Starting your own business is a major undertaking, especially if you are a small businessperson that will be doing most of the work yourself. As an entrepreneur, you need to wear a number of hats. From organizing your business to staying in compliance with government regulations to delivering your services, it can become more than a full time job. Fortunately, there are ways small businesses can streamline their operations. Here are three of the most effective ways to simplify your business life and ensure that you will be more productive and ultimately more successful:

Focus on the Essential Daily Tasks: In the information age, business people can become distracted from getting their work done. For example, you receive an email about a new product or service that may help your business and before you know it, you have spent half the day researching the benefits of said product/service and you have not completed the important work that needs to be completed.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to adopt a deliberate strategy for completing the essential daily tasks. Here is one of the best strategies we have run across:

Step 1: Take 5-10 minutes each evening to plan what you need to accomplish the following day.

Step 2: Identify ONLY five or six tasks that you need to complete and list them in the order of importance. Make sure these are core tasks having to do with either bringing in more business or delivering services for paying customers. In other words, focus on tasks that will bring in revenue to your business.

Step 3: Allot a certain number of hours during the day to complete your essential tasks. Make sure the time you allot is more than sufficient to complete your work in case you get caught up with something that takes longer than you expected.

Step 4: Focus on the first item on the list until it is fully completed. Do not move back and forth from one item to the next or you will not be as productive. It is best to concentrate fully on each task as it comes up. After you complete Item 1, move on to Item 2 and repeat this step.

If you approach your work this way, you will usually find that you will have enough time to finish everything that needs to get done that day. If you do not complete all five or six items, do not stress about it. Just do what you can within the time frame you have allotted. Whatever is left over (if anything) can be added to the next day.