What do all CEOs have in common? A desire to be more efficient, effective, and productive in growing their company. You have a lot of stress on your shoulders as a CEO, whether you started a business from the ground-up or worked your way to the top of the corporate ladder.
Take a minute to review these tips on how to streamline your responsibilities so you can kick productivity into high gear.
Utilize Project Management Software
An important part of being in charge means delegating tasks that you don’t have time for. Take advantage of project management software that allows you to:
- Create tasks for coworkers
- See what’s being accomplished
- Keep track of who’s assigned to what task
Asana, Basecamp, and Hive are all popular programs that are a dream come true for any nit-picky CEO. Easily glance at what’s on tap for any given week, and then make changes to prioritize certain tasks over others. These tools will help cut down on time wasted in meetings and simplify how progress is measured.
Work in Super-Charged Chunks of Time
Despite the standard 8-hour work day, it’s incredibly difficult for anyone to stay completely focused for that long in one sitting. Instead of forcing yourself to power through long days and falling short of what you wanted to accomplish, work in super-charged smaller chunks of time.
Figure out when you have the most energy—whether that’s the morning, midday, or afternoon. Then, schedule all your most important tasks for those hours. Menial tasks such as weekly meetings and responding to emails can happen in the margins of those super productive periods. Anything that requires creativity or critical thinking should be reserved for these special brain-power periods of your day.
Leave Taxes to the Professionals
As the CEO, you might feel compelled to file your company’s taxes yourself since you’re the head honcho. Listen very carefully: this is a waste of your time!
Filing taxes for an entire business is much more complicated than filing personal taxes. Think about hiring a professional tax assistant who has access to tax software for professionals. You want to make sure that each filing is completely accurate—any inaccurate filings could lead to legal trouble, like a tax audit by the IRS. You also want to make sure that you’re taking advantage of as many tax deductions as possible. That’s a lot of tax work to do.
With so much on your CEO plate, it’s easy for mistakes to slip through the cracks, and that could bring your whole palace of productivity tumbling to the ground.
Get to Know Employees Face-to-Face
What makes a business either sink or swim? It’s employees. Make the effort to get to know your team on a personal basis—that way, they feel compelled to work hard and push their productivity through the roof.
Share your goals, ambitions, insights, and even failures with them. When they come in every morning and can finally put a face to the name, they’ll feel much more motivated to work hard. A simple smile or compliment can go a long way, and employee morale is just as important to the day-to-day operations of your company as budget meetings are.
Don’t Waste Time on Emails
In this day and age, we tend to be in a relationship with our smartphones. Every time the little email reminder dings, we instinctually grab the phone to see what urgent message needs tending to. The trouble is, all this constant interruption isn’t good for your workflow.
Set aside parts of the day where you can’t be reached by email and are only focusing on the important task at hand. If an emergency strikes, make sure employees and clients know they can call you if something needs to be taken care of right away.
When you do respond to emails, don’t waste time over crafting the perfect response. Get to the point, respond with the necessary information, and move forward. You have bigger fish to fry than writing a dissertation-length response to every message in your inbox.
With these tips in mind, it’s likely you’ll see your productivity skyrocket. What sets apart a good CEO from a bad CEO? Their willingness to constantly evolve and learn new techniques that benefit their business.
