How to Avoid Distractions in Your Business

This special 7-day online blog event is brought to you by Biba Pedron from Your Business in Style. Today I introduce you to Biba Pedron from www.TheConnectionQueen.com

As solo-entrepreneurs working from home, we wear all the hats in our businesses. That means we often have multiple tasks in our business and our home life competing for our attention and action at the same time. When it comes to marketing, deciding to sit behind the computer to find some time to work on our business instead of in our business can become a real challenge. In addition a lot of distractions usually appear: email, phone calls, social media, tweets, youtube, research online etc… which can take hours a day and affect our productivity.

Here are some quick and simple tips to avoid distractions and be more productive in your business:

1. Organize your calendar daily. In order to be more efficient, you should block time in advance in your calendar and decide how much time you need to work on your marketing. Schedule even small tasks and larger tasks. Write down everything you need to do: like writing a blog post, or an article, do a video, and publish them online, to communicate with people online using social media or spend time to work on your next program or product. Then bock time during the day, and stick to it.

For example from :

-10.00am to 11.00am write article
-11.00am to 12.00pm write 4 blog posts
-12.00pm to 12.15pm break (then you do what ever you want)
-12.15pm to 1.00pm – submit articles online, on articles directories, on social media and on groups on Linkedin and so on for the afternoon

2. Isolate yourself. Imagine that you are in a sales meeting with a client or you are heading a coaching or consulting session. Your phone vibrates and you check it, then you sit at your computer to check your email, after that you answer a call to chat with a friend. All the while leaving your clients there to wait for your attention. There is no way you would do that because you would lose valuable time to share information or make a sale, not to mention you would lose the client! Why would you give yourself and your business the same treatment? When you work on your marketing and on your business, consider yourself one of your most important clients and focus on you and your business only. Isolate yourself, don’t let anything or anybody disturb you.

Personally – when I am on marketing mode I turn off my phone and let all calls go to the answering machine and check them later during the day; I close my email; and I never use instant messenger or answer instant discussion on Facebook. My skype is always on “do not disturb” even when I am on break. I use skype a lot because I have clients in many parts of the world. Skype is reserved for client contact and meetings that are scheduled in advance. I am not available to just chit chat anytime. If I need to do research online I block out a time, otherwise it is tempting to stay online for hours. I close my office door, so people know that I am not available. You can do the same, also if you work from home, to make sure that your husband, wife or kids won’t come to ask you for something while you try to concentrate on your work.

3. Set a break time. Of course you don’t have to isolate yourself 8 hours a day, you need some breaks. Take a 10 minute break every 50 minutes, or a 15 min. break in the morning and one in the afternoon. Try out both options to see which works better for you. It is important to take breaks in order to keep your productivity. Being busy doesn’t always means being productive, so take some ME time.

During those breaks then you can check your phone, email, instant messenger or check your messages. You can take part in a discussion via social media, go for a walk, talk to your family or colleagues and pretty much do what ever you want, since it is your ME time. Just make sure that if you supposed to take a 15mn break, you don’t get distracted and stay online longer than your set break time. This is why it is essential to organize your calendar to reflect these short breaks as I previously mentioned.

To summarize, having discipline in your business ensures that you will have the time to do everything on your to do list by the end of the day so that you can work on your business instead of in your business. Planning out your day with these strategies in mind will help you be productive and efficient in developing your business. By following the 3 simple tips above you will change the way you work, increase your productivity, and as a result the income from your business will increase.

For more tip like this one, visit www.TheConnectionQueen.com, and download 3 free gifts including a 60mn audio, 6 videos and an ebook on networking and marketing strategies.

Biba Pédron, also known as “The Connection Queen”, is a business coach and personal stylist who helps solo women entrepreneurs to attract more clients with proven marketing strategies, like networking and social media. She also helps them awaken their personal look, dress to impress, achieve greater self-confidence, and stand out from the crowd thus skyrocketing their income by creating their signature business style.