I'm a big fan of finding simple ways and things that make a big difference in my life and business (I mean, who isn't?).

If I can do just one thing that increases my effectiveness by 45%

… or have a clear plan of attack that stops me from staring blankly at a screen

… or even create a system that gets me one step closer to achieving my goals.

And all by quickly seeing a huge drop in my stress levels for something that took me just a few minutes to implement, it gets me really excited!

That is exactly what these online entrepreneurs, bloggers and small business owners have to offer: the very best productivity tips that will help you get all of your tasks done, and still have more than enough free time to spend with family and friends.

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Tena Moore from Social Bloom

If you spend too much time on social media, this one is a life changer. First, decide what types of content you’re going to post on a daily basis. Here’s what I mean: quotes on Mondays, blogs on Tuesdays, funny videos on Fridays, etc. - you get the idea. Make a folder on your computer for each ‘type’ of content, then put all those folders in one folder named ‘social media content’. When you see content you’d like to share, put it in the correct folder. Batch schedule your content with SmarterQueue or MeetEdgar - or any scheduler that repurposes your content. It will post them indefinitely. Think about it—take an hour or two to schedule 52 quotes for a weekly share and you are covered for the entire year.

Set it and forget it. Never again will you gasp in horror that you’ve forgotten to post on social media.

Amy Edge from Amy Edge

Make tech work for you by building easy automation into your workflow. Automation enables you to free up valuable time rather than spending it on redundant tasks.

You can easily automate any number of workflow actions by setting up triggers within IFTTT or Zapier. You can easily create a recipe to add new email contact information to be compiled in an existing spreadsheet. Or, you can connect your Gmail and Google sheets to track your finances by automatically scanning your emails for words like "receipts".

Using automation is the best way to free up time in your business daily!

Rebekah Jones from The Sunburned Penguin

Facebook Groups: When I post in a Facebook Group promo thread, I’m usually one comment out of hundreds. While sometimes I get notifications from Facebook that someone liked my comment, or replied to my comment, it doesn’t always come through right, or is easy to miss with so many other notifications happening.

So what I do is once I post the comment, I hover over the timestamp of the comment. It usually says “Just now” as I do it right away.

I then right-click and choose “Copy Link Address” (I use Chrome, other browsers have a similar option).

Next, in my master FB Group spreadsheet, I paste the link to my Facebook Group thread comment in the column set up for it. I can now click this link anytime I want to and see any activity on my comment.

Check out this blog post for more FB group hacks.

Izuzu Nworgu from Positive Voice Blog

There are a lot of productivity hacks but my best productivity hack is the use of planners or journals.

How do you want to be productive without making realistic plans and sticking to these plans?

To be productive, you have to know exactly what you want to get done. Write these things down in your planner or journal or a random piece of paper. I’ll advice you against pieces of papers because they might get mixed up with other things and looking for them is going to seem like too much work.

Create your TO-DO list and don’t be in a rush to get everything done at the same time. You’ll end up doing nothing.

Schedule these TO-DOs and prioritize your list with the most important thing first (or most urgent thing first as the case maybe) and make sure you discipline yourself to finish one task before moving on to the next.

You can use a timer to help you manage time so you don’t spend eternity on one task.

In conclusion, my best productivity hacks are;

· Making realistic plans

· Self-discipline (discipline yourself to stick to these plans)

· Being time conscious

Sandy Edwards from CE Squared

Block Scheduling is my productivity hack.

Making time for the email, support requests, and all things crazy. Blocking time for sales, family, product work, and client work. I use 2 hour time blocks to mark up my schedule and use youcanbook.me for people to book my time in those blocks.

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Katie Lewis from Kathryn D Lewis

I employ the Pomodoro Technique, a method that breaks time into manageable bites.

If I tell myself, "OK, you have 25 minutes. How much can you get done?", I'm usually able to return a handful of emails and knock off a long-postponed to-do list item.

This rush of efficiency also serves to rocket my mood, encouraging even more accomplishments. (And speaking of to-do lists, I find maintaining a physical day planner enormously beneficial.)

Shannon Thompson from Invading Mars

My best productivity hack is during the work week I opt for audiobooks over the real thing. That way no matter how crazy my week gets I get some kind of creative fuel.

Audiobooks help me multitask. When I am doing non creative work or otherwise not using a ton of mental energy I love to listen to business and self help books.

I also watch Ted Talks on Spotify (yep Spotify will play the actual videos) while working out, walking my dog and getting dressed for work. It helps me build up my vocabulary and improves my public speaking and speech writing skills.

