Productivity Secrets 1: Love Your Home-Based Business With Extra Time

Introduction Productivity Secrets

Productivity secrets can feel harder to find than the same pair of socks in the dryer or catching a leprechaun. Follow the upcoming tips to add time to your day. Read on to bag the leprechaun’s pot of gold while wearing matching socks.

What is productivity, and how do we unlock its secrets? Let’s define it mathematically. If you’re not interested in the proof, skip to the Extra Time section.

How to Measure Productivity

Onward, fellow math nerds. Productivity equals work divided by time, P=W/T. The formula provides two choices to improve productivity: increase work (the numerator) or reduce time (the denominator). Due to the denominator effect, saving time (T) yields more significant gains for less effort than increasing work (W).

Demonstrating the Denominator Effect

A worker produces ten units per hour, P = W / T = 10 / 1 = 10. Let’s see what happens when we improve W and T by half.  

W↑ 50%: P = W / T = 15 / 1 = 15

T↓ 50%: P = W / T = 10 / .5 = 20

Saving time (T↓) yields the largest improvement. Therefore, reducing time is your priority, and improving work second. Given the depth of covering productivity, there will be two posts: Saving Time and Working Smarter. Let’s get started.

Task Management Tricks for Extra Time

“You may delay, but time will not.”—Benjamin Franklin. Item 665. Poor Richard’s Almanack. Waterloo, Iowa: U.S.C. Publishing Co., 1914.

What would you do with extra time? Spend more time building a network. Focus on learning and personal development. Review your business strategy. Improve work-life balance. See Whip Work-Life Balance: Proven Ways to Win in Both Worlds if that’s the case.

We all want more time. Finding it requires focus and a plan. You bring focus, and I’ll lay out a plan. Follow these strategies to save time.

Batch

Every application switch costs you transition and setup time. To avoid these losses, batch—complete similar tasks during a dedicated block of time. Additionally, batching enhances focus and fosters more productive work.

Imagine your tasks as puzzle pieces scattered across a table. Each piece represents an action—emails, phone calls, social media, or any task. Batching implies gathering like pieces into similar piles and working on them instead of trying to jam random pieces together.

Let’s apply batching to something everyone does, email:  

• Group Like Tasks

Conveniently, email groups inbound emails for you. Group outbound emails by maintaining a list of outbound emails. Only write them during your next email batch session.

• Schedule Group Time Blocks

Picture your calendar as a Tetris game. Reserve specific chunks of time for each task type. I dedicate 8:00–8:30 A.M. and 3:30–4:00 P.M. for email.

• Complete Group Tasks Together

When the appointed time arrives, dive into your emails. Review inbound emails and zip out anything that requires a short reply—schedule extended responses for a future time. Follow the same process for the outbound email list from step one.

Spin this record back for social media, phone calls, texting, and other recurring activities. Now, drop the batch to play the productivity song. We’ve prepared a How to Batch SOP that you get for free (along with six other free tools) when you join our newsletter.

Stop the Unnecessary

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”—Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essays. 1948.

Here’s my favorite productivity secret: skipping a task is the fastest way to finish it. Be ruthless in pruning your to-dos. Stop the unnecessary by evaluating recurring tasks and commitments, setting expectations, and adapting to change.

Commence stopping the unnecessary by documenting all recurring tasks. Compile a second list with your goals. Match each repetitive task to at least one goal. Eliminate any task that doesn’t address a goal.

For the remaining tasks, evaluate time spent versus impact. For any task you are unsure of continuing, ask yourself what would happen if you stopped doing it. If skipping a task has no negative effect, don’t do it.  

Let’s apply the same framework to external commitments. For commitments without value, communicate to other parties that you will no longer provide support.

Prevent excessive commitments by learning to say no upfront. Refuse uninteresting tasks or those you can’t handle. When inclined to say yes, delay and let other parties know you will get back to them. When your initial enthusiasm cools off, decide. You’ll say no more often.

