Spring cleaning motivation for small businesses

Spring is on the doorstep and many of us are already gearing up to spring-clean our homes. Applying the same attention to our businesses and workplaces may appear overwhelming, though it’s not that taxing an exercise. It just requires a little motivation.

Personal motivation is often the key to success. A lack of this can affect your productivity; tasks can remain unfinished, and you may not apply drive to your business. The following steps will help fuel your motivation.

Make a to-do list

Having a list of tasks with the most important at the top is a good motivator. It allows you to prioritise what has to be done first within a set timeline.

Physically writing down your objectives and goals, and leaving the list in plain sight, motivates you to complete them. It helps you stay focused and allows you to manage your time efficiently. Some people tackle the hardest task first, to make the rest of their day go more smoothly (as suggested in the book ‘Eat That Frog!’ by Brian Tracy; however, the opposite may work for you...everyone’s different.

Don’t overdo it on day one

Schedule your time appropriately, and don’t go hell for leather at the outset. Be realistic about your goals. Don’t make things complicated and arrange/break down tasks so that they can all be completed in one day. If you don’t have realistic goals, you may give up on the entire project quite quickly.

For every 40-50 minutes of work, take a short 5-10 minute break. Get a breath of fresh air, grab a snack or refill your coffee mug. All these things will break the monotony of your day and keep you motivated.

Expect improvement, not perfection

We very rarely achieve perfection in our lives. Though it can be heartbreaking not to realise the outcome you’d hoped for, that’s life. Learn to expect improvement in any process rather than perfection. To remain motivated, keep in mind where you started and where you are now.

Become inspired

If you’re struggling to find the motivation to overhaul your business, get inspiration from others. Visit blogs on self-improvement and business growth, read motivational articles, and become more inspired about improving your business’s operations, processes and productivity.

Focus on the end result

When you’re flagging, don’t think of what you have to do today, just visualise where you want your business to be in a few weeks’ time. Imagine how satisfied you will feel when you accomplish your goals and complete every task on your to-do list. Think how much better your business will run when you’ve finally got round to actioning all the things you’ve wanted to complete for so long, but which you’ve never managed to do.