What is the one thing Business owners want? It’s money! You start a business because there is opportunity to make an infinite amount of money. Otherwise, what you do is called a hobby. But why is it that we want this infinite amount of money. Why does an annual salary of $100,000 or even $250,000 not suffice? Why not just get a secure job at a great company and call it a day? Because it’s not really about the money.
What we truly want is our time. Time to do the things that make us happy! Whether that be spending time with family or taking 6 months to travel the world. Our time is our most valuable resource. When we “settle” for a job that guarantees a $100,000 salary, we commit a huge portion of our time to earning that money. The goal for (most) business owners is to become successful, so that they can earn the money they want, while spending time doing what they love!
That being said, the true currency in business is not money, but time. Using outdated or inefficient procedures in your business, in essence, losing time, will cost you money. If we can learn to manage this most precious resource, then the money will come. The problem is most people find learning to manage their own time, let alone another person’s, is the most difficult part of running a business. There are very effective ways for people to manage their time. However, nothing good comes easy!
When you start your plan, you must remember that you are dealing with people. We can only handle so much.
You know that feeling you get when you just get out of a long meeting and, upon sitting at your desk, you remember all of the things you still have to do? You know, usually around the same time your heart rate increases.
Our minds are basically like human computers. So, if we want to increase our daily productivity, efficiency and focus, we need to empty the cache of temporary “files” and reboot our brains. If we don’t allow for this, we tend to overload with too many circuits firing simultaneously and so many programs (thoughts) working in the shadows that we often “freeze up” and can’t seem to know what to do next.
That is why when you have so much to do you never know where to start! This is our brain telling us that we need to slow down. The best thing to do is write down a list of all the things we have that are swarming around in our brain to organize and systematize at a later date.
Here are a few simple steps you can use to organize your thoughts:
Choose your best time of the day – Ideally, this process is best done, twice each day, first thing in the morning and again before bedtime, but that doesn’t work for everyone. Any time will work. The key is to do it consistently and make it apart of your daily behavior.
I have found that I work best early in the morning. I’m fresh with my morning tea. My brain is already awake and ready to go. For some people, morning time is not their friend. If this is you, you may need to reverse my method to work at night before you go to bed and release any last thoughts before sleep.
Choose your method of logging – Any number of apps on your phone will work well to record your thoughts and tasks. If you prefer, you can use the voice-recording feature. I use the basic note function which works fine for me. An organization program or document, such as Outlook, OneNote, Sticky Notes or Evernote on your computer will work as well.
Quickly dump everything you’re keeping in your head – and I mean everything… Not just tasks, but thoughts, concerns, questions, and ideas too. Get it all out. Don’t worry about sorting them; you can do that later, just get them out of your head so that you can stop spinning around, using up precious brainpower.
Another benefit of making it into a systemized behavior (or habit if you need another reason) is to improve your overall health. Money cannot bring back time and money can’t reverse the damage you’ve done to your health, so set aside a few minutes each day to empty and organize your brain, you can drastically improve your ability to focus, complete tasks, relieve stress and achieve your goals, which is DON’T WASTE TIME. At the end of the day, you mind and health is worth a hell of a lot more than money.
Feel free to reach out to me if you feel I missed something or if you just want to add to the conversation!