In our eagerness to manage every moving part within our business, we can begin to stretch ourselves too thin.
There is a point within your business that you will begin to grow, and as you do, there will be some things that you just shouldn’t be handling anymore.
Read more: 4 Business Tasks That Are Not Your Job.
And, every minute that you spend working on those things is time that you aren’t using to maximise your business potential.
It’s time to work smarter, not harder, when it comes to getting the most from what you do and your company’s capabilities.
Trim the to-do
If the moment you get a new project, the first thing you do is make a list of 40 things you need to do; then you’re going to be trapped in that to-do list. Each item will sprout multiple other things that need to be done.
It is a nightmare. While to-do lists are handy and can keep you on track, you might get overwhelmed unless you make a fuss-free shortlist.
A to-do list should never be more than five items long. Three urgent items will impact what you are doing, and a further two will support the main objectives.
You can also add one VIT (a very important task) and make sure that is done too. The very important task should be done first.
Time is secondary
Your output is first, and your time spent is second. Some tasks, by default, will take a long time to complete; this doesn’t devalue the work. Measure your productivity by how productive you are – not by how long it takes you to complete the task.
Inefficiency is easy to get into the habit of if we keep looking at how long something took, rather than how much was achieved within the time.
Routine
If you become a freelancer or a small business owner to buck routine, then this might not be happy news for you. A routine can help you to create habits that improve your workflow. Much of the tasks we do, we can do on autopilot.
But once you find some things within your business that can be completely automated, it’s time to use innovative technology like Claris FileMaker go to tackle them—taking up less time.
Review and improve
At the end of every day, take a look at everything that you achieved, and rather than point out what you could/should/would be happy about what you did.
When you learn to celebrate what you have accomplished, you will begin to see a divide between not feeling like you have completed enough and seeing you have made accomplishments.
Multitasking
Switching between tasks loses the most amount of time in your business. And while many people sing the praises of those who multitask, it’s the hours per day that can be lost that has the most significant impact.
Switching between tasks can lose over twenty minutes per switch – adding up to days in a year.
