Running a business is hard.
Running a business with unnecessary distractions is even harder.
Simplified systems and processes are the keys to maintaining your sanity as an entrepreneur and can also directly impact your bottom line. If you feel like you are drowning in work, forgetting important tasks or deadlines and generally feeling overwhelmed I am making this video for you.
I am a co-founder of two businesses Beavr (Aesthetic Marketing Services) and Medical Resale and also have a young family at home. For me to give 100% to all facets of my life it is important for me to maintain some sort of order. Part of this is simplifying the way I run my business and utilising technology to make my business life easier.
In this video, I am going to show you my thought process and also the tools I use to apply digital minimalism in my business life. Let’s get into it.
Email is an important aspect of conducting business but it can also be a headache to manage.
A simple method to taming your email conundrum is to treat your inbox like a to-do list and aim to maintain a zero inbox at the end of every day. This means when you finish for the day you can rest easy with the peace of mind of knowing your emails have been actioned.
Now, I am not saying you have to reply to every email but rather only check your emails periodically throughout the day and apply the A.T.I.D method.
This stands for Action, Task, Ignore, Delegate.
If there is an email that arrives. If you can take action right away and reply, do it. If it requires a bit more work, Create a task (I use Trello which I will touch on shortly so keep watching). If it has no value ignore it. If someone else can do it delegate it.
Once you have selected an action simply archive the email in your inbox.
For those that are panicking about finding emails if you need to find an email just search for it in All Mail section of your email application. If you use Gmail for business they make searching for emails really simple.
The next method for simplifying your online life is to centralise all of the main applications you use on a daily basis.
For me, I use a variety of applications for Like Gmail, Google drive for file management, Trello for Task Management, Slack for communicating with my remote team and Basecamp for project management.
I used to always have a large number of tabs open in my browser which always resulted in me trying to multi-task and end up taking twice as long to complete anything. Until I found an app called shift.
Shift is an application that helps me centralise all of my main applications so that they are available to me without having to open my web browser. This app helps me stay on the task at hand and saves me a tonne of time trying to find the right tab on my browser.
Next method is removing distractions.
Time is our most important asset which makes distractions our enemy.
I have strived to eliminate all distractions by leaving my desktop blank and deleting any saved documents on my desktop once I have finished using them. This sets the tone for the next day and helps me tackle the important things first with complete clarity.
My biggest problem when starting my businesses was learning to manage my tasks and not forgetting important dates.
For me a process and system need to be simple and minimalistic otherwise I will just stop using it and resorting back to old habits.
This is where Trello comes in. I use Trello to manage all of the tasks in my life.
I have created 3 columns Someday, for tasks that are not time sensitive and can be actioned at a later date. Waiting, This is generally for important emails or tasks I am waiting for someone else to action and Today, for important tasks I need to complete in the day.
To integrate Trello into my Gmail I use a chrome extension called Gmail-to-Trello this enables me to instantly add an email to my to-do list directly from my inbox.
By centralising all of my tasks it gives me so much more bandwidth in my brain as I no longer need to remember important tasks. So long as I have added these to my Trello I can switch off and focus on other things. That is a brief insight as to how digital minimalism helps me stay sane as a busy entrepreneur and new father.
If you are feeling overwhelmed take a day to go through the process of decluttering your digital life. You may lose a day going through the process but you will gain many more just by having more clarity and headspace to grow your business.
If you found this video useful please leave me a comment below. I love sharing my ideas and hearing your feedback.
See you in the next video.