Do you remember your first fantasies of entrepreneurship?
If you’re anything like me, you probably imagined yourself working productively in the comfort of your own home, having time to regularly exercise and finishing early to enjoy your family and yourself. Life would be so… balanced.
But as you started working on your business and realized what it takes to create a sustainable operation, you became overwhelmingly busy and ultimately became convinced that your first fantasy was a Disney version of small business ownership.
Managing oneself in an entrepreneurial capacity requires organizational strategy, determination, and serious discipline. Though you may be tempted to consume books on balance, multitasking and time management like a person possessed, it just won’t do you any good.
Instead, adopt these strategies and take control of your business and your life:
1. Stop Searching For Balance
Accept the fact that your life will be unavoidably out of balance, especially during the early stages of growing your business. You will have to say ‘no’ to some things you’d rather say ‘yes’ to, but it won’t be like that forever!
Instead of balance, focus on priority management. That means recognizing when it’s time to redirect your attention to various areas of your business, or your life.
For me, one of the biggest priorities has been creating a support community for entrepreneurs, who’d like to structure their daily workload and have fun doing it by going through my Systematic Success program.
What I’ve envisioned is a tight group of small business owners and/or their assistants, who meet with me on a monthly basis to crush the chaos and streamline a specific area of their business.
We tackle one system at a time to maximize the impact of their work without overwhelming them. While it is a group training, I offer a great deal of individual coaching. I also invite guest experts to pull back the curtain and share systems from their own businesses.
With detailed instructions about how to tackle each system, video tutorials of how to use certain tools, checklists and worksheets, all the participants will be gain confidence on how to tackle each system.
2. Find Accountability Partner(s)
For some inexplicable reason, it is easier for us to keep our word when we publicly commit rather than when we make commitments to ourselves. I also struggle with that myself. But there is a way to beat this challenge.
Find a partner to keep you on track, and return the favor – a partner that will hold you accountable, and that you can hold accountable for their commitments. Even better, find a group of like-minded people, declare what you are up to and ask them to check in with you regularly, so that you don’t slack off.
This is exactly what we are creating with our Systematic Success mastermind.
I know you are a superhuman and can do everything on your own and by yourself! But when you’re surrounded by a community of like-minded people, they can help you get where you’re going a lot faster than you ever could by yourself.
3. Get Time On Your Side
Personally, I find ‘time management’ nonsense. How can you manage something over which you have absolutely no control? Stop managing your time, start managing your energy.
For 5 days, commit to noticing when you’re most productive, when you’re feeling most inspired and where you aren’t setting boundaries. Then look at your schedule and determine how you could take advantage of those insights about yourself.
Being a morning person, I start my day at 5am to have a solid 2-hour window, before my son wakes up and requires my undivided attention. I don’t open my e-mail and switch off all notifications. Those are the hours when I created content and do higher level thinking; this is when I am writing this post right now.
4. Get Focused
It’s true. You’ve got to be constantly learning. Technology is always changing, new tactics come out and new gadgets help us do things easier and faster than before.
But learning should not be a time suck.
Set your goals and see if there are any knowledge gaps preventing you from reaching them.
Then, ask yourself:
- How much time will it actually take me to master this skill? Will learning it be an efficient use of my time or I should just hire someone to do it for me?
- How much time do I have available to learn this tactic? Can I realistically commit to devoting 2 hours a week to go through the course module and do the homework?
- What structure can I put in place to make sure that I don’t get side tracked? If you decide that learning that skill or tactic is to your advantage, create a schedule for yourself. For instance, you could set aside February and March to learn SEO, April to master Google Analytics, and May and June to discover the ins and outs of blogging.
Know what you want to achieve and only commit to things that will help you reach these goals (and at a pace that will not destroy you).
5. Get Rid of the Daily Minutiae
There is being busy taking steps towards accomplishing our goals, and then there is being “busy” spending time on small stuff. If you spend too much time on the little stuff you won’t have any energy for the things that really matter. Those are the types of days when, although you work nonstop, you wonder at the end if you actually accomplished anything significant.
You might argue that what you do in your business is important and has to happen—administrative work, website management, sales, marketing, bookkeeping, you name it!
I don’t disagree with you! But do you have systems in place to handle everything in the most efficient manner? When I say “system” what I mean is a step by step process. It doesn’t have to be rigid, but rather give you a guideline of what happens, in what order, and in what manner.
For example, your guest blogging system might look like this:
a. Research topics on Alexa.com.
b. Select a topic that will appeal to the target blogger’s audience.
c. Send a pitch. (Your checklist might include details about how to create effective pitches.) Record the date you sent it and the topic you suggested.
d. Record the blogger’s response to your pitch. If it’s a “yes,” note the information they provided (e.g., requirements and due date).
e. Write the post. Note any strategies you use to create great blog posts.
f. Submit the post. Record the link and save a copy of your post when it’s published.
g. Copy the logo of the website and add to the “As Seen In” section on your site.
h. Track your Google Analytics. Note if the blog generates traffic on your site. If so, guest post there again.
Do you see how much more manageable the whole process looks when you outline it clearly? If you make a checklist, you don’t need to keep it in your head what needs to be done next, and you won’t leave any important steps out! At the same time, you might find there are “pieces” of the system that you can give to someone else to handle for you. For example, in the line up of items above, you can easily delegate items a, d, g, and h.
Having systems in place make delegation soooo much easier! Plus, having a defined process gives you peace of mind that things will be done as you want them to be done.
That’s why my Systematic Success program is available to small business owners and their assistants, who can participate on the coaching calls or online community on behalf of those businesses.
After all, if you don’t get support for at least some of the low-leverage activities that are taking up all your time, you’ll never get to do the BIG stuff—the work you know you’re destined to share with the world.
It’s time to get less busy and be more productive.
