But choosing what methods to follow from all of the available books, articles, and courses about being more productive can feel like just another way of procrastinating!

Fortunately, there’s a way to look at planning and moving through the day that doesn’t require a book, a course, or a big-time investment: practising mindfulness.

Science shows us that there are many benefits to mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness can make us more efficient, empathetic, and creative – and even better at making decisions.

If you’d like to learn more about the practice of meditation, apps like Headspace and Buddhify provide guidance and the ability to track your meditation sessions.

But if you’re reluctant to add one more item to the to-do list, that’s okay, too! You can still employ mindfulness to increase productivity without long meditation sessions.

From a business perspective, simply being mindful can tell us a lot about how to set a schedule that works best for us!

What Does It Mean To Be Mindful?

Mindfulness happens when we take a moment to pay attention to the moment we’re in – without passing judgment on whatever arises.

If you’ve ever had your mind wander (we sure have), you’ll understand the thrilling labyrinth that is the mind at work.

And, more importantly, how ridiculously easy it is to lose track of time when you lose focus – or when your focus is on all the wrong things.

Mindfulness isn’t the same as thinking about a problem to find a solution. Thinking may happen when we take a moment to be mindful, but it isn’t the goal.

When you take even just a minute to sit quietly and pay attention to your breathing, you’ll notice the emotions and thoughts that come up. You may also notice physical sensations, like hunger or pain.

What’s so interesting about the mindfulness perspective is that the things that come up aren’t labelled as good or bad – what arises is just what arises.

As entrepreneurs, what comes up when we take a few moments to be present may have something very important to tell us.

Our thoughts and feelings (emotional and physical) remind us of strengths, weaknesses, and desires that we may not be aware of, and that may even surprise us!

Paying attention is the beginning of finding ways to maximize strengths and to make sure we’re on track with what we want to achieve.

Mindfulness And Morning Routines

There’s no right time of the day to practice mindfulness.

(Though there may occasionally be wrong times. During a wrestling match with an 11-foot alligator, for example.)

You can take a moment to pay attention while you’re brushing your teeth, or drink a cup of tea mindfully or focus on your breathing as you sit quietly on the train.

Incorporating mindfulness into your morning routine is a particularly great place to start because, in the business of productivity, morning routines hold a special allure.

It can feel inspirational to read other people’s tales of morning bliss and aspire to them.

Tales that include being gently woken by the morning sun, writing in your bullet journal to the dulcet purrs of your 19 cats, and collecting your thoughts on a brisk jog to the farmer’s market for a refreshing kale smoothie.

Maybe that’s you in that tale – but it sure as heck doesn’t have to be.

For every high achieving entrepreneur that’s up before the crack of dawn, there’s another whose relationship with the alarm clock is brutal and necessary.

Take Edgar, for example. He’s got nine brains to awaken. That’s nine shots of espresso to get his arms waving at optimal speed!

Or take our Founder, whose morning routine has gone through changes over time.

Mindfulness in the mornings can tell you interesting things.

Maybe getting up early doesn’t make you grumpy – but checking your email first thing does.

Maybe you get your best work done between 7 and 8 am.

Maybe you friggin’ hate kale.

That fancy-sounding morning routine we aspire to might be entirely the wrong thing for us!

Night owls may thrive on an evening routine to conquer a few key tasks before bedtime, and early birds might benefit from moving their most challenging tasks into the timeframe when they are their chirpiest.

Who knows? You will – if you take a few moments to pay attention.

Once you’ve gotten into the habit of taking a moment to focus on your breathing here and there throughout your morning, start expanding this practice to other times of the day as well, and see what you discover!

Mindfulness And Knowing When To Walk Away From A Task

Mindfulness is a perfect tool for entrepreneurs and people who work from home because we can take the information it gives us and modify our schedules accordingly – even in real time.

Here at Edgar, careful observation made us realize that deadlines were actually slowing down our productivity. So we stopped assigning deadlines, and started getting more done!

(Cool, right?)

If you’re working on a creative task like sketching a proposal or thinking about a new product, a moment of mindfulness may help you realize when you’re just spinning your wheels.

Remind yourself that walking away (and taking a nap, or going for a walk, or listening to music) might be just what your project needs right now.

If you realize that sitting in the sun in the park is where your genius is most likely to kick in, you owe it to yourself to shut that laptop and get out that door.

You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to start being mindful, either. You can start practising it right now.

Or… right now.

Or now.

(You get the idea.)

The important thing is not to overthink it!

We strongly believe that while planning has a place, doing is pretty important, too.

Being mindful adds flexibility and fluidity to your planning and scheduling processes in ways that setting a strict calendar might not – and the only way to find out is to try it!

Do you have tips about practising mindfulness in the workday?

Any particular routines that have helped you find your entrepreneurial groove?

Let us know in the comments below!

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Interested in growing your business so you can do more of what you love? Check out Connected Women Jobs and get matched with hundreds of women online experts looking for remote work!

