I am a self proclaimed multi tasker. Actually my family would probably call me a multiple multi tasker. I like to get things done. My to do list is an ever growing endless task list.  In order to keep up with my insane life, I had to learn to work smarter not harder. There was a time when we were working harder and harder and not smarter at all. We ran in our gerbil wheel and ran faster and faster trying to keep up with all the demands of our lives, families, and businesses. We were losing our grip on everything… and finally realized something had to give, or it would be us. We were exhausted and feeling like there was no way to get it all done or to get it done very well. I am sure you guys can relate to the relentless pace that we all choose to live our lives these days. The days just tick by so fast, I mean.. its almost Thanksgiving again! Come on… who pressed the gas pedal on life? Do you feel me? I know you do, I hear it every day at my salon. We are all going through life at a breakneck speed and trying to get things done is almost impossible.

This past year, we were introduced to some amazing eye opening concepts. Not necessarily mind boggling, but really a new way of looking at things that totally changed our perspective on how we were doing things in our lives and businesses. As entrepreneurs, we choose to do every single thing ourselves. Who can do it better that you can right? Uh… actually a lot of people can do it better than you can. You cannot be the expert on everything and we seriously wasted a lot of time trying to figure things out on our own so we wouldn’t have to hire someone else to do it. We wasted time… the only thing that cannot be bought. Are you picking up what im putting down? Time is our most valuable commodity. While learning some of these things, we did an interesting exercise with an online training on how to grow our business more efficiently.  We wrote down every single thing we did, how long it took, if we could outsource it, and figured out where we were the most income efficient. We realized that we spend a lot of time doing non income producing things just to save money. That actually does not make any sense, but its the same story I hear from most business owners. So we slowly started outsourcing things so we could get back to the business of growing our business. We are still learning to let go and build our outsourced team, but when you embrace this concept it frees your time so you can do what only you can do. Here are some tips that have helped me & hopefully can help you too!

1- Write down your priorities and schedule out your day. Every evening, write out your schedule for the next day & include your top 3-5 things you will accomplish that day. Figure out a time schedule and estimate how long you will spend on each task. Even if you don’t accomplish everything on the list, creating a schedule keeps you on task and paces out the day. & Getting most of the things done on your list is much better than forgetting or getting distracted with other things and not getting anything done. Knowing exactly what you have to do the next day is key to crossing things off that list. You automatically know exactly what to do and what to tackle first.

2- Create new habits. Developing new habits is not easy. You must replace bad habits that take you further from your goals, & replace them with new habits that bring you closer to them. The only difference between successful and non successful people is action. Successful people take more action. You want to develop more habits that make you take automatic action daily, & the more you do, the closer you will get to your goals.

3- Eliminate distractions. So you are trying to focus and get things done & bing! Your Facebook, instagram, snapchat, whatever notification is going off… so you stop and check it. It only takes a minute right? Well compound that all day and you are not on task, getting sucked into the social media vortex, and are reducing your overall productivity. If you want to master your domain, you cannot go off on every distracted notification and email. Set a time on your schedule for a social media break but limit the time you spend here.  This can be a huge distraction and definitely a time sucking vortex. Setting a timer can be helpful and keep you from losing your focus.

4- Outsource. Figure out what you spend a lot of wasted time doing and outsource it. Find someone else to run those errands or clean your house so you can get back to the business of your life & building your empire. Once you figure out how valuable your time is, you will realize that if you just spent a little of that wasted time doing what maximizes your income and paid someone to do some of those other things, you would actually save money. It costs a lot to do everything yourself.

5- Break down your larger tasks into smaller ones. Sometimes a project seems so big it is overwhelming and nothing gets done. It is paralyzing. Once I realized that a large task could be broken up into smaller accomplishable tasks it was much easier to complete. Have you ever heard the saying “How do you eat an elephant?” …”One bite at a time.” You can accomplish anything, one bite at a time. Before you know it, its done! Time is passing us by so fast, a week turns into years in the blink of an eye. Just put one foot in front of the other, and you will get there.

Have you ever looked at some successful people and thought wow… they really aren’t that special, how the heck did they do that? You want to know what the difference between them and the people that are standing there scratching their heads is? They took more action. That is it. So, write down your goals. Develop simple habits that move you towards those goals, and prioritize your time. You will get there, and you will be happier in every area of your life. You wont waste time floundering and scratching your head watching other people get to the finish line. You’ll be crossing it and people will be watching you.

I would love to hear what you are doing to work smarter not harder! Share some of your most life changing tips in the comments below, and I would appreciate it if you would like and share this so more people can hear this.