Clear Your Clutter

Working in an untidy space will drain your energy and affect your productivity. Clutter and mess distracts you as you try unconsciously to focus on too many things at once, which leads to more stress.

If everything you need is easily accessible, you won’t waste time searching for items every time you need them. A tidy, well-organized office leads to a more productive day for you. It also makes a good impression on customers and co-workers if they come to your workspace.

Start by clearing your desk and getting rid of the physical junk that surrounds you. From time to time, change where you work. Take yourself to your favorite café to do some writing or a peaceful place in nature when you need to think.

Spend 10 minutes to clear your desk. Take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos so you can see your achievement. Set a timer and have the intention you can achieve a real change in this short time. Do this regularly and you’ll start to notice a difference.

Eliminate Distractions

You know that in order to achieve your goals, you need to focus while you work. Whether you work from an office or from your home, you’re going to be faced with distractions that will try to break that focus.

You need to be strict and set rules for yourself and those around you. For example, if you work from home and there are other people in the house, make it clear when you are working and when you are available to them.

• Close your office door if it’s physically possible
• Put up a “Busy” sign
• Get someone else to watch your kids

Distractions can come from outside your space as well, and you need to set rules for these:

• Always put the answerphone on when you are working and only answer the phone if it’s a family emergency
• Turn off email alerts during working time
• Mute or turn off your mobile phone if it distracts you
• Log out of social media so you aren’t pinged by messages or notifications

Whether you’re home or office based, you need to be disciplined. Remember that you are in control of your time and can handle the interruptions in whatever way you choose. Refer back to the work you did in the previous module for tactics on boundary setting.

Leverage Tech for Efficiency

When you automate a process, you invest in set-up time (and maybe some cash) in order to save you time in the long run and make you more efficient in your day-to-day.

There are countless tools available today to help you save time. Finding the right tools for you among the plethora out there isn’t easy.

Some tools are free for life, but others come with a cost. Always take a free trial or demo before you decide to buy. Here are examples of some tools you might want to try:

• Accounts – QuickBooks, FreshBooks
• Appointment scheduling – Acuity, Schedulicity
• Task management – Wunderlist, Do
• Time management – RescueTime, StayFocusd
• Project management – Asana, Trello
• Document sharing- Google Docs, Dropbox

You may already have some of these tools, or something similar. Take a look at any tools you have and make a decision to use them or replace them. They may have worked for you in the past but don’t anymore, or there might be a better option available.

If you have tools that you aren’t using, then get rid of them. Unsubscribe and delete them from your programs so they don’t clutter up your systems anymore.