When working with others, unclear expectations lead to extra work. Prevent confusion by defining task requirements, anticipating questions, and assigning each task to a single contact. The net result prevents scope creep, task overlap, and follow-up communication.

Adapt to change to elude potential work. Identify and set up a periodic review process for recurring tasks. Eliminate any task done out of habit rather than necessity. Solicit feedback from others to identify unnecessary work. Finally, review tasks for relevance whenever your business undergoes a strategy shift.

Minimize Tasks

You skipped every task you could. Let’s minimize the remaining tasks using four productivity secrets: simplification, limiting choices, self-improvement, and multitasking.

 “Our life is frittered away by detail…Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”—Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Project Gutenberg, 1995. eBook #205. Accessed 10/24/2024 www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205.

Like Thoreau, seek simplicity. Break down tasks to the smallest level possible. Then, review each subtask through the stop the unnecessary process we just discussed. Another benefit is that smaller assignments are easier to understand, which leads to better outcomes.

Limit choices to minimize tasks. All decisions, large or small, drain your limited mental energy reserves. Therefore, deflect small choices to save energy for important decisions. Buy matching colors and patterns to skip deciding what to wear. Schedule other daily activities—email, meals, exercise, meetings—in recurring blocks to abstain from additional choices.

Self-improvement offers a path to minimize tasks by increasing your skill level, which allows you to complete tasks faster. Not sure where to start? Review the list below for ideas.

Yield Boosters

• Physical Skills
  • Typing Faster
  • Speed Reading
  • Speed Writing

• Soft Skills
  • Time Management
  • Communication
  • Organization
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Problem Solving
  • Writing Skills
  • Apply Novel Ideas
  • Negotiation
• General Business
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Sales
  • Logistics
  • Inventory Management

• Computer Skills
  • Productivity Suite
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
  • AI

• No Code Automation
  • Analytics
  • Programming
    • App Development
    • Automation
    • Software

• Output Hacks
  • Voice to Text
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Shorthand

Lastly, here’s a little secret that breaks an established productivity myth. In low cognitive and shared contexts, multitasking is a yield booster. Low cognitive work tasks include things like data entry and conference calls.

Examples of low cognitive life tasks are cleaning, cooking, laundry, exercise, walking the dog, commuting, waiting in line, and even the restroom. Pair them with secondary tasks such as podcasts, phone calls, email, dictation, reading, and videos.

Multitasking also works well in shared contexts—research multiple blog posts, write and edit simultaneously, and prepare multiple meals together.

Minimize tasks to finish them with the least amount of effort. It’s like sneaking out of your three-year-old nephew’s birthday party—tricky but worth pulling off.

Automation

“Automation is driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks.”—Amber Rudd. Rowena, Mason. The Guardian. Accessed 10/24/2024. Visit this article.

Imagine a future where your computer does your work. With automation, that future is now. Harness it by understanding trends and what tasks to automate.

Two automation trends—no-code automation solutions and AI—make automation a tool for everyone. These two technologies are not just trends; they are the future.

A powerful new trend is no-code automation. No-code programs allow you to automate complex operations without learning programming. For example, if orders come from different sources—Amazon, your website, email, etc. You can automate funneling orders into the same system to generate reporting, send customer confirmation emails, and order replacement inventory from your suppliers.

AI is like your personal genie. Rub the AI lamp for chatbots, programs, writing recommendations, customer insights, analytics, and more. If you are a work-from-home entrepreneur and you don’t use AI, consider yourself behind.

You’re on board with automation, but what do you automate? Automated tasks fall into three categories:

1. Simple
2. Complex
3. Data Management

Simple tasks don’t require much thought and have minimal steps. Hence, they are prime candidates for automation. Below is a list of simple tasks to get you started.

