10 Personal Productivity Rules for Solopreneurs to Live By

Productivity is the measure of a person’s efficiency and effectiveness in accomplishing tasks. At some point, individuals specifically solopreneurs, become less productive. This can be due to stress, lack of time, or an absence of motivation. As a solopreneur, there are simple rules to live by that will increase your personal productivity.

1. Start Everything with a Plan

 Do not just hit a new route without a map. If you are up to something, make sure that you have a plan for what you are going to do. Come up with a detailed proposal that reflects your mission, vision, goals, timeline, and use of resources.

2. Optimize Your Time

Time is your friend especially when you are working by yourself. Learn to optimize your time. Since you are in full control of your time, use it to your full advantage. Start off with the planning part. Allocate enough time for planning, coming up with goals and identifying strategies. This also applies to managing your blog. Do not dwell too much on one thing this sacrifices the valuable hours you'll spend on other business tasks. 

3. Build Your Assets 

As a solopreneur, your assets are highly valuable. Make sure to build your assets so that you will not easily lose them along the way. These assets or resources also refer to your cash flows, receivables, product inventory, investments, equipment, and other belongings you have for your business. Focus on building your assets in order to increase the value of your soloprenuership.

4. Grow Your Network

Having a friend or two is fine, but it is not enough in business. Your network refers to the group people or a system of interconnected individuals that may or may not directly affect your business. Having the right network and growing that group of people is important in the achievement of your goals. You can create a good pool of network by taking good care of relationships with peers, customers, colleagues, and even investors. When you grow your network, it is a lot easier to collaborate with the people in your area. 

5. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Use tools to help you make things work and let you achieve goals effectively. Use Trello and other project management tools to organize your tasks into different boards such as “To Dos”, “Work-in-Progress”, “Done”, etc. You may also create a Dropbox account to help you in uploading and sending large files. Dropbox can let you share documents easily from one person to another. Another free tool you can use is Evernote. This productivity tool can capture your ideas, thoughts images, and other important information. 

6. Set Priorities

There are important things and there are urgent ones. How do you differentiate them? For example, you are strategizing a delivery system for your e-commerce products that have to be deployed in two days. All of a sudden the phone rings. Will you answer the phone or continue with the delivery system? The delivery system is very important, whereas the phone call is something urgent but may not be important. 

7. Keep a To-Do List

There are a handful of things you have to accomplish right? To keep you on track and to avoid losing important things along the way, a simple To-Do list will help. Set weekly tasks or monthly goals. Revisit these daily and check for progress. On your To-Do list, focus on tasks that will provide greater impact. Remember the Pareto Principle, 80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts. If you cannot do everything today, leave some for tomorrow. 

8. Outsource

Seek help by outsourcing tasks which you are not good at. For example, hire freelancers or remote workers to create your content or graphic designs. Free your hands from other tasks and focus on ones that require your creativity. 

9. Do Not Multitask

We can only do so much. Multitasking is not the solution. Focus on important tasks, those that will provide greater long-term impact. Free up your schedule and focus on what you need to do. Multitasking may be the source of a burnout, so avoid it.

10. Take A Break

Freshen up, restart and gather yourself up. If you feel that you have done enough, take a break. Once you have consumed your mental and physical energy, meditate and recharge. You might want to consider Qigong. Always remember that taking regular breaks is a great way to increase productivity.

Read and share these tips so that other solopreneurs like you may improve their performance as well!