Whether you are starting your business or growing it, it is important to ensure that you remain organised and on track. Many distractions can come up on a daily basis and without having a well organised routine and way to deal with these distractions you may find yourself not achieving what you hope to within your day or week.
One or all of the following items may help you to reorganise your day and to be more effective on a daily basis.
Review your company mission
Set goals that will contribute to your mission
Write down actions required to meet each goal
Prioritise
Avoid multitasking
Once a goal is met move on
Outsource
Clear your inbox and schedule time for emails
Communication prioritisation
Review your company mission
When is the last time you checked to see if you are still working towards your company mission. Alternatively, is your mission still relevant based on the internal and external factors that have been influencing your business.
Whether starting or growing a business it is easy to get off track. This can lead to you not making real progress and not growing in the direction that you want the business to go. It also means that the energy you are exerting every day is not being spent on taking your business where you want it to go.
Make sure that all your actions and tasks are aligned with your company mission. If they are not then ensure you identify those that are not and decide whether they are important or not. If they are not important then you should stop engaging in them. Rather use your time to focus on the tasks that are important and aligned with your objectives.
Set goals that will contribute to your mission
Setting goals is the first step to getting organised. If you don't know what you are working towards you will float aimlessly through each day. Your goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). These can be short term or long term.
Write down actions required to meet each goal
Once you know what your goals are you can begin to map out actions that are required to work towards those goals. In addition to these goal oriented actions add any other daily, weekly or monthly actions that need your attention in order to keep the business operating.
Prioritise
Now organise your goals using the priority matrix (Eisenhower Matrix).
| URGENT | NOT URGENT |
IMPORTANT | QUADRANT 1 REDUCE Deals with crisis management. Reduce the amount of work in this quadrant by planning better and doing more work in quadrant 2. | QUADRANT 2 SCHEDULE Spend more time here. This requires strategic thinking and links with goals set from your company mission. |
NOT IMPORTANT | QUADRANT 3 DELEGATE Empower your team by delegating these tasks to them or contractors or freelancers. Avoid spending time micromanaging in this quadrant. | QUADRANT 4 DECLUTTER Eliminate tasks that do not align with your company's mission and goals. Avoid this quadrant at all costs. |
Avoid multitasking
Research has shown that multitasking or changing between tasks can waste between 5 and 20 minutes while your mind works to get back into the task. This includes distractions. When working on important tasks/goals be sure that you cannot be disturbed if you wish to be most productive.
Once a goal is met move on
Growing a business is not an exact science and you will have time in the future to come back and make improvements later. It is important to keep moving forwards and not to revisit items that have been completed and serve their purpose in an effort to seek perfection. This will not only waste time but it will also lead to valuable time being spent on an item where little additional gain will be realised.
Outsource
This is covered in the priority matrix above to some extent. Outsourcing quadrant 3 tasks can free up a lot of time in your day to work on clearing quadrant 1 tasks and planning for quadrant 2.
Schedule time for emails
Emails can be a huge distraction. Where possible, schedule time slots during the day to read and respond to emails. This will stop you from being distracted while you work on important tasks. It will also ensure improve your productivity. Inform people who you work with or who may require urgent responses to contact you on your phone or some other means. This will give you the freedom to not have to check your email regularly.
Communication prioritisation
Where possible communicate verbally with your colleagues and clients. Where that is not possible consider trying the following priority of communication to avoid having your inbox overflowing with long email chains.
In person
Telephonically/video call.
Instant messaging service
Email.