Prioritization Tips - Should I be Doing This or That? Let's See.
When you're starting your business, it can be tough to decide which tasks you should be doing and the order you should be doing them. When I started here at Wealthy Affiliate, I came with a schedule. I had a life before, and many of you can relate.
We come with:
- Jobs
- Kids
- Hobbies
- and other things that divide our time
But, we also come here with a desire for a different life than what we have. A different life cannot happen if we continue doing the same things, right?
As a result, we have to move things around in our schedules and in our wallets in order to get the outcomes that we want. Our online businesses require a significant investment of our time in order to get the results we're looking for.
Current Allocations of Time vs. Targeted Allocations of Time
The fact is, some of us currently allocate alot of time to things like negotiating with bill collectors, working, travelling, taking care of parents, watching netflix, playing video games, changing diapers, taking care of kids, volunteering in the community, spending time with friends, and a variety of other things.
Time is finite. You have 24 hours in a day. In order to achieve your goals, you have to portion out the day to reflect your values. Many of the tasks you do now are "good" tasks, but you may be discontent because you feel like your life isn't materializing in all of the areas you want.
You want more!
In order to get more, it's important to identify how your time is currently being spent and set targets to transition to new ways of allocating your time.
Habit Change Takes Continual Effort
Whether you want business success, to lose weight, to have a better marriage, or to be a better parent, it takes continual effort towards new habits.
For example, to become a better parent, you might want to set a goal to attend your child's recreation events (football games, basketball games, swim lessons, etc.).
To be a better affiliate marketer, you may want to create consistent content and share it with people that are interested.
There are habits that lead to success in every journey.
No long term success just happens.
TimeKeeping Apps to Help You See How You're Spending Your Time
When you decide to become your own boss, it doesn't mean you should have less structure. Instead, you have to be better at managing yourself than anyone else. You should be better at ensuring you reach peak potential than any other boss--this requires great accountability systems.
Timekeeping apps can help you to see how you're using your time, so you can find opportunities to improve your productivity. Some apps I've used before include:
- Time doctor
- Hubspot
- Google Calendar
- and, Trello (I've shown you a little of this one in my training)
If apps don't work for you, to-do lists, sticky notes, journals, calendars, planners, and watches can work too. You can even use a combination of apps, to-do lists, and other things! I do.
Just find a way to hold yourself accountable to a level of productivity. Set goals for how much time you'll spend on tasks and go back to see how you did.
You can choose any time keeping or CRM tool to use and keep yourself accountable. Don't brush things off or compromise too much because if you're not a good boss of yourself, it's likely, someone else may become your boss.
Be your best boss!
Our Business Success Rides on the Back of Steady Routines
If you take time to study successful people, you'll find they have routines they stick to very closely. They have things they do every day like:
- A morning routine
- A bedtime routine
- A route they travel
- A way they organize their closet
- and other things like that...
Routines help to build efficiency and stability, which helps you to achieve mastery. Routines also make you reliable to others. They know what to expect and feel confident they can depend on you.
Routines Don't Equal Complacency
Every routine can be tweaked and stretched to get closer and closer to the best version of yourself. You can continue to take your current allocations in any walk of life whether it's your budget or your time, and you can set targets for how to rearrange things for better results, but routines give clarity and help you to realize opportunities.
A New Training is Published on Prioritization!
I published a new training yesterday on Time Management and Prioritization. In it, I talk about:
- Which tasks are most important
- How you're spending your time
- The 4 Quadrant-Approach to Prioritization
- Habit Change
- and more
If you find yourself spinning your wheels with how to balance personal life, business life, and everything in between, this training is going to be invaluable for you. You can check out the training here.
Conclusion
Even though Time management can be tough, it's 100% necessary to grow a successful company. Successful entrepreneurs learn how to get the core jobs done sufficiently to grow a company, which means you have to be self-discipline with your time.
Don't forget to check out the training on Time Management and Prioritization here. I believe it'll be a gamechanger for you if you struggle with balancing your personal and business goals.
Also, if you haven't already, check out the other training I've published here at Wealthy Affiliate. I have:
- My monthly income, traffic and learning lessons
- Training on things like High Ticket Sales, Microsoft Ads, Business Planning, Startup Business costs, and more
- It's 41 different training courses to choose from and each are quite in-depth
Check out all of my training here. The goal is to help you grow your business!
