What should I DO in business?

Recently I had great feedback from a couple of presentations that I’ve given all about productivity in business. It seems that in this new world scenario, where we are working from home a lot more than we used to and are surrounded by even more distractions than usual, tips on how to get the right “stuff” done strikes a cord with many of us in business.

When we are working from home, even if you do have your own space, distractions are everywhere and the temptation to go down the social media rabbit hole or a Netflix marathon “time trap” can be irresistible. Combine that with home schooling, other family members interactions or even that tempting bottle of wine, with less accountability we can become much less efficient than when we are at work.

The general problem isn’t a new one, it has just been magnified by the pandemic and the environment it has put us in. Some call it laziness, some call it distraction, others call it procrastination but whatever you label it it seems we all suffer from “it” one way or another! I use a phrase that I repeat to myself throughout the day to check that I haven’t fallen into any “time traps” that helps me reassess if I’m on track:

“Am I being effective and efficient?”

These two words summarise the goal of achieving results and by using this question almost hourly you can catch yourself from falling into time traps without noticing you are in there!

In business, to be successful we have to look at the tools that the super successful employ and find the tools that work for us. There is no one size fits all but let’s take a look at a couple of examples that can help us get some ideas.

Super successful British entrepreneur, Jojar Dhinsa, is one of the most productive and pro-active people I have ever met. His work ethic and time management is off the charts! He has a technique he uses to keep him accountable to his goals as follows.

He sets an alarm on his phones (he works with three phones) every hour that pings up to prompt him to ask himself “Am I on track?”. He does this because like everyone else he can get distracted too, and the reminder steers him back on track if he’s been pulled off in another direction. 

Elon Musk is another example of someone who uses every second of the day to get the maximum out of each minute. He uses a system he refers to as aligning vectors. It means Elon ensures that the entire company is aligned with the same goal at the same speed (a vector) so that no-one is pulling in different directions. By regularly assessing the vectors of each person and department in the company and making the destination crystal clear, a more effective and efficient workflow is achieved. In other words, a social media rabbit hole would not be an aligned vector!

As I said earlier, to help entrepreneurs contemplate and experiment with ways of being more effective and efficient, I’ve put together a presentation showing a few ways that may help. I’ve also developed an online tool called Blam-Ability that helps organise the weekly repeatable tasks in a system that sets reminders and keeps you accountable. It’s completely free to use and comes with the Blam Academy membership which is also free. We’re in beta testing mode at the moment, so feel free to sign up here to get onboard early.

If you’d like to see the presentation I gave earlier this week about helping you become more effective and efficient watch it here.

This is a fascinating subject for any of us in business that want to achieve more, and be more affective with our time. I'd live to hear ways you keep yourself accountable to your time so feel free to comment below.