Every once in a while, you will experience an extremely busy month in your business. I’m talking wake up, work, go to bed, and repeat the process the next day. The good news is these months usually lead to big paychecks, the bad news is you need to learn to work faster to get it all done.
The Benefits of Learning to Work Faster
In the beginning stages of your business, you likely haven’t built much scalability yet. This means you’re likely still trading time for dollars because that’s the easiest way to start.
As such, the amount of money you make is directly connected to your output. The more you produce, the more money you make. Additionally, the faster you get it done, the less time you actually have to spend working. This means you have plenty of time left over for friends, family, and self-care.
How to Work Faster
The ability to work faster first comes with time and practice. As you gain more experience in business, you learn what works for you and what doesn’t. This will help you create the practices that help you work faster.
However, until you figure all of that out, here are some tips you can try so that you can work faster and turn up your average speed to complete tasks.
Start batching.
One of the secret weapons that taught me how to work quickly is called batching. Batching refers to a productivity hack where you only focus on similar tasks. For example, if I have to take meetings, I’ll take them all the same day. If I have several articles to write for clients, I will do that all the same day as well. And finally, I will usually work on things for my own brand on the same day.
The idea is simple. If you’re not jumping around doing different tasks, your brain doesn’t need to take the extra time to adjust.
Put non-work items on your calendar
I personally tend to perform well under pressure. That means I will get a lot of work done if I give have self-imposed deadlines. For example, I enjoy going to hip-hop themed SoulCycle classes Thursdays at 5:30 pm. I will put it on my calendar and it tells my brain, “You better get everything for today done before SoulCycle.”
Knowing that I have somewhere to be gives me the swift kick I need to be more efficient when need be. In the past, I would simply avoid putting personal items on the calendar so I could take my sweet time working. It didn’t really work out for me.
Use productivity tools to help you.
If I’m really feeling the crunch, I will use playlists that are made for helping people stay productive. For example, Brain.fm is a service that plays music engineered for productivity. Spotify also has similar playlists. And you know what? They work.
Final Thoughts
Although learning to work faster takes time, you can use some of these tips to help you in the meantime. Try them out, see what is best for you and stick to the things that actually help you tackle your to do list.
[Related: How to Turn Up Your Average Speed to Complete Tasks]
Amanda Abella
Amanda is a best-selling author of "Make Money Your Honey", a book that helps freelancers and business owners understand their relationship with money and how to make it more productive. She's driven by helping others live the most productive and fruitful way possible.