When I asked what you needed to grow your business, an overwhelming number of you responded with “more time.” But before you try to find more time in your already busy day, first you should make sure you’re spending the time you have on the most valuable parts of your business.
I spent the weekend rearranging furniture in my studio and office and playing around with changes to the design of the cozy/cuff site. Neither of which was on my gift fair to-do list.
And while I can certainly justify both activities as “working on my business,” they don’t fall into my primary goal of getting ready for the gift fair. Nor did they make me any immediate money.
In short, I was using “work” as a way to procrastinate from my real work.
How many times have you done this? Perhaps it’s not rearranging furniture, but hanging out on social media under the guise of “marketing.” Or working on new designs when you should be focusing on promoting the ones you already have.
So how do you stop getting distracted by “pretend work” and start focusing on the tasks that will legitimately grow your business and make you more money?
First, you have to ask yourself why you’re compelled to focus on these lesser tasks over the more important ones. For me, it was the result of coming home from the vacation that wasn’t really a vacation. (I think I was on my computer almost every day.) As a result, I hadn’t really gotten over the business overwhelm I was feeling before I left, and so my brain wasn’t really ready to focus yet.
It may also have to do with the fact that everything on my to-do list (like ordering postcards) required making a semi-permanent decision, and it was easier to focus on way less permanent things like moving furniture or redesigning my website, both of which could be completely changed tomorrow.
Often, there’s a reason we feel compelled to focus on certain tasks over other, more important, tasks. It may be because they are easier, more fun, or just require less brainpower. But understanding why we’re wasting our time on these tasks can go a long way towards helping us stay focused.
So what do you do to keep yourself focused on the more important tasks, not just the ones that you feel like doing today? Here are a few ideas:
1. Prioritize your to-do list. Sure, you probably keep a to-do list. But do you list your to-do items in terms of priority. When you don’t prioritize your to-do list, it’s easy to fall into the trap of tackling the easiest things on your list first, regardless of importance. Instead, go through your list and identify the most important tasks. Then tackle them first, and leave the easier tasks as a reward for getting the more important stuff done first.
2. Set a time limit. Think you “just can’t focus” until your office is clean or you’ve checked the latest gossip on Twitter. Then allow yourself to tackle that task, but set a time limit. Set a timer for a short period of time, and when it’s done, move on to more important tasks.
3. Take time off. Sometimes, what you really need is to take a break from the business. If you’re finding it difficult to focus, you may be better off doing something non-business related, rather than fooling yourself into thinking you’re working by tackling non-important tasks. Take a walk, have a snack, or even take a day (or two) off. When you come back, you should feel more ready to dive into those important tasks.
4. Delegate. If there are important tasks for your business that you can never seem to get around to doing, maybe it’s time to find someone else to do them for you. If you’re constantly hanging out on social media to avoid tasks like emailing the press (because secretly the idea of contacting the press scares you), then maybe it’s time to think about hiring a PR rep. Or maybe you can find an intern or virtual assistant to handle some of those little tasks to give you more time to focus on the larger, more important projects.
It’s easy to spend all day “working” on your business, and not really get anything done that moves your business forward. By focusing on your priorities and monitoring the amount of time you spend on lesser tasks, you won’t find more time in your day, but you’ll make better use of the time you currently have.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Do you know what’s helped me with this? I ask myself what tasks for the day will actually put money in my bank account. If I use that as a yard stick, I tend to spend a lot more time on the things that are actually work that I should be doing.
Sure, I can justify adding more blog posts or redesigning buttons – but if those things are directly impacting my bottom line, they probably belong at the bottom of my list.
I recognise this scenario all too well, and as you wrote, sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break and refuel.
This year I’ve been putting ONE-THREE things on my to-do-list every day. That thing has to be really important and connected with developing my dreams and my business.
It’s been working wonders for me.
I also keep a colour coded mind map with all the many ideas and projects I want to develop. The colours indicate different areas so I get a quick overview (creative, marketing, self-care, learning etc). I review this map at least once a week.