Simple Tasks

• Email Management
  • Inbox Managed with Rules (Filters)
  • Autoresponders
  • Email Templates
  • Subscriber Lists
  • Dynamic Email Signatures

• Reports and Alerts
  • RSS Feeds
  • Google
    • Google Alerts
    • Google Analytics
    • Google Sheets Templates

• Website Performance
• Finance
• Marketing
  • Keyword Generation
  • Post Sharing
    • Blogs
    • Newsfeeds
    • Social Media

• Autopay/Subscriptions
• File Management
  • Backup Files
  • Auto Archive
• Time Management
  • Calendar
    • Time Blocking
    • Meeting Scheduling
    • Reminders
  • Task Management
    • Assignment
    • Tracking
    • Progress Updates
    • Meeting Minutes

• Household
  • Smart Systems
    • Vacuum
    • Pet Feeder
    • Lights
    • Thermostat
    • Music
    • Auto Rebuy/Subscription
    • Cooking
    • Ovens
    • Microwave
    • Coffee Machine

• Personal Finance
  • Investing
  • Savings

Let’s move on to complex tasks, which require numerous steps. Review complex task automation candidates below.

Complex Tasks

• Content Creation
  • Writing
    • Outlining
    • Editing
      • Grammar
      • Humor
      • Rewrite Repetitive Words and Structures
      • Puns
      • Metaphors & Similes
      • Synonyms & Antonyms

• Programming
  • Graphic Design       
• Inventory Management
  • Tracking
  • Replenishment

• Business Finance
  • Invoice Processing
  • Payroll
  • Expense Tracking
  • Tax Accounting

• Customer Service
  • Chatbots
  • Case Management
  • Self-Service Portals

• Email
  • Funnels
  • Sequences
  • Campaigns

• Marketing
  • Social Media
    • Schedule Posts
    • Content Recommendations

• A/B Testing
  • Ad Campaigns
  • Analytics
    • Engagement
    • Campaign
    • Lead Scoring
    • Social Media Monitoring
    • Ad Performance

• Content Management Systems
  • Updates
    • Plugin
    • Themes
  • Security Scans
  • Optimization
  • Website Analytics
    • Traffic
    • Engagement
    • Heat Maps
    • Testing
• Content
  • Scheduling
  • Performance
  • Optimization
  • Approval
  • Generation

• Document Management
  • Generation
    • Contracts
    • Proposals
    • Reports
    • Letters
    • Certificates
    • Invoices
    • Purchase Orders
    • Account Statements
    • Compliance
    • Legal
    • Tax
    • Onboarding
      • Customer
      • Employee

• Organization
  • Auto Archive
  • File & Folder Management
• Household
  • Kitchen
  • Lawn
  • Garden

In-depth automation requires managing large data sets. In the spirit of automation, why not automate data management as well? See different data management tasks below.

Data Management Tasks

• Entry
• Extraction
• Email
• Forms
• Documents
  • Purchase Orders
  • Invoices
  • Receipts
  • Quotes
  • Contracts
  • Financial Statements
  • Tax Forms
  • Marketing Material

• Cleansing
  • Validate Accuracy
  • Remove Duplicates
  • Address Missing Data
  • Fix Structural Errors
    • Formats
    • Categories

• Transformation
• Format Conversion
• Convert Unstructured Data (e.g., Text, Images) into Structured Formats (e.g., Tables, Databases).
• Normalize Data Units (e.g., currencies, units of measurement).
• Aggregate Data
• Analyze Large Data Sets
• Translation
  • Language
  • Programs

Don’t be intimidated by automation. Everyone can automate at least a few items from these lists. Chase the dream of no-work profits and embrace automation.

Outsource

Can someone do a task better or more efficiently than you? Does the time spent on a task cost you more than paying someone else? If either answer is yes, consider outsourcing. When hiring is outside your budget, outsource by delegating to employees, partners, and family members.

Let’s divide outsourcing into work and life. Work splits between tasks you can assign to a Virtual Administrator (VA) and those requiring specialized workers. We categorize life tasks as VA, physical, and specialty.

