“There’s just not enough time!” is a statement that we hear daily. As we take on more and more activities and work longer hours to grow our business, we feel frustrated and overwhelmed. Most of the time, it comes down to making choices between doing several things.
Do we always make the right choices? No. We tend to follow the path of least resistence. That’s human nature. But here are some tips to help push us more towards making the choices that can truly make a difference in our lives and business.
- Develop Routines. By creating a daily routine, we develop habits. They can be good or bad depending on the routine that we choose to put into place. But a routine makes us do things consistently and, as a result, we become faster and faster at whatever we are doing.
- Look at the Big Picture. We can avoid a lot of frustration by asking ourselves, “In the long run, does this really matter? Will it make any difference a week from now? Thirty days from now? Ten years from now?” If you can’t answer yes to at least the first two questions, don’t waste your time doing it. The answer to these questions can frequently make the difference between choosing time for family and taking care of yourself and business chores.
- Make a Schedule. Instead of making choices and scheduling what is truly important in our day, we tend to follow the “whatever is thrown at us” mode. It’s true that emergencies happen, orders come in that have to get out, and “today may be the only time to get out and smell the flowers.” But instead of living in a daily reaction mode, schedule the things that are truly important and then work around that schedule.
- Trade the word “On” for “In” Some of the Time. Most of us work “in” our business every day doing things needed to maintain and grow our business. We read emails, answer the phone, network, fill orders, etc. But plan to take time out of your week to work “on” your business. Review your business and marketing plan. Look at your profit and loss statements. How is your cash flow? Check out your inventory. Determine what you need to do to grow your business. Decide what is working and what is not. By taking a big long step back and reviewing your business from a different level than the day to day operation, you will see it in a different perspective. Take the time to decide where you want to go from here, what you want the coming year to be like, and what you have to do to get there. The result will be a more successful and satisfying business.