If you are a part of a small to medium-sized business and have been looking everywhere for tips on increasing productivity, search no more. Whether you need one suggestion or perhaps ninety-five, a recent blog post provided plenty of tips for you to choose from!

Recently, 95 Tips For Increasing Productivity Within Small and Medium Businesses was an exciting topic published on the Business Unplugged blog. In the post, ninety-five entrepreneurs and experts provided their best tip(s) which they strongly believe increases productivity in their own business.

Naturally, Robby Slaughter, founder and Principal with Slaughter Development, was quite enthusiastic to be one of the contributors. As a passionate supporter in productivity consulting, it’s not surprising he took the opportunity to share his best productivity suggestion with the entrepreneurial world. And, true to form, his tip is right on target with his recently published book, Failure: The Secret To Success. Slaughter’s productivity tip is below:

#67: Ask People to Embrace Failure

Everyone is going to make mistakes at work, but in most business cultures, no one is willing to admit to an error. Instead, we should ENCOURAGE employees to embrace failure. State that we expect people to take risks, which means that we expect them to screw up. If people know that they can do wrong, they are more likely to focus on meaningful results and dream up real innovations, rather than being too conservative or total perfectionists. Failure is the secret to success!

Now, for those of you who may not have the time to read through all 95 tips, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight a select few we felt were extremely powerful suggestions. They are as follows:

#5: Block & Tackle!

Shutting off email and designating blocks of time to get actual work done is the most effective way to increase productivity. It is far too easy to lose an entire business day to email, phone calls and interruptions — all of which can send us off on unproductive tangents. Be sure to include scheduled breaks every 45-90 minutes. Research has shown even a 5 minute mental health or stretch break lets you come back more focused and productive!

 #23: I Hear What You’re Saying

My work is done primarily with small and medium sized businesses. I tell them to take advantage of the fact that they get to know their employees quite well. My recommendation is to find out what their employees think will increase production; ask for their advice! They are the ones doing the job and this will allow them to make it their own and take pride in its growth, knowing that they contributed to that growth. Any place I’ve worked, employees have ideas - listen to them.

 #51: Just Say No

Productive and successful start-ups are ones that can filter out distractions and focus with a laser-like intensity on “what really matters.” This is hard to do, but it’s absolutely necessary, since accepting every meeting request, inquiry, lead or opportunity that presents itself will pull you in too many directions and you’ll never get things done. In short, being able to tune out the noise is the shortest path to hyper productivity and the best way to do that is to “just say no” more often.

If you are looking for advice in regards to achieving productivity and/or stakeholder satisfaction in your office, consider that reaching out to Slaughter Development may just be the best tip of all! Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.

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