Productivity May Be Killing Your Business

Could productivity be the culprit that’s taking flexibility and freedom away from your business?

Chances are you launched your business with the words “flexibility” and “freedom” dancing through your head. Being able to work on projects you love, on boarding clients who bring you joy, and waking up each day with a new zest for life! 

But what happens to the majority of business owners… they fall into a trap of not being productive and it robs them of freedom and flexibility. Ultimately, becoming a slave to their business. 

This week I have Karla Morgenstein, a productivity coach, on the show to discuss mind shift changes and how she helps her clients get more stuff done in less time.

Believe it or not, productivity starts with our mindset. And that is where our discussion began. To listen to the full chat, click here. 

Below are some highlights of our discussion. 

Her discovery that productivity was holding her back from growing her business. 

Karla shares how she thought it would be simple to transition from a Corporate position to owning her own business.

Given that she had 14 years of experience. Once she launched her business, she quickly learned the online space was very “noisy” and being productive wasn’t so easy. 

The first area that was stalling her productivity was the old “shiny object”  syndrome. 

It was consuming large portions of her time. 

She was constantly researching influencers, signing up for free offers, like checklist or drip campaigns.

But she found a lot of them were contradicting each other. This becomes a never ending cycle,  she was researching which person was right and not sure what to implement in her business.

Over time this created doubt in herself and made her stagnant in making decisions for her business. 

She started to feel inadequate. And it stalled her from moving forward in her business. 

Once she became aware she was letting “shiny object syndrome” take over her life and business.

She knew she needed to make a change. 

“I realized I had 14 years of experience as a productivity coach in Corporate.  I had spent that time figuring out ways to make things smarter, faster and better. I had to stop looking at what other people were doing and comparing myself.”

Deep down, she knew to be successful in business, it was imperative to keep moving forward and keep taking action. The more action she took, the more confident she became as a business owner. 

The first area she tackled was implementing structure into her day. To stay focused and utilize her time as best she could.

Being productive was going to make or break her business.

Tips on becoming productive to use your time in the most efficient way you can…

Below are how she guides her clients to get them to focus and be productive!

1- Put a schedule in place. If you are a mother, make sure it includes your family. (She has two young children and she knew she had to make a schedule that works for everyone.

Layout what you need to get done and then schedule it in time slots. 

The key is, create a schedule you can stick to and follow through. Don’t try to jam too many things into your day and feel defeated at the end of the day when you don’t get everything done. 

Chances are when you have a plan, you will follow it. You’ll be focused on getting things done and have less time to compare yourself to others. 

2- Become aware of what you are doing that is taking away from you taking action and moving the needle forward within your business. Some big culprits are scrolling through social media.  

She sees her clients scrolling on social media a lot instead of getting work done and justifying by saying it is “market research”. 

3- Be intentional about how you spend your time. Create new routines.

A great way of creating new routines is by giving yourself a visual cue. 

For example, if you want to journal but your mornings are hectic and you tend to skip it.  Put your journal by the coffee maker in the morning, write while you are waiting on your coffee. Or put your journal on your desk, that way if you have some free time you are reminded by its presence. 

Write down your daily patterns, what activities are you doing throughout the day? Should you change any of those?  What ways can you be more intentional throughout the day to set yourself up for success?  

4- Being more intentional about your thought patterns. If you notice you are saying negative things about you or your business. Recognizing those thoughts and changing them to positive ones.  

If your thoughts are making you feel bad you need to change your thought patterns. What you think about becomes what you feel. How you feel affects how you work in your business. 

A great tip of now falling prey to shiny object syndrome is by writing out your business vision! (click here for an article on how you can layout your vision)

Get back time in your day.

One of the biggest complaints she hears is not having enough time in the day.

The reality is that the amount of time we have will not change. We need to be more intentional about how we spend our time. 

It is important to plan your time out.  Look at your to-do list, which items are positively impacting your business and your bottom line. Prioritize those items within your day to ensure you are completing them. 

Below are tips she gives her clients on getting more productive in their business. 

Use small pockets of time to your advantage. If you only have 30 minutes, use that time wisely. You would be surprised at what you can get done in 30 minutes! 

Set allotted time slots, such as hour increments, and use a timer to ensure you are working for a solid hour.

This will help you get more stuff done, knowing you have limited time. Scheduling 1.5 hours to write a blog post instead of taking 7-8 hours to write it. (Look at the time you are already getting back!) 

Turn off all distractions. This includes email, your phone, social media. 

Multi-tasking is NOT a thing. You can not do two things at once. Your brain can not physically focus on more than one thing at the same time.  Multi-tasking is not a strength. Focus on one project and complete it. 

To learn more about Karla and join her Facebook Group click here. To schedule a call with her click here.