The Importance of Being Organized in Life for Entrepreneurial Success
Entrepreneurs strive to run successful and efficient businesses. However, did you know that the key to success in your business lies outside of it? Yes, you read that right! Being organized in your personal life can significantly impact your professional life. In this blog post, we will discuss why being organized in life is crucial for entrepreneurial success and share some tips on how to achieve it.
Keeping your small business organized is hard, and keeping your life outside of work is even harder sometimes! Getting and staying organized often feels like a juggling act. I feel it too! Just as soon as you move to catch one ball – say finances, family commitments, or fun with friends – the next one is hurling towards you.
Unfortunately, some balls are bound to hit the ground: weeks failing to prioritize sleep, fast food instead of meal prep, and procrastinating with low-impact tasks instead of focusing on deep work. That’s ok, life happens!
There are things you can do to make that better though, so instead of throwing life’s tasks in the air in hopes you’ll somehow manage to catch them all, learn about some productivity tips and time management tips to follow that will help you keep every area of your life in order. Once you have it down pat in your personal life, that framework will easily flow into your work life as well.
Why Does Feeling Organized in Your Personal Life Help with Your Small Business Management?
You may be wondering if it really matters. Yes, it’s true that it is possible to run a very successful business, and be a complete mess in your personal life. But you want to give yourself the best possible chances at success, right?
So, here are some reasons how having an organized life can do that for your business:
First, it increases your productivity. A cluttered home or poor time management can lead to feeling overwhelmed, which ultimately leads to reduced productivity. Ensuring that we are organized in our personal lives helps eliminate distractions and increases the likelihood of getting work done.
When we work in our home, its very easy to get distracted by the things that need to be done around the house. One of the benefits of working at home is that you do have that flexibility to just throw a load of laundry in, clean up the kitchen, put dinner on …… the list goes on and on. If we aren’t careful, half our day can be gone just doing stuff around the house.
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That’s precisely why being organized in our daily lives is crucial. The more we streamline our routines, the less mental clutter we have to deal with during the day. This allows us to concentrate on work and be more productive!
Second, it improves your decision-making. Our personal and professional lives are not separate entities. The stresses from our personal lives can affect our professional lives and vice versa. This is especially true when we are an online business owner and work from home!
By being organized in our personal lives, we will reduce stress levels, improve clarity of mind, and make better decisions both in our personal and professional capacities because of this.
Third, it promotes discipline. Success in business requires discipline, and being organized in our personal lives is an excellent way to cultivate discipline. For instance, making a habit of waking up early, exercising regularly, or decluttering our surroundings helps train our minds to be disciplined and focused.
Fourth, it enhances creativity. A cluttered environment can stifle creativity and lead to a lack of inspiration. On the other hand, having an organized workspace and a clear mind can promote creativity and encourage innovative thinking.
To say all this doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, or a neat freak, or super mom! Every small step you take towards simplifying, decluttering and reducing stress in our life is going to contribute to your success!
Here are Our Top 8 Productivity Tips for Staying Organized
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Develop Balanced Habits and Build a Routine
Start Small: Don’t try to overhaul your entire routine all at once. Instead, start with small changes that you can easily incorporate into your daily life. For example, try waking up 15 minutes earlier each day to make time for exercise or meditation.
Be Consistent: Consistency is key when it comes to developing new habits. Make a plan and stick to it, even on days when you don’t feel like it. Over time, these habits will become second nature, and you’ll find it easier to maintain a healthy routine.
Track Your Progress: Keep track of your progress to stay motivated and accountable. Use a journal or an app to record your daily habits and track your progress over time. Or I’ve put together a simple Goal Worksheet you can download here for free to help you with this step. Most importantly make sure you celebrate your successes to stay motivated, and use any setbacks as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Prioritize and Plan Ahead
When it comes to managing your time effectively, prioritizing and planning ahead are essential skills. Here are some tips to help you prioritize and plan ahead:
Make a To-Do List for the Day or Week: Start by making a list of all the tasks you need to complete. Remember you want to start small, so only focusing on what needs done Today or This Week will help you achieve it all. This will help you see everything that needs to be done and prioritize accordingly.
