Productivity as a solopreneur: Tools for smartly running your business – don’t let it run you!
Jennifer E. Burke, President of IntelliCraft Research, presented at the AIIP 2019 Conference on Productivity Tools for running your business. Chris Cochran, AIIP member, reports on Jennifer’s Conference session
Saturday morning at AIIP 2019 delivered another great mix of programs and presenters, including Jennifer Burke’s presentation on tools to help you run your business efficiently and smartly, instead of letting it run you. She brought boundless enthusiasm and humor to her program, maintaining a lively, interactive atmosphere that kept us engaged (links to her lists of tools appear at the end of this post).
Jennifer’s theme was you need to find out what works best for you and emphasized that we must stop “worshipping at the Altar of Hustle.”
She offered her experience with various tools, and emphasized that it has to work for us individually. Jennifer urged us to focus on rethinking tasks and what we’re trying to accomplish on a given day, or what she calls “attention management” versus “time management”.
What does that look like for her?
It includes:
- building in self care
- using productivity cheats and hacks
- utilizing tools and technology (she freely shared ones she depends on, and ones she’s still exploring)
What makes for successful attention management?
Jennifer said it’s prioritizing the people and projects that matter — regardless of time — and working on something for the right reasons, in the right places, at the right times. For her, it’s not about time, it’s about the timing. Ask yourself:
- Why you’re doing the task?
- What impact will it have?
She recommends doing your most important task when you’re most productive, looking at what makes sense for you that day.
She stressed the benefits of planning vs. reacting and said, “If it works for you, do it!” And learn to be ok with “no”. If it doesn’t lead to your bottom line, it’s ok to say no. Focus on being productive instead of busy. Is it busy work or productivity?
As she said, let humans do what they do best, then automate the rest, remembering there’s no one right-for-all tool.
And what about productivity tools?
Jennifer showed us tools in a number of different categories, like bookkeeping, time management, project tools, communication (she loves Zoom!), client management, and marketing, among others. Audience members contributed some of their favorite tools along the way, too.
Here’s what Jennifer looks for in a productivity tool:
- is it easy to use?
- does it foster collaboration?
- is it budget friendly?
And finally, she emphasized that an important part of productivity is self-care. It might seem obvious, but things like sleep, exercise, regular breaks, and hobbies all contribute to our productivity during the day.
Luckily for us, Jennifer updates her list of tools and tips regularly and makes them available here and regularly tweets about productivity tips at
