For small business owners like you, every aspect of running your company can seem like a priority. When you're in that kind of mindset, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the pressing tasks you need to attend to, which likely run the gamut from business banking to promoting new deals and discounts.
Inc. magazine recently offered several tips to identify and tackle the most urgent items on your to-do list, even when everything listed seems to fit the criteria.
First things first, you need to actually make a to-do list. Although you might be tempted to forgo a written version in favor of keeping one in your head, this isn't sufficient, as you're liable to forget things throughout the day without a physical list to refer to. Initially, write down everything that needs to be accomplished without regard for order of importance. Once you have a full list, start to separate the items according to degrees of urgency.
The next step is to assess value to each of the tasks you designated as most urgent. As branding and digital marketing evangelist Lauren Perkins writes for the source, "Completing certain tasks will offer more benefit than others. For example, I have a rule that client work comes before internal work. Because client work not getting done has bigger ramifications more often than internal work."
At this point, it can be tempting to designate everything as high-value. However, overloading yourself will only lead to unattainable goals. These will most likely cause delays down the road and, if these result in broken promises, could even have a negative effect on customer satisfaction.
Although assigning priorities to tasks in the morning is a useful step, it's necessary to recognize that the importance of certain items on your to-do list may change during the course of the day. Flexibility is a key attribute for an entrepreneur to have. Blending pre-planning with thinking on your feet will allow you to take things as they come but still have a solid framework to fall back on.
Entrepreneurs by nature are go-getters who like to get things done themselves without having to rely too much on others. However, when it comes to areas that you're less familiar with, don't be afraid to ask an expert. For financial tips, drop by your local community bank branch, call us at 1-888-mybank4 or visit our website at mybank4.com.