Something that’s come up in a few conversations over the last couple of weeks is the question “How do I make sure the important stuff in my business gets done?”
And this question isn’t coming from new business owners. The ladies who are asking have run their profitable business for at least a couple years or so.
This generally leads to a discussion on time blocking.
It’s tempting to make this a BIG project in an attempt to do it right.
To sit down with all your to-do’s and goals and think about what categories things fall into and how you want to divide your time throughout the week into those categories.
This is a great strategy.
But it can cause you not to do anything because you don’t have the time to sit for two hours and go through the goal setting, brain dump, and time blocking process.
So you don’t do anything.
And you continue to be frustrated that the important things keep falling to the wayside.
Let’s take a different approach.
What are the smaller tweaks you can make that will move you closer to the goal of working on those important things?
Look at what’s not working and ask yourself what some things are you could do to have time for those things?
Can you block off time each day or week to do it?
You don’t have to create time blocks for EVERY category or thing you can think of.
Just create one time block for that particular project or goal.
Put it in your schedule and see how it goes.
At the end of the week take a moment to notice what worked, or didn’t work about that time block.
You might need to change it or do something a little differently.
I’ll share a personal example.
I end most days with checking email and social media and then planning the next day.
The problem was by the time I finished with my email and social media, I was spent and really ready to end the day. Which meant the next day didn’t get planned. And having my day planned before I walk into my office keeps me on track and on task.
Or I’d schedule meetings right up to the end of my day. And I wouldn’t have much time for any of it.
After I thought about it for a while I realized that if I gave myself an hour or two at the end of every day I could tie up loose ends from the day and do my email and social media check-ins.
So, I added a reoccurring appointment every day from 4-6 for “daily tasks,” those things that I want to do daily.
This is my time to make or return any phone calls I haven’t already done, tie up other loose ends, check my email, check-in on social media and plan the next day.
This helped, but I still wasn’t always planning the next day.
One more small tweak helped immensely: I planned the next day before I checked email or social media.
Does this mean that I’m always caught up on email and social media each day? Nope. Those things will still be there the next day.
But this works for me many, many more days then it lets me down. And the added benefit is I know that I have time built into my schedule so I spend less time the rest of the day trying to squeeze some of it in.
Quick recap:
- You don’t have to do ALL your time blocking at once. You can do it for one thing.
- If there is something you’re continuously running out of time for, create a time block for that thing. It might be two hours a week, one hour a day, or something else.
- Put that time block on your calendar every week/day so you don’t schedule other things at that time.
- Take a moment each week to review and notice what is and isn’t working for you with that time block.
- Adjust your time block as needed.