Struggling to find time to work on your business? Here's why and how to beat it.
Small business owners are always busy, our days already full, and with over 30%* clocking up over 60 hours per week, that includes our evenings and weekends too. The priority of our To Do list is dominated by deadlines; what is URGENT.
So what does that mean for the tasks that have no fixed deadline those ‘working on the business’ development and improvement activities such as
- Creating a strategy
- Writing a 90-day action plan
- Planning your social media calendar
- Developing new products/services
- Re writing your website
- Setting up Quickbooks or Xero.
These tasks are important for longer term efficiency and growth. We acknowledge they are important yet time and again they end up getting pushed to the bottom of the list.
So why do we end up never getting around to them?
We are driven by Urgency
Anyone who has looked into Time Management techniques will be familiar with the Eisenhower Grid, made popular by Stephen Covey – the simple 2 x 2 matrix to determine the priority of tasks by the relative Urgency & Importance.
Following the guidance, the theory clearly establishes that Important is a higher priority than Non-urgent, yet research findings show a very different picture.
In her article
Why we prioritise urgency over importance Bri Williams (The Behaviour Explainer) shares that research conducted into how we prioritise tasks found that we are driven by a sense of urgency, to the extent that we are more likely to prioritise unimportant tasks (i.e. those with a low payoff) when there is a sense of urgency.
Crucially, for small business owners, the researchers also identified that people who perceive themselves as being busy are more susceptible to this often ‘mere urgency’ effect because time is on their mind.
Bri Williams offers this explanation as to why, saying
“Rationally, and theoretically, importance should trump urgency. But in reality, we often get distracted by the urgent and procrastinate over the important”
Procrastination is key here. After all, if it’s not urgent than what will motivate us to get these things done? We need to change our mindset on the measure of success.
If we take urgency out of the equation, we can decide what to prioritise based what is the most productive thing I can do. Using Impact vs difficulty does just that.
Change the focus to Productivity
The Impact Difficulty matrix is another 2 x 2 matrix that helps to prioritise tasks by assessing its relative Impact on the business vs the Difficulty, or how much effort it requires to get it done.
Firstly list out all those ‘working on the business/ business improvement’ tasks that you keep postponing or simply never get around to.
Secondly, score them 1 – 10 firstly on the Impact they will have on the business when you have achieved them. I find it useful to make some notes on why I am giving that score, ensuring you think through the expected difference this will make to the business.
Finally score them 1 -10 on the Difficulty in achieving them, consider if you have all the information/resources available, if you will need input from others and the time involved.
Once you have the two scores you can plot them on a 2 x 2 matrix.
Now what you have is a priority list that is driven, not by urgency but by productivity.
Quick Wins vs Fill Ins
With the low difficulty tasks divided by impact this offer a no brainer list of quick wins to do first. Separate out the less productive, fill in tasks for those short time window opportunities and, for the truly low impact perhaps even take them off the list all together.
Strategic Projects vs Thankless tasks
Dividing those difficult tasks enables you to highlight the truly strategic projects, with a clear understanding of the positive impact on the business it's time to plan how to deliver on these. This leaves the Thankless tasks, frankly a hard slog for little reward, well no one has time for that.
At the end of the day you still have to make things happen, but focussing on the must productive tasks will help to get over procrastination. It’s not the lack of focus that prevents us moving forward but a lack of clarity.
(* various Gallup polls on how many hours small business owners work)
Janet Doran , works as a Strategic Business Coach across North Yorkshire, UK. enabling small business owners in creative and professional service industries to win in competitive markets.
Find out more at www.thepositivepen.co.uk or call 07505 120051
I post daily, information/inspiration for small business owners, on twitter @ thepositivepen
One of the key benefits business owners get from working with a coach is that ‘protected’ time to work on the business instead of it in. If you are thinking about working with a business coach please get in touch.
