In business, there are a million and one things you can focus your time on at any given time, and honestly, most of us never get to develop all our ideas. It can often be hard as entrepreneurs to decide where our time is best spent. But it’s super important to prioritize what you are working on and understand what you are working towards so you are putting your efforts on things that will grow your business.
When prioritizing your time, it’s important to look at what your efforts are leading to. For example:
- If you are taking a course, it’s not a very effective use of your time if you don’t make time to implement what you are learning.
- If you are creating content and you aren’t taking time to promote it, then it’s not an efficient use of your time to keep creating without promoting. It’s better to create less and take that extra time to promote.
- If you are taking time to drive people to your email list (either through content or social media), then you need to also take the time to make sure to engage those people.
When you are taking time to do certain activities within your business, you need to ask yourself where those activities are leading to and if you are balancing your time investments to make sure you are balanced in your strategies.
I like to think of prioritization in 2 ways: Day to Day & Big Picture.
Day-To-Day
If you are struggling with lack of time in your day-to-day then prioritizing those tasks you tackle is key. A general rule of thumb is to always start with tasks closest to bringing money into your business.
So this might be submitting a quote for a job, responding to an inquiry, completing client work or even sending an invoice. If you can’t find time for it all always start closest to the money making activities of your business.
If you don’t have business coming in, then start focusing on your marketing. And if you feel lost on your marketing strategy, grab the Simplified Marketing Plan to help give you direction and focus.
It’s important that your marketing plan be balanced in its efforts, as I mentioned earlier it doesn’t do you good to focus all your time on social media, without a solid plan of where you want to lead your audience or to produce content you don’t promote. You can read more here about the elements of a strategic marketing plan so aren’t spending your time on efforts that aren’t leading anywhere.
Big Picture
Anytime you start a new venture/project, buy a course, or make a commitment that will impact your workday ask yourself “How am I going to make time for that.”
Every time you agree to something new in your life YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP SOMETHING.
Now, you might have some flexible time that maybe you use watching tv or scrolling mindlessly on social media, so the giving up is not that impactful. BUT if you don’t make conscious space in your schedule to accommodate the new commitment, you will end in a situation where other tasks get pushed to the side.
Not making room in your schedule for new time consuming activities results in stress and chaos.
Prioritization is an essential part of productivity and in building a successful business. It can be easy to get stuck in the day-to-day, and you don’t realize you are not focusing on what’s going to bring you closer to your goals. It’s important to evaluate how you are using your time and make sure how you are spending your time aligns with the goals of your business.
If you need help aligning your day-to-day activities with your business goals, that’s exactly why I designed the The 3-Month Masterplan! It’s time to learn to put on your CEO crown, and spend your time on work that will bring you closer to your goals! In this program, we’ll identify your business goals and work together to develop a detailed action plan to move you toward them.