And the last part of my equation is that at the end of each day I write down three things that I’m grateful for. It can be simple things. Something that went well or a moment of connection.
I can totally relate to this. I even just blogged about it (instead of prioritizing my list).
Kate- how did you set up your color-coded mind map? I saw one of the accidental creative – but am curious how you set yours up!
This is great advice! I always seem to fall into these patterns of unproductive behavior. I am esp. guilty as charged of the so called marketing efforts through social media!
Oh man! I TOTALLY get caught up in doing these things all the time! Thanks for this post–so very helpful for combating these behaviors!
Another tidbit of advice that I’ve found really useful is something my beau told me (he’s an indie biz owner himself). It’s very simple, but very effective:
Do what makes you money.
Sometimes it’s so easy to focus on tasks that aren’t necessarily benefiting us financially. As small business owners, there are SO many things we have to juggle that it’s hard to know what to focus on. So sit down and ask yourself: what can I do today that will directly help me make money today, tomorrow, this week or this month? This sort of echoes what Megan said in her post–do you have a great product but feel like it’s not getting enough coverage? Then spend your time promoting, which can help you make money. Haven’t added any new pieces to your collection since April (ahemthat’smeahem)? Create! Though there are a lot of aspects to running a small business, it’s important at the end of the day to focus upon what’s going to make you money. (disclaimer: this doesn’t mean only focusing upon profit, forgoing all your ethics and morals–it just means empowering your business to be as successful as it can be by focusing on what brings those dollars in). By ‘doing what makes you money’, it allows you to focus upon what’s most important and essential to your business in the here and now.
oh, this is great advise, and very timely for me right now.
even with multiple to-do lists, i find myself spending lots of my precious time on ‘business’ related tasks…but often not the most important ones!
A much need reminder! I think it will always be a battle with the use of social media, and the internet in general as a business tool. So easy to get sucked into the non productive areas. I may just post the title on my desk 🙂
Were you inside my brain? How did you get in there?
I swear I was just thinking about prioritizing my to do list just this morning!
I have decided that I’m going to put a “$” next to the high priority/income generating items on my list, so I can keep myself focused and on task – grow the business, generate income.
By the end of the day, I can’t just have items crossed off my list, I must have the “$” items crossed off.
And if the other items don’t get done today, there’s always tomorrow.
Today = $
Jody, I love the idea of putting $ next to the income generating items! And from now on, I just might write “Today = $” at the top of my to-do list!
Excellent post – and exactly what I needed to hear!
Prioritizing my to-do list has become a daily goal. And identifying what will make money or “move the needle” is best way to do that.
Jodi – the dollar sign next to line items is terrific! Will be using that. Thanks.
Wow, what perfect timing of this for me! Too often I get sucked up in the web work and that’s not paying the bills. Today is a perfect example of that for me. Great to have this reminder to get off my but and get to my studio! I have a whole days worth of $$ projects to finish in there.
Thanks for the kick in the but (and the great suggestions)
Boy are you right on with this article! My weakness when procrastinating are office supply stores. I mean, you HAVE to be organized for your work, right? I’ve found when I am trying to avoid what I consider to be an onerous task, I tend to want to “get organized.” So buying planners, making lists, color-coded this and that are my go-to plans.
Social networking sites are real time-suckers and you have to be really careful that the amount of time you are putting into them is worth the returns. If it’s taking significant time from making great items, then you need to cut back.
I do this all.the.time.
I have items taht need to ship the next day and instead of making them, I will start designing new items. I will be half way in before I realize what I am doing.
The best thing for me is a to-do list. Do the items that will give me the biggest return (or that are urgent) first. Once I finish all that I have to do, I can focus on the fun stuff that isn’t urgent.
You are completely right in saying you did the stuff that didn’t require making a permanent decision first. The hardest stuff to do is always the stuff we tend to push off.
