Being more productive is always a popular topic among those of us running our own business. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten together with friends and we’ve shared what we are using now. All in the hopes of answering one question: How can we squeeze a little more out of ourselves?

Is it healthy? Sometimes. As long as you are not in pursuit of the impossible. Unfortunately, most of us are in pursuit of the impossible and that’s when things get a little unhealthy. Or a lot unhealthy. It’s super easy to get there when you’re looking down at a huge a to-do list.

In the interest of not getting to an unhealthy mindset, I’m just going to share how I’m a little more productive. Checking one more item off of that never-ending to-do list is huge. Keeping our minds on that will get us so much further than if we tried to get it ALL done. So let’s take a look at a few of my tips.

Do one task at a time

Getting pulled in a million different directions is never going to help you get anything done. Every new task you do requires a certain amount of time from your brain before you are actively engaged in it. So if you are constantly changing tasks, you’re wasting loads of time just getting into the task. Meanwhile, if you just do one task from beginning to end, you will likely do it much quicker.

And there’s just something about giving your full attention to a task. You’re less likely to make mistakes because you’re really looking at what you’re doing. That will save you time in the long run since you won’t have to go back to correct mistakes.

Block out time for head down work

Just like trying to do multiple tasks at once, constant interruptions will make it difficult to get anything completely done. So blocking out some time in your calendar just for doing your head down work can really help you out. During this time, you don’t scroll on the internet or check your email. And you don’t respond to any interruptions unless it’s an emergency. Go so far as telling anyone who might interrupt you how to get you if it really is an emergency. And for everyone’s sanity, go over what an emergency actually is, so they only interrupt you for real emergencies. From experience, I’ve learned not everyone knows what an emergency is.

If you’re looking at this and thinking it’s unreasonable, then you doubly need to block out some time on your schedule. Maybe an hour doesn’t seem doable right now, but fifteen minutes might work. And as soon as you feel comfortable with that, add five minutes. Or add another session. You don’t have to do this an hour at a time to make it work. Use the pockets of time you have.

Don’t work on weekends

You want to take advantage of every minute you have, right? But if you don’t have time to rest, you will slowly break down and become more and more unproductive. Basically, if you are not proactively taking rest before you need it, then you are going to be forced to take it later on. And you’ll probably need more time to recover.

This is also a mental trick though. If I allow myself to have the weekends to catch up on things, then I all of a sudden don’t do quite as much during the week. There is just something about knowing that I have that extra time that makes me dawdle. As soon as I get rid of it though? I rush through all that I can during the week.

So even though it seems counterproductive to take this time away from yourself, it will actually make you much more productive.

Get an accountability partner

There are services available where you can pay someone to be your accountability partner, but I prefer doing this for free. There are pros and cons to both, and you just have to figure out what it is you need and if you have someone in your life that you trust and that you can give back to. Because if you are not paying money, you are paying with your time to keep the other person on track as well. Regardless, I still like paying with my time simply because I get to talk openly with someone who is in the same position as me.

And that’s the biggest key of this is to talk with someone in the same position. They’re business should be of a similar age, and they should be in a similar place with it. Otherwise, there is a huge risk of the partnership becoming completely one-sided. That might be good for the person getting all of the advice and support, but we want to make sure this is as balanced as possible to prevent any kind of resentment.

Look, there is no real shortcut to getting obscenely productive. And maybe that isn’t what you should be aiming for anyway. Figure out how to get a few more things done and then let the rest go. Balance is just as important as productivity after all.

What do you do to be a bit more productive?