It’s easy to get wrapped up in the chaos of being an entrepreneur. There’s always more things that need to be done than these is time available to do them. How do you overcome the chaos? By organizing yourself around what is most important.
When it’s not possible to do everything, do only the things that really matter.
“Innovation is not saying yes to everything. It’s saying NO to everything but the most crucial features.” – Steve Jobs
One of the many admired traits of Steve Jobs was his ability to stay focused by saying “no”. Whether you’re developing a product and saying “no” to a list of potential features, or reviewing everything you need to do today, the benefit of saying “no” to all the wrong things is the same – you end up only saying “yes” to the good ideas. You end up focusing your energy on the right things instead of getting caught up in the weeds of all the things you feel you should be doing.
Neil Patel posted an article on Forbes about this idea titled How The Best Entrepreneurs Stay Organized. Being that Daylite is a business organization and productivity app, it can be leveraged to support each of Patels key points.
1. Successful entrepreneurs review their goals often
Writing down your goals makes them an idea and a wish. Reviewing them often and creating a plan makes them a reality that’s achievable.
How to do this using Daylite:
Write out your goals in Daylite and review them regularly. The best way to do this is to create a project for each goal. This way you can write a specific description and end result that you want to achieve, and craft a plan of how to get there. Break down the goal into bite-sized chunks first by creating tasks within the project for all the little things involved. You may want to use a Pipeline to track all the key milestones for your goal so you have a linear plan of what to accomplish.
Each day you can review your list of goals (projects) and assess the tasks that can be done each day to get you closer to achieving them.
2. Organized entrepreneurs batch tasks
Grouping tasks together helps you focus so you avoid the trap of multitasking. For example, if you’re at your computer, process your emails all together, then turn off emails while you move to another batch of tasks such as phone calls you need to make.
How to do this using Daylite:
You can filter your tasks by type or use Keywords to tag tasks with “@email”, “@phone”, “@research” so you can filter and batch tasks. When processing your emails, use Daylite Mail Assistant so you’re able to do everything within your inbox instead of jumping around. Read this article to learn more about Achieving Inbox Zero with Daylite.
After you’re done processing your emails, turn off your email and move to the next group of tasks.
3. Organized entrepreneurs work on the one thing that will move their business forward
It’s easy get caught in the hamster wheel. You’re scrambling to do all these little things but at the end of the day you feel like you’re getting nowhere. Avoid that trap by setting aside all those little things you could do and focus on that one thing that you know will really make a difference in moving your business forward.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed because you have so much to do, take a step back and ask yourself – what’s the one thing I can do today that will help move my business forward? Forget about all those other tasks for now, and focus on that one thing first. Some entrepreneurs even live by the philosophy that if a task isn’t directly related to one of their overall goals, they don’t do it.
How to do this using Daylite: Review your project and opportunity lists regularly to reassess your priorities. If a task isn’t related to one of your high priority projects or opportunities, defer it to another day. After reviewing your list of high priority projects and opportunities, it should become clear which is most important.
4. Super organized entrepreneurs choose a few “big rocks” for the day
There are only so many hours in a day. Don’t fight the clock by trying to get everything done today. A long to-do list will make you feel overwhelmed and you’ll start to feel like that hamster caught in the wheel. Choose a few “big rocks” and focus on those. Set yourself up for success by being realistic about what you should be focusing on and the time you have to get those things done.
How to do this using Daylite: Ditch the never-ending to-do list. After you’ve reviewing your tasks and identified your “big rocks”, put them on your Worklist. Your Worklist is designed as a focus list for the things you realistically can and need to accomplish today. You can also use your calendar to carve out time during your day to accomplish each task.
5. Successful entrepreneurs know the power of delegation
Super organized entrepreneurs know they’re not superman. As an entrepreneur your focus should be on the big rocks. Let other people on your team handle the little rocks or outsource them so you can focus your time on doing things to move your business forward.
How to do this in Daylite: Use Daylite to delegate tasks to other people on your team. You can delegate tasks from within Daylite, or use Daylite Mail Assistant to create a new task from an email and delegate it to someone else. This is helpful for avoiding cc’ing emails. Whether the task is sparked from an email, part of a project, or a random to-do, you can assign it to someone else on your team using Daylite’s delegate feature.
Tracking delegated tasks in Daylite: When you assign a task to someone else, you’ll have the option to check a box to notify you when it’s done. If you want to see a list of tasks delegated by you, navigate to your Task tab and select “Delegated”. This will show you a list of tasks delegated by you and tasks delegated to you. If you have specific tasks you want to keep track of, but don’t need to see all of the tasks delegated by you, you can tag those tasks with the Keyword “[Your name] Tracking” and create a Smart List by filtering tasks with that Keyword. This way you can keep an eye on whether these important tasks have been completed or not.
If you want to avoid feeling overwhelmed and “stuck” by all the things needed to get done, start organizing your day around what matters. Reviewing your goals, saying “no” more often, and delegating will free up more time for focusing your attention and energy on what’s most important.
Keep the “big rocks” in mind. Don’t get bogged down by all the little things. tweet this
Using Daylite alongside this strategy will help you stay organized and focus on what matters.