• Work
  • Virtual Assistant
    • Social Media
    • Data Entry
    • Research
    • Schedule Meetings
    • Bookkeeping
    • Customer Service
    • Inventory Management
    • Travel
    • SEO
    • Vendor Management
    • Website Maintenance
  • Specialty
    • Content Creation
      • Writing
        • Ghost
        • Copy
        • Content
      • Graphic Design
      • Programming
        • Computer
        • Phone Apps
        • Automation
    • Finance
    • Accounting
    • Marketing
    • Website Setup
    • Legal

• Life
  • Virtual Assistant
    • Groceries
    • Appointments
    • Bill Payment
    • Vacation Planning
    • Party Planning
    • Gift Shopping
  • Physical
    • Cleaning
    • Lawn
    • Childcare
    • Laundry
    • Pet Care
    • Personal Errands
    • Home Repairs
    • Car Maintenance
    • Personal Chef
  • Specialty
    • Tax
    • Legal
    • Investing

Time Yourself

Track time to improve it. Tracking has a tactical and strategic element. You can use gamification as your secret weapon to raise productivity for both levels. If, while timing yourself, you find procrastination wastes a large portion of your time, Visit Stop Procrastination: Break Free to Unlock Your Hidden Potential for tips on beating procrastination.

Tactical Timing

Tactical timing measures tasks over minutes and hours. It doubles as a means to track assignment completion and manage energy.

One effective tactical timing method is the Pomodoro Technique, which has set work and break intervals. The most common is that twenty-five minutes of work equals a five-minute break. No matter the interval length, you take a fifteen-minute break after four cycles.

For those who find the Pomodoro Technique too rigid, try the Flow Technique. Select a task and work on it until you feel your concentration slipping. You base the length of breaks on how much you think you need to recharge. Track your work and break times and use the information to design your day around these flows.

Strategic Timing

Strategic timing measures goal completion over days, weeks, and months. First, set deadlines for goals, which we’ll call milestones. Like Cinderella, we only have so much time, and milestones prevent our goals from becoming pumpkins.

Periodically review progress toward milestones. If you’re on target, soldier on. If not, reassess and adjust your schedule. A goal without a deadline is as fleeting as a dream after hitting the snooze button.

Gamify Work

Level up timing yourself by treating work as a game. Gamification taps into the same addictive psychology as social media and video games. Reward yourself for fulfilling a desired behavior. This act triggers the release of dopamine, which motivates us to repeat behaviors.   

Add a point system to level up gamification to the boss level. Earn points by finishing tasks and hitting milestones. Then, redeem them for things you value, like a day off or an hour of games. Gamify your work and convert dopamine rushes from your enemy to your friend.

Points: Task Completion = 10 pts, Weekly Milestones = 50 pts, Monthly Milestones = 250 pts, Early Completion Bonus (finish 25% early) = 10% x ptsRewards: Take Day Off = 500 pts, 1 hr. Indulgence Pass (video games, TV, social media) = 50 pts, 1 hr. Pass for Pet Work Project = 30 pts.

Strategic Timing Gamification

Incorporate strategic and tactical timing into your work routine to elevate productivity. Gamify both types of timing to raise output further and add fun to work. Try these three techniques in concert; you might be surprised by how much more you get done.

Conclusion Productivity Secrets

The various strategies we discussed will save you a lot of time. Yet, saving time is more than a set of rules to follow. It’s the first step on the path of personal development and self-help. Once you embrace saving time, you will find ever-increasing opportunities to improve your work and life.

Recall our formula P=W/T. Saving time (T) is only half of the productivity secret. In the next post on Productivity, Productivity Secrets 2: Unstoppable Strategies to Energize Your Work, learn how to work smarter (W) to capture even more productivity gains. If more secrets interest you, read You Think Wrong: Insider Truths About Work-At-Home Myths, which debunks the top 9 myths about home-based entrepreneurship.

I love recommendations and advice. Please leave them in the comments section or email me. Tell me your thoughts on increasing productivity.

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