Josie Chiles is a Product Marketing Manager for the AppExchange, the #1 business app marketplace. She has spent much of her career working for and with small businesses, developing the tools and information business owners and entrepreneurs need to grow their businesses.

We’ve all been there, it’s 5pm and you look at the clock and realize that the day has flown by and you haven’t finished, or even started, any of the things that you planned to do that day. Staying productive is hard especially when you are at the helm of a fast growing company and being pulled in all directions. But, you can’t get to the top of your field without picking up some great habits along the way. So we asked three successful, and productive entrepreneurs, for their best advice on how to get stuff done.  

1. Maximize your time, even during your commute:

Jeff Lewis is the co-founder and CEO of Guidebook, a fast-growing tech startup that allows companies to easily create mobile event apps and visitor guides.

“As the leader of an organization, I find it difficult to prioritize time for my own professional development. I use my commute time to listen to books and podcasts on topics that fill in gaps in my knowledge. I'd recommend building a list of topics and tackling them one at time. Some examples might be public speaking, negotiation tactics, or pricing theory. Very little of what you listen to will be immediately valuable, but it's important to have a large collection of insights to be able to deploy across your organization.”
 

2. Stay organized:

Zach Cohen, Chief Operating Officer of Holonis, a modernized marketplace empowering SMBs to cost effectively and efficiently market themselves in today’s web. 

“My day is run by my calendar…I am lost without it. Business, personal, everything is on my calendar and synced to all my devices with notifications ringing all day reminding me of what’s next. Staying organized is tough with all those different colored blocks on-top of one another (calendar enthusiasts know what I mean). Each morning I go through my calendar to see what’s planned for me and for the team. At the end of the day, I rearrange my calendar for the next day based on what was achieved and new prioritized goals. Staying organized is key in business, the calendar is a fundamental tool for staying on track.”

3. Be methodical, especially in sales:

Steve Richard, Founder, Vorsight & VorsightBP. The mission of VorsightBP is to provide sales training based on science to fix the top of the funnel.

“There are big productivity gains possible in the top of the sales funnel – prospecting and lead qualification. If you study sales reps, you quickly realize that what most people refer to as prospecting is in fact two different activities: the preparation of prospecting (finding the right people at the right accounts, gathering contact info, pre-call research, etc.) and the execution of prospecting (making attempts over email, VM, social media, and the phone to reach the prospect). If you approach them as one thing you won’t be as productive as if you approach them as two separate activities. The best sales reps focus their time on these two distinct activities.” 

Next time you are sitting in traffic or trying to remember what’s next, remember these great tips. Running a growing business is all about balance and these tips will help you stay on the fast track.

What great productivity hacks do you use? Please share in the comments!