Top 5 Productivity Hacks for Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, you may often find yourself juggling multiple roles and responsibilities to help keep things running smoothly. From creating marketing materials, managing customer service, handling finances, and more, demands can feel overwhelming without an effective plan.

Implementing strategies to help enhance your productivity and alleviate some of the pressure can be a lifesaver for small business owners with a never-ending list of tasks. To help, we’ve outlined five hacks that you can try out to help boost efficiency and optimize your small business operations.

1. Create a digital to-do list by breaking down high-priority items

To-do lists have evolved greatly from the days of scribbling them on Post It notes. Try digital task managers such as Trello or Click Up, which allows you to easily share and collaborate with your team, as well as set deadlines, track time, create reminder alerts, and visualize progress.

Start by identifying daily essentials for your small business, like opening your store. From there, include sub-tasks, such as putting out promotional signs and turning on computers. Checking off even small tasks can boost motivation and feelings of satisfaction by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine.

When you have larger tasks on your to-do list, it can be helpful to break them down into smaller, manageable parts. Instead of adding “create social media content for the month,” consider dividing it into smaller, weekly tasks. For example, you can dedicate each week to planning the upcoming week’s content. Additionally, digital task managers allow you to collaborate with employees, letting you easily delegate tasks to others and track their progress.

After identifying tasks you need to complete, rank them in the task manager based on their priority. You can do this by labelling a few tasks as “essential” or by moving them to the top of your list and categorizing others as “nice to have done.” This can let you focus on top priorities, build momentum, and keep you feeling productive rather than overwhelmed by everything on your list.

2. Use timeboxing and time tracking

It is important to be honest about what you can accomplish and when you can accomplish it. If your mornings are particularly busy, be realistic about the additional tasks you take on. For instance, if you need to process a customer’s return or have a meeting to catch up with your team, schedule these tasks for a specific time when you know you can give them your full attention. This can be known as timeboxing, which involves allocating specific time slots for certain tasks and stopping once that time is up.

Consider using free time tracking software, such as My Hours, Toggl Track or Clockify, which will allow you to easily see what tasks and projects you are spending too much time on (or too little), as well as create weekly and monthly reports, and export data for clients.

3. Schedule breaks to maintain motivation

Working through stress, fatigue, or being overwhelmed won’t help in the productivity department. Not only is it a recipe for making mistakes, but pushing through these feelings and working long hours can lead to burnout—something almost one in four Canadians experience, with 69% reporting that they’ve experienced symptoms of it.

Not having the energy to remain motivated can impact how much you can get done. That’s why it’s so important not to undermine the value of taking a break. It has been shown that taking breaks can reduce stress levels and help you become more productive than working without stopping. During these breaks, try to get some movement in, meditate, grab a coffee/tea, reach out to friends/family, etc. The goal is to move away from the task and give your eyes a break.

Just how long should these breaks be? It can depend on the task. An experiment back in 2014 tested a “52-17 rule,” where individuals work for 52 minutes and then take a 17-minute break. To determine if it still held up, they re-did the experiment in 2021 and found that the most productive participants actually worked for 112 minutes and took a 26-minute break. This extended break time proved to be more beneficial for productivity. Other studies support the idea that taking a longer break after a challenging, cognitively demanding task can be more effective than a shorter one.

However, as a small business owner, it may not be realistic to focus on a task for a long period or take a long break. If that’s the case for you, researchers have discovered the value of ten-minute “micro breaks,” which can boost performance, motivation, concentration, and overall well-being while lowering stress levels. Consider programming periodic breaks into your phone’s Reminders app to get alerts when you should take a break.

4. Leverage AI-powered tools to complete tasks more efficiently

Nothing can feel like it eats up more of your time than mundane, repetitive tasks that are important but that can take you away from other work. If you find yourself with several of these tasks on your list, now can be the time to make the switch to AI tools for assistance.

Some examples of AI tools you might use include:

• Accounting: There are several financial tools that can assist with invoicing, expense tracking, and more, such as QuickBooks’ AI-powered financial assistant, Intuit Assist. It is powered by generative AI and provides personalized recommendations related to your finances while automating several tasks, such as creating invoice reminders. Instead of dedicating time to analyzing spending patterns or preparing for taxes, AI can help provide key details to you, allowing you to stay productive.
• Customer support: Nearly 64% of business owners say that they believe AI will improve their relationships with customers. If you have an ecommerce site, for example, adding an AI-powered chatbot can help answer some common questions you receive and provide 24/7 support to customers, improving their experience with your business.
• Project management/organization: From creating to-do lists, managing tasks on a project, creating agendas, generating mood boards, and more in between, Notion uses AI to assist with writing, summarizing, brainstorming, analyzing documents and images, and more.
• Marketing: Automate your social media posts. Buffer has a free plan that allows you to schedule your posts for up to three platforms, which can help make sure your social handles are regularly updated instead of only posting when you have time. Its AI assistant can help you write and rephrase your captions based on the platform and schedule your posts for the ideal publication time based on when your customers are most active online. If you already use Shopify for your small business or are looking to switch over, Shopify Magic includes several AI-powered tools to help your business, such as generating product descriptions, writing answers for your FAQs, etc. There is also ChatGPT, which you have likely heard of, that can assist when writing captions, planning out strategies, and more, but it’s important to remain aware of its privacy and copyright rules.

5. Delegate your tasks effectively

Find the tasks that take up a big chunk of your time, break them down into parts, and delegate some or all of them to team members or professionals. It can be important to recognize when you need some assistance to help you stay productive on your own. For example, if you know you have to revamp your marketing materials but you’re not sure where to find the time to tackle it effectively, consider hiring a freelance designer who can work on content according to your budget, or visit The UPS Store near you for design and print assistance.

Visit The UPS Store for Small Business Solutions

A great way to remain productive as a small business owner is to lean on the pros when it comes to your packaging and shipping, printing, shredding, and mailbox rental needs. The UPS Store offers Small Business Solutions to help you start and grow your small business. Find a location near you today.