How many times have you sat at your computer, knowing that you are getting great things accomplished, knowing that you have plenty of time to finish your tasks, knowing that you are only 4(ish) hours into your day, when suddenly you realize that 7 hours have gone by and you have no idea what you did with all that time?  Sometimes it can feel like your business got sucked into a time warp and spit out the other side.

As independent business owners, it is often difficult to manage all the tasks and work that needs to be accomplished.  We tend to wear so many different hats and it seems that everything is a priority.

It has been said that great managers do things right, while great leaders do the right things.  I believe this is at the heart of the issue of managing our days.  Many of us get so caught up in doing everything “right” that we tend to choose the wrong things to do.

Let me give you an example.  Let’s say that you have a birdhouse building business.  You know how to build a birdhouse the right way, so the hole is the correct size, it’s painted the right color, and placed in the perfect area to attract the birds your customer wants to attract.  You can do all those things right, pretty much every time.  However, that’s not the only thing that needs to be done in a business.  There’s marketing, shipping, customer service, bookkeeping, etc., etc.

How often do we choose to do the thing that we know we can do “right”, when another task may be the right thing to do?  If you’ve built 500 birdhouses, but haven’t taken the time to market them, or connect with your potential customers, or shipped out the one’s that have been ordered, you won’t be in business very long.

Because I have been feeling under the weather for a few days, I have, of necessity, had to carefully choose what the “right things” were for that day.  I knew I didn’t have the stamina to do a full days work, so prior to getting up and going to my office I asked myself one simple question:

What one task, if I could complete it today, would dramatically move my business forward?

I knew that I might only have the “oomph” to complete one task, so I needed to be sure it was the RIGHT task.  I needed to be certain my business was still moving forward.  If I had the energy to complete additional tasks, that was a bonus.  But, if I didn’t, at least my most important task for that day got completed.

This brought to mind the words of Brian Tracy.  He said, if you have to eat a frog, do it first thing and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.  His second rule said, if you have to eat more than one frog, eat the ugliest one first.

I believe we all tend to do the easy things, the fun things, the things we can do right, before we choose to do the other tasks in our business.  It’s a matter of gaining pleasure and avoiding pain.  However, this is truly an instant gratification mindset.  If we avoid the “frogs” and the things that we may dislike or are not as proficient at doing, ultimately it will cause us greater pain.  We will see this pain in a floundering business or unhappy customers or an unhealthy bank account.

How do we avoid the long-term pain?  Make wise choices with our time.

First thing in the morning (or the night before) choose 5 to 10 action items that you will complete for your business that day.  Rank those items in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.  Only use each number once (you can’t have 3 items numbered “1″).  When you start your business day, do the #1 item on the list.  Don’t think about any of the other items, just focus on #1.  When that task is complete, move to #2.  Continue through your day, staying focused on only the task at hand, until you have completed your list for the day.

If something on your list cannot be completed that day, it is moved to the next day.  Each time you complete a task cross it out.  You’ll be surprised how satisfying it can be to mark a line through a few words on a piece of paper.

Also, realize that your list is to be no more than 10 items.  This is not a laundry list of every task you need to finish between now and next year.  It’s only what you are committed to accomplishing today.

Soon you’ll find that the tasks you are accomplishing each day are the important tasks to move your business forward.  You will also find that you have fewer fires to put out, because you are taking care of the most important things on a daily basis.  So, when an emergency does pop up, you’ll have the flexibility to put it at the top of your priority list for that day, and eat that frog.

Remember, too, that for those daily tasks that can be so time consuming, such as social media management, there are people out there who are great at those tasks.  Social Bee Online can design a custom package to assist you with the social media tasks, whether you want to do them yourself and just need a short tutorial, or you want us to handle that aspect of your business for you.

Until next time, commit to do the right things at the right time, and…

Live with passion and purpose,

Vanessa

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