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The post Discovering Your Own Style Of Mindful Productivity appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..

Laura Roeder is a social media marketing strategist and speaker who has been named a Top 100 Entrepreneur under 30 by Empact Showcase multiple times. Besides launching MeetEdgar.com, a social media scheduling and marketing automation app, she founded LKR Media where she creates training courses for business owners learning to leverage online marketing and social media.

Laura regularly keynotes at popular industry events such as South by Southwest Interactive and BlogWorld, as well as features in influential publications such as Fast Company, Bloomberg, and more. Here she shares the top five lessons she’s learned in growing her business to a million dollars.

1. You Can’t Do It All Yourself, So Delegate Early And Often

We all have to face the facts: your time is finite. You can’t get more of it, and you certainly can’t recover any of that lost or wasted time. You only have a certain number of hours in the week, so trying to do absolutely everything in your business is tantamount to running a never-ending race. You can’t win!

I faced this fact early on and hired my first part-time assistant during the first year of my business. I continued to bring on part-time employees for the next couple of years, people who took over the areas of the business that I wasn’t great at. Not only did those areas of my business start to thrive, but it allowed me to focus on what I did excel at. The result was surprisingly rapid growth, the kind of growth that allowed me to employ a team of eight people in 2015, most of whom work for me full-time now.

There’s only so much you can get done alone, so expand your team even if you don’t feel ready.

2. Try A Lot Of Stuff And See What Works

When I was creating my social media marketing training courses, I didn’t know ahead of time which programs would be a huge success and which ones would need to be cut off. I based my plans on some qualitative research (talking with people) and what I thought would be useful to small business owners.

I started with a course focused on Twitter marketing, then moved on to Facebook and LinkedIn, until I eventually saw that my customers were also looking for other courses that weren’t all platform-based. So I adapted based on customer feedback and the ebb and flow of my revenue streams.

Since I launched my first product, I have changed my business model, tried countless marketing strategies, launched new products only to shut them right back down, and much more.

The bottom line? You have to try lots of different things and be willing to abandon what doesn’t work and move on.

3. It’s Your Life And Your Business, So Live It How You Want

I only get emails from my team; my customer service person handles everything from customers. Some people think that’s a terrible idea and assume it would make me “out of touch” with our customers. But I know me: I hate getting tons of email, and I’m bad at replying to people quickly. I LOVE the decision to keep my inbox small.

Once I launched a new product only to axe the whole concept only two months later. Part of the reason I shut it down was because it is difficult for me to commit to being available for a live session every month. This is how my team and I ended up setting non-negotiable standards for all future products we make. You can read about that process and those four standards here.

Keeping yourself sane and happy is important for the company – after all, this is still your life! You can’t put your happiness on hold while you grow your business, so make sure you’re doing something you enjoy and don’t be afraid to make changes to create a life you love even more.

4. Pick Yourself

This idea is so important to me that I created a program around it – Creating Fame. “Pick yourself” means owning your expertise and fearlessly seeking out recognition for it. Talk to the big shot. Pitch yourself for the conference keynote spot. Put yourself in the running. No one else is going to do it for you, so you need to go after your own big opportunities.

The perfect example of this is the Empact Showcase Award. This award didn’t come as a surprise, landing on my doorstep while I was quietly growing a business online. No one “discovered” me; I’ve applied for this award three times, and that’s why I’ve won it twice!

As a result of the first award, I got to go to the White House where I spoke during a live broadcast on whitehouse.gov. Did all the honorees speak? NOPE. I “picked myself” and asked for the opportunity.

Remember: You can’t win if you don’t apply. This may seem obvious but think about it – are you putting yourself out there, asking for big opportunities? The people who are successful and “business famous” put themselves out there every day, so don’t wait another minute.

5. Slow And Steady Wins The Race

The truly successful business owners have created solid strategies and STUCK WITH THEM year in and year out. Having been in the online business space for five years, I’ve seen hundreds of them come and go. I’ve also come across many people who are very well-known, but have started and abandoned businesses year after year, setting their income back to zero every time. If they had only stuck with what they had started years ago it would be generating a huge, reliable stream of revenue by now.

So don’t stress if you don’t see crazy huge results from your first product launch. Don’t let the fact that you didn’t meet your lead gen goals convince you that your whole plan sucks and you may as well give up now.

Yes, you want to try out different things, but don’t abandon that content marketing strategy just because your infographic hasn’t gone viral. Stick with your plan and the systems you put into place to carry it out.

At the end of the day, there’s no magic formula, no secret sauce. Just you and your strategies. Have faith that they will work – after all, you know your business and what it needs. Slow and steady, my friend. I’ll see you at the finish line.

Is there something (or lots of things) you’ve learned while growing your business? What one piece of advice would you give someone who’s just starting out, or someone who feels frustrated by the process? Leave it in the comments so that I can benefit from those gems, too!

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The post I Made A Million Dollars Before My 30th Birthday, Here’s What I Learned appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..