My questions for You
- How do you hold yourself accountable to a level of productivity?
- What app or system do you use to manage your time and tasks?
- Do you think you can be the best boss you've had?
- How do you prioritize your day?
I'd love to hear your feedback!
Recent Comments
14
Very timely and valuable advice Tiffany! I just decided to uninstall my FB app from my phone to keep me from wasting my time just hanging on FB. Thanks!😊
Cheers!
Jhie
That's a step in the right direction. It's always something that can creep up. It could be a good thing, but it can turn into a distraction. Kudos for identifying something that was catching you up! Best wishes in your business.
Terrific advice!! I am going to add one of your training sessions to my "to do" list for each day. I believe I am quite good at managing my time, however one can always learn more, different if not better. Just a side note...my friends will say "it must be Monday (or whatever day it is), Irene is doing "x"".
Thanks so much Irene! It's great to start a business when you're already good at managing your personal time and priorities because then it can translate into your business.
Some people start their business while they're not good at managing their personal lives, but for most people, starting a business brings new priorities and tasks, so it gets confusing.
I've heard startup entrepreneurs say:
- Is it more important to do social media or post on the blog?
- Is it more important to create content or network?
- and the list goes on and on
Business brings new prioritization challenges. This training won't discuss them all, but I tried to make a great foundational resource.
I'd love to hear your feedback as you go thru my training! Consistency is a good trait to have. Kudos for that.
Hi Tiffany,
I see you as this amazingly organised and focused online super hero! I always appreciate your thoughtful, helpful posts.
I'm on 'holidays' from my job at the moment over my kids summer break so I've had some more time to plan and organise myself thankfully. Normally I am flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to my online business.
I bought myself a new note book and pen dedicated to my business and it's been carried with me everywhere for the last several weeks (as has my iPad - I bought a new domain in the park the other day!) and it's been awesome. I jot down my blog post ideas in there, and I create to do lists in there. I systematically have been working through my to do lists. I've also set some writing goals here on the platform and working through those. I've set up templates for the various different article types that I write, and those have been working well.
I'll need to get my head around what a new routine will look like when I return to work in 2 weeks. I never seem to allow enough time for my business when I'm working, so I will need to figure that out, whilst also recognising that maybe there are some things I will need to get my family to step up and do. Let's see how that goes!
Anyway, thanks Tiffany. All the best.
Cheers
Melissa
Thanks so much for your compliments Melissa! That's great to hear (especially when I'm not feeling like a superhero--hahaha).
I can see you're having lots of transitions right now. Me too. As moms, we're accomodating school schedules, eating schedules, and other things. Sometimes, we can put ourselves on the backburner.
I've found it's important for me to set marriage, community involvement, and parenting goals that help free time for my business. For example, when I sign my kids up for different recreation activities, it can mean they're developing a new skill, but if they have wifi, it can mean I also have time to work.
There are many ways to find time for your business, so don't give up on trying. You can find a harmony that works for you. You just keep making hypothesis, experimenting, and finding what works, and little by little, things will shift in your favor.
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Hi Tiffany, so refreshing to read a post marketing related; sharing some really practical insights.
It can be so easy to drop the ball when it comes to being organized, especially when it comes to being online.
Managing our individual situations, can really be worth the effort it takes to get it sorted.
Routines, and lists can be a pivotal starting point.
Trying to shift it up a gear this year, spending time doing a bit of an up front stock take has been invaluable.
Time was being misspent, not anymore, we may not like what we see, making changes can be really helpful.
Managing time old school for the time being, a dairy, and working in quarters, of 13 weeks, the tasks are set out accordingly.
Working a treat.
As to your question, about being the best boss, yes since learning to let go and delegate; and also realizing to get the best, give the folks around the freedom to make decisions and space to develop.
Thanks for the food for thought, Tiffany.
Currently just starting to have a look at hubspot.
I know this is a marketing platform, but prioritization is a challenge I continue to see, so I decided to write this post and do training to speak a little on that. It sounds like you're making quite a bit of advancement in the prioritization category.
You're hiring employees this year? Is this for your blog? Wow. Very cool.