5 Ways To Get More Done By Working Less

Even though everyone has the same amount of time each day it seems like some entrepreneurs are able to get more done than others. Are these people just working smarter and harder than the others?

While it’s true that working smart is just as important as working hard there are too many people out there who just work hard because they aren’t sure how they can be working smart. Here’s 5 ways to get more done by working less.

Automation is Key

How much of what you do in a day could be automated? Perhaps you get a lot of emails and they can be answered with an automated response.

There’s plenty of tools and technology out there that you can be using to automate some aspects of your life and business. There’s bound to be at least one thing you do that can be automated to save you time.

There are some great tools out there, such as the websites If This Then That (IFTTT) and Zapier that can give you some good ideas. Take a look at some recommendations for automating things using IFTTT and Zapier.

Outsource

One major problem underperforming entrepreneurs have is understanding what they can outsource and how they can do it.

Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) could be a great way to keep your business running smoothly and give yourself more time to get things done. Think about how much time and money you lose doing the same boring and repetitive tasks.

You should also give a VA a try if you’ve thought about outsourcing your work but have come to the conclusion that only you can do your work as well as you can. As long as you can clearly tell the VA what you need and what you expect you’ll have no trouble finding a good one.

Focus More Instead of Doing More

If you want to get more done then you actually need to do less. It sounds crazy but you need to be working on as few things at a time as you can.

Steve Jobs gave an excellent explanation of this when he took the 350 projects Apple was doing and cut it down to 10. He said that people assume that focusing is about saying yes while really it’s about saying no.

You need to turn down more things than you say yes to. You need to be careful and deliberate about which projects you take on. It’s best to focus on only one thing at once. Have one big goal or thing that needs to be done and focus on doing just that one thing.

Delegate

You should make good use of the team or partners that you have. There’s nothing wrong with delegating work to your team if you have to.

Underperforming entrepreneurs have this idea that they have to do absolutely everything in the business when they don’t. Focus your efforts on the things that matter to you and have other people take care of everything else. When you delegate you need to make sure that the right people are working on the right task. That means you need to find someone with the skills to match the job that you need them to do. You can start delegating smaller tasks until you understand their capabilities and have confidence in their abilities. Pretty soon you’ll be giving them full tasks to do and you’ll have a lot more time.

Schedule Breaks

While it’s true that productivity depends on momentum there are entrepreneurs that rely too heavily on momentum to get things done and they end up burning out. Sometimes when you try to do more you can burn and do less.

It’s important that you schedule breaks into your routine. You’ll find that breaks don’t cause a break in momentum and actually allow you to keep it for longer without burning out and losing your focus when you need it most.

Using a technique such as a Pomodoro Timer let you take regular breaks without needing to make the conscious effort to think about taking a break or make yourself take one.