Loading ...I’ve been tagged by my good buddy, Joy Slaughter of A Capital Solution to share one of my best productivity secrets. I actually have a couple to share.
One of the best things I ever did for both my business and my productivity was set aside one day each week where I focus on nothing but MY business. No client calls, no client work–just me, all me. Or my business rather.
So every Monday is the day I use to focus on my business, reexamine my processes, work on new products, learn new skills, work on marketing collateral, or what have you.
Sometimes, it’s just a day that I muse. I might simply sit and mentally strategize something in my business I want to accomplish. Or sometimes, if I’m feeling stuck, I use it as a goof-off day and change scenery, do something fun, and take my mind off things. Without fail, I always come back feeling re-energized and can attack something with fresh focus and clarity–and productivity!
My other productivity secret is sort of the same as the first–but this one is having a client meeting day. As a Virtual Assistant, I work closely and personally with my clients. And my work requires that I am able to focus without interruption and distraction.
This was a constant problem in my early days. Clients would want to call me throughout the day or have their weekly client telephone meetings on different days, and it was wreaking havoc on my ability to concentrate, dive into work and be productive. It was also affecting my happiness with my business and working with clients.
I realized I needed to have a standard and a policy for tackling the issue. My solution was to set aside one day a week, just like my Business Monday, where I conducted all my client telephone calls. No more having to field telephone calls throughout the day or spending time trying to schedule calls each week.
So each of my clients now gets a set time (same time each Tuesday) that we can meet on the phone, discuss projects and goals, and stay connected and in-sync. This way, it’s scheduled once and we don’t have to worry about it again. It becomes a habit that serves us both, and I no longer have my productivity and concentration disrupted. It really allows me to serve clients even better than I had been!
Okay, I guess I actually have three productivity secrets to share, LOL.
My third productivity secret is the policy I instituted in my business where I require all work requests to be submitted by email.
I’m only human. I admit it. And I am terrible when it comes to keeping track of requests if they come in by phone, voicemail or other way. I may have any number of projects on my desk at any given time, and I just never have been good keeping track of notes.
So what would inevitably happen is a client work request or some other task would fall through the cracks if it wasn’t sent to me by email.
Well, I don’t need to be Superwoman and recognizing a weakness and honoring it, in a sense, allowed me to come up with a solution, which was to require all requests be submitted by email.
Now, I have everything in one place–my email IN box. I’m better able to manage and field the requests, priortize and keep track and then organize everything in folders. Again, implementing this simple policy has not only made my life easier, but it allows me to give greater service to my clients.
So, now I guess I need to come up with some folks to tag, huh?
Let’s see, how about my friends Victoria Miles, a fabulous Virtual Assistant in Argentina, Laura Jo Richins of Richins Business Support Solutions, and LaTanya Robinson of LaRobe Business Solutions. Can’t wait to hear your secrets!
