As a business owner, I always struggle to manage my personal life and workload. I’m a boss and an employee to myself. Therefore most of the days, I have to force myself stop working and go to bed hoping for that one extra hour of work. If you’re solopreneur like me- you probably don’t have that many hours to spare too. So I’ve rounded up some tips that we could all use to get that extra hour or two in a day. Here we go!

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Make Lists & Stick to Them

I make a to-do-list in the early morning every single day. I make coffee, sit down and write all the big & small tasks I have to do on the day and never finish work before I can cross off every single item. Just think realistically, of course! So instead of just listing a ‘ PROJECT X ‘ on your to-do list, not something like ‘ MAKE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR PROJECT X ‘. Write down specific tasks and stick to them. By doing this, not only you’ll be more productive, you won’t risk procrastinating as much.

Get rid of the quick tasks first

So after you’re done with your list- separate some of those points into two parts:

• Tasks that take 20 minutes or less
• Major tasks that do not have a specific timeframe

Start your day with completing the small tasks first and check them off from the list. Just sit down, concentrate and try to finish them all at once. If you postpone, all these small tasks will add up quickly and it will get harder to complete all at once, so don’t wait!

Check Your Email at the Set Time Only

How many times do you check your email? Probably way too many times to count! I know it’s important to be able to respond to your customers’ requests asap, but responding to an email straight away can be a bit overwhelming. I caught myself many times stopping whatever I’m doing, to respond to one of my clients and after I was done- I rarely ever got back to the task I was trying to finish. I would just wander off doing something else instead. Well, I learned my lesson realised that does no good to anyone.

Set certain times to check your email. For example:

• In the morning as soon as you wake up and get ready for work
• In the afternoon, after lunch.
• In the evening, after or before dinner. Depends on whatever you’re doing that night of course!

If you’re used to reading every single email as soon as you received, you might feel like you’re out of control at first. Let me tell you the truth tho- your clients have their own life going on and even if you open their emails straight away, it doesn’t mean they’re just sitting out there waiting for your reply. You can also find the alternatives to keep in touch with your clients. On my website, I use Zopim to live chat with my customers and if I feel like their request is a bit too difficult to handle in one go- I would direct them to send me an email with their request. I also inform them that it might take up to 24 hours for me to respond and I never heard anyone complain about it!

My customers can also tweet me at any point and most of the times I respond way faster than on the email. Twitter is amazing for customer support as it allows you to provide quick answers without interrupting your work.

Use canned responses

If you’re sending a number of similar emails every single day you might consider creating some canned responses. You can just use them next time you receive a very familiar letter. I used to just copy and paste pre-written answers into my emails, but I recently discovered that Gmail is offering canned responses options which makes it even faster. It allows me to give the best customer service experience without spending loads of time on rewriting information you’ve already typed in hundreds of times before.

Create a FAQ page

Another way to save loads of time on e-mail enquiries is actually posting the answers out there. Having a FAQ page on your blog or website will allow your potential clients to get more info or even find the answer to the question they were about to email you with. You can find my FAQ page here. I also always email this link to any new customers, just so they can look through what others are most concerned about.

Schedule Your Blog Posts

I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I really don’t feel like writing a blog post. On the same note, there come the days when all I wanna do is write, write and write some more. My advice is- use those days and schedule your posts ahead! There are various of tools you can use to plan your posts online, my favourite is CoSchedule which allows you to install a plugin for your WordPress blog and even lets you integrate social media posts too. Of course, if you’re looking for a free alternative, you can simply use Google Calendar to write down topics/to-do-lists for your future posts.

Schedule Your Social Media

I plan my social media ahead every Sunday. I have a number of tweets ready that I post occasionally and I just schedule them for the whole week as well as include some inspirational quotes, feature my old posts etc. Of course, I still tweet life during the day, but this helps me to stay focused and don’t get lost in social media when I should really be working. You can also use various software for the rest of social media too:

Hootsuite – allows you to schedule posts for facebook, twitter and even Instagram. I mostly use it for scheduling my tweets and catching up on various Twitter chats at once. Very useful tool!
Tailwind – is perfect for scheduling your Pinterest posts. You can also get pins from your Instagram and integrate other social media.
Latergramme – have you ever wanted to schedule your Instagram posts or upload pictures to Instagram from your computer rather than phone? This app can do both!

Focus on one task at a time

Whatever you do- don’t let other tasks interrupt you. That’s really a secret to saving your time. From the minute you begin till the minute you finish, your full attention has to be dedicated to one task and one task only. Without worrying about other work you have to do, you will be able to work faster and bring the best performance to the table!

Organize!

You must clean the space around you in order to have clean head and be as productive as possible. I’ve been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying lately and it really seems to be changing my mind about the importance of tidiness in our life. I already threw away a bunch of unnecessary stuff from my closet and drawers. I also cleaned up my laptop, so I can find all the files quickly and my programmes load faster.

A clean desktop is really important too. I’m lucky enough to have an office downtown, where I don’t actually have loads of stuff, so it is pretty easy to keep my desk tidy. However, if you’re working from home, make sure to organise your space and keep it clean at all times. It will keep you focused on work rather than worrying where the heck than pencil has gone…

Have a routine

Having a scheduled, relaxing routine really does wonders to your life. Do whatever you have to do every single day, but try to have a set routine on all of your tasks and even hobbies! Find some time to meditate and exercise too. Including good habits into your day can really increase your energy level and productivity. Trust me, I do love to sleep in from time to time. However, I feel like I accomplish the most when I really stick to my schedule. This way, I’m able to stay on top of my game and cross off items from my to-do list way faster!

Read more: A Day In The Life Of a Blogger.

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Let me know if you have any special ways that help you to save some time during the day and keep focused?