Schedule time to work ON your business

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS?

It can be easy to get caught up in the day to day running of your business. To go from crisis to crisis. From urgent problem to urgent problem.

But urgent and important ARE NOT the same thing.

That is why it’s essential to book time out to work ON your business rather than always working in the business.

What you are priorities? What are you goals for this year or this quarter? What actions are you taking to make sure they happen?

We all need time out to think and strategise. Stop spending Monday morning’s prioritising what’s on your schedule.

START SCHEDULING YOUR PRIORITIES

Make focussed time to to do the things that only you can do. Block this time out and go ‘off-grid’.

If you were on a plane for a few hours it would really hard for your team to interrupt you.

Stick your phone (and yourself) into flight mode and ignore the distractions.

My business partner and I recently shut ourselves in our boardroom. 8 hours later we came out with a brand new process map for one of our big objectives.

HOW TO STAY FOCUSED (EVEN IN A TEAM OF ONE)

One of my favourite tools for focus is something called the Pomodoro Technique.

Simply use a timer to break down activities into dedicated intervals. I like to work in 25 minutes chunks, separated by short breaks of 5-10 minutes.

I find this is a great way to maintain focus on things. I disconnect from all possible interruptions, set the timer and go.

No sneaky checking of emails or social media. No answering phone calls. No taking a quick break to make a cuppa. A dedicated chunk of focussed time to get things done.

All the other stuff… checking messages, going for a pee, grabbing a drink… I do them during the breaks.