OWN IT Hack: How to Find 2 Extra Hours in Your Day

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OWN IT Hack: How to Find 2 Extra Hours in Your Day

Ever look up at the clock after a crazy busy day and immediately wonder, "Where the heck did all those hours go?"

Yeah, it happens to the best of us.

OWN IT Hack: How to Find 2 Extra Hours in Your Day

Time is a scarce resource, especially for small business owners and self-employed professionals like us. That's why we spent an entire month in OWN IT exploring new ways to free up t ime and squeeze more productivity into our lives — and our businesses.

OWN IT Hack: How to Find 2 Extra Hours in Your Day

These slides summarize some of the main things we learned. You can read the full article at this link.

https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/777060

Overwhelmingly, your most useful apps are the ones that make everyday tasks easier and less time consuming.

Productivity Apps Are Your Best Friend

Anything you can automate = more time for you to spend on the parts of your business that you love.

Productivity Apps Are Your Best Friend

Calendly: Save time by letting your clients snag slots on your calendar instead of chatting back and forth endlessly about your schedules. Hootsuite: Hootsuite allows you to plan out and schedule posts across your social media channels. Spending a few hours at the start

of the month scheduling your posts can save you time in the long run. Dasheroo: This app lets you track analytics for tons of different apps and services that you use, all in one place. MailChimp: MailChimp lets you quickly design attractive email newsletters and schedule them, plus it keeps your email lists organized and updated in one place.

Favorite Productivity Apps

Blocking your time is officially the new multitasking.

Studies continue to show that focusing on one thing for a specified period of time is better for your productivity than attempting to do several small tasks at once.

Organize Your Time into Blocks – and Schedule Everything

This month, we put ourselves to the test. Based on what we learned about how other folks in OWN IT are blocking their time, we tried the same.

Organize Your Time into Blocks – and Schedule Everything

• Schedule your time into blocks for specific tasks like bookkeeping, phone calls, fulfilling orders, social media, etc. Only do these tasks within their designated blocks to avoid burnout and wasting time.

• Schedule some 30-minute "buffers" into your day for those times when one task inevitably tries to take over your day.

• Don't forget to schedule time for distractions and creativity, too!

Organize Your Time into Blocks – and Schedule Everything

The result?

Holy cow, we got a lot done! At first it may seem silly to schedule creative time or even time to distract yourself on Facebook, but after a few days of following a schedule where every half hour was blocked, we actually felt freer with our time.

Organize Your Time into Blocks – and Schedule Everything

40% of us in OWN IT post on social media whenever we feel like it, without much of a plan. But when we asked if it's paying off, 40% said that you aren't sure if your efforts are even working.

Social Media Quality Over Quantity

It's time to stop spending time posting willy nilly without a plan.

Social Media Quality Over Quantity

Experiment with blocking out only 30 minutes a day (or less!) and focus on posts that work toward your current main goal, along with some evergreen posts that you can schedule ahead of time.

Social Media Quality Over Quantity

Along with that, make sure that your social posts are reaching the right eyes! There are tools out there such as ManageFlitter and Crowdfire to help you target the right audiences and unfollow irrelevant folks who won't find value in what you're posting.

Social Media Quality Over Quantity

The #1 time waster for OWN IT members? Stressing about money. A whopping 43% of you said that worrying about your finances is the most unproductive way of spending your time.

Change Your Mindset

An abundant mindset can help. It begins with the idea that there are enough clients and gigs out there for everyone, and that all you need to do is work to find those people.

Change Your Mindset

Business Coach Rachel Ritlop suggests the following to d e v e l o p a m i n d s e t o f abundance.

Change Your Mindset

• Start each day with 10 minutes of motivational reading. Choose something that makes you feel centered and inspired.

• Express gratitude daily. Make a list of 3 things you're grateful for (and be sure to mix it up each day).

• Catch yourself when you start comparing your work to someone else's. If you do, correct it by instead thinking about something you did that day where you knocked it out of the park.

• Clean up! Get organized externally to bring some internal peace to your everyday. This could just mean tidying up your workspace or clearing off your desktop on your computer.

Change Your Mindset

FIND MORE INFORMATION on OWN IT• Visit OWNIT.com for the full article

including additional information and links. • Check out the rest of our helpful series. • Join the Network Dedicated to Small

Business Success. • Connect with thousands of small business

owners like you with our free app.

https://www.ownit.com/communities/ownit/posts/777060

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