Work on your business, not in it. We’ve all heard that phrase many times before. So, if you aren’t working hard, then how do you get all the work done?
Delegate Tasks
First, you don’t do all the work yourself. It’s important to be clear on the tasks that only you can do and the ones that are best outsourced to others. This might cost you a little money but your time is valuable and if you are wasting time doing tasks that are not your skill set than you are wasting more money than you would spend if you hire an expert to do it.
A virtual assistant is great for menial tasks that need to be accomplished that often times you think you must do but in reality can be handed off to someone else. For type A personalities, this is a challenge but it can be done.
“Hard workers want all the possible work to be done, while smart workers don’t bother with most of the work they should do. Instead, they brutally focus themselves only on the tasks that bring the biggest long-term impact, and those are all the tasks connected with creating, delivering and capturing as much value as possible.”
Blaz Kos
Schedule Tasks
Each task has an amount of time it will take to complete if you focus on that task alone and nothing else. Put it on your calendar, block the allotted time and do nothing but that task during that time. When you don’t block time and you say to yourself that you’ve got the whole day to do it, you end up extending that task for hours and hours. Give everything a schedule and schedule everything.
“Remember Parkinson’s Law: Tasks expand to the time allotted. If you have all day to write a blog post, it will take you all day. If you have all day to make sales calls, they will take all day...you get the idea!”
Mary Kathryn Johnson
Execute Vision in 90 Day Increments
Just as your schedule your daily or weekly tasks, looking at your vision for the year in 90 day increments will help you take back control of your days, increase your income, balance priorities in your life, lower your stress and accomplish your goals in record time. It’s basically chunking your year’s goals into 90 days bites.
Sticking with a New Year’s Resolution for the next 364 days is bound to fail. Most of us struggle with focusing on anything for that long. By working in smaller chunks, goals and visions are easier to reach.
To help you execute your vision in 90 day increments, we highly encourage you to read 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington.
“What differentiates truly great performers and organizations from mediocre ones is an ability to effectively execute on what they know. There is a gap for most of us between what we know we should do, and what we are actually willing to do. The knowing-doing gap is what keeps most people and most companies from accomplishing what they are capable of. The 12 Week Year incorporates the proven disciplines and principles of effective execution into the context of 12-week execution cycles." Snippet from inside left book jacket.
Hopefully you’ve got a vision for 2019 and a few tools to help you with execution. Start by implementing the 12 Week Year.
Good luck!
Ensemble is a collaborative business community and coworking space located just minutes from downtown Ft. Worth in the eclectic Near Southside. We offer busy entrepreneurs, small businesses and remote workers a warm and welcoming place to be productive.