Sometimes, procrastination is caused because your business isn’t organized. You put off starting a task because you can’t find the materials you need or you aren’t sure when that appointment was scheduled or when your next invoice is due to be sent.
As a solopreneur and small business owner, you may struggle to be organized. God knows I have struggled with that over time!
You spend the day spent bouncing from task to task with no billable hours completed. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can get organized with your projects so you spend more time growing your business and serving your community.
Here are four quick tips to help cull the chaos and create systems that help you manage procrastination:
Store Your Ideas
You had an idea for your next Kindle book or discovered a topic you were fired up to share with your community. The only problem is you lost your note because you didn’t have a way to store it and easily find it again.
To combat this, use a simple system to keep track of those ideas. David Farr talked at last year’s It Factor LIVE Boot Camp about the power of Evernote. You can take all the ideas you have and sort them into Evernote folders. One for Now, one for Next and yep – one for Someday Maybe.
This helps choose what to focus on right now. It also gives you an easy way to find your ideas again when it’s time to implement something new in your business.
Make It Easy to Book Appointments & Allow Clients To Hire You!
If you offer your services for clients and book gigs, then you need a simple way to make that happen. When it comes to appointments for phone meetings, you end up spending a lot of time going back and forth over email or chat, trying to find a time that works for both of you.
Instead, create a calendar with free time periods on it through a service like SimplyBook.me. Clients can look at your schedule and see what appointment times that they’d like to book. You’ll get an email sent to you when anyone books time with you, so you don’t have to worry about missing important client meetings.
NOTE: I DO NOT SUGGEST LISTING YOUR GIGS ON THIS. DO NOT PUT YOUR OPEN DAYS FOR SHOWS OR AVAILABLE SHOW TIMES ON THIS. IT IS SOLELY FOR BOOKING MEETINGS & PHONE CALLS
Opt for a Project Management System
Project management systems can be useful if you’re collaborating on a product with another solopreneur or colleague. You may also want to use one if you provide services for your clients. Use Trello or Asana to set up deadlines, assign tasks, check in on your project status, and share files as needed.
Don’t Miss Follow Up Opportunities
Not following up with prospects, clients or even business partners can cause you to lose out on valuable opportunities and look bad. If you’d like to approach another solopreneur about creating a joint venture in a few months, go ahead and put a reminder on your calendar.
You can do the same with clients that you’d like to work with again. Simply put their name on your calendar so you remember to reach out to them again. If possible, have a digital reminder sent to your email so you know when it’s time to follow up.
BONUS TIP: Pay attention to the tasks that you tend to procrastinate on. Then look for apps and websites that can complete the task for you quickly and easily.
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Journal Your Thoughts
1. What systems do you already have in place to keep your business running smoothly?
2. What are some areas where you could use more automation (like appointment schedulers, time trackers, invoice software, etc.)?
3. Think of your best clients. Are there one or two of them you’d like to follow up with today?
Tomorrow we’ll dive into how to Beat Procrastination!
