How would you assess your own productivity? The smaller the business, the larger the impact of everyone’s productivity on revenue outcomes.
How big is your business’s C-Suite team? Do you have a crowd or is your C-Suite only YOU?
Here are 5 Tips to keep your CEO head on straight and work like an effective and efficient C-Suite, even when it’s only you.
Productivity Tip 1 – Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. The C-Suite does not begin the day grazing through your email inboxes. Instead, grab a cup of tea or coffee. Take a deep breath. Use the first 30 minutes to identify the most important outcomes you, your C-Suite, your team and your customers must accomplish by the end of that day.
Productivity Tip 2 – Complete your must crucial To-Do’s first. Once you tackle the difficult stuff, everything else on your plate seems less overwhelming. You will see which To-Do’s carry over throughout the week. Stop procrastinating. Enhance your personal productivity in the process.
Productivity Tip 3 -Avoid distractions by setting deadlines to finish your work. Let your employees know that you are unavailable for the next 60 minutes. Set your timer. Stick to your plan. You’ll be surprised at how much you accomplish in 45 minutes. When you open your door, you’ve just ticked another high-priority item off your list of today’s accomplishments. Take a break with your employees.
Productivity Tip 4 – Eliminate distractions by eliminating multi-tasking. When you multi-task, it can take you, on average, a third longer to finish what you’ve started. You are already working in shorter, more productive stretches of time. Now make sure you are 100% focused and productive instead of only 65%.
Productivity Tip 5 – Read your email later. Just like you set deadlines to complete your work, set up times to read your email. Choose 3-4 times a day to go through email. Don’t read all of it, either. Skim through and highlight (I use colored stars) the important stuff that must be attended to during the day. There usually is very little that needs to be looked at now. You will find that most of the “starred” items are directly related to your high-priority daily items from Productivity Tip 1.
Cut yourself, your C-Suite and your employees some slack. The secret to successfully enhancing your personal productivity is to reinforce these practices every day. You will rewire your business habits and immediately begin to reap the benefits of their success.
Download my one-pager on Developing Personal Productivity and get your entire company started today.
Babette Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC catalyzes businesses, startups and technical, engineering and sales professionals who want to grow. Top Sales World named Babette one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers and Bloggers in 2013 and again in 2014.
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