Vivienne Diane Neal from One World Singles Blog

Finding Free Photos and Clipart for Your Blog or Web Site

It is always a good idea to get someone’s permission before using their image(s). Nowadays, people are so quick to sue, and even if you give them credit, it may present problems because you didn’t get it in writing and have nothing to show for it if a problem does come up. And in the long run, if you are on a tight budget, buying royalty-free images may be costly, especially if you need to use a magnitude of photos or the images you desire may not be available or are limited.

What you can do is use images that are categorized as Public Domain (PD) or come under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures/illustrations are completely free and can be used or edited for any legal purpose, namely commercial or personal use, and no credit or linking is required when using these images.

Here are some sites that fall under the Creative Commons License or Public Domain:

Pixabay - have a variety of photos, illustration, and images in just about every category.

Picnoi - is a co-op of stock photography, which has a variety of multiracial/multicultural images.

Pexels - has free stock photos in every imaginable category.

WPclipart - offers over 68,000 public domain clipart and photos.

StockSnap - offers high resolution images.

Madeleine Davis from The Stress Free Family

I’m a serial entrepreneur and mom to 3 active busy boys. I need to be productive in order for me to get everything I NEED to get done AND everything I WANT to get done! I have found that creating 3 separate lists helps me move through my day with grace and ease.

1. Task List: Individual tasks, realistic completion time, and due date. Completing this list focuses me on determining how I will execute the task. A 10 hour task that’s due in 2 weeks can be finished over 2 days or an hour a day for 2 weeks. Now that you know what it takes, you can enter it into your calendar.

2. Quickie List: This list helps you avoid valuable time leaks. We all have quick calls and email responses we need to do. Cross off throughout the day.

3. Found Time List : This is the “If I had time in my day” tasks. Necessary tasks without deadlines and wish list items live here. Don’t waste time thinking about what to do when someone cancels or you finish a project ahead of schedule. Organize your kids drawers? Write a chapter in your memoir?

Ying from Navigating Adulthood

My productivity hack is to set the timer for 30 minutes and put my cellphone in a really-hard to reach place [like the back of the DVD drawer].

I commit to only doing the task at hand for those 30 minutes. If I feel myself getting distracted, I remind myself that it's only 30 minutes.

When that 30 minute block is up, I give myself permission to do whatever I want for 10 minutes [example: watch Youtube, or go on Instagram]. It works really well for blogging and my husband and I even use this technique for housework!

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Chloe Cheng from Ciao Chloe

Stay active. Find a physical activity you enjoy like going to the gym, playing a team sport, or yoga or meditation.

You’ll increase productivity once you’re happier, healthier, more energized, and more focused. Exercise helps you improve all of these things by increasing the amount of energy your body has through stimulation of development of new mitochondria within your cells, which produces more ATP, and consequently boosts your mental sharpness!

I always begin my day with a big healthy breakfast and a good workout to ensure that I’ll stay on top of my game for the day. Especially on a busy day where you’re expecting a huge workload, exercising for just 30 minutes will really benefit you.

Don’t use the excuse of being busy to skip that precious half-hour!

Raelyn Tan from Raelyn Tan

I conscientiously set goals.

At the start of each month, I plan what I want to achieve in advance, and then break those down into weekly to-dos. This saves me a lot of time because I spend less time on "work" and more time on tasks that will strategically grow my business.

Nataly Llanes from Love & Paper Flowers

In today's networking world staying organized is imperative in helping you maximize engagement in the shortest available time.

I manage all of my Facebook Groups in less than 20 minutes a day using a weekly Facebook Group Weekly planner and a strategy I set in place to help prioritize daily "actions".

You can find the FREE 11 page Tutorial and a FREE weekly panner printable with full instructions, here: http://bit.ly/2sv95Hg.

Haneef Davenport from Rose Gold Pearls

We all know time management is key when you're your own boss, but sometimes we end up rushing or trying to juggle everything at once and we end up either making lots of mistakes or burning out completely. Of course that's never a fun experience! My tip is to create specific goals for specific days and times of the day. This way you'll have organization and won't be spreading yourself thin. Evaluate all the work that needs to be done, and then plan out when to tackle it throughout the week.

For example, send and reply to emails at 10am, actively promote your blog or business from 12 to 4pm, draft copywriting or business materials at 4-5pm, etc. on Mondays and Thursday's you can focus on marketing your business. Tuesdays you focus on blogging. Wednesday and Friday are all about networking and so on.

If necessary determine what absolutely deserves the majority of your attention and effort and make that top priority for most days of the week.

Tara Porter from Methodical Blogger

Blogging with kids at home can pose some challenges, but I have developed an amazing system that has not only helped me focus on my business, but has also given my kids some amazing one-on-one time.

