6 Tips for Better Time Management

We all get the same twenty-four -- what separates us is the way we use it. Good time management and discipline will do wonders for you when it comes to productivity. 

Developing better time management skills doesn’t mean your life has to become all work and no play, either -- it can mean just the opposite. Working efficiently can mean more free time to do with what you please. Here are some tips for better time management. 

1. Learn to say no

When you’ve got a full plate in front of you, it’s overwhelming and generally counterproductive to take on more. Everyone wants to be that friend or employee who is happy to take on a favor or step up and be the one that handles an important project, but as counterintuitive as this may sound, that’s often the irresponsible thing to do. Make your priorities just that: priorities.

2. Start every day with a to-do list

Each morning, establish right away what needs to get done. Tell yourself this is a “do” day, and make a list -- not too long, not too short -- of the things you’d like to get done today. The list should never be long to the extent where getting everything done is unattainable. Obviously, some tasks eat more time and carry more weight than others, and on days like these, a short list is just fine. Let checking off that box serve as some satisfaction.

3. Time management means work smarter, not harder 

To me, this philosophy has a variety of meanings. You can spend two hours a day doing the same job as someone who works a 9-5, and totally outdo that person. 

Always be looking for a more efficient route to the end goal, because there almost always is one. I also find it helpful to focus less on the non-essential, and instead put that energy into making the essential things dynamite.

4. Eliminate the “I’ll do it tomorrow” mindset from your life

Procrastination starts (and ends) here. There is, however, a thin line between pushing yourself to be your best and simply going too hard. Let’s say you woke up, made your to-do list, worked hard and checked off boxes all day, but didn’t quite accomplish everything you wanted to. 

Staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish off that list is typically counterproductive, and will leave you on short rest for the next day. Let’s say, though, that you woke up with a goal and the productivity of your day more or less depended on it. Maybe you had a hard time getting going that day, and before you knew it, the afternoon turned to night.

Instead of taking it easy that evening and pushing the task off to the next day, get it done! Start tomorrow with a clean slate.

5. Pick one time-waster that you find yourself doing each day and instead turn it into work time

Flipping what is ordinarily non-productive time into work time can make it very easy to get every ounce out of your day. For instance, if you find yourself staying online (ex. scrolling social media) late into the night, well, that's obviously time not spent sleeping, so maybe try to flip it into a productive hour or two. This can be a huge help, too, in getting ahead of the next day. 

6. Focus strictly on one task at a time

It’s a tale as old as time, right? Bruce Lee said it best: “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” A large part of this includes eliminating distractions. Leave your phone in a different room, only keep open the internet tabs you need. Let all of your attention fall purely on the current task. 

It only takes a few minutes to truly get into a groove, but that rhythm can be just as easily disrupted when you try to do more than one thing at a time or are tempted by your surroundings.

For more tips and help with time and business management, contact Spotlight Publicity at www.spotlightpublicityonline.com.

How to be Savvy and Compete in the Social Media Market

For better or worse, social media rules the world in 2019. If you aren’t tapping into the social media population, you’re missing out on a huge portion of potential consumers. This is a guide with some tips on how to get your foot in the door and bust it open.

If you’re currently operating solely on one platform, I’d advise that you expand your online presence — in addition to any platform that your business is on now — to Twitter and Instagram, which are arguably the two most prominent social platforms when it comes to promotion. Those are the two sites that we’ll focus mostly on, but we’ll touch on Facebook and LinkedIn, too. 

How to be Savvy and Compete in the Social Media Market

Promoting tweets and posts is a surefire way to get engagement, although it comes with a cost. Your ads appear as ordinary tweets and posts, so they blend in with users’ feeds. On Twitter, you’re only charged based on engagement, so if someone scrolls right through, you don’t have to worry about money being wasted. Engagement is defined as when a user retweets, likes, or replies to your tweet. 

Costs vary, but tend to hover around $1.30 per engagement. Instagram does things a little differently. It tallies views rather than engagement, and charges roughly $6.70 per a thousand views. Facebook offers paid promotion, too, and for comparison, Facebook charges $7.19 per a thousand impressions. Regardless, if there is room in the budget, money spent on guaranteed engagement is money well-spent.

Hosting contests is generally a risk-free way of promoting engagement, too. It can be anything as simple as a tweet/post along the lines of a “retweet/share for a chance to win this” type deal. Relatively new to Twitter and Instagram are poll features, where you can survey your followers and get their input on anything you desire. Poll questions can be done just for kicks, or to gather legitimate feedback and information from your audience.

Thinking Outside the Social Media Market Box

Targeting your competitors’ following is a powerful play. This is a method that doesn’t seem to occur to everyone. On almost every major social platform, it only takes a click or two to see a list of all the profiles that a particular account is following or followed by. 

This can be incredibly valuable information, and can make it very easy to find your target market. After all, platforms like Twitter make it very easy to find consumers who are unhappy campers with a particular service — you merely have to find the tweets that say so. Apps like Hootsuite make it easy to create and organize multiple feeds, and can be a great tool in building a strong social media presence.

When it comes to Facebook, it’s important to post regularly, but not robotically. Tirelessly recycling the same information or even the same posts (which usually happens with people who have automated/scheduled posts set-up through a third-party app or system) does not drive traffic to your page — if anything, it drives users away. Don’t be afraid to show personality. 

Again, you don’t want to be a robot. Social media is social for a reason. You can stay professional while also having fun with it.

Getting Personal

Taking your followers behind the scenes is a great way to gain and maintain interest. This is not specific to just Facebook. If you show content on your social platforms that is exclusive and not seen anywhere else, of course users are more likely to regularly visit your page.

Interacting with and responding to what your followers have to say should be a priority — it’s the closest thing to customer service that social media has to offer. Odds are, you run a relatively small account, and it shouldn't take more than fifteen or twenty minutes each day to go through your “inbox” and answer tweets, posts and responses directed at you. It can mean a lot to a costumer, but perhaps more importantly, you avoid potentially rubbing someone the wrong way by not acknowledging their effort to reach out.

LinkedIn as a Social Media Market

I want to wrap up by offering a few notes on LinkedIn. If you’re looking for a candidate, you want options. The quickest way to limit the number of candidates you’ll hear from is by scaring applicants away in the “Job Description” section. Sure, make known the type of mold that you’re looking for in a candidate, but there’s no need to create an intimidating feel. 

Create a welcoming environment. You want to promote applications. By avoiding intimidation, more applications will filter through. Odds are that, as a result, a few of those candidates will not be what you’re looking for. That’s okay. LinkedIn is a great platform to get familiar with a potential candidate’s résumé. It’s not a platform designed to get to know a candidate on a personal level.

Like most other social networks, if you pay up on LinkedIn, you’ll reap the rewards. LinkedIn can hook you up with guaranteed connections and even place your postings in more prominent positions on the site if there’s room within your budget to exercise those options. 

LinkedIn is known as the place where professionals meet. Build your network of people within your industry, share information, and learn from their expertise as they will learn from yours. Their network will see your blog, newsletter or update once shared and you will have increased your reach exponentially. 

For help reaching your target audience through social media, web presence, and publicity, contact us and together we will design a path to your success. Visit us at spotlightpublicityonline.com