Running a small business means wearing many hats and doing all sorts of tasks, especially at the beginning of your business journey. So, staying productive can be a challenge because of the challenges that pop up and need firefighting. Neverending emails, tight turnarounds and responding to customers and clients can take up huge amounts of time.

There are plenty of productivity hacks that can help you work smarter, freeing up time and energy. One hack is using flexible office space to change up your routine and get inspired. Let’s look at some other factors too:

Flexible Office Space: A Change of Scenery

It’s easy to hit a mental block when you’re sat in front of a laptop in the same spot for hours on end. When you’ve got a flexible office space, whether it’s a co-working hub, a shared office or an e-space in a local business centre, it can give you an instant change of scenery to shake things up.

Why it helps:

Breaks the monotony: being in a new environment can shift your thinking or help with new ideas. A spontaneous interaction with someone on the way in or something you see on the way can inspire an idea.
Reduces distractions: Many flexible spaces are designed for focus, with fewer interruptions than home if there are other people working or studying there.
Networking opportunities: There’ll be other working professionals an businesses in office spaces, so you can have a chat about something non-business related or perhaps even make some networking partnerships. Being in a flexible office space for a couple of days of the week can help you stay motivated and energised.

Time-Blocking Your Day

You might be really busy, but that doesn’t always mean you’re being as productive as possible with your time. Time-blocking means splitting up the day into chunks, so you could set aside one hour for emails, two hours for product work, 30 minutes for admin etc.

This approach helps reduce task switching, so you’re not jumping from thing to thing and not making any progress.
You can stick to bigger tasks that need attention too instead of the more urgent tasks that pop up.

Set Micro-Goals

Large tasks can be quite daunting, which means you might waste time to avoid them. If you take big projects and break them up into more manageable chunks it can help you to tackle them. Micro-goals make it easier to get started and you can check in with yourself about how you’re getting on. So, instead of a larger task like “launch new website”, you can break it up to being “write copy for homepage” or “choose images” and tick things off your list as you go.

Automate What You Can

When you don’t have a large team, automating smaller tasks is a great way to make sure everyone is working in ways that maximise their skills. From social media scheduling to accounting software, there are lots of tools to take care of repetitive tasks.

Staying productive as a small business owner isn’t busting a gut and working the longest, it’s about working in smarter ways. Make sure you’re taking rest and breaks, such as short walks, fresh air and even a quiet coffee in your flexible office’s breakout space to help keep you focused and productive.

For more information about flexible working and office packages, get in touch with our team at Hyde Park House today.