Prior to getting started, I make sure my kids are set to go (sippy cups filled, a few activities laid out, etc). I set a timer for 25 minutes & they know it's Mommy's work time until the timer sounds off. I can still see and hear the kids, but the kids know to wait until the buzzer sounds if they need help with any non-urgent issues.

Once the timer sounds, we set a new one and work together to clean a room in the house. We then set another timer to do a fun activity together.

I find this gives me far more one-on-one time with my kids than if I simply worked during naps or when they are in bed, because during the time that we are playing, I am focused completely and entirely on THEM. Throughout the course of the day, this means they get hours of focused Mommy time, I get hours of focused work time, and our house gets a little TLC as well!

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Lauren Clemett from Ultimate Business Propellor

I hate to do lists.

I'm sure I've got ADHD, but it occurs to me that, by the time I've written out everything I need to do, I could have done half of it! But I do like being organized, in order to control the bright-shiny-objectitis in my creative brain that skips off to cover multiple tasks at once. And we all know multitasking is far from productive! So I created a weekly action planner and it takes me about 20 minutes once a week to get it completed, then I have a guide for the entire week. Instead of creating a massively long list, the weekly action planner chops your tasks up into 8 projects (yes only 8!) and within each project, you only have 5 tasks to achieve that week. This ensures you chunk stuff down to get it done.

Because we overestimate what we can get done in the short-term and under-estimate what we achieve in the long term. The rule is, that is a task has been transferred from one week to the next, after two weeks it is obviously too big a task and must be chopped down even more. I used this planner help me stay on track to write my books and it helped me author 3 books in 4 months! You can CLICK HERE to see the planner.

Brianna Berner from Spiked Parenting

One thing that I do to stay productive is to get really clear with my goals. The more specific (and SMART) the goal is, the easier it is to map out each step that I need to take to make it happen. Once I'm clear on the steps I need to take, I put them into my weekly schedule (I use Trello for this). Around each of the steps, I schedule in plenty of empty space. This way when life happens, I still have enough time to get everything done (for the most part). Then, if I have extra time, I can always pull something else from my to-do list to work on. I always keep my to-do list arranged in Trello in order of priority so I don't have to waste time deciding what to work on. This system works great for me and leaves very little downtime, or uncertainty of what I need to be working on.

Rachael Shores from Sparrow's Hand

Here is one of my favorite productivity tips: when I have a huge task to accomplish, I feel isolated. So before I begin, I go to Facebook - with a 5 min time limit - and announce to my friends my plan.

I now have accountability and support.

Then I ask for song suggestions for a music playlist for that task.

I set a timer for 15 min and then return to the post and collect song suggestions.

My reward for doing my task is I get encouragement from friends and a new song playlist on Pandora. This is excellent for housework and art studio time.

Kathleen Murray from Just Keep It Simple Fitness

I've only been blogging for a few months, but my number one tip is to get and stay organized - buy a planner!

With all the social media groups and rules, Pinterest boards, blog post ideas, research to follow up on, and everything else that goes into blogging, it can be very overwhelming.

Make a schedule every day on the items you want to work through, then check them off as you complete them!

This will keep you productive and from going insane trying to keep track of everything!

Shelby Bunker from The Writing Pal

My best productivity hack? It's not as exciting as it sounds, but my best tip for staying productive is to have a routine.

I am much more productive when I follow my routine. It gives me direction and purpose. Without my routine, I am more prone to distractions and my day slips past me, wasted.

Since routines can feel restraining and redundant I let my routine change day to day depending on what is happening. It's important to allow some wiggle room in case things come up.

But having as consistent a routine as possible helps me find a productive rhythm. My routine helps me make being productive a habit. If I follow my routine every day, then I am productive every day. That motivates me too keep at it!

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Lisa Petr from Zen Virtual Assistant Services 1. Template everything. 2. Focus on WHAT to work on, rather than HOW to be efficient. 3. Time management - lists, timers and online appointment reminders. 4. Focus on single tasks and complete them. 5. Outsource what you don't have time for. Virtual Assistants can help and content writers. 6. Consistency - get into a rhythm and keep doing what works well. 7. Planning the following day, the night before. 8. Time boxing for big and small tasks. 9. Get up early and get all your time consuming social media tasks out of the way. 10. Energy management - eat well, get good rest, take breaks and gave down time.

Sonya Williams from Money Mindset Muse

I use a daily planner and I write out my “to-do” list the evening before or whenever something comes up that needs to be added to the next day (like a follow-up call).

That way I don’t forget anything and it clears my mind before bed as I’m not trying to force myself to remember to do something the next day.