Determine Urgency and Importance: Once you have your to-do list, determine which tasks are urgent and which are important. Urgent tasks require immediate attention, while important tasks contribute to your weekly tasks.
Use a Priority Matrix: A priority matrix can help you determine which tasks to focus on first. Divide your tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important.
Schedule Your Time: Personally, I will for sure forget a big list of things I needed to do if I didn’t put it in my calendar. So I highly recommend using a calendar or planner to schedule your time and make sure you have enough time to complete everything and ensure you don’t forget anything.
Practice Time Management
Effective time management is a crucial aspect of staying organized both in life and business. And there are lots of great tools and tips to help you with this.
Time Blocking: Use tools like calendars to accomplish time-blocking techniques to maximize productivity and ensure that you accomplish tasks promptly. By blocking out a set amount of time on your calendar for specific activities, its easier to see what is possible to accomplish and gives a sense of commitment.
Task Management Tools: Taking advantage of task management tools like ClickUp, Asana, or Trello (to name a few) will greatly increase your productivity. My personal favorite is ClickUp!! They have a great free forever version that can be connected to your calendar to make time blocking and task tracking super simple. ClickUp has multiple different ways you can setup the workspace that would work for tracking your personal and business work as in one spot. Click Here to give it a try!
Avoid Multitasking: Studies show our brains struggle to multitask. So even though this is a commonly asked for skillset for any job, when you run your own business it’s best to avoid doing it. When we use time blocking and task management tools properly, we give ourselves the gift of being able to focus on one thing at a time. You will see a huge increase in efficiency!
Declutter and Simplify
It’s hard to feel organized when your mind is in shambles and your office space and house are too. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make space –physically, digitally, and mentally.
Some of the chaos we feel in our lives is the result of too much stuff, too much to do, too much to think about. Consider this when aiming to organize your life: less is more.
A cluttered space can lead to a cluttered mind. Take some time to declutter your surroundings and create a workspace that promotes productivity and positivity.
Here are some simple decluttering tips I’d suggest trying:
1 – Donate 3 items to a local charity once a week
2 – Throw out 3 things you haven’t used in over an year
3 – Throw out old pens/stationary that no longer work
4 – Put receipts into folders organized by month
Automate or Outsource
Automation and outsourcing are two powerful tools that can help you streamline your business operations, save time, and increase productivity. Here are some tips on how to effectively automate and outsource:
Identify Repetitive Tasks: Look for tasks that you or your team perform regularly that could be automated. This could include data entry, report generation, or social media posting.
Choose the Right Tools: There are many automation tools available, so choose the ones that best fit your needs. As mentioned before I highly recommend ClickUp to plan and organize your day. It includes built-in automation tools as well to increase productivity and efficiency.
Another amazing CRM tool for online creative small businesses is Dubsado. If you are worried about responses to potential clients, getting contracts/proposals signed, or invoices paid this is the tool for you! You can get 20% off your first Month or Year by signing up using my code ‘mynzadubs’ or click HERE.
Determine What to Outsource: If you are feeling like you just can’t keep up to all the work, and automating as much as you can still is not enough, consider outsourcing tasks that are outside of your expertise or take up too much of your time. This could include bookkeeping, graphic design, or customer service.
Get Enough Rest
Adequate rest is essential for maintaining mental clarity and focus. Make sure to get enough sleep by trying to get between 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Don’t forget about yourself and prioritize self-care activities like exercise, meditation, or hobbies that help keep you relaxed and refreshed.
Experiment
The last item in the Organize Your Life Framework is one of the most exciting: trying new things and seeking out novel experiences! Just because you’re organized doesn’t mean you can’t make room for messy spontaneity.
Sometimes things aren’t working out. Other times they’ve gone stale. These are the best times to introduce novelty to our lives and shake ourselves from a routine that just isn’t working anymore.
You can do it so convince yourself of that!!
Being organized in your personal life is key to success in business. It requires discipline, time management, prioritization, and self-care but doesn’t have to be difficult. Start by trying out some of the tips discussed in this post, you’ll be well on your way to achieving success in your online business.
