More Than WE Know

The number one concern I hear from entrepreneurs is a wish for more hours in the day.   No matter how much time they devote to their business, they never seem to get it all done.

And (especially if they are women entrepreneurs) they want to know how they can be more organized, more focused, more dedicated, and more clever about multi-tasking - so they can be more productive.

So, over the next few posts I’m going to share some of the methods I use to manage the various tasks in my life.  I’d appreciate it if you share some of your best tips as well - so we can all learn from each other.

My first tip is to create a written master list of everything you are trying to do.

While this may sound simple, I’m continually amazed at the number of entrepreneurs I meet who carry their “to do” lists around in their heads - they try to remember all of the outstanding tasks related to their business, their children, their personal lives, their spouse, their health, their friends, their pets, etc.

Without realizing it they’ve added an extra unnecessary task to their lives - memorizing their list!!

There’s no way to prioritize, organize, or make any progress on a list you can’t see. 

So - right now - before you do anything else - make a list of everything - absolutely everything that you need to do. 

Don’t even worry about prioritizing or categorizing - just do a brain dump of it all.  In every category of your life.  Be sure to include the things that wake you up in the middle of the night - like scheduling your long overdue dental appointment, updating your quickbook accounts,  and finding a missing library book.

Write it all down until you can’t come up with a single other thing.

And feel yourself relax.

Then, while you work the muscle cramp out in your hand -  stand back in amazement.

Did you know you were trying to do all of that??

By yourself??

In that amount of time??

Is it any wonder you feel frazzled and scatter-brained? Is it any wonder you forget things, do them late or do them only half as well as you could?

Stop feeling like you Should get more done and that someone else Could get more done and if you were more organized you Would get more done.

Just for today - give yourself a break. 

Shove the list aside. Have a cup of tea. Watch the sun set. Take a nap. Notice how good it feels not to be carrying that list around in your head. 

Now - at the top of the list write:

• Make a list of everything I have to do. 

Then cross it out.

• Make a list of everything I have to do.

Feels good,  doesn’t it??

Don’t worry - we’ll talk about how to manage all those items on the list but the first tip is really this:

• Set realistic expectations and treat yourself with respect.

In other words, if you wouldn’t ask an employee to carry this workload - don’t ask it of yourself. 

(and now tell me - how many items did you have on your Master To Do list???????)

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!