Increasing productivity in your business generally involves smarter scheduling, but that doesn’t equate to micro-managing every day of the week though. Too much scheduling can be a bad thing, so it’s much better to try and achieve a balance between smart scheduling and organic occurrences at work. Here is a great book we recommend if you are looking to take control of your schedule.

More Hours Do Not Equal Greater Productivity

Some people are convinced that working harder is the way to achieve greater success. While there may be some merit to that thinking, it will quickly reach a point where it becomes counter-productive to continue to invest greater effort. In fact, a recent survey found that productivity tapers off after an individual invests 50 hours in a workweek, and productivity just about vanishes after 55 hours. Better scheduling can avoid that productivity drop off.

Over-Promising Skews Priorities

When you get in the habit of promising everything to everyone, you will invariably disappoint a whole slew of other individuals. That can cause you just as much harm as missing deadlines would after making all those promises. You’re much better off giving a gentle but firm ‘no’ to some requests so that you’re able to fulfill those tasks which you do take on. This will allow you to gain a reputation for coming through on your promises, and you will become the go-to company for your customers.

Maintain a Fluid Schedule

A fixed or rigid schedule does not work well for accommodating the vast number of changes that occur even in a single day of business. You’re much better off to schedule a day loosely but to maintain a fluid approach to what might happen on that day, so overall productivity doesn’t suffer. If you can adapt to changing priorities, you’ll be in much better shape and you’ll still be able to get all your important tasks accomplished. You should definitely have a plan, but you should be prepared to change that plan if the need arises.

Is Your Business As Productive As It Could Be? 

If not, you may need to implement better practices or to install equipment that will make your business more productive. Contact us at Aspen Commercial Lending so we can explore some options with you about how to improve your business productivity.

Another great resource for taking control of your schedule is this book by Skill Path Publications.