How much time you devote to working on and in the company is crucial to success
A lot of business owners spend a huge amount of time managing expenses, attending meetings, or engaging in transactions with clients and vendors. But what they don’t spend enough time on is growing their business.
How many hours do you allocate to really giving a thought on what to do with your business in the next few months or years? How often do you visualise a path for your company to take on, and how often do you look back at how far you’ve gone?
You’ve got a lot on your plate, and the only way you can focus on more crucial business matters is to free up some time for yourself. The goal now is to get back some of the time you’re losing every day.
How?
Interruptions are inevitable but follow your schedule anyway
Most business owners allow themselves to take on a lot of tasks in a short period, thinking they can do everything at once. However, when something disrupts them — and something always will — it destroys the flow of things and they start to panic internally.
The only way you can maintain a good movement of productivity is to allow some sort of buffer in between tasks. It could be a snap meeting, a crucial phone call, or a personal emergency. Don’t squeeze tasks into tiny windows of breathing time. Stick to your schedule, but that schedule should include periods of unexpected interruptions.
Only pay attention to things that deserve your time and energy
As the owner of a business, a lot of things will require your attention, so you need to learn how to filter each one based on urgency and importance. But what does that even mean? Remember, not because something is urgent doesn’t mean it’s important. This is where you need to go back to your business objectives.
For short-term concerns, you need to consider factors such as the timeframe by which the issue needs to be resolved, the immediate impact it can cause if not attended to, and things of such nature. These daily, business-as-usual stuff are rather easy to classify since you already know the consequences.
But for long-term concerns, it’s a different story. With these things, there’s less pressure in terms of timeframe, so you have the luxury of thinking through what is really important. Will it drive growth? Will it have a definite, measurable impact? Do you need it?
Streamline your routine and remove unnecessary tasks
If you have even the slightest feeling that you’ve been constantly doing something you really don’t need to, then it’s time to stop. Take out unnecessary tasks from your schedule, and you’d be stunned to see your productivity soar.
Get rid of outdated processes, needless calls or meetings, and tinkering with inconsequential data. Not only that you’re wasting time, you’re also wasting opportunities to refocus your energy on more important things. Business owners need to avoid falling into the trap of being a micromanager.
Remember: doing a lot of things at once doesn’t necessarily translate to productivity. The key is prioritising what really matters.
Trust your team to take the load off of you
If you can’t keep up with work that you shouldn’t be on your checklist, then it’s time for you to delegate those responsibilities. Take a look at your entire scope of obligations and see which ones you can delegate. I’ve worked with business owners who always felt like they have to do everything themselves. Eventually, they’ve become so bogged down by their regular obligations that, sooner or later, they’ve broken down mentally and physically.
This is common among hardworking people. They feel that it’s not appropriate to ask other people to do things for them. They feel like they’re imposing on other people and they’re afraid that others might view them as someone who can’t stand on their own two feet. But this is a totally erroneous notion. Delegation is not asking someone for a favor — it’s actually giving someone his or her due responsibility and power to contribute to the business.
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