Amanda Holges shows you 3 ways to help with juggling priorities in your business to get more control and feel less overwhelmed.
I know as a business owner it can become a juggle of priorities, each one baying for your valuable time. Instead of feeling in control of your day, or week, you are constantly firefighting what comes up and changing priorities. So I am going to give you 3 tips to help you get more control and feel less overwhelmed with all those priorities.
This tip is part of a series that look at the key issues I help with as part of my Mentoring & Masterminds. Check out the other videos in the series.
Download the More Calm-Less Juggle video program to create your perfect schedule: https://amandaholges.co.uk/control
Full Transcription
– Welcome, and thank you for being here today and joining me on this series of business tips.
Today we’re looking at juggling too many priorities. I know as a business owner, it can become a juggle of priorities, each one baying for your valuable time. It may be the priorities of existing clients over finding new ones. It might be multiple businesses with differing needs. It could be the juggle of business versus home life or leisure time.
Instead of feeling in control of your day or your week, you’re constantly firefighting what comes up and changing priorities. This leads to wasted time and a lack of focus on the things that will really help you move your business forward.
So I’m going to give you three tips to help you get more control and feel less overwhelmed with all those priorities.
So Number one, ditch the long to-do list. It’s great for a daily feeling of under-achievement. And you are never going to get to the end of it. It just zaps your energy and your motivation. Instead, have one main focus for the day and three to five tasks in total for the whole day. Plan the key focus task in the part of the day when you’re at your best. And use that momentum to then complete the other tasks. If you crack those, then you’ve achieved all you’ve planned. Sure you could always find more tasks to fill in any time you have left if you wanted. But that way you’re going to feel energised and motivated of what you’ve achieved.
Okay, on to tip number two. Distractions and Notifications. Stop the distraction of your phone or computer telling you that you have an email come through or the latest social media message. Just a ping or a message flashing up in the corner is enough to distract you and stop you from focusing on your task. And they say it can take up to twenty minutes for you to get that focus back again. So that’s valuable time that you don’t want to waste. Take control of your time and spend it on the tasks that you need to complete and switch those notifications off. Schedule time for emails and messages so that they’re on your terms instead.
Number three, Your Schedule. Whether you have a traditional diary or it’s all on your phone, what does your schedule look like? Is it just some key appointments for the day, or does it include regular tasks? Do you know what your most effective time is and do you use that to your advantage? Getting the right schedule for you saves a lot of planning or just flying by the seat of your pants through the day. It stops you from being busy in the overwhelm and focused on the right tasks.
If you need 10 hours of customer meetings, or 10 hours creating a product to sell each week, then get that time allocated in your schedule. If you need time to process the orders, or to write up reports, or presentations, then plan that in too. Everyone needs some admin time for accounts, invoicing, paper shuffling each week. So plan that in. Then there’s the time for marketing and sales. If they’re your responsibility then you need to allocate time to complete those tasks.
Getting the right schedule can help you see the flow and focus for each day of the week. So how does yours match up?
So that’s my three tips for juggling too many priorities. It might be obvious and you probably know all that, but putting it to practice is what counts. If you’re struggling to fit in all you want to do and enjoy the time where you want to as well, then these three tips are a good place to start.
To help, I would like to offer my short video course, “More Calm – Less Juggle” to you for free. In five short videos, it helps you create a schedule template that works for you. And as I know your time is short and valuable, it doesn’t take hours for you to create it. If nothing else, it will answer the question ‘Why can’t I fit it all in?!!!’
Head to AmandaHolges.co.uk/Control and grab the video set now. In a relatively short amount of time you will have much more control over your busy schedule. More calm, less juggle.
So my three tips to juggling too many priorities are: Focus on three to five tasks. Lose the distractions. And create a usable schedule. That’s it for today. Thanks for listening, and remember to download the “More Calm – Less Juggle” videos at AmandaHoges.co.uk/Control. Speak soon.