Multitasking and wearing many hats is less productive than doing one thing at a time, reveals research from Stanford University. They also discovered people who focus on one task at a time complete them better than multitaskers who can’t cope with ever-changing landscapes and electronic information.
While most people know you really can’t multitask without some aspect of your responsibilities suffering, it’s not always easy to stop. Entrepreneurs and small business owners are especially prone to wearing many hats and being forced to multitask. However, you can benefit from some efficient tools to help regain focus and organize your life. Here’s how to get started:
Accounting and Bookkeeping
Keeping your financials straight can be a daunting process if you’re a small business owner. Track your expenses, create invoices and follow up with clients by using a streamlined app.FreshBooks provides an intuitive interface and eliminates the need for Excel spreadsheets to keep track of everything.
However, Sage One may be a better option if you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur or startup company and don’t have robust inventory needs. The software is also bundled together with tools like project tracking and payment processing.
Project Management
Prevent your time from being sucked away while managing your team, contractors or clients. Use a tool like Basecamp to eliminate the need for endless email clutter and unnecessary meetings. Invite people to your team and assign tasks, generate status reports, explain goals to contractors and team members, and organize your chaos. Most project management tools like Basecamp also allow you to upload documents, images and videos to help along the project.
For more visually-oriented projects, try Trello to create boards with lists of cards complete with attachments and conversations from team members. The interface resembles a drag-and-drop cork board, blending together old-school organization with new technology. You can also color code tasks and a voting system so you can re-prioritize tasks as needed.
Scheduling
Scheduling meetings may seem like an easy enough task, but the back and forth of who is available and when can pose a nuisance. It can also pose a financial burden to hire a receptionist or virtual assistant strictly to schedule calls. Simplify the process by using a system like You Can Book Me. Your client can choose a time and quickly book it to connect with you. The system syncs with your Google Calendar to help you stay organized and send automatic alerts.
Social Media Management
Increasing your exposure on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other channels can help nail down leads and grow your business. But, maintaining it on a daily basis is nearly impossible for anyone wearing many hats. Use a system like Edgar to easily schedule updates and categorize them accordingly. Your social media content goes into a library and can be automatically posted at a later date so you always have fresh updates populating your channels.
Website Creation
Creating a website from scratch doesn’t always require the need for costly, time-consuming web design. Start by launching your site with WordPress and Headway Themes. The latter is ideal for novices who want to drag and drop content and redesign visually instead of digging into the back-end coding. WordPress also comes with endless plugins and tools that can help generate leads, capture emails, automatically back up your system, feature specific content, integrate with your e-commerce shopping cart and more.