My list includes my self-care (exercise, daily intention, etc.), all appointments and at the bottom I save room to list 2 things I’m grateful for and 1 business success I’ve had that day.

I write my list in pencil and that allows me the flexibility to change things and move them to the next day because talking to my favorite cousin trumps unloading the dishwasher any day!

I also track my money and this makes it easy to update my budget twice a month.

Tori Reid from Bootstrap Millennial

I used to write for Lifehacker where we lived and breathed productivity hacks, but my best productivity “hack” to date is waking up ultra early (4:30 am) -- without an alarm.

I know it sounds strange and hard to do, but Adam Tisley recently took the advice and is loving it, so at least hear me out.

Basically you start going to sleep early so your body rises naturally and refreshed at 4:30am, before the world. It’s important to do this without an alarm. Alarms are freaking rude! They wake you up before your body is ready to be productive, and that sets you back. If you wake up naturally and feeling rested you’ll appreciate the morning. I thought I wasn’t a morning person. I’m really just not an alarm person, and I think that’s true for most of us.

If you live and work in busy environments -- like me -- those few hours of complete silence equate clarity. Clarity of what your needs are for the day, and what your priorities are. I typically meditate, drink some tea, then get to work. My productivity has drastically improved since I picked up this habit. I intend to never go back.

Amber Kelsey Walker from Amber Kelsey

As a Certified Workplace Productivity Specialist, I have learned about and tried many programs. My top 2 are:

Sped Dial 2 Chrome Extension: My all-time favorite browser extension tool to keep your favorite websites at hand. You indicate which websites you want to save, so every time you open your browser you see the sites you need without getting stuck in news stories, etc. in a beautiful and easy to find display.

Rescuetime.com – Track how long you spend on certain activities. Get a realistic idea about how long you are on certain websites or computer applications. It can also block you from going to certain sites that might distract you, or only let you stay on for a specified time. So if you have been on Facebook for longer than the amount of time you designated you will be locked out.

Jessica McMullen from I Am Teacher Fit

When I'm running short on time but need to get some work in, I like to set a timer.

Say I need to be out the door in an hour, I give myself 45 minutes of uninterrupted work time and knock out as much as I can, moving from one task to the next.

The feeling of racing the clock sends me into overdrive!

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Angelica Sereda from Not Without My Coffee

My biggest productivity tip is to limit your distractions.

I don't think we realize how many things are pulling for our attention on a daily basis. I work from home and learned quickly that if I was going to get anything done, the first thing I needed to do was get rid of any unnecessary distractions.

I don't have any notifications on my phone- just email, and have eliminated the need to web browse (my weakness) throughout the day.

I attack my priorities in the morning and set aside a small amount of time in the evening to catch up on other things that don't require my immediate attention.

This helps me have a lot more control over my day rather than scrounging around at the end of the day wondering where all of my time went.

Andres Sanchez from F4Freelance

We all know how powerful intrinsic motivation can be.

Having something from within that makes you want to accomplish something may be even greater than having someone from the outside motivating you.

So, you know what you can do? Get a board and post-its or sticky notes. Write down in them all the work you have to do and stick them in your board. You'll see how great of a motivation is yearning to see that board empty.

So, you'll be the most productive you can be while working from home. And we all love working from home, don't we?

Angela Edge from Reach Absolute

My best productivity hack is a very simple one: make a short "to do" list, even if you don't feel it's necessary.

When you begin, don't stop for breaks until you have completed your list. It's easier to stay on task, if you don't stop.

Try repeating this to yourself, when necessary to stay motivated: "A body in motion stays in motion." - quote based on Isaac Newton's Laws.

John Chuang from Vizoomio

Stop multi-tasking.

Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking has been shown to be counter-productive, as splitting your time and attention across multiple tasks will reduce the quality of your work and make you less efficient.

The most effective way would be to actually focus and finish one task first before moving on to the next. It will not only ensure that you get each task done, but in the long run it will make you more effective and efficient.

Natasa Jankovic from Cute Little Paper

Being a single mom of two little kids with a full time job and blogging on the side, productivity has to be the one skill I have to be good at in order to make it through the day (and another, and another… ). What I love the most are productivity hacks for everyday life, applicable when you are at home (because that’s the place where I want to get the maximum results so I can have more free time for myself and my kids). Here are some of my favorites. Make the housework look super-fun (or like a contest), that way the rest of the family will be willing to contribute to it (and maybe even “beat you” in the game!). If you have a weekly plan (and I strongly recommend that you do, at least a draft version), include something enjoyable to do in each day (for yourself or for the entire family). The catch - you can only do it after the daily tasks are done. What you get? More focus and the will to finish the necessary things ASAP! Batch as many tasks which go well together, like shopping with some errand (if they’re in the same direction you’re heading); clean/tidy the kitchen while the food bakes/cooks; when going from room to room, take the thing you know you need to put back in place (and it happens to be along the way)... Hope you’ll find at least some of them to be useful for you!

