In business, cull the superfluous stuff to focus on what counts

Everything in your business should serve a purpose.

Entrepreneurs have a million things on their plates every day, and success comes from the fine art of juggling everything and still making progress on what counts most. So when you have a to-do list that’s several pages long, you have to find ways to cut out the stuff that’s simply not necessary.

It’s important to quickly assess whether the tasks are urgent and important, a combination of both or neither. This allows you to focus on tasks that need to be completed first. I like to use Covey’s time management matrix as a guideline for task categorisation.

Every month, I schedule one day in my calendar that’s different from all the rest. This is where I focus on one of HashChing’s Business Behaviours: “we get shit done”. To maximise the impact, I work as if I’m going on leave for the next three weeks, starting tomorrow. The day before you go on leave is undoubtedly one of the most productive of the year. Tasks get delegated, projects get updated, partnerships get chased, meetings get finished in 45 minutes, and priorities get the attention they deserve.

The most important part of my Leave Day is prioritising. Cutting out the unnecessary illuminates what’s essential.

Focusing on what counts

Here’s an example of expanding your business exactly where it counts – and being both proactive and reactive in your pursuits.

You picked an office to rent. You’ve got utilities connected – electricity, phone, water for the bathroom and maybe a sink for coffee, and wifi. You knew ahead of time you would need somewhere for your clients to park, or accessible public transport routes, so you’ve chosen the best location that suits all those needs. You need clients, so you’ve already been connecting with those you’ve already spoken to and with new leads. You commission your web site, you plan your marketing, you place an early advertisement, and you start to engage with those leads using social media. This is all proactive business management, planning your business in advance.

Then when clients come in, they bring kids, because it’s the middle of the day, so you have to have somewhere for the kids to play so you can meet uninterrupted. Then suddenly you’ve got two meetings too close, so you need a waiting room in case you’re not quite done with client #1 when client #2 shows up. The phone is ringing off the hook, so you realise it’s time to hire someone to answer it. You also need documents transported and securely-stored, and you need someone to manage them, so you get a file manager (or two at permanent part-time, for the benefits of having two minds working on problems as well as building a culture of support in the office) on site, and you spend a few hours researching trustworthy document companies in the breaks between your meetings.

These are examples of reactive business management – also known as problem solving. It’s great to do these things in advance if you can, but often things in business will simply happen and you will be forced to plan solutions so they don’t happen again, or at least that next time, they happen better.

You have some trouble assisting a client with a difficult scenario – perhaps it’s a specialised lending request such as asset finance, SMSF or Reverse Mortgages – so you start looking into additional courses or accreditations that can ensure you are equipped next time. It’s important to keep up to date with what the customer is talking about. These are still working for your business, but they come under the heading of ‘non-income producing hours’. You’re not actively engaged in your area of expertise – like broking mortgage loans – but you are engaged in growing or bettering your business, so that you can work more efficiently later, in your income producing hours. Client knowledge bases, and their wants and needs, change every day; you can’t afford to get left behind.

Prioritising your productivity

Now think about how you’re filling your hours during your work day, and if you’re actually progressing towards goals on some of those tasks that seem so essential at the time. Answering emails and attending status meetings do seem important, but you risk getting caught up in the crisis of the hour, and then the other things on your list that would actually help your business start to fall down the list to tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

Kevan Hall, the CEO of Global Integration, reported in one article that a telecommunications company his business worked with terminated all CC emails. Banning CC emails and turning off the ability to ‘reply to all’ made a dramatic difference to the quality of the conversation being carried out online within the company; it forced employees to think about who they really needed to email, and eliminated the distraction for those who didn’t need to receive the email in the first place. That’s a great example of culling the superfluous in order to focus on priorities.

There are some easy ways you can start cutting out the unnecessary fluff.

• Make a list, numbered with your priorities, and stick to it. Stress can tempt you to deviate, or to think that you can’t handle everything. Having it written out in front of you will help you realise you can.
• Schedule time in your diary, for meetings set to 45 minutes and time for internal tasks. If it is scheduled, it will get done.
• Outsource and delegate. If you have the funds, outsource the busy work that doesn’t align to your core skills; if you are the mortgage broker, keep focused on meeting and engaging with clients and have a file manager support you with the administration tasks. The hourly rate for both roles are very different, so try to stay focused on earning the hourly rate you’re skilled for. Additionally: while social media is an important tool for advertising and customer engagement, it’s good to use scheduling programs to handle it, so you don’t get distracted in the middle of a task.
• Take a break. It sounds counter-intuitive, but if you schedule some free time in your day, it gives you the chance to step away from your tasks and assess your progress. It’s also important to de-stress: slowly rising stress is a surefire way to impede your productivity later in the day.

Something to reflect upon this week in particular: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” Stephen Hawking once said. “Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.”

Everything in your business should serve a purpose. Prioritise your tasks and focus on what will help your business move forward, and you’ll be making progress in no time at all.

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