Are you feeling overwhelmed? Too many fire drills and the “urgent” replacing the “important”? Is every day starting off with a game plan and at the end of the day – nothing got accomplished on your top 3 priorities? This is part one of a two-part series to share tips and techniques to try and “control” the chaos and give you back some time to focus on your business priorities.
The way I am using “important” and “urgent” are based on the Eisenhower Matrix. The short definition of important is generalized as based on your personal or business priorities. Urgent is generally someone else’s priority. But the importance may impact your business if you miss a critical deadline. There are many articles and tools available on that and how to use it for managing tasks. It helps evaluate what should be completed immediately, scheduled, delegated, or not done at all.
This week we will focus on what you should continue doing, stop, and perhaps start. The Eisenhower Matrix will help as a first pass filter to see if the items should even be on your list. It is important to get feedback from your team and clients to validate your perspective and look for gaps.
1) Stop Doing – What is on your list just because it became a ritual and may no longer be needed? Do you have a weekly team meeting – is the frequency too often, are the topics relevant, does it motivate or educate? Are you running a promotion that is dated and no longer brings in new business as it did in the past? What is low value in your business you can stop doing today?
2) Continue Doing – What are the regular high value items that should not change? Maybe it is employee or customer recognition / appreciation events. Maybe it is a quarterly state of the business or regular client listening sessions. What is important and critical to keep doing in your business? Engage and ask for feedback and validation.
3) Start Doing – What are you hearing from your team and clients that may be missing from your business? Are you regularly evaluating your stop / continue / start list? Are you spending quality time to strategize on the future of your business and proactively blocking out time? This requires discipline and it is often harder to implement in reality. See the opening comments on urgent vs important.
Think through
Stop, start, and continue is a very simple exercise. Not so simple in real life without a conscious effort to maintain the discipline. Stephen Covey estimates on average it takes 30 days to make something part of one’s habits. Place your start, stop, continue list in a visible area, white board, screensaver, etc. Use it every day! In part two will cover creating small wins. Also check the Power of Focus.
Would love to hear your ideas and success stories. Feel free to post comments or email them to me. Small Business, Big Lessons ® What will you stop, start, or continue doing?
Small Business
About the Author:
Gregory Woloszczuk is an entrepreneur and experienced tech executive that helps small business owners grow their top and bottom line. Gregory believes in straight talk and helping others see things they need to see but may not want to with a focus on taking responsibly for one’s own business. He and his wife, Maureen, started GMW Carolina in 2006.
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