Are you blaming time for your problems?
Jason Vance
Passionate Entrepreneur | Founder- windowbrothers.com | Regional Window Cleaning Service | Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
Take action: A time management exercise.
As we all settle in to the post holiday winter months, it's easy to let time get away from us. But that doesn't have to be the case. The best way to ensure your goals are completed and your ideas become a reality is to have laser-like focus on the end result. Take action and complete the exercise below to help you organize and prioritize your more important tasks.
Write down all your tasks on a blank piece of paper that is divided into 4 categories. If you have an organizational chart or job description with these tasks already documented, use them to help you recall all of your responsibilities as a business owner.
Category #1: High Value, High Enjoyment
Examples of these types of tasks for a small business owner might be: Sales, networking, or budgeting.
Category #2: High Value, Low Enjoyment
Examples of these types of tasks for a small business owner might be: Sales, networking, or budgeting. Yes, depending on your personality these task could be the same as the High Value, High Enjoyment.
Category #3: Low Value, High Enjoyment
Examples of these types of tasks for a small business owner might be: Administrative tasks, the technical part of your job, or making the deposits.
Category #4: Low Value, Low Enjoyment
Examples of these types of tasks for a small business owner might be: Taking out the garbage, the technical part of your job, or cleaning the office.
Now that you have all your tasks written down on one sheet of paper, you need to delegate the different categories. Starting with category #4: Low Value, Low Enjoyment. This category should be the first to go. You need to get this group of tasks off your plate asap. It doesn’t matter if you delegate them to an employee or hire an outside service to get them done for you. Just stop doing these task as soon as possible, they are preventing you from achieving your goals.
After you have eliminated Category #4, then you need to delegate the tasks in Category #3. You need to continue this process until all you have left to do are the tasks that are your MOST valuable and the tasks that you LOVE to do. A word of caution, this process might take longer than you want it to. It may even take several years.
Having the right expectation is the key to your success. Once you understand the value in this process you will realize that performing it at least every 6 months is a good habit. This habit will help you to reevaluate your tasks and help prevent you from getting pulled in too many directions.