Featured Time Management and Productivity Article
How To: Get More Done Without Losing Your Sanity
The first thing you need to realize - the way you feel is normal for the situation you are in. All of us entrepreneurs feel the pressure of way too much to do and much too little time to do things in. However, the time you have is the time you have. No one has figured out how to have more than 24 hours in a day. When you realize this, it can be quite freeing. Then the focus shifts to how to best use the time you have.
1) Focus on Quality not Quantity
Be sure you understand the money making, business growing activities in your business. Invest most of your time in those.
Learn to distinguish between important and urgent. Urgent is getting your clothes from the cleaner before it closes. Important is making 10 prospect / customer contacts a day. Returning a phone call from your best customer is both urgent and important. Resist the urge to be dominated by the urgent instead of the important.
Draw a box and put a vertical line down the middle and a horizontal line across middle. Label column 1 Urgent and column 2 Non-urgent. Now label row 1 Important and row two Non-important. You now have four boxes. Write each of your to-dos in one of the boxes. Spend most of your time on the Urgent/Important activities and then on the Important activities
Yes, Facebook and tweeting are fun. But, unless you are doing those activities as part of a clearly defined business plan, 3 months from now all you'll have is a 1,000 tweets and 250 comments on your wall. Instead of the 20 or 40 new customers possible by making those contacts every day.
2) The Secret of Life is One Thing
Yes - doing one thing intently is the path to peak productivity. The human mind works best when its focused. Its okay to have a backup task at hand if you get stuck on the first, but only when you're really stuck.
"Yes, but . . . I've got umpteen things to do!"
Prioritize. And then pick the one that gives the best return on your time and energy. Do that one. And then the next one. And then the next.
Owning / running a small business is a marathon, not a sprint. Marathons are run step by step, one after the other.
Feeling better?
Great! Now maintain your momentum.
Let me guide you in creating a system. A system that works - even when things don't go as planned.
To get the important things done.
To accomplish the things that build your business.
And to feel better knowing you are doing the right thing.
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