5 Ways to be More Productive as an Entrepreneur

Working from home as an entrepreneur means that time management and being productive can sometimes be a struggle. Whether you are a small business owner, Etsy seller, virtual assistant or freelancer, my top 5 ways to be more productive might just give you some ideas to stay on track and grow your business!

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

1. Weekly Planning

This is a huge one! Some people are planners and other people aren’t, that’s okay, but figuring out a way to make a weekly plan that works for you is important for your business growth.

I find that for myself, it works the best if I spent a little bit of time on Sunday to plan out my week’s tasks and projects that need to be done. Looking at what I need to accomplish each week, makes it so my to-do list isn’t completely overwhelming.

I’ve recently purchased this printable from Etsy, and at the start of each week I print off 7 copies of this PDF to fill out and plan my projects. I needed a full page one for each day that had a lot of writing space, and this one fit my needs perfectly.

2. Time Blocking

When I only had 1 business (my jewelry business, Starletta Designs) I would block my time by days, an example week might have looked like:

• Monday = Photography and Adding New Products to Etsy, Amazon & My Website

• Tuesday = Marketing Day

• Wednesday & Thursday = Making Jewelry

• Friday = Packaging Jewelry for Amazon FBA

Now that I have 2 businesses and manage many client projects each month, it’s a little bit more of a challenge. So, I am now blocking each morning and afternoon for different tasks each day, depending on my weekly workload.

Example:

• Monday morning – Pinterest client work

• Monday afternoon – Amazon client work

• Tuesday – Working on my own businesses

• Wednesday – Social Media client work

• Thursday morning – Marketing client work

• Thursday afternoon – Graphic Design client work

• Friday morning – Etsy client work

• Friday afternoon – Working on my own businesses

3. Use Project Management Tools

There are so many wonderful project management tools out there. I’m personally using Asana as my go to application, but Trello is another really popular option.

Without Asana, things would fall through the cracks. I admittedly have a horrible memory, and using a tool like this keeps me on track.

How do I use Asana? I create a new board project for each client, and boards for my own 2 business, including separate projects for my blog, my marketing, my recurring tasks. I’m even using Zapier now so that any email I star in Gmail is automatically added as a new task that is assigned to me in Asana, how cool is that? Such a time saver!

4. Outsource

Knowing when you have taken too much on and need to outsource for your sanity and health is important. Outsourcing tasks that you don’t enjoy or don’t want to do, can give you time back to enjoy the success of your business, instead of running yourself into the ground.

Speaking of which, if you want to chat about what I can do for you please contact me. I can take a wide variety of tasks off your plate, such as social media management, Etsy assistance, Amazon Handmade assistance, graphic design, email marketing campaigns, content creation, marketing, and the list goes on! I’m not a unicorn, but some of my clients call me one.

5. Take Time Off

I know, it’s a little counter-productive but so important. We are always busy as business owners but it’s important to take some time off for yourself and recharge. I try to unplug and disconnect completely most Sundays (except for the hour or so spent on planning my upcoming week!) Yes, there are weekends that I’m still working both days, but not often anymore. I’ve decided to make myself a priority, too, and it’s absolutely helped me feel more creative, improved my productivity and helped me avoid the dreaded entrepreneur burnout.

Do you have any productivity tips to add that have worked for you? Share them in the comments!