How To Tuesday: Doing it All
Written on December 8, 2009 by Susan Payton
Sometimes I wish I were an octopus. I’d have more arms to do more things. At the same time. Oh, what I could do with my iPhone then… anyway, I digress from today’s topic: getting it all done.
As entrepreneurs, we have a lot going on at any given time. I just got back from vacation, so I have some emails to follow up on, new ones coming in, research to do, blogs to post, social media contacts to check in on, articles to write, and my business(es) to promote. Not to mention I now have all my son’s Christmas presents laid out on the bed, which requires me to either a) wrap them or b) shove them back into the closet.
How do I do it all? Actually, I don’t. Not today, anyway. If you’re new to small business-hood, you’re probably frustrated with the shortage of hours in the day. But with a little planning, you can manage your time efficiently and get it all done.
1. Accept that you won’t get it all done today. Or even this week. Small businesses ebb and flow. Sometimes you don’t have enough time to scratch, much less get it all done. But others, you’re playing Farmville for lack of anything better to do. So know that the back burner stuff might not get done today, but it will get done.
2. Prioritize. Find a system that works for you (I put tasks in my Outlook calendar that will ding and remind me to do them) and rank them in order of priority. Admit to yourself that not all of them really have to be done today.
3. Get a system. It doesn’t have to be on your iPhone, if that doesn’t make you comfortable. If writing your to-dos in a pocket calendar from your dentist makes you more productive, by all means, do it that way. But do try something new, because there are a lot of experts who spend time developing organization tools that really do work.
4. Map the bigger things on your calendar. You can’t decide in the middle of busy season that you need a whitepaper written. Plan ahead for the bigger things and allow plenty of time to get them done.
5. Forgive yourself. You are only one person. There is only so much you can do. Be nice with yourself, and start over tomorrow. That pile of paperwork will dwindle down, I promise.
Yes, I try to do number 2 Prioritize, but it does not always work. However you get more important things done.
Setting a system of work and then following it like a religious ritual, will ensure more work gets done in a day and you have to seek forgiveness a trifle less!