Tips for Entrepreneurs to reduce the overwhelm.
I’ve been doing a lot of podcast interviews lately and I’ve had three this week alone, which has been so much fun. I’ve been a guest on other people’s podcast shows as well. I’ve been noticing that there has been a lot of similar questions that I’m being asked so I thought I would address one and share it in a video.
Some of the questions I get asked a lot are:
“What is my biggest productivity tip or how do I stay organized? What is one of the biggest tools that I use in my business to kind of stay on track?”
My response is always my project management tool, which is TeamWork. There are others like Podio, Basecamp, and Asana, whatever you use, it is a great tool to stay organized and have all your projects stay on task, have due dates and nothing slips through the cracks. Now, in saying that, I also want to mention that it needs to be used in tandem with your inbox. That sounds kind of strange, right? My biggest advice to any entrepreneur is
- Do not use your inbox as your task management system.
- Do not use your inbox as a task and a to-do list.
- Do not use your inbox as an archive for your information to work on projects or anything really.
Think of your inbox strictly as a junction. Things need to come in, then things need to go out.
What I mean by that is if you get an email, you’re either going to respond, answer the person’s question, you’re going to forward it to the people on your team or other people (if it refers to them) or they need to create an action on it, or if it’s a really quick task and you know you can do it right away then do it and delete it. Other than that, here’s what you need to do.
When you get an email in and it’s about something that you need to do, a task or a project or it communication giving you more information for that project, take that task and put it in your task management system. Now, any files that are attached to emails, I do download them and then I also put them in my Teamworks task, so you can attach files right there. I even go as far as copying and pasting the whole email thread so that I can see the communication, what questions have been answered, some ideas, even wordings for stuff, right?
I’ve copied and pasted that into the comment of that task, set the due date and sometimes if I know that I’m waiting for something, I’m waiting for a reply from someone, I’m waiting from material from the copywriter, whatever it may be, I actually have a little tag that says “Waiting for” and I’ll even put in the task name, “Waiting for XYZ” and then I set the due date. That way it doesn’t slip through the cracks. That way my inbox is clear and clean. Everything is in Teamworks and I know exactly where I am when I go into Teamworks.
I can see what I’m doing today. I know what’s coming up this week. If I look at a task I know I’m waiting for something. I can see the communication inside. I’ve got the files right then and there. That way I’m not having to resort to dealing with my inbox to find anything. Scrolling through my inbox and where was that email about whatever that we were talking about with the project? My inbox is so much easier, more manageable. Again, everything is tracked and stored in my Teamworks.
That is my biggest tip. Again, I’ve been getting this question all week. In another podcast interview that I’m doing so I really wanted to share that with you. That is my tip for this week folks. If you want some other great tips or productivity hacks, you can go to SmoothBusinessGrowth.com/BeProductive. I’ve got a great guide there that you can download for free. Of course, go to LyndsayPhillips.com for my blogs, videos and my own podcast show the Sailing To Success podcast. Of course, if you are looking for more help in your business to attract and acquire customers faster through powerful content marketing, please go to SmoothBusinessGrowth.com and you’ll find the Start Here page there as well.
