There are more people than ever taking up self-employed working positions, and for good
reason.
Being self-employed gives you the freedom to work under your own terms and make money
doing the things you love.
But it isn’t easy, and one of the biggest challenges is remaining productive.
Here’s five brilliant ways to be ultra-productive as a self-employed professional.
1. Pick a project management technique – and stick to it
There are a huge number of project management techniques out there. This is both a
blessing and a curse for the self-employed.
The reason? It’s far too easy to spend more of your time trying out new techniques than
actually getting stuff done.
The secret lies in choose one method and sticking by it as soon as you know it’ll work for
you. Check out this guide to kanban to get started with one of the most popular project
management techniques out there.
2. Structure your day firmly
One of the best things about being self-employed is that you get to structure your day.
The hard part? Structuring it! With so much freedom, it can be frighteningly easy to sail
through each day unproductively as you take unscheduled exercise breaks, coffee with
friends and ‘reward’ yourself with an episode of your favourite TV show.
Instead, make sure you firmly structure your working day so that you get out of bed at the
same time, start work at a consistent hour and finish when you’re satisfied your to-do list is
completed.
3. Track your time
Even if you don’t work for billable hours, tracking your time each day is a great way to
remain productive.
There are plenty of tools for doing this, and even if it seems like a bit of a burden to begin
with, starting and ending that timer will soon become second nature and will help you assess
how productive you’re being and on what tasks you’re spending the lion’s share of your time.
4. Listen to music or white noise
Depending on your working environment, you might benefit from listening to music while you
work.
For some people, however, even music can be distracting. And, if music without lyrics still
doesn’t help you focus on the task in hand, try white noise instead – it’s a great way to block
out the world around you and enable you to only focus on the job.
5. Get some exercise!
If there’s one tip in this list that’s probably the most important, it’s this one.
Regular exercise will not only make you a healthier person, it’ll improve your productivity
immeasurably, too.
The brain craves oxygen and the best way to feed it is to get out there and exercise as
regularly as possible. It might be a trip to the gym or dog walk around the block, but
whatever it is make it a daily routine that becomes a habit. The effect will be transformative.
Wrapping up
Enjoy being productive. Our tips above will help you reach the end of that to-do list every
day, and in a more efficient way than you ever thought possible.