I was just thinking about this today – while I was ‘working’, which meant designing a new background for my blog, not on new pieces for my shop.
Disorganization and lack of focus have been my downfall lately and I need to work on both of those areas… but not at the expense of my work. It’s challenging, but it has to be done if I want to be successful.
Busted… busted… busted.
I feel like the teacher just caught me cheating on a test. One that I seem to take every day. The timer thing worked for a while, but now I’m going to be designating certain days for certain aspects of the business, that way, when three of them don’t require being on a computer at all, my guilt will set in more when I’m still farting around on it at noon.
Thank you, teacher.
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Oh how I need to work on this… I often find myself working on the easier, less-important tasks on my to-do list because then I can cross something off it. The most important tasks are often the ones that require more energy or skill or just time, and the tasks that get left to the absolute end are the ones that are scary or that I’m not as good at and need to practice (which of course means the practice never happens).
I’m also embarrassed to admit that after I’ve tidied my jewelry or craft supplies, I’m less willing to get them out again and make another mess. Now that’s just laziness…
Thanks for the strategies on how to tackle this!
What you said Megan about the ‘why’ behind the procrastination, I feel is key. It is easy to detect the procrastination but to bravely and honestly delve into the ‘why’ is a brilliant way to grow as a person and progress as a business. Here’s to becoming more aware of the ‘why’…..
Jodi, the $ is a terrific idea, thx!
Funny someone should mention their hubby said you should focus on prioritising your efforts on what makes you $ – my husband has in the past, said exactly the same thing to me.
I couldn’t agree more in theory – but in practice it gets lost in translation in my business because it seems so many things have the “potential” to generate money, but they require so much time – like websites, blogging & social networking!!
I wholeheartedly endorse prioritizing the to-do list! I always feel so much less intimidated by that list if I’ve made it clear to myself what needs to get done first. Great post!
I started thinking about this when I read the post yesterday and it has really helped me to clarify what I need to focus on! I like the idea of the $ next to things that will bring in the money…that will definitely be going on my to-do list! It has also helped me to consider my income streams more carefully and decide to focus on and expand the one that is consistently (for now) working better than the other. And, I definitely stand convicted of doing lower priority things first because they’re easier…
Thank you again for another great post!!
Thanks for the kickstart. I have a big show this weekend, after reading this I got off my butt and tackled a big chunk of my to-do list. Aaahh that felt great!
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Ok, this post completely resonated with me!! You’re so right! I keep saying almost daily that I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done. But if I look at what I’m doing, I’m not sure I can say I’m spending quality time or that I’m not just putting things off. I’m pretty sure I keep putting things off that I don’t want to do…but that need to be done (I’m a classic procrastinator!). So thanks so much for some helpful hints for me to try out 🙂
Ha this is so true…it’s as if you wrote this just for me 🙂
I’ve caught myself doing things like this all the time and am now able to recognize it and stop it. (Fixing blogger buttons, adjusting my twitter background) when these are by no means a priority but just overall time wasters. But hey, it made me feel as if I was “doing something”. I had a bit of a reality check the other day and found what you said, about “…make sure you’re spending the time you have on the most valuable parts of your business” really resonated. I have a full-time design job so when I do get to work on Paper Squid, it must be prioritized and worth it. It’s the important needed tasks that will bring the desired results. It’s a growing process.
Thanks for your helpful blog.
Great advice! I think the computer is the best thing and worst thing for productivity…eek!
Thanks for another timely, relevant article with punch.
Hallelujah. This post is so timely for me– I’m swamped with projects but am procrastinating with “work” instead of just getting it all done. I’m sick of it! I will be prioritizing my to-do list starting right now, beginning each day with the most pressing tasks. Thank you for this!!
oh this is soooo great! prioritize my priority list, what a great idea. i just got out my colored pencil set. orange for asap, blue for sometime very soon and pink for you have a little time. thanks! cannot wait to share with my readers
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