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Krystina Ramos from Krystina Ramos

Productivity was something I struggled with as I delved into freelancing after college. Sure, I have more freedom outside of a traditional job, but along “with great power, comes great responsibility.” As an entrepreneur, you’re the one responsible in making sure tasks are completed.

Getting started on a project is the easy part, however, following through with it is a bit harder. Try setting stakes to give you a work boost and keep you on track. Consequences for inaction should be something you don’t look forward to.

Some people put money at stake. For me, it’s traditional exercise (I’m not a big fan). 1 push up or a run around the block for every 30 minutes past an incomplete task. Honestly, I can schedule as many reminders as I want in Asana or Google Calendar, but if there aren’t any consequences, the project remains a work in progress.

Nadalie Bardo from It's All You Boo

I’ve found that one of the greatest challenges to productivity is not knowing what’s important and what’s a priority. By this I mean, it’s tempting to spend the day feeling like you’re putting out all these little fires, running from task to task, always trying to catch up.

It’s normal to feel like you’re always behind and you can never get to the bottom of your to-dos list. And that’s completely okay! Once you accept this you can implement a better plan of action.

My productivity hack is a combination of batching my priority tasks and ignoring everything else. You’re constantly interrupted by notifications, emails and requests on a daily basis, but learning to ignore them and focus on what actually is important is one of the best skill you can learn.

Focus on one task at a time, such as scheduling your social media posts, do it all at once and be done with it for a few weeks. Then move onto the next task. By silencing interruptions, you can schedule daily time to check in and respond, then shut it down and move on. Batching + ignoring = lots done.

Ike Paz from Internet Marketing Gym

Before you can think about making the sale, you need to think about getting your traffic to subscribe to your email list, but before you can even think about that, you need to get actual niche targeted traffic to your site.

How do you get niche targeted traffic you ask?

There are many ways to get traffic to your niche blog. However, my favorite free method to get targeted traffic is through Facebook groups.

These are pockets of communities in all sorts of different niches. You can join them and contribute. Your number one goal is to contribute real value. Help people in the groups you belong to and answer any questions they may have.

It's important to build out your reputation so that you can be perceived as an authority in your niche. If you habitually provide value and support then the Facebook group members will come to trust you and look to you for advice.

On specific days of the week, some of these groups allow for blog post promotions. The groups vary on what you can promote and when you can promote so it gets a little hectic at times.

I found this to be a problem so I created a free little Google Chrome extension. It organizes all my Facebook groups and the content I want to promote. The extension then notifies me what groups allow promotions on any given day.

Not only does it get traffic to my niche blog but it really saves me a ton of time. I'm sure it will do the same for you. You can get it for free here...

Mick Meaney from Profit Copilot

Let's declutter your mind in 4 simple steps, so you can stop procrastinating, get your head in the game, and start focusing on high value activities.

1. Write a list of EVERYTHING you think about - spend at least 10 minutes on this. List all your thoughts; business, relationships, doubts, fears, dreams, etc (you'll know you're done when you start laughing).

2. Circle all the things that you CANNOT control and put a star next to the ones you CAN control.

3. Read through the circled ones, stop at each and make a conscious decision to release it and say goodbye to it.

4. Transfer what's left (the things you CAN control) to a new sheet and list them in order of importance.

You now know which areas of your life deserve your attention the most and give you the highest rewards

Laura Savino from Info Searchers

My favorite organizing tool besides organizing your cooking spices in alphabetical order is:

There's no better way to start the work week with a weekly to-do list. On Sunday I prepare mine so I can start off on Monday with a clear head knowing what my week looks like.

I do it by day for the entire week and I fill in appointments, work projects, client appointments, and the daily tasks that are "A" priorities which must be completed each day. After the main priorities are assigned by day, I fill in the "B" priorities which means must be completed within 2 days, then add the "C" priorities which are meant to be completed that week.

This weekly action item list serves as a map to ensure tasks don't get put off guard and having this "map" is priceless.

Want even more tips? I want to share with you the EXACT framework I use to plan and organize my days and weeks to cross off every single item on my to do list and still sleep 10 hours per night!

Fill out the form below to download a FREE productivity cheat sheet where I’ll show you how you can BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY, once and for all!

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