Free Report

5. Learn to say no

Recognise that there will never be enough time to do everything you have to do. If your focus needs to be quadrant II activities you will either need to delegate or say no to some things. If you have set your goals and identified the activities needed to achieve these let these be your focus. And how do you discriminate between one priority and another? Continually ask what are your highest value activities? What can you and only you do which will make a real difference? And continually ask yourself what is the most valuable use of your time right now?

4. Distinguish between urgent and important

Urgent means it requires immediate attention, they are things which were difficult to ignore, often visible, they insist on action. We tend to react to urgent matters just because they are there. On the other hand, important activities are those that contribute to goals or results and are proactive. Please scroll down ……….

Some activities (quadrant I) are both urgent and important and require our immediate attention; these are the fire-fighting activities, which often lead to stress. Items that are urgent, but not important (quadrant III) are often only completed due to other people’s demands or expectations, for example interruptions. Too much time on this type of activity will lead to lack of progress or achievement of results.  The non-urgent and non-important activities we spend time on are frequently an opportunity to relieve the stress caused by too many urgent activities! 

Our goal should be to spend as much time as possible on the non-urgent important activities (quadrant II). You can’t ignore the urgent and important activities in quadrant I, but your goal should be to complete these tasks before they become urgent.  Doing less of the activities associated with quadrants III and IV will help you achieve this.

3. Apply the Pareto principle

How often do you find your day has been dominated by trivia? The Pareto principle suggests that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results.

Unfortunately it is on this top 20% that we are most likely to procrastinate, instead spending our time on the least important 80%. So before you begin to work on anything ask yourself “Is this task in the top 20%?”  You may be in the habit of starting your day clearing up small things first; it may be difficult to break this habit, but just discipline yourself for one week to always start with something in your top 20% (i.e. towards a major goal) before embarking on any other activity.

2. Plan your activities

Now you’ve established your goals and objectives

Make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. Ensure you list everything – unless everything is written down it will be difficult for you to prioritise. This becomes your master list, which you may need to add to overtime. Then organise your list into a plan or schedule – what needs to be done month by month, week by week and finally from your weekly list, draw up your daily list. Resolve to do something every single day that moves you towards your major goal, and ensure that these small steps or activities are scheduled every single day so that you’re able to chip away at your major goal.

If you apply this principle to each of your goals and schedule time in for activities that take you nearer to your goals you will be amazed how much more quickly they become a reality.

Everyone has the same amount of time available – 24 hours a day, seven days a week equals 168 hours in any one week. So how is it that some people seem to accomplish so much more than others? What is it that these people do differently?

They prioritise. They have a sense of direction and the ability to identify what needs to be done first. They decide which are the things that matter most and must be done (potentially at the expense of other less important and less urgent – though nonetheless more attractive – activities), and then organise and execute their actions around these priorities. Being organised, having checklists, and being efficient is not enough; by prioritising we are focusing on things that really matter so that we can be effective, with the emphasis on accomplishing results.

So just how do you prioritise?

Each day over the next week I’ll be giving you 1 tip to help you make every day a productive day.

1. Be clear about your goals and objectives.

The clearer you are about what you want and what you have to do to achieve it the easier it is for you to prioritise. (If you do not already have clearly defined goals click here to download guidelines on setting achievable goals.) Ensure your goals are written down in a tangible form, with clearly defined deadlines. Go over your list of goals and select the one goal that if you achieved it would have the greatest positive impact on your life. Whatever that goal is write this on a separate sheet of paper and set your deadline.

Yesterday I got together for my regular meeting with fellow small business owners.  We all run different types of business, which is what makes it so good, as it really forces each of us to ’sell’ what we do and justify the time we spend on each of out projects.

Yesterday we reviewed our business goals and plans – not just for the coming year, but for the next 5 years.  It’s not always easy to think about what you want that far ahead, but if we don’t have a sense of direction it’s a safe bet we’ll end up somewhere less perfect than we might like.

When was the last time you reviewed your long term goals and what you want from you business in 5, or even 10 years from now?  Unless you want to be working in it until the day you die you need an exit strategy and some idea of how you are going to get there.

If you’ve never done this I would urge you to.  And then ensure your business plan points in the right direction.  When I talk about business plan, I mean the one you have for your reference, not the plan prepared for the bank or other third parties – this is the working document, which you refer to (and update if necessary) on a regular basis.

You can find the format I use here – ‘Six Simple Steps to Build your Business Plan’, which starts with your long term vision and brings you back to identify short term actions to get you there.

And if you never get to talk about your plans with others, I would urge you to go this too – it’s amazing what other people can see that is right under your nose!