to end up spending way too much time, ‘fluffing up the cushions’, before you’ve even made a penny.

So when you then come to grow your businesses, you’re unsure as to what’s helping you and what’s hindering you.

You don’t need ‘all’ the systems

We’re all time poor and systems are great for taking the weight off and craving back some of that time. But some of them come at a cost. You need to really work out if that cost is justified or not. Maybe you signed up to Click Funnels at 3 figures a month investment, but you’re not actually getting a return from it and it doesn’t factor into your long term plans.

There’s also so many ‘all in one’ systems out there that help you streamline. I really love Dubsado for there calendar booking feature, which let’s me issue an invoice, ask questions and book calls, all from one system… Rather than 2 or 3.

You don’t need to be a ‘jack of all trades’

One of the things I see so many coaches and service providers do is ‘niche down’. And I don’t just mean audience wise, but offer wise.

Just because you know and understand Facebook Ads, SEO, Video editing and karate… Doesn’t mean that in your business, you should be offering something for each and every one of these specialities (even if they are interlinked).

You can scale faster specialising in one area than you can diluting your energy across 3 or 4… Because it’ll take you 3 or 4 times longer to establish yourself as the expert, than if you just stuck with 1.

Evaluate the 1 that is generating the best return and profit for you (and that you love of course!) and double down on that!

Scale back on the offers

With that said, the same applies to offers! Now if your business benefits from retention and repeat business, sure thing let’s think of a value ladder that means you can continue to work with those clients long term. But let’s not throw all your offerings out into the wider marketplace. You may think the more offers you have, the wider the net you’re casting… But too many offers can be a very confusing first impression for people.

I hope this gives you the permission to start simplifying your business and scaling it with ease and pace. 

If you’re looking to grow your business, but want support and accountability as you take your business towards 6 figures… Then check out Simplify & Scale, my 4 month 1:1 private coaching experience, where together we deep dive into what’s stopping you and put the strategy and plan in place that’s going to streamline your business and see you achieving your goals much faster.

It’s only natural when you’re growing a business, that you will reach a time when you just don’t have the time to do all those little thing you did at the start. Things like book keeping, diary management, scheduling, setting up email sequences…

BUT, much as the thought of someone coming to your aid is great, the thought of onboarding them and getting them used to the way you like things done (only for them to leave and you have to start over).. Instantly has you thinking ‘I’ll be quicker doing it myself’… Right?!

If you never take the time to outsource. You’ll never find the time to do all the other cool things in your business, or maybe even work less hours (oh, that sounds good!)

I get it… I’m a grade A Monica Gellar (and not ashamed to admit it!) In fact my VA said I’m by far her most organised client! But the thought of letting go and handing something over to someone else. Sleepless nights!

But I took the time to devise a system that still means I can keep tabs on who’s working on what, all remotely at a glance… Whilst getting the benefit of all that free time to focus on other things in my business. I want to share it with you.

Set up a Trello board

I LOVE Trello… It’s a to do list on steroids and let’s me see everything I have going on at a glance. Meaning I can set up a work board for my Team and see quickly who is working on what. Whether it’s in progress, completed, waiting on me for anything. (I actually made one for myself and I couldn’t be without it!)

There’s loads of similar systems out there like Asana, AirTable, Click up… But I adore Trello, because it’s low tech, but high reward!

Make recordings of your tasks you’re going to outsource

I screen recorded literally all the tasks I outsource and add them to the work board on Trello. I have a list called ‘Resources’ and I pop them all on there. So, if anyone forgets how to do a certain task, they can watch it back. But it’s also great for when you get new or swap team members. You don’t have to ‘show them the ropes’… Just direct them to the resource list!

Create checklists of steps

Again on Trello, I create checklists for each task of each step. It’s not just ‘upload blog post’, because if you think about it, you have to resize the images, save them as SEO worthy titles, create a Pinterest pin etc… VA’s are working on other clients work and so having that checklist means that no steps get forgotten about (and you can sleep better at night).

Again these are automatically added to the card using the template function… So, Trello is doing all the leg work for you after the initial set up… Phew. 

There you have it, my 3 steps to stress free outsourcing in your business. If you’re looking for help streamlining your business and getting set for growth. Check out my private 1:1 coaching ‘Simplify & Scale’ where over 4 months we will cover off lead generation, automatic systems & processes, outsourcing and your offers., so that your online business is set to scale. 

Running a business isn’t easy, but if you’re like me… you wouldn’t change it for the world!  There are times when the day to day running of the business can be overwhelming and before you know it, you feel stuck fast in a place where catching up feels unlikely.

But, I’m here to get you out of that rut!

I’ve been running businesses since 2013, with my most recent starting in 2019. There’s a few handy tips I wish I knew at the start, that I want to share with you. So, that you can ditch the business overwhelm.

Prioritise

If you have a to do list (even if it’s mental) you have to get good at prioritising what can wait and what really can’t, on a daily basis.

It’s so easy to get sucked into a cycle of overthinking, even the small stuff (especially if it’s something new). But, the reality is imperfect action is better that perfecting inaction. So, make that decision and move on.

PS. If it does come back to bite you in the bum… That’s ok! You’re capable of dealing with whatever happens (it rarely does!)

Organise

You need to create habits for yourself and your business. Whether it’s on paper (or I find digital suits me best) you need to plug in all the important stuff into your diary. Whether that’s accounts, tax returns, content planning, strategy reviews… Plot them in, because if you don’t… That time will get eaten up by other things.

Then you have a far more realistic view of your workload daily, weekly, monthly and nothing surprises you off guard.

Systems

Leading quite nicely into systems! This is why I love digital so much, because these days pretty much most things can be automated, or made simpler by an app or system… Recurring invoices, email sequences, content scheduling.

Systems are so often overlooked, but if you’re a service based business, systems like Dubsado can make onboarding new clients a breeze… You’ll wonder why you ever bothered doing it manually before!

Simplify

Something I see often when I work with business owners is complicated practices or just the very art of over complicating how to make money in the first place.

When you’re planning on scaling your business, you don’t want to take the bad practices with you. Whether that’s complicated on boarding of clients, or any of the previous 3 points! Always have a business check in regularly to see where you can streamline your day to day running, systems AND offers.

Outsource

We’re all guilty of wanting to do it ourselves ‘because it’ll be quicker’. But if you don’t learn to delegate, you won’t scale quickly… You’re needed elsewhere! So, calling all perfectionists (like me) out there… Done is better than perfect. And there’s systems that make delegating super easy, like Trello, Asana, Click up (Trello is my favourite) So that you still have eyes on it and people are following your framework.

Are you ready to ditch the overwhelm and chaos in your business? Spots are open to Simplify & Scale now, my 12 week private coaching where together we’ll deep dive on your business running and get order back in your life ready for scaling with ease!