Whether your company is big or small, it’s hard keeping up with all that goes into running your own business. Those of us with entrepreneurial spirits end up piling more and more onto our overflowing plates, and we end up spread too thin.
We can’t keep running this way! We have to cut something out. If you don’t spend your time on what really matters, nothing will get done.
Here are five things you’ve got to lose in order to win:
- Non-priorities
If you think about it for a moment, I bet you will come up with a few things that aren’t necessary for your business. The twenty minutes you spend driving to Starbucks (and the $8 you drop on the latte) to “work” in a coffee shop may not be essential to getting the work done.
The key here is to write down the priorities in order of importance to your business. There’s no “right” order because your priorities are unique to you. But having a clear hierarchy will make decision-making much easier when you’re pulled in competing directions. Does it align with your pre-determined priorities list? If not, it’s got to go.
- Overcommitting
Don’t schedule yourself out of a job. If agreeing to take on an extra project will add extra stress, just say no. We should be a little selfish with our time. Warren Buffett said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”
- Manual social media posts
Social media is a huge time suck. Learning to automate your posts will change your life. Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and Buffer are programs that allow you to create, manage and schedule your posts in advance. That way, you don’t have to be sitting in front of your computer at the moment you want to share with your audience.
It’s worth noting that I recently deleted Snapchat. Yes, I’m aware that it’s the fastest-growing social media platform right now. But after using it for a couple months, I realized how much time I was spending—wasting, actually—posting silly videos and faces that added no value for anyone. There is no way to schedule out your content, so you have to do it live all the time. I don’t want to be a slave to social media or my phone, so Snapchat went bye-bye.
- Big, daunting tasks
Break down the big stuff into smaller, manageable tasks. I’m working on my first book right now. My first book. Do you know how intimidating just reading that sentence back to myself is? When I think of the project as a whole, I wonder if I can even do this. But when I take the smaller pieces one by one, the ball really gets rolling.
I know when my pages are due to the editors, so I’ve broken everything down into so many pages per day, or so many chapters per week. Once you stop seeing the thing as this big, huge deal and have a manageable list of tasks, then you’ve got to get rid of . . .
- Procrastination
Get your most-dreaded task out of the way first. Don’t put it off; just do it. If the first thing you do each morning is the thing you least enjoy, you’ll move on knowing that that’s probably the worst thing you’ve got to do all day. Everything else will seem easy.
Whether you’re in the idea phase, the creation phase, or the selling phase of your new business, there’s no doubt you have questions. Christy Wright’s Business Boutique is where you can find the answers. Christy will speak alongside an incredible lineup of women leaders and business experts, including Dave Ramsey, Christine Caine, Rachel Cruze, and more. You can catch her in Nashville, Tenn., November 4th and 5th. Learn more at www.businessboutique.com.
Christy Wright
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