Boost Your Productivity: A Comprehensive Guide to Efficiently Getting Things Done

If I've learned anything in all my years in business, it's that we ALL need to do the work.

When I first started Anchorlight, I was a freelancer. I was working with multiple businesses. It felt fun, busy, exciting. I was constantly running from here to there, doing this task and that, and it quickly became unsustainable. I felt burnt out. I was definitely doing the work! But it was work all over the place.

I took a break to have a baby and spent some time unpacking how I really wanted to spend my time and who I wanted to spend it with. That was when I came to the realization that I wanted to spend my time working with other women on their businesses.

What stuck with me more than anything was that I wanted to help other women feel confident about what they were putting out in the world and I wanted to help make that to-do list feel easier.

I also knew that my time was so much more limited with an infant in my care, so my time working had to be strategic and focused. Whether you’re a newly minted CEO or a growing business–there’s so much good that comes from the journey. But working for yourself is a grind–there’s no way around it. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

There is so much joy and freedom to be had on this side of the track. It has ups and downs like anything, but I began to see the exhaustion in our clients from the day-to-day of running their businesses. I also saw the inability to block off the time needed to do the work that only they could do and that they needed to do. I was determined to figure out a way to try and help. Not just for myself, but for the clients that I've come to care about as well. Their success was my own and that still rings true today.

Identifying and Managing Business Stress Triggers

Where do you go for burning business questions?

The reality is that so many of us rely on Google as the be all, end all source information, which can be extremely overwhelming and also unreliable. Self-reported experts who are already making 10 million dollars a year are telling you they get it. They know the trick to get to where they are faster, easier, and pain-free. But that perch is so far from where most of our clients sit that the little voice in their head says, “good for you but will that work for ME?”

Do you ever feel like you’re spinning around instead of moving forward?

In addition to late night Googling, your priorities can often feel so hard to identify. You feel like you're working so hard, but nothing's getting done. I call this spinning-it’s not original, but the mental image is clear. Spinning all the plates, spinning in one spot, spinning your wheels due to perfectionism–whatever it looks like—you aren’t getting anywhere and it’s a lot of motion! But no movement. And the thing is, it's not for lack of effort. It's not because you're not focused. It's not because you don't care.

If you’re the only employee, you can’t fire YOU.

It's not the lack of effort that's plaguing you. You are working your literal ass off. I GET IT. That is not the issue. The issue is: You don’t see yourself as the leader of the ship; you view yourself as the main worker bee employee. But the reality? You are BOTH the leader and the employee and that needs a different strategy. What it really comes down to and why nothing is landing is because you lack focus, a plan, and accountability to get the stuff done that matters most.

Enhancing Focus and Productivity for Effective Work

Goals are easier to achieve when we distill it down to what’s at stake and why it matters. This alone can influence our behavior in powerful ways, and this is the foundation of habits that stick and being more productive.

It is critical, especially in business, that we learn how to lead ourselves well. We are the only ones who can take these steps. But how do we do that?

For me, there's a few things that turned it around and really helped me feel more focused, more productive, and better equipped to get things done. The side effect? These improvements have really, REALLY helped me grow my business and reach.

Discovering Supportive Communities that Empathize with Your Journey

The extra benefit of having helping hands in your business is having another person who understands. You have sounding boards that get what you’re trying to achieve and are actively helping you row in that direction. It’s easy to see how more womanpower means faster speeds. Everything gets better with community. It feels like a huge weight that's been lifted.

I also found some really amazing mentors. I know the power of hearing someone else's story and feeling the mindset shifts and breakthroughs that come from listening to other people's successes and failures and how they made it through to the other side. We’re all too much in our own heads and I’ve found that inspiration from others before me leads to action.

Building Discipline and Achieving Goals with a Strategic Plan

I know that there are no shortcuts in business. There is no easy way. There's a certain kind of person who has the fortitude and persistence to get it done day in and day out. And as they say: keep going and you can’t fail.

But we all know that leading yourself becomes really tiring sometimes. Sometimes it’s so very hard to keep going when you aren’t getting anywhere with your goals. This is where having a plan and a roadmap with your goals makes all the difference. That to-do list isn’t a nebulous blob, it’s small steps to big payoffs.

Harnessing the Power of Accountability for Business Success

There are a ton of networking groups with similar promises: come meet your people here. But in order to get stuff done, you don’t need a Reddit forum full of other people’s problems. You need support and accountability in a small setting to get it done. Accountability WORKS. Plain and simple.

At ALC we have each other and it helps so much to have a sounding board, copyeditors, and others who are waiting on you to get it done so they can get their stuff done. That pressure is a positive stressor and it’s helped us not only get moving, but KEEP the momentum in our business.

One last tip for the road? There are a lot of groups out there, but a faceless (read: giant) internet forum does not feel like a space of safety to me. I know that no one wants to be seen as incapable. But the biggest secret in business is this: EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, is figuring it out and flailing at least some of the time.

If I know one thing for sure, it’s that whether it is Starbucks or whether it is some other Fortune 500 company–whether they're making 10 million, 100 grand or 100 million, most businesses are still figuring it out. Everyday.

They don't have it all together. It's kind of a mess behind the curtain. Hitting deadlines is hard. Making content is a grind. And they have the exact same challenges that you and I have as small businesses. They are no different. As you get bigger, a lot of people think with money and growth you won't have any problems, but you do. The problems just change. You will always have problems, you will never run out of problems. They will just become different problems.

This is why it’s absolutely essential that you get the help you need to focus, get things done, and laser in on how to spend your time to move your business forward.

There's solace in knowing the commonalities that exist from one business to the next because I know that it's not just me. This is how it is in small business land. It's a rocky, but ultimately rewarding, road.

How lucky are we that we get to help others while living our lives on our own terms? We’re all just walking each other home. For me what makes all the difference are the ones you choose to walk alongside you on that path.