Productivity

Our Business Advisor, Susan George, is a highly effective economic development professional with extensive senior management experience in both the private and public sector. We wanted to make the most of Susan’s wealth of experience and she hints and tips on relevant topics throughout the year.

We asked Susan:

How can you improve productivity, creativity and growth in your business?

 

Stop Doing to Start Thriving: A Smarter Way to Focus
The Secret to Growing Your Business Isn’t Doing More—It’s Doing Less
As business owners, we often believe that success comes from doing everything—working harder, saying “yes” to every opportunity, and taking on every task ourselves. But the truth is, growth happens when we focus on what matters most and stop wasting energy on what doesn’t.
That’s where a “Stop Doing List” comes in. By identifying tasks, habits, or activities that drain your time and don’t align with your goals, you can clear the clutter, sharpen your focus, and channel your energy toward the actions that truly drive results.
In this issue, we’re sharing 10 powerful tips to help you create your own “Stop Doing List” and discover how saying “no” can unlock greater productivity, creativity, and growth for your business.
Here are 10 top tips on how creating a “Stop Doing List” can improve your focus and help grow your business:
1. Eliminate Time Wasters
  • Identify tasks that drain your time without contributing to your goals. Stopping these activities creates room for higher-value tasks, improving efficiency and focus.
2. Prioritise Strategic Activities
  • By stopping low-priority tasks, you can focus on high-impact activities, like customer acquisition or product development, which drive business growth.
3. Prevent Burnout
  • Dropping unnecessary tasks helps free up mental and physical energy, allowing you to focus on meaningful work without feeling overwhelmed.
4. Clarify Your Goals
  • A “Stop Doing List” forces you to evaluate what really matters, aligning your daily efforts with your long-term business objectives.
5. Strengthen Decision-Making
  • Creating boundaries around what you won’t do sharpens your ability to say “no” to distractions, interruptions, and requests that don’t align with your priorities.
6. Delegate Effectively
  • Identifying tasks to stop doing helps you realise what can be delegated to your team or outsourced, enabling you to focus on your strengths.
7. Improve Productivity
  • By cutting out unnecessary work, you create more space to focus on tasks that generate tangible results, improving your productivity and impact.
8. Increase Creativity
  • Freeing your schedule from repetitive or low-value activities provides more time and energy for creative problem-solving and innovation.
9. Strengthen Team Dynamics
  • When you stop micromanaging or overloading yourself with tasks, you empower your team members to take ownership of their responsibilities, improving collaboration and morale.
10. Focus on Revenue-Generating Activities
  • A “Stop Doing List” helps redirect your attention to activities that directly contribute to business growth, like sales, marketing, or networking, rather than